Course Offerings

SOCI 101 INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY —Three hours; 3 credits. The objective of this course is to introduce the student to the systematic study of society. Emphasis is placed upon the major concepts of sociology and the scientific point of view in dealing with social phenomena. The course aims to enable the student to gain an understanding of questions which deal with humans in social relationships and to prepare the student for the study of societal issues and problems [Formerly SOCI 201]. (FALL/SPRING).

SOCI 110 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY —Three hours; 3 credits. This foundation course enhances self-knowledge, self-tolerance of diversity, and global understanding by providing insight into the human experience from the traditional four perspectives of the discipline (physical, archaeological, linguistic, and cultural). Ancient organisms and their behavior are examined, as is the study of the origin of the human species and its connection to primordial ancestors.[Formerly SOCI 210]. (FALL/SPRING).

SOCI 201 SOCIOLOGICAL WRITING---Three hours; 3 credits. Sociological Writing is a reading and writing intensive course. Students will review sociological papers, distinguish the typology of sociology papers/ manuscripts; examine acceptable styles for course work, journal submission, manuscript publication, and presentations. Students will write a sociology research paper, prepare a grant, take field notes, build a curriculum vita, prepare a writing sample, complete an IRB application and article abstract, and engage in peer editing. Prerequisite: SOCI 101 (FALL).

SOCI 205 SOCIAL PROBLEMS —Three hours; 3 credits. This course emphasizes the relationships between the structure of the society and problems therein. It analyzes the importance of business, economics, government and other institutions in the creating and solving of social problems in modern society. Special consideration is given to forms of deviant behavior and social disorganization such as drug use, delinquency, crime, unemployment, mental disorders, and family disorganization, as well as their incidence in society and programs designed to control them. (FALL/SPRING).

SOCI 301 SOCIOCULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY — Three hours; 3 credits. This course gives students an overview of anthropology, focuses major attention on social and cultural patterns of human organization, and provides students with an opportunity for in-depth study of three peoples, at least one of whom lives in Africa. (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 302 SOCIAL THEORY —Three hours; 3 credits. This course involves a survey of the social thought as expressed by representative theorists in ideas of different periods. The purpose of this course is to provide students with a comprehensive background and a perspective fo r understanding social thought from a historical and contemporary perspective. Prerequisite: SOCI 101 (FALL/SPRING).

