Courses
SOCL 1000. Sociology at Northeastern. (1 Hour)
Intended for first-year students in the College of Social Sciences and Humanities. Introduces students to liberal arts; familiarizes them with their major; develops the academic skills necessary to succeed (analytical ability and critical thinking); provides grounding in the culture and values of the University community; and helps to develop interpersonal skills—in short, familiarizes students with all skills needed to become a successful university student.
SOCL 1101. Introduction to Sociology. (4 Hours)
Explores diverse social phenomena, from how people try to look their best in face-to-face interactions; to how race, gender, and class shape identities and social conditions; to how industrial capitalism came to dominate the world. Offers students an opportunity to gain a grasp of key sociological theories and empirical research on topics such as social order, social conflict, and social change, as well as learn to identify social forces that shape human behavior, explain how these forces affect individuals and social groups, and make valid predictions about how they may shape future behavior or events.
Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity, NUpath Societies/Institutions
SOCL 1102. Sex, Gender, and Popular Culture. (4 Hours)
Examines how femininities, masculinities, and different forms of sexual identity are produced and represented within popular culture. Using theories and concepts from both feminist/sexuality studies and popular culture studies, analyzes popular texts and media for their treatment of gender and sexuality and the intersection of those categories with racial and class identities. Explores the visual representation of women (and men) and analyzes how visual and textual media shape our attitudes and identities. Required reading and assignments include close readings of texts, film screenings, class discussions and activities, writing assignments, and creative projects.
Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity, NUpath Interpreting Culture
SOCL 1235. Social Psychology. (4 Hours)
Studies the relationship between society and the individual. Focuses on three theoretical perspectives—symbolic interactionism, social structure and personality, and group processes—in order to understand how human behavior is tied to social and cultural contexts and how individuals shape and are shaped by group interaction. Topics may include socialization and how people develop a “social sense of self”; cross-cultural differences in interactional styles; pressures to conform to roles and stereotypes; deviance and mental health; inequality based on race/ethnicity, social class, and gender; identity formation and change, attitudes, and behavior, including prejudice and discrimination; and collective behavior, including social movements.
Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity, NUpath Societies/Institutions
SOCL 1245. Sociology of Poverty. (4 Hours)
Analyzes American poverty in historical perspective, drawing on comparisons with other countries. Critically evaluates sociological research and theories relating to poverty. Considers causes and effects of poverty as well as societal responses to poverty and its consequences. Suitable for students in applied fields, such as nursing, criminal justice, education, allied health, premed, and prelaw.
Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity, NUpath Societies/Institutions
SOCL 1246. Environment and Society. (4 Hours)
Examines the social, political, and economic forces behind the global environmental crisis. Topics include such issues as global warming and climate disruption, world resource availability and the global economic crisis, environmental justice and social inequities in the exposure to ecological hazards, science and technology, environmental degradation in the Third World, globalization and unfair trade, state power and the role of the polluter-industrial complex in the United States, the history of the environmental movement, and exemplary environmental policies and programs. This theoretically oriented course also involves practical experience in environmental problem solving.
Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity, NUpath Societies/Institutions
SOCL 1255. Sociology of the Family. (4 Hours)
Focuses on families historically and across cultures and classes. Considers changes in contemporary families in terms of gender, family composition, women’s labor force participation, divorce, cohabitation, and other transformations.
Attribute(s): NUpath Societies/Institutions
SOCL 1260. Sociology of Gender. (4 Hours)
Considers why and how gender is socially constructed in U.S. society and looks at different theories of gender. Explores gender as an institution as well as different (cultural) expressions of masculinities and femininities. Includes topics of gender in everyday life as well as gender as an organizing principle in the institutions of families, education, workplaces, sexualities, religion, the media, politics, and forms of gender violence. SOCL 1260 and WMNS 1260 are cross-listed.
Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity, NUpath Societies/Institutions
SOCL 1280. The Twenty-First-Century Workplace. (4 Hours)
Analyzes the transformation of work since the advent of industrial capitalism. Emphasizes the organization and experience of work since World War II and the contemporary shifts underway in the wake of deindustrialization, the rise of service work, the emergence of the internet, the platform revolution, and the globalization of business organizations. Topics include the shifting nature of authority relations at work; changing forms of labor control; types of workplace culture in traditional and high-tech settings; and efforts to identify and reduce bias against women, minorities, and members of the LGBTQ community. Addresses dilemmas arising from the introduction of advanced technologies.
