Sociology Major
The sociology curriculum focuses on applying theory and sophisticated empirical research methods to address complex real-world issues. It asks students to critically examine continuing and urgent issues of inequality and social marginalization. The sociology curriculum provides students with qualitative and quantitative skills to analyze social structure, history, and culture, and their effects on people’s lives. With special strengths in the study of inequality, the curriculum features analysis of social problems and social change, institutions and social relationships, and the contribution of social science to social change and policy formulation and implementation. The courses at the 100-level introduce students to the basic concepts and analytical tools used in sociology. Intermediate (200-level) courses provide more detailed coverage and analysis of distinct institutions, social processes, or substantive areas. Advanced seminars and tutorials (300- or 400-level) are intensive courses, typically limited to sociology majors or students participating in interdisciplinary programs or the concentrations housed in the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies. There is sufficient variation in perspective across the sociology curriculum to offer students both knowledge of sociological theory and methods and a foundation for using a sociological imagination.
The sociology major provides quantitative and qualitative research skills to allow students to critically engage with pressing social issues. Majors enter a wide variety of occupations well prepared with sharp analytical skills and as knowledgeable and engaged citizens. Sociology majors often pursue careers and graduate education in business, education, medicine and nursing, public health, social services, and law.
Requirements
The major consists of a minimum of 10 courses.
| Code | Title |
|---|---|
| Required Courses | |
| The Sociological Perspective | |
| Logics of Inquiry | |
| Social Statistics | |
| Development of Social Theory | |
| One advanced 300 or 400-level seminar, tutorial, or research practicum. | |
| Freedoms & Unfreedoms | |
| (Precarious) Work | |
| Illness Narratives | |
| Sociology of Trouble | |
| End of Life | |
| Utopian & Dystopian Worlds | |
| Global Sense of Home | |
| Directed Honors Research | |
| Directed Honors Research | |
| Directed Research | |
| Directed Research | |
| Five electives from the lists above and below (two of which may be anthropology courses). 1 | |
| Race & Power | |
| Social Class & Power | |
| Consumer & Corp Sustainability | |
| Race, Crime, and Justice | |
| Deviance, Normalcy & Control | |
| Environmental Sociology | |
| Cities and Environment | |
| Environmental Racism | |
| Sociology of TV & Media | |
| Girls and Violence | |
| Self & Society | |
| Aging & Society | |
| Children & Violence | |
| Sociology Of Religion | |
| Medical Sociology | |
| Education and Society | |
| Families and Societies | |
| Gender and Society | |
| Global Culture & Society | |
| Sociology of Travel & Tourism | |
| Anthropological Perspective | |
| Informal Economies | |
| Anthropology of Law | |
| Gender & Development | |
| Gender & Sexualities | |
| Anthropology of Debt | |
| Medical Anthropology | |
| Anthropology Of Religion | |
| Race, Racism and Anthropology | |
| Cultures and Politics of Latin America | |
| Political Anthropology | |
| Economic Anthropology | |
| Fashion & Consumption | |
| Anthropology of Africa | |
| Ethnographic Field Methods | |
| Theory in Anthropology | |
| Global Queer Activism | |
| 1 | The electives are selected in accordance with student interests and in consultation with a faculty advisor. The department encourages students to create a “subdisciplinary” specialization, but our primary goal is to help students explore a range of social phenomena and issues. |
Students who take approved research methods and/or statistics courses outside of the major are still responsible for completing the 10-course requirement in Sociology. (If the statistics/research methods sequence is taken in another department, Sociology majors must still take 10 courses in the Sociology and Anthropology department, they will just take two extra electives in the department in lieu of the completed statistics/methods requirement). Students who study abroad may transfer up to four courses, usually electives, toward the major. In some cases, the required courses Social Statistics, Logics of Inquiry, and/or Social Theory can be taken abroad.
Majors may take up to 14 courses in the department; double majors must take 18 courses outside of the department.