SOCI 303 PUBLIC OPINION AND PERSUASION— Three hours; 3 credits. This course involves a study of public opinion and propaganda as processes and their relation to social control and collective behavior. Special attention is given to organs of public opinion, especially to the newspaper, and to propaganda agencies and techniques. (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 304 MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY— Three hours; 3 credits. This course involves a study of the theories of the family as an institution to companionship. Consideration is given to the modern family as a unit of interacting personalities, family organization and disorganization and to contemporary problems of the family in the light of social change, as well as the functions of the family and socialization in the family. The course will also study the relationship of the family to other social entities such as work, public policy, and the economy (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 305 JUVENILE JUSTICE AND DELINQUENCY—Three hours; 3 credits. Consideration is given to a treatment of the concept and incidence of juvenile delinquency, theories of crime causation, and methods of punishment as a background for the study of juvenile delinquency. Emphasis is placed upon factors of causation as revealed through personal, family and community situations conditioning delinquent behavior; analysis of concrete cases and juvenile delinquency; and critical examination of current methods of dealing with juvenile offenders and programs for the prevention of delinquency. (FALL). [Formerly Juvenile Delinquency and Its Social Treatment] (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 306 AFRICAN-AMERICANS IN THE UNITED STATES—Three hours; 3 credits. This course provides a sociological appraisal of the condition and personality of African Americans. Attention is given to the impact of slavery and colonialism on the manner in which the American experience has influenced the family life of African Americans, as well as their participation in education, politics, health care, the economy, religion, housing, music and sports. [Formerly SOCI 206] (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 307 POPULATION SCIENCE: DEMOGRAPHY—Three hours lecture, one hour lab; 3 credits. This course involves the study of the basic techniques of population analysis and descriptions and social problems specifically from a population and demographic point of view. Specifically, it examines the causes of changes in the size, composition, and distribution of populations and their impact on abortion, occupation, relocation, population explosion, single-parent families, genocide, divorce, and housing. (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 308 CRIMINOLOGY–Three hours; 3 credits. This course examines the agencies and institutions such as the police, the courts and penal institutions, which deal with offenders. Particular attention is given to treatment of the offender, as well as to programs of crime prevention. (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 310 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY—Three hours; 3 credits. This course examines social psychology from a sociological perspective. As such, it focuses attention on the relationship between the person and the social world. Underlying the course is the theoretical assumption that we construct our social reality through the process of interaction with others. Topics covered include, but are not limited to, the nature of self, socialization, social interaction and conduct, and the social order (society). [Formerly SOCI 203] (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 311 INTRODUCTION TO ARCHAEOLOGY—Three hours; 3 credits. This course serves as an introduction to archaeology, the study of our past through the use of material remains. It gives students an overview of the principles of archaeology and instructs them in archaeological field techniques. Includes four mandatory field trips. (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOC 314 RACIAL AND ETHNIC RELATIONS— Three hours; 3 credits. This course explores some of the many ways in which societies define racial, ethnic, majority and minority groups, including the use of stereotypes, pseudo-history and biological myths. It also explores how such differentiation influences self-concepts, intra-group relations, and intergroup relations. Racial and ethnic relations characterized by prejudice, discrimination, scapegoating, maldistribution of valued resources, and violence pose social control and nation-building challenges that receive special attention. [Formerly SOCI 202] (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 315 SOCIOLOGY OF LAW—Three hours; 3 credits. Analyses are made of the development of laws and the administration of law. Special emphasis is placed on their effect on social groups and mass behavior, the analysis of social processes involved in the making of laws, and the social basis of legal ideologies, statutes, and legal enforcement. (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 318 SOCIOLOGY OF BUSINESS AND WORK—Three hours; 3 credits. This course examines the occupational structure in society and business organizations as social institutions, from the level of single proprietorships to the level of multinational corporations. Also included within its focus are the meaning of work, socio-cultural factors relevant to occupational recruitment and retention, formal and informal organizations that impact on business, the marketing implications of social stratification, and sociological factors affecting job satisfaction and productivity. (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 319 SOCIOLOGY OF LEISURE AND ENTERTAINMENT—Three hours; 3 credits. This course involves the study of behaviors and values which characterize patterns of leisure and entertainment in a variety of societies including the United States. Among its concerns are relationships between leisure, on the one hand; and time-allocation, social stratification, sex roles, subcultures, and technology, on the other hand. (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 321 URBAN SOCIOLOGY—Three hours; 3 credits. The varying mechanisms through which the structure and functions of urban society are integrated are scrutinized. Attention is directed to the methods of dominance in the city as well as in the larger society. Consideration is also given to the social consequences of urbanism. (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 330 SOCIOLOGY OF JAILS AND PRISONS—Three hours; 3 credits. This course takes the student behind the walls of jails and prisons in order to explain how these institutions function both as parts of larger social systems and in and of themselves. Some attention is given to institutional subcultures, to institutional programs and policies, and to issues associated with the privatization of jails and prisons (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 331 COMMUNITY-BASED CORRECTIONS–Three hours; 3 credits. This course acquaints students with sociological and anthropological aspects of criminal corrections within the context of halfway houses and “alternative” or “modified” sentencing. (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 332 LAW ENFORCEMENT, POLICING AND SOCIETY—Three hours; 3 credits. Law Enforcement, Policing and Society, examines the historical, contemporary, and future relationship of law enforcement, police work, and society from the local, state, national, and international perspective. The course explores the sociological and sociocultural aspects of each. Students complete 15 hours of work outside of the classroom police-ride along, exploring field operations, and police/ community events. (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 340 SOCIOLOGY OF URBAN AFRICA— Three hours; 3 credits. This course focuses on African cities and the urbanization process devoid of stereotypes that project Africa as static and dominated by tropical rain forests. Topics within its purview are social change, development, and culture as they relate to the causes and consequences of urbanization. The course draws on both sociology and anthropology and places particular emphasis on marriage, family systems, women, and the development challenges in African cities. (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 342 SOCIOLOGY OF AFRICA IN EUROPE AND ASIA—Three hours; 3 credits. This course focuses on African diasporas in Europe and Asia from prehistory until the present. Course topics include human evolution, stages of human radiation out of Africa as case studies in migration, and a range of cultural and social problems associated with racism and assimilation as regards people of African descent in Europe and Asia. (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 345 ANTHROPOLOGICAL THEORY— Three hours; 3 credits. This course introduces students to the foundational theoretical perspectives in anthropology, which have been used to examine overarching questions about humanity, as well as the pressing social issues of the time. The course will also analyze the historical context surrounding the development of the theories and theoreticians, which will shed light on the knowledge production process. (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 351 INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL STATISTICS—Three hours lecture, one hour lab; 3 credits. This course will deal with basic statistics: the general nature of statistical methods, frequency distribution, percentiles, averages, measures of variabilities, standard deviations, the normal curve, introduction to sampling theory, testing statistical hypothesis, analysis of variance and covariance, etc. Emphasis will be placed on computation and on the application of these statistics in sociological research. Prerequisite for SOCI 381 (Formerly SOCI 251) (FALL/SPRING).