Attribute(s): NUpath Societies/Institutions
SOCL 1295. Drugs and Society. (4 Hours)
Focuses on historical and contemporary drug issues through the lens of classic sociological concerns. Rather than looking at only the legal/illegal discourse or historical/contemporary production, distribution, and use of drugs, the course frames drug topics around issues of class, race and ethnicity, age, and gender, asking the question of which drugs are used by whom and why at certain life stages. Specific topics include the high incarceration rates for nonviolent drug offenders; the role of drugs in death and dying via death penalty drugs and/or hospice care; mental health and drug treatment; and the potential perfidy of global drug testing and management.
Attribute(s): NUpath Societies/Institutions
SOCL 1990. Elective. (1-4 Hours)
Offers elective credit for courses taken at other academic institutions. May be repeated without limit.
SOCL 2205. Law and Social Justice. (4 Hours)
Analyzes the impact of the legal system on the creation and perpetuation of criminality in contemporary American society. Devotes particular attention to the study of the creation of criminal law, the judicial process, and the role of law in the gap between crime and social justice. Suitable for students in prelaw, criminal justice, political science, and allied fields.
SOCL 2225. Sociology of Disability. (4 Hours)
Examines how the social model of disability has challenged the predominant medical model defining disability as simply biological impairment and abnormality. Offers students an opportunity to explore how the sociological perspective contributes to understanding lived experiences of disability and how disabilities are deeply interlinked to experiences of racial-ethnic, gender, and class inequality. According to the World Health Organization, some 15 percent of the world’s population lives with disability. Yet what exactly is a disability? Successful students are expected to become conversant with theories of the social-historical construction of disabilities, the differences between visible and invisible impairments, the contributions of disability rights activism, and the bioethical questions about difference raised by medical technologies.
Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity, NUpath Ethical Reasoning
SOCL 2303. Gender and Reproductive Justice. (4 Hours)
Introduces the social, legal, and economic barriers to accessing reproductive healthcare domestically and internationally. Draws on various theoretical and analytic tools including critical race theory, critical legal theory, sociology of science, human rights, feminist theory, and a range of public health methods. Access to reproductive health services, including abortion, is one of the most contested political, social, cultural, and religious issues today. Covers domestic, regional, and international legal and regulatory frameworks on sexual reproductive health. HIST 2303, SOCL 2303, and WMNS 2303 are cross-listed.
Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity, NUpath Societies/Institutions
SOCL 2320. Statistical Analysis in Sociology. (4 Hours)
Offers students an opportunity to obtain knowledge and skills essential for understanding the theory and practice of social statistics commonly used in social research. Topics covered include the operationalization of abstract concepts; descriptive statistics; correlation; bivariate regression; central limit theorem; confidence intervals; hypothesis testing; and key concepts such as association, causation, and spurious relationships. Statistical software is used to complete assignments.
Prerequisite(s): SOCL 1101 with a minimum grade of D-
Attribute(s): NUpath Analyzing/Using Data
SOCL 2321. Research Methods in Sociology. (4 Hours)
Introduces students to the range of research methods used by sociologists. Covers experimental research, field research, survey research, and historical-comparative research. Sampling, the rules of evidence in empirical research, research ethics, and the place of values are discussed.
Prerequisite(s): SOCL 1101 with a minimum grade of D-
Attribute(s): NUpath Analyzing/Using Data
SOCL 2355. Race, Identity, Social Change, and Empowerment. (4 Hours)
Introduces and sensitizes students to the forms, practices, and effects of racism and discrimination on the various populations in the United States and presents frameworks for understanding and working with people with histories of discrimination and different cultural identities. Pays special attention to human services with diverse populations in schools, prisons, and employment assistance programs.
