THE SOCIAL WORLD
Identification of the distinctive elements of sociological perspectives on society. Readings confront classical and contemporary approaches with key social issues that include power and authority, culture and communication, poverty and discrimination, social change, and popular uses of sociological concepts.
Please note you must also register for a discussion section to take this course.
- TR 4:10 p.m.-5:25 p.m.
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Instructor:
Marissa Thompson
Info - 4 points
SOCIAL THEORY
Prerequisites: Sophomore standing. Required for all sociology majors. Prerequisite: at least one sociology course of the instructor's permission. Theoretical accounts of the rise and transformations of modern society in the19th and 20th centuries. Theories studied include those of Adam Smith, Tocqueville, Marx, Durkheim, Max Weber, Roberto Michels. Selected topics: individual, society, and polity; economy, class, and status: organization and ideology; religion and society; moral and instrumental action.
- TR 9:10 a.m.-10:25 a.m.
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Instructor:
Gil Eyal
CULPA: 15
h-index: 26
Info
- 4 points
METHODS FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH
Prerequisites: SOCI UN1000 The Social World or Instructor Permission Required for all Sociology majors. Introductory course in social scientific research methods. Provides a general overview of the ways sociologists collect information about social phenomena, focusing on how to collect data that are reliable and applicable to our research questions.
- MW 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
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Instructor:
Gerard Torrats-Espinosa
h-index: 6 Info - 4 points
SOCIOLOGY OF WORK & GENDER
This course examines gender as a flexible but persistent boundary that continues to organize our work lives and our home lives, as well as the relationship between the two spheres. We will explore the ways in which gender affects how work is structured; the relationship between work and home; the household as a place of paid (and unpaid) labor; and how changes in the global economy affect gender and work identities.
- TR 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
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Instructor:
Teresa Sharpe
CULPA: 14
Info
- 3 points
Senior Thesis Seminar II
This seminar is a continuation of the course from last semester (SOCI3988). It will culminate in you completing your thesis. Whereas last semester you concentrated on posing interesting, important, and feasible research questions, as well as how to conduct data collection, this semester you will learn how: to troubleshoot challenges and ethical issues in collecting data (i.e. data collection), translate your data into findings and conclusions (i.e. data analysis), orient your findings in an existing conversation (i.e. revising a literature review and introduction/hook), and write to persuade your audience and readers of your argument (i.e. write persuasively).
Instructor permission is required to join the course. Please note this course is the second part in a two part sequence, you must first take SOCI 3988 before you can enroll in SOCI 3989.
- R 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
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Instructor:
James Chu
h-index: 18 Info - 4 points
EDUCATION AND INEQUALITY
The goal of the course is to introduce students to foundational texts, theories, and research in the field of sociology of education. In particular, we will focus on the role of schooling in social stratification and social reproduction in the United States.
This course is organized by broad topic and theme. We will begin with a discussion of the purpose of schooling before moving into a discussion of some theoretical perspectives on the role of schooling in our society. Next, we will discuss inequality in schooling across multiple socio-demographic categories, including social class, race/ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and religion (in addition to inequality at the intersection of multiple social categories). By the end of this course, you should have a strong foundation in research on education’s role in society.
- T 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
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Instructor:
Marissa Thompson
Info - 4 points
METHODS WORKSHOP
Introducing students to a series of methods, methodological discussions, and questions relevant to the focus of the Masters program: urban sociology and the public interest. Three methodological perspectives will frame discussions: analytical sociology, small-n methods, and actor-network theory.
- R 10:10 a.m.-noon
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Instructor:
Yao Lu
h-index: 25 Info - 4 points
FIELD WORK II
- F 8:10 a.m.-10 a.m.
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Instructor:
Denise Milstein
CULPA: 9
h-index: 5
Info
- 1 points
Intro Social Data Analysis II
Corequisites: SOCI G4076 This course examines quantitative methods used in sociology. Students will need to have completed SOCI GR4074 before enrolling. The approach taken in this class is highly applied with an emphasis on developing practical skills for data analysis. We begin with a focus on linear models, discussing the regression model as a tool for data description and causal analysis. We then introduce generalized linear models and conclude by reviewing some special applied including weighting and missing data. Data analysis for the course will be conducted in Stata which is available for download from the department of Sociology.
- M 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
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Instructor:
Gerard Torrats-Espinosa
h-index: 6 Info - 4 points
QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS
The course is designed to introduce PhD students in Sociology to the basic techniques for collecting, interpreting, analyzing, and reporting interview and observational data. The readings and practical exercises we will do together are designed to expand your technical skillset, inspire your thinking, to show you the importance of working collaboratively with intellectual peers, and to give you experiential knowledge of various kinds of fieldwork.
Mostly, though, students will learn how to conduct indictive field-based analyses. There are many versions of this model, including Florian Znaniecki’s “analytic induction,” Barney Glaser and Anselm Straus’ “grounded theory,” John Stuart Mill’s system of inductive logic, the Bayesian approach to inference in statistics, and much of what computationally-intensive researchers refer to as data mining. This course will expose students to ways of thinking about their research shared by many of these different inductive perspectives. Remember, though, that all of these formulations of analytic work are ideal types. The actual field, and actual field workers, are often far more complex.
For that reason, this course focuses not merely on theory, but also, and fundamentally, on practice. While some skills like producing a code book or formulating a hypothesis can be developed through reading and reflection, the field demands more nuanced skillsets that can only be attained by trial and error. How do you get an honest answer to a painful or embarrassing question? How do we know that the researcher interviewed enough people? Or spent enough time in the field? Or asked the right questions? Or did not distort the truth? My hope is that by the end of class you will have done enough fieldwork to have arrived at a good set of answers, and to begin developing the ability to communicate your answers to others.
A note on intellectual parentage: The particular approach to training in this course is based on a qualitative bootcamp developed by Mario Small for Harvard’s Ph.d cohorts. Other methods courses focus on particular technical skills rather than analytic frames, or merely on empirical work itself, rather than secondary literature on method. This is one way to think through analytic training. We will try it out together.
- T 10:10 a.m.-noon
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Instructor:
Tey Meadow
h-index: 8 Info - 4 points
MPHIL THESIS WRITING SEMINAR
MPHIL THESIS WRITING SMR
- R 2:10 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
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Instructor:
Mario Small
Wikipedia Info - 4 points
Globalization and Diffusion
This course introduces students to the literature on globalization and the diffusion of culture and institutions. It covers literatures in sociology and political science as well as some anthropology and history. This course will not discuss economic, financial, or migratory globalization in depth. In the first part, we will survey the major theories of the global diffusion of culture and institutions: world polity theory, global field theory, the policy diffusion literature, etc. In the second part, we discuss select topics, such as the role of local power relations in diffusion processes or the consequences of diffusion for patterns of cultural similarity and difference across the world.
- W 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
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Instructor:
Andreas Wimmer
Wikipedia h-index: 41 Info - 4 points
Inequality in High-skilled Labor Markets
Inqulity Hgh-skilled Labr
The course focuses on the U.S. labor market but will also draw research from other settings. The readings are organized by topic and highlight the extent and urgency of the issue and along the lines of gender, race/ethnicity, nativity, and class. Topics include the patterns and trends of inequality among highly-educated workers, and underlying demand and supply-side mechanisms that explain the observed patterns. Attention will be paid to student pathways through higher education to the labor market, including the school-to-work transition process. The course will also cover topics of intergenerational and intragenerational mobility processes among highly-educated workers.
- R 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
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Instructor:
Yao Lu
h-index: 25 Info - 4 points