SOCI 360 AGING BABY BOOMER: SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES—Three hours; 3 credits. This course utilizes theory, methods and research from sociology and anthropology to explicate and analyze selected difficulties confronted by the elderly in a variety of different societal settings. In addition, aging is treated both as a social problem and from a cross-cultural perspective. [Formerly SOCI 207 SOCIOLOGY OF AGING]. (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 377 INTIMATE RELATIONS —Three hours; 3 credits. Love, friendship and intimate relations are examined from a sociological perspective. Topics include love, the structure and function of relationships, and the strengths, stresses and strains of intimate relations [Formerly Love and Intimate Relations] (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 378 SOCIOLOGY OF GENDER—Three hours; 3 credits. In areas such as feminism, gay rights, changing definitions of masculinity, male/female relations, and new roles of women in the workforce, gender socialization, household formation, and domestic affairs, the world is undergoing much change which deserves systematic study from social scientific perspectives. Though this course uses materials primarily from anthropology and sociology to describe and analyze selected dimensions of sex and gender cross-culturally and through time, it has relevance for students in numerous fields of study. [Formerly Sex and Gender in Society and Culture] (SPRING).

SOCI 379 SOCIOLOGY OF MASS COMMUNICATIONS — Three hours lecture, one hour lab; 3 credits. A sociological perspective is used to examine the nature and process of mass communication and its functions in society. Emphasisis placed on the meanings conveyed and the effects created by mass communication and its impact on individuals, groups, society, and culture. Both theoretical and practical perspectives are used to examine such topics as violence, news construction, and images of race, class, and gender, and the impact of advertising. This course is recommended for students in many fields of study, including telecommunications, business, psychology, philosophy, political science, education, speech and theatre. (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 380 METHODS OF SOCIAL RESEARCH I— Three hours lecture, one hour lab; 3 credits. This course introduces the student to the fundamentals of scientific inquiry, both quantitative and qualitative. The student will be exposed to the processes involved in (1) selecting and framing research questions, (2) choosing appropriate methods and time frames for collecting data, (3) analyzing data, (4) drawing conclusions from data, and (5) reporting findings from data analysis. Each student will write a proposal for a study utilizing experimental, survey, field research or some other research design used by sociologists to collect data. (FALL).

SOCI 400 SOCIOLOGY OF HEALTH AND ILLNESS—Three hours; 3 credits. This course will critically examine how health and illness are defined and socially constructed. We will also investigate the distribution of mortality and morbidity; and the experiences of illness. For a comprehensive understanding of health and illness, we will examine the training and hierarchies of health care workers, interactions between health care providers and patients, alternative medicine, ethical issues, and health care financing. (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 401 FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGY—Three hours; 3 credits. This course explores the use of anthropological knowledge within a legal context. Specifically, it focuses on the recovery of remains and the subsequent use of osteology, or the analysis of skeletal anatomy and biology, to determine the cause of death. (OFFERED AS NEEDED)