Prerequisite(s): ENGW 1102 (may be taken concurrently) with a minimum grade of C or ENGW 1111 (may be taken concurrently) with a minimum grade of C or ENGW 1113 (may be taken concurrently) with a minimum grade of C or ENGW 1114 (may be taken concurrently) with a minimum grade of C
Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity
SOCL 2358. Current Issues in Cities and Suburbs. (4 Hours)
Introduces students to pressing urban issues: urban sprawl, poverty, education, transportation, economic development, and housing, through an intensive analysis of the Boston metropolitan area. The course is cotaught by university faculty and practitioners in government, community, and nonprofit organizations throughout the metropolitan area. Offers students the opportunity to analyze Boston data, go on outings to see development in progress, talk with urban practitioners about what they do, and conduct research on an urban issue of their choice.
Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity, NUpath Societies/Institutions
SOCL 2359. Current Issues in Cities and Suburbs Abroad. (4 Hours)
Introduces students to pressing urban issues—urban sprawl, poverty, education, transportation, economic development, and housing—through an intensive analysis of the metropolitan area. Taught by university faculty and local practitioners in government, community, and nonprofit organizations. Offers students an opportunity to analyze urban data, to go on outings to see development in progress, and to talk with urban practitioners about what they do in urban contexts outside of the United States. To be taken as part of a Dialogue of Civilizations. May be repeated without limit.
Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity, NUpath Integration Experience, NUpath Societies/Institutions
SOCL 2365. Latinx Youthhood in the United States. (4 Hours)
Surveys topics related to Latinx youthhood. Includes historical, social, and cultural roots of Latinx youthhoods in the United States and how Latinx youthhood has been shaped within colonial, transnational, and global contexts. Emphasizes understanding the ways in which social institutions found in and across the United States and Latin American sending communities have structured Latinx youthhoods in relation to race, gender, class, and citizenship, as well as how Latinx youths have exercised agency to contest the social inequalities resulting from the practices and policies of these social institutions.
Attribute(s): NUpath Societies/Institutions
SOCL 2485. Environment, Technology, and Society. (4 Hours)
Focuses on the connections between the development of modern nation-states and the control of nature. Explores the role human societies play in such events as climate change, tsunamis, and droughts. Asks how industrialization and the process of science and technology development are related to our transforming environmental conditions, as well as how the social sciences, the sciences, and engineering are transforming to address these issues. Draws on social theory, environmental history, anthropology/sociology, art/design, and open-source technologies to investigate theoretically and methodologically the sources, experiences of, and solutions for environmental health questions.
Prerequisite(s): ANTH 1101 with a minimum grade of D- or CRIM 1100 with a minimum grade of D- or HUSV 1101 with a minimum grade of D- or INTL 1101 with a minimum grade of D- or POLS 1140 with a minimum grade of D- or POLS 1160 with a minimum grade of D- or SOCL 1101 with a minimum grade of D- or WMNS 1103 with a minimum grade of D-
Attribute(s): NUpath Societies/Institutions
SOCL 2500. Race and Global Human Mobility. (4 Hours)
Examines the relationship between race and the movement of people around the globe. Offers students an opportunity to acquire a concrete understanding of how race and ethnicity (as social constructions) have developed as people have migrated (under free will or forced circumstances) within and across geopolitical territories (e.g, colonies, countries) in the past (1400s) and through the present. Ethnoracial-related conflicts connected to migration (e.g., rebellions by the enslaved during the Atlantic slave trade, Rwandan genocide, Syrian civil war) may also be explored.
Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity, NUpath Societies/Institutions
SOCL 2990. Elective. (1-4 Hours)
Offers elective credit for courses taken at other academic institutions. May be repeated without limit.
SOCL 2991. Research Practicum. (2-4 Hours)
Involves students in collaborative research under the supervision of a faculty member. Offers students an opportunity to learn basic research methods in the discipline. Requires permission of instructor. May be repeated once for up to 4 total credits.
SOCL 3241. Violence and Society. (4 Hours)
Examines the notion of violence and its pervasive presence in the social institutions we create and maintain every day. Addresses key debates and findings in sociological literature on violence, drawing on other disciplines as they prove helpful. Sociology tells us that the beliefs, values, and norms that characterize the United States legitimize the preference for violence, largely through the obvious venues of the mass media that glorify violence but also in the subtler structural arrangements collectively constructed and maintained in our everyday behaviors. Offers students an opportunity to understand how the structure of our society and its social institutions inhibit or facilitate violent behavior.
