100. Principles of Sociology. Open to first- and second-year students. Juniors are strongly encouraged to enroll in Soc. 400. Seniors must elect Soc. 400. No credit granted to those who have completed or are enrolled in 195 or 400. No credit for seniors. (4). (SS).
Section 020. How do class, race, age, gender, and sexual preference shape our and other peoples' lives? Why do people who make $30,000 and people who make $140,000 all feel middle class? Why do women in dual career couples do a month of 24 hour days more housework per year than men? Why do we need affirmative action? Why do women Marines have to wear makeup and take etiquette classes? Why do we spend almost five times as much of the federal budget on the elderly than on children? In this course we will use sociological imagination, theory, analysis, and empirical research to answer these questions. We will examine various theoretical explanations for social inequality in the United States as well as empirical research about inequality. Students will learn to think and write critically about the basic concepts of the discipline and to use research and theory when engaging in a discussion of these issues. WL:1 (Martin)
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101. Person and Society: An Introduction to Sociology Through Social Psychology. Open to first- and second-year students. Juniors are strongly encouraged and seniors must take Soc. 400, 401, 452, 463, 464, 465, 470, 481, 482, or 486. No credit for seniors. (4). (SS).
Section 001 - Person and Society. The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the area of Social Psychology within Sociology. The course will provide a general introduction to the social psychological perspective within Sociology; the study of social behavior as a product of the interaction between individuals and groups. Four major themes within Social Psychology will be examined: (1) the impact that one individual has on another individual, (2) the impact that a group has on its individual members, (3) the impact that individual members have on the group, and (4) the impact that one group has on another group. The themes, concepts, theoretical approaches, and research methods within social psychology will be presented and discussed.
The course will consist of two lectures and two hours of discussion section each week. There will be three exams for this course, each covering one third of the lecture and reading material. The exams will be multiple choice and short essay items. In addition, THREE five-page class exercises will also be given as assignments. These assignments will involve the application of Social Psychological theories and concepts. Attendance at lectures and discussion sections will be required and very important for what you learn and how well you do in this course. WL:1 (Orbuch)
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102. Contemporary Social Issues: An Introduction to Sociology. Open to first- and second-year students. Juniors are strongly encouraged and seniors must take Soc. 302, 303, 400, 401, 423, 444, 447, 450, 460, or 461. No credit for seniors. (4). (SS). Credit is granted for a combined total of 8 credits elected through Soc. 102, 202, 203, and 401, provided that the course topics are different.
Section 001 - Introduction to Sociology Through Social History. This course examines key developments in American society since World War II and uses them as a basis for exploring fundamental sociological concepts. Our focus will be on the interplay of social structure, politics, and culture in shaping patterns of class and status, power and authority, ethnicity and race relations, gender roles and social change. Social historical events include: the ideology of the "Cold War," McCarthyism, the changing American Presidency, the Civil Rights and women's movements, the War in Vietnam, deindustrialization and the problem of scarcity, the rise of the New Right, globalization, and the construction of cyberspace as a social phenomenon. The purpose of the course is to introduce students to key ideas and controversies in the field of sociology and to help each student learn to use those ideas as prisms through which to analyze our contemporary social world. (Vogel)
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195. Principles in Sociology (Honors). Open to first- and second-year students admitted to the Honors Program, or other first- and second-year students with a grade point average of at least 3.2. Juniors are strongly encouraged and seniors must take Soc. 400. No credit for seniors. Credit is not granted for both Sociology 195 and Sociology 100 or 400. (4). (SS).