SOCI 403 ETHNOGRAPHY OF SELECTED CUL- TURAL REGIONS—Three hours; 3 credits. This course involves an in-depth study of cultural strata in societies of a particular cultural region. Prerequisite: SOCI 110 or permission of instructor. (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 404 COLLECTIVE BEHAVIOR—Three hours; 3 credits. This course will focus on the definition of the term collective action and the rationale for the use of this term. The various theories of collective action will be discussed, and efforts will be made to identify and distinguish categories of this form of human behavior such as slave rebellions, strikes, protest demonstrations, riots, fads, and especially social movements. Attention will also be paid to various factors that influence these episodes, such as beliefs, ideologies, tactics and strategies, culture, resources, and social control. In addition, the knowledge that emanates from collective action episodes, as well as their social consequences, will be examined. (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 405 SOCIAL CHANGE AND FUTURISM—Three hours; 3 credits. This course focuses on socio-cultural patterns over time that reflect ways in which social life is renewing, remaking, changing, and transforming itself. It devotes attention to dimensions of collective behavior and to social movements as well as to technological competition, innovation, and diffusion as related to occupations and to business. Futuristic concepts of popular culture such as “future shock,” “megatrends,” “postindustrial society,” “third wave,” and “information economy” are explored. The areas included for study range from telecommunications, technology, space and genetic engineering to transformations in families, race relations, sex roles, leisure and the post-industrial structure of time allocation, work and leisure. (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 406 SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION—Three hours;3 credits. This course is designed to provide students with some basic concepts and understandings regarding the connection between religion and the social context or environment. In addition to the process of secularization involving religion’s emergence and development, broader and more complex issues involving religion and politics, power, millenarianism, dualism, race/ethnicity, class, and gender are highlighted. (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 407 SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION— Three hours; 3 credits. This course will examine the crucial role that educational institutions play in American society and the world, more broadly. Throughout the course, students will engage with core debates in the theory, history and practice of education. Most importantly, students will learn how education contributes to the reproduction of the social system, including race, class and gender inequality. (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 408 RESEARCH METHODS IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND CRIMINOLOGY— Three hours; 3 cred- its. This course introduces students to research methods in criminal justice and criminology. Students will utilize the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports, the National Criminal Victimization Survey, and other sources to conduct criminal justice- and criminology-based research. (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 409 LANGUAGE AND SOCIETY— Three hours; 3 credits. This course introduces students to selected linguistic characteristics which mark the world’s major language families and to the analytical study of language as related to socialization, social solidarity, conflict, and ethnic, class, and sex markers, and to collective behavior. Attention is also given to language fads and to the social adaptability of language in situations ranging from the formal to the intimate and from the highly ritualized to the ordinary as well as to its expression through gestures, body movement, and the use of space. (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 415 SOCIOLOGY OF SPORTS—Three hours; 3 credits. This course examines the institution of sport from various sociological perspectives. It is designed to provide students with an opportunity to critically analyze the assumptions surrounding the social significance of sport through a process of reflective thought. (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 425 GENDER AND VIOLENCE—Three hours; 3 credits. The intersection of gender and violence is explored and analyzed where both intraviolence and inter-violence in the United States and beyond is examined amongst and between men, women, children, geographic locales, etc. Sociological and socio-cultural reaction to violence and violence itself is assessed. Students complete case assessments to assess variations in gender and violence. (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 429 VICTIMOLOGY—Three hours; 3 credits. Victimology explores victimization from every aspect of social life and is not limited to the classical definition of crime. Criminological victimization as well as general victimization, is examined both nationally and internationally. Students complete 15 hours of service-learning in a victim’s protection or advocacy organization. (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 430 SOCIOLOGY OF DEVIANCE—Three hours;3 credits. This course introduces students to deviance, deviance theory, and deviant behavior. Students assess cases to distinguish norms, and deviant and illegal behavior while identifying social control, power, morality, ethics, laws, rules, enforcement, norm violations, and social reaction as caveats of deviance. (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 435 SEXUAL DIVERSITY IN SOCIETY —Three hours; 3 credits. Sexual Diversity in Society explores the definitions, distinctions, and the practice of bisexuality, genderism, heterosexuality, homosexuality, incest, prostitution, pornography, rape, sadomasochism, sex, sexism, transgenderism, and transvertism. Emphasis will be placed on the sociological, socio-biological, and sociopsychological aspects of sex, sexuality, and sexual orientation. Students will complete field observations to explore course topics (e.g. attend a sexual diversity group meeting, or sit-in on a sex education class). (OFFERED AS NEEDED)

SOCI 441 SOCIAL INEQUALITY—Three hours; 3 credits. This course is designed to analyze the nature and functions of social stratification and social inequality. It will focus on the manner in which society seeks to place individuals in various social categories on the basis of such factors as class, age, sex, power, ethnicity, and race, etc. The impact of these placements on the quality of life and lifestyles of individuals and groups is also examined. (FALL).