Attribute(s): NUpath Societies/Institutions
SOCL 3270. Race, Ethnicity, and Inequality. (4 Hours)
Focuses on the social construction of race and ethnicity and the nature of dominant/minority relations in the United States. Emphasizes the peculiar evolution of race relations in U.S. history, the political and economic conditions that have transformed race relations, and the nature of contemporary racial and ethnic relations in the United States. Topics include immigration, ethnic and racial identity, discrimination, and race-based policies (e.g., residential restrictive codes, Jim Crow segregation). Offers students an opportunity to develop a critical lens from which to observe and interpret contemporary debates over structural racism.
Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity, NUpath Societies/Institutions
SOCL 3300. Social Theory. (4 Hours)
Reviews the dominant theoretical traditions in classical and contemporary sociology, showing the links between the social thought of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and current social thought.
Prerequisite(s): SOCL 1101 with a minimum grade of D- ; (ENGL 1102 with a minimum grade of C or ENGL 1111 with a minimum grade of C or ENGW 1102 with a minimum grade of C or ENGW 1111 with a minimum grade of C )
Attribute(s): NUpath Writing Intensive
SOCL 3407. The Immigrant Experience: Ethnicity, Race, and Inequality in America. (4 Hours)
Presents the sociological study of immigration in the United States. Emphasizes the ways U.S. institutions (e.g., federal, state, and local governments; the legal system; the economy; schools; families) have shaped immigrant integration and incorporation and vice versa. Presents theories and concepts that explain how experiences of integration and incorporation differ for disparate groups of immigrants and their children due to their associated social categories including race, class, gender, sexuality, and citizenship. Examines how local and state institutions (Boston and Massachusetts, respectively) have shaped immigrant integration in recent years.
Prerequisite(s): SOCL 1101 with a minimum grade of D- or ANTH 1101 with a minimum grade of D- or HUSV 1101 with a minimum grade of D- or CRIM 1100 with a minimum grade of D- or INTL 1101 with a minimum grade of D- or WMNS 1103 with a minimum grade of D- or POLS 1140 with a minimum grade of D- or POLS 1160 with a minimum grade of D-
Attribute(s): NUpath Societies/Institutions
SOCL 3441. Sociology of Health and Illness. (4 Hours)
Offers a substantial overview of the sociology of health and illness. Medical sociology is an important subfield of sociology with important links to public health, social psychology, psychology, and other medical fields. Emphasizes several critical areas: society and disease; theoretical understandings of health inequalities; medicalization and social control; healthcare professions and professionalization; and the American healthcare system. Offers students an opportunity to obtain analytical frameworks to explore other topics in medical sociology not covered in this course.
Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity, NUpath Societies/Institutions, NUpath Writing Intensive
SOCL 3450. Class, Power, and Social Change. (4 Hours)
Explores theories and research on the institutionalized forms of inequality that have accompanied the rise of advanced capitalism in Western society. Major topics include the competing definitions of class that have developed among social scientists; the relation between class and race in the United States; how class and gender have intersected historically; and the link between workers' movements, political systems, and the forms that capitalist development has assumed in Western Europe and the United States. Students conduct projects in which they explore the conceptions of social justice held by members of subordinate groups.
Attribute(s): NUpath Societies/Institutions
SOCL 3468. Social Movements. (4 Hours)
Introduces the social, cultural, and political dynamics that surround social movements, both historically and in the contemporary world. Emphasizes theory and research on national and transnational social movements, including studies of revolutions and political upheavals, racial justice and demands for civil and human rights, movements for gender equality, and other instances of movements for social and political change. Focuses on how structural factors shape social movement emergence and development and how social movements in turn shape the structure of societies.
Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity, NUpath Societies/Institutions
SOCL 3487. Applied Sociology: Practice and Theory. (4 Hours)
Offers the academic component of the experiential education requirement for sociology majors; to be taken after students have completed the experiential component. Provides a seminar format in which students will reflect upon their approved experience (that is, co-op, internship, community service, and so on) and integrate it into a research project. Students who have completed study abroad or a service-learning course in the department may not have to take this course.