The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the discipline of sociology. We will pursue a survey of the topics sociologists study, as well as major theoretical perspectives and methodologies. This course will be taught through the lens social inequality, with a focus on what sociology has to say about many of the most pressing social problems of our day. Through the analysis of race and ethnicity, social class, and gender issues, students will hone their abilities to think and write critically. Class will be conducted in seminar format. Students are expected to have completed scheduled readings before each class, and to arrive at class ready for class participation. (Harris)
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Primarily for First- and Second-Year Students
Section 001 - Transforming America Then and Now. That America is a nation of immigrants is one of the most common yet truest statements. In this course we will survey a vast range of the American Immigrant experience, that of the Irish, Germans, Jews, Italians, Chinese, Japanese, Blacks, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and Mexicans. Immigration to America can be broadly understood as consisting of four major waves: the first one, that which consisted of Northwest Europeans who immigrated up to the mid-19th century; the second one, that which consisted of Southern and East Europeans at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th; the third one, the movement from the South to the North of Black Americans and Mexicans precipitated by two World Wars; and the fourth one, from 1965 on, is still ongoing in the present, of immigrants mostly from Latin America and Asia. At all times, our effort will be to understand the immigrant past of these ethnic groups, both for what it tells us about the past as well as their present and possible future. This course is a First-Year Seminar, limited to 25 entering students, involving a fair amount of discussion and writing. (Pedraza)
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Section 002 - Intergroup Relations, Conflict, and Community Building. This course will explore the possibilities for building community, giving particular attention to issues of race, ethnicity, gender, and class while acknowledging and addressing existing conflicts. How do we build community in our schools, neighborhoods, and cities comprised of people with perspectives, viewpoints, backgrounds that differ from our own? To what extent do this country's democratic principles continue to bind our society in the face of growing racial and class divisions? This seminar will explore a wide range of questions on inter group and community building, taking into account issues of power, conflict, and competing social interests. Students will be encouraged to bring in personal experience and perspective to enrich the discussion of theoretical readings. Active participation and considerable writing will be required. (Schoem)
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Section 003 - People and Global Environmental Changes. Changes in the natural and human-made environment are occurring on the scale of continents or larger, and over time spans of decades to centuries. These changes include the emissions of greenhouse gases, depletion of the ozone layer, acid precipitation and deposition, and loss of biodiversity. Human action to satisfy human needs and wants is the prime cause of almost all these changes. The changes are incontestably real, and some of them began several centuries ago. What is uncertain is the magnitude of the changes, their future course, and their affects on human beings, and what, if anything, humans can do to avert them or to mitigate their affects. This seminar will explore a variety of environmental changes, the human role in causing them, and the possible impact of these changes on humans and their societies. Students will read from a number of sources. At mid-term students will submit a brief factual report on a selected environmental change and its human dimensions. At the end of the term students will submit a research article, probably on the same topic. There will be few or no lectures, and no examinations; class discussion of reading material will be the primary mode of instruction. Attendance is mandatory, and effective participation in class discussion is strongly encouraged. (Rockwell)
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122/Psych. 122. Intergroup Dialogues. Permission of Instructor. Intended primarily for first and second year students. (2). (Excl). May not be included in a concentration in Psychology or Sociology. May be repeated for a total of four credits.
See Psychology 122.
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205. Poverty, Race, and Health. (3). (Excl).
This course critically examines the health status of the poor, and of major racial/ethnic minority groups in the United States. Attention will be focused on the patterned ways in which the health of these groups is embedded in the social, cultural, and political, and economic contexts and arrangements of U.S. society. Topics covered include the meaning and measurement of race, the ways in which racism affects health, the historic uses of minorities in medical research, how acculturation and migration affects health, and an examination of the specific health problems that disproportionately affect the minority group members. (Williams)
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220/RC Soc. Sci. 220. Political Economy. (4). (SS).
See RC Social Science 220. (Thompson)
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For Undergraduates Only
Sociology 389 is known as "Project Community" and "Trained Volunteer Corps." Students combine 4 to 6 hours of weekly service in community settings, with weekly student-led seminars. Seminars are interactive, focus on related sociological issues, and provide a time for mutual support, planning, and problem-solving. Over 50 sections offer settings that include working in school classrooms with "at-risk" children and youth in a variety of tutoring, chemical dependency, mentoring situations; in the adult and juvenile criminal justice system; with adult literacy; with the homeless; and with elderly, the mentally ill, the disabled; and in hospitals. For more information, come to the Office of Community Service Learning, in the Michigan Union, Room 2205. Enrollment is by override only. (Chesler)
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