SOCI 451 SOCIAL THOUGHT AND THE CONCEPT OF RACE—Three hours; 3 credits. Special attention is paid to sociological, anthropological and related theoretical and methodological approaches and issues developed, and responded to, by African Americans and other diasporan intellectuals. Topics covered may include slavery, indentured servitude, serfdom and other forms of dependent labor; colonialism, segregation, independence, neocolonialism, in-group and outgroup relations, and minority and majority group relations; pre-colonial society; emancipation, nationalism, separatism, and social movements; and knowledge connected with the construction of personality formation and development, politics, law, economics, and culture that emanate from the aforementioned situations. (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 453 INDEPENDENT STUDY—Three to fifteen hours; 1 to 5 credits. This individualized experience offers an opportunity for students to undertake an internship in sociology, in anthropology, or in criminal justice with an appropriate agency; for students to carry out individualized research under faculty supervision; or for students to be a research assistant to a professor. Prior to registration, each student must obtain written permission from a professor to supervise a particular undertaking to be filed in the departmental office. This experience may be repeated until a maximum of five (5) credits is earned (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 454 ETHNOGRAPHIC METHODS— Three hours lecture, one hour lab; 3 credits. This is a highly interactive course in which students work very closely with their professors and with each other. It affords students an opportunity to understand and undertake small-scale research projects which rely on observational methods, audiovisual techniques, the census, and interviews. The projects that students will undertake are intended to be of special interest to them and will be associated with day to day behaviors and values within such domains as cooking, food consumption, symbolism, sex, dance, speech, and time-allocation, the use of space, ceremonies, biography, aging, and dress. (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 455 QUALITATIVE METHODS—Three hours; 3 credits. Qualitative, non-statistical social science research can form the basis of surprising and profound discoveries about individuals and societies. Through small-scale studies, the need for larger studies is exposed. Narratives, confessions, ethnographies, demographic studies, case studies, and more recently, focus groups contribute insight and depth to our understanding of the human condition. (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 480 METHODS OF SOCIAL RESEARCH II—Three hours lecture, one hour lab; 3 credits. This course affords each student the opportunity to get “hands-on” experience in carrying out all aspects of a social-scientific research project. Each student is expected to orally present the project and/or submit it to an appropriate journal. Prerequisite: SOCI 351 and SOCI 380 [Formerly SOCI 381] (SPRING).

SOCI 492 APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY—Three hours; 3 credits. This course provides students opportunities to explore how basic anthropological concepts can impact everyday life and social policy. It will highlight the important and exciting work that applied anthropologists do in fields like environmental impact studies, medical anthropology, community organizing, filmmaking, program evaluation, and marketing. Upon finishing this course, students should concretely know how to become employed as practicing anthropologists. (ODD SPRING).

SOCI 493 GLOBALIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT—Three hours; 3 credits. This course deals with domestic factors, colonialism, neocolonialism, and globalization as they have differentially impacted development in such a manner as to contribute to extreme wealth in some regions of the world and extreme poverty in others. Linkages (economic, commercial, political, and technological) between developed and developing countries, as well as development issues that relate to human rights, will be addressed. [Formerly World Cultures and Development] (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 494 APPLIED SOCIOLOGY—Three hours; 3 credits. In this senior-level course, students will examine ways in which sociological knowledge (concepts, theories, methods, and empirical findings) can be/are applied in social settings. Ethical issues arising from the application of sociology will also be examined. All seniors are strongly encouraged to enroll in this seminar. [Formerly Seminar in Applied Sociology and Professionalism] (EVEN SPRING).

SOCI 495 SEMINAR IN SELECTED TOPICS IN SOCIOLOGY—Three hours; 3 credits. This course will examine selected topics from a sociological perspective. Topics will vary from semester to semester and year to year. This course may be repeated only once for credit. (OFFERED AS NEEDED).

SOCI 498 SENIOR INTERNSHIP—Nine hours per week; 3 credits. This course provides an opportunity for the student to obtain supervised work experience in the major, at an off-campus site selected and approved by the Departmental Chairperson. Registration is limited to seniors with minimum 2.2 cumulative and major averages, and requires approval of the Departmental Chairperson. Exceptions may be approved by the Dean. (SPRING).

SOCI 499 SENIOR RESEARCH OR TEACHING/ TUTORIAL ASSISTANTSHIP— Nine hours per week;3 credits. This course provides the opportunity for the student to obtain first-hand research or teaching/tutorial experience under the supervision and mentorship of a tenure-track faculty member. Registration is limited to seniors with minimum 3.0 cumulative and major averages and requires the approval of the Departmental Chairperson. Exceptions may be approved by the Dean. (OFFERED AS NEEDED).