Prerequisite(s): SOCL 1101 with a minimum grade of D- or ANTH 1101 with a minimum grade of D- or HUSV 1101 with a minimum grade of D- or CRIM 1100 with a minimum grade of D- or INTL 1101 with a minimum grade of D- or WMNS 1103 with a minimum grade of D- or POLS 1140 with a minimum grade of D- or POLS 1160 with a minimum grade of D-
SOCL 3990. Elective. (1-4 Hours)
Offers elective credit for courses taken at other academic institutions. May be repeated without limit.
SOCL 4485. Sociology of Education. (4 Hours)
Examines the ways in which schools and societies are interconnected. More specifically, introduces the educational practices and policies that reproduce or challenge social stratification, social mobility, and adult socio-economic success. Explores the relationships among social actors including teachers, students, and parents, as well as educational policies and practices that shape educational equity and opportunity. Focuses on curriculum development and implementation, ability grouping and tracking, teacher preparation and professional development. Explores how these and other educational policies and practices may differ due to race, class, gender, and citizenship.
Prerequisite(s): ANTH 1101 with a minimum grade of D- or CRIM 1100 with a minimum grade of D- or HUSV 1101 with a minimum grade of D- or POLS 1140 with a minimum grade of D- or POLS 1160 with a minimum grade of D- or SOCL 1101 with a minimum grade of D-
Attribute(s): NUpath Societies/Institutions
SOCL 4518. Law and Society in a Digital World. (4 Hours)
Explores the ways in which the legal system shapes and is, in turn, shaped by ideological and political movements. For example, the bitter controversy over whether runaway juries have created “jackpot justice” by awarding huge sums to plaintiffs is a reflection of deep cultural and political divides over individual rights and corporate power. Also examines new legal principles that are currently evolving to deal with such misdeeds as systematic corporate misconduct, cyber crimes, and harassment.
Prerequisite(s): SOCL 1101 with a minimum grade of D- or ANTH 1101 with a minimum grade of D- or HUSV 1101 with a minimum grade of D- or CRIM 1100 with a minimum grade of D- or INTL 1101 with a minimum grade of D- or WMNS 1103 with a minimum grade of D- or POLS 1140 with a minimum grade of D- or POLS 1160 with a minimum grade of D-
Attribute(s): NUpath Ethical Reasoning, NUpath Writing Intensive
SOCL 4520. Race, Class, and Gender. (4 Hours)
Considers the intersection of race, class, and gender in social structure, institutions, and people’s lives. Utilizes an interdisciplinary approach to focus on the socially constructed nature of these concepts and how they shape and create meaning in individual lives. Difference with an emphasis on inequality and varying life chances is central for understanding our society and is central to our work. Requires a significant amount of reading. Class format is like a seminar; students are expected to participate, take responsibility, and write a paper. SOCL 4520 and WMNS 4520 are cross-listed.
Prerequisite(s): (SOCL 1101 with a minimum grade of D- or ANTH 1101 with a minimum grade of D- or CRIM 1100 with a minimum grade of D- or HUSV 1101 with a minimum grade of D- or INTL 1101 with a minimum grade of D- or POLS 1140 with a minimum grade of D- or POLS 1160 with a minimum grade of D- or WMNS 1103 with a minimum grade of D- ); (ENGW 1111 with a minimum grade of C or ENGW 1102 with a minimum grade of C or ENGL 1111 with a minimum grade of C or ENGL 1102 with a minimum grade of C )
Attribute(s): NUpath Writing Intensive
SOCL 4522. Environmental Justice. (4 Hours)
Offers students an opportunity to engage in advanced social science research on topics relating to environmental justice, citizen science, and environmental health. Examines various environmental justice topics with the goal of producing a research project or paper. Case studies examined include the impacts of toxic waste dumping on human health and the environment, the role of global climate change in creating new waves of migration around the world, the rise of the Slow Food movement, and the relationship between environmental and data justice. Studies how to redesign research methods, tools, and processes to support environmental justice.
Prerequisite(s): (ANTH 1101 with a minimum grade of D- or CRIM 1100 with a minimum grade of D- or HUSV 1101 with a minimum grade of D- or HUSV 2400 with a minimum grade of D- or (HUSV 2401 with a minimum grade of D- or ENVR 2401 with a minimum grade of D- ) or INTL 1101 with a minimum grade of D- or PHIL 1180 (may be taken concurrently) with a minimum grade of C or POLS 1140 with a minimum grade of D- or POLS 1160 with a minimum grade of D- or SOCL 1101 with a minimum grade of D- or SOCL 1246 (may be taken concurrently) with a minimum grade of C or WMNS 1103 with a minimum grade of D- ); (ENGL 1102 with a minimum grade of C or ENGL 1111 with a minimum grade of C or ENGW 1102 with a minimum grade of C or ENGW 1111 with a minimum grade of C )
Attribute(s): NUpath Societies/Institutions, NUpath Writing Intensive
SOCL 4526. Afro-Asian Relations in the Americas. (4 Hours)
Examines the comparative racialization of Blacks and Asians in the Americas and relations between these communities. Introduces sociological theories of race/ethnicity, a chronology of Afro-Asian relations in the United States, and the impact of 1970s deindustrialization and post–1965 Asian immigration. Covers the internationalism of Black and Asian leaders (e.g., W.E.B. du Bois and Mao Tse-Tung) in the developing nations and the overlapping Civil Rights, Black Power, and Asian American movements.
Prerequisite(s): SOCL 1101 with a minimum grade of D- or ANTH 1101 with a minimum grade of D- or CRIM 1100 with a minimum grade of D- or HUSV 1101 with a minimum grade of D- or WMNS 1103 with a minimum grade of D- or POLS 1140 with a minimum grade of D- or POLS 1160 with a minimum grade of D-
Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity, NUpath Societies/Institutions
SOCL 4528. Computers and Society. (4 Hours)
Focuses on the social and political context of technological change and development. Through readings, course assignments, and class discussions, offers students an opportunity to learn to analyze the ways that the internet, artificial intelligence, and other technological advances have required a reworking of every human institution—both to facilitate the development of these technologies and in response to their adoption.
Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity, NUpath Societies/Institutions
SOCL 4600. Senior Seminar. (4 Hours)
Offers students an opportunity to integrate and apply knowledge of the discipline by building on completed course work and conducting original research on a topic of their choice. Requires students to produce a research paper due at the end of the semester. This seminar operates as an intellectual workshop in which students share the process, as well as the results, of their research with the group. The class comes together to inform, guide, critique, and support one another’s research efforts in a collaborative fashion. Students are expected to make constructive comments on the work of others and to freely exchange ideas.
Attribute(s): NUpath Capstone Experience, NUpath Writing Intensive
SOCL 4970. Junior/Senior Honors Project 1. (4 Hours)
Focuses on in-depth project in which a student conducts research or produces a product related to the student’s major field. Combined with Junior/Senior Project 2 or college-defined equivalent for 8-credit honors project. May be repeated without limit.
SOCL 4971. Junior/Senior Honors Project 2. (4 Hours)
Focuses on second semester of in-depth project in which a student conducts research or produces a product related to the student’s major field. May be repeated without limit.
Prerequisite(s): SOCL 4970 with a minimum grade of D-
SOCL 4973. Special Topics in Sociology. (4 Hours)
Designed as a specialized themes course for students with experience in sociology and/or anthropology. Takes advantage of unique opportunities—visiting guests, special thematic interests—which are not part of the regular curriculum. May be repeated up to three times.
Prerequisite(s): ANTH 1101 with a minimum grade of D- or CRIM 1100 with a minimum grade of D- or HUSV 1101 with a minimum grade of D- or INTL 1101 with a minimum grade of D- or POLS 1140 with a minimum grade of D- or POLS 1160 with a minimum grade of D- or SOCL 1101 with a minimum grade of D- or WMNS 1103 with a minimum grade of D-
SOCL 4990. Elective. (1-4 Hours)
Offers elective credit for courses taken at other academic institutions. May be repeated without limit.
SOCL 4991. Research. (4 Hours)
Offers an opportunity to conduct research under faculty supervision.
Attribute(s): NUpath Integration Experience
SOCL 4992. Directed Study. (1-4 Hours)
Offers independent work under the direction of members of the department on a chosen topic. Course content depends on instructor. May be repeated without limit.
SOCL 4994. Internship. (4 Hours)
Offers students an opportunity for internship work. May be repeated without limit.
Attribute(s): NUpath Integration Experience
SOCL 5240. Feminist Resistance. (4 Hours)
Engages students in the study of a variety of forms of feminist resistance in recent history, emphasizing the United States in the context of cross-cultural examples. Examines key feminist texts and manifestos and studies feminist activism in coalition with other social movements. Students identify and analyze unique features of gender-based activism in itself and in its intersections with other social movements, including movements and activism focused on race, class, sexuality, and physical ability.
Attribute(s): NUpath Societies/Institutions
SOCL 6230. Political Ecology and Environmental Justice. (4 Hours)
Analyzes in both empirical and theoretical terms the current state of the global environment and ecological politics. Topical areas of theoretical focus include analyses of history and nature; the logic of economic growth, capitalist accumulation, and ecological degradation; the status of environmental justice issues; the human/environmental impacts of technology; globalization and the export of environmental hazard; imperialism and the ecological destruction of the global South, with a particular emphasis on Central America; the role of ecological problems in the current economic and social crisis of the United States (and other countries); social and ecological injustice; the crisis of the labor and ecology movements; and the future of environmental politics.
SOCL 6962. Elective. (1-4 Hours)
Offers elective credit for courses taken at other academic institutions. May be repeated without limit.
SOCL 7001. Proseminar 1: Acclimating to Graduate School. (1 Hour)
Helps first-year students develop a firm understanding of the PhD Sociology program requirements and helps them develop beneficial skills and strategies to complete those requirements in a timely manner. Focus on relevant topics such as articulating learning expectations from the graduate program; developing individual timelines and time management strategies to meet those expectations; identifying resources on campus and beyond that are needed to meet learning expectations; and developing concrete goals for acquiring appropriate writing, reading skills, and research areas expertise in the PhD program.
SOCL 7002. Proseminar 2: Academic Planning. (1 Hour)
Helps first-year students further develop beneficial skills and strategies to complete program requirements by building on the first semester proseminar. Focuses on relevant topics such as networking, building, and developing a team of mentors and peer supports; writing and talking about research; getting research funded; and learning wellness strategies for surviving graduate school.
SOCL 7003. Proseminar 3: Committee, Topics, and Reading Lists. (1 Hour)
Helps students develop beneficial skills and strategies to complete program requirements and become more professionalized as sociologists. This third proseminar provides the structure and peer feedback designed to help students build and work through their first field statement reading list. Students produce an annotated bibliography. The weekly exercises are designed to help students create the reading list in collaboration with faculty mentors and other experts in the field.
SOCL 7004. Proseminar 4: Field Statement Writing. (1 Hour)
Offers students an opportunity to develop beneficial skills and strategies to complete program requirements and to become more professionalized as sociologists. Students share field statement drafts, participate in peer evaluations, and practice giving constructive criticism on others’ work and address others’ critical feedback. Students draft a field statement or publishable paper.
SOCL 7100. Queer Theory: Sexualities, Genders, Politics. (4 Hours)
Introduces the core texts and key debates that have shaped queer theory and examines the intersections between queer theory and feminism and critical race theory. Seeks to provide an understanding of expansive and radical contemporary queer politics by analyzing foundational queer and feminist texts, pushing beyond narrow constructions of identity politics, anti-discrimination policy, and rights-based reforms. Engages queer theory by means of a rich philosophical and political interrogation of the meaning and content of “queer.” SOCL 7100 and WMNS 7100 are cross-listed.
SOCL 7200. Foundations of Social Theory 1. (4 Hours)
Studies the classic theorists including Durkheim, Weber, Marx, and others.
SOCL 7201. Foundations of Social Theory 2. (4 Hours)
Reviews the dominant theoretical traditions in contemporary sociology, examining the key assumptions, terminology, weaknesses, and strengths of the pluralist, managerialist, neo-Marxist, feminist, and postmodern paradigms. Strives not only to expose students to the giants in the field but, more important, to give students the intellectual tools to situate entire theoretical traditions vis-à-vis one another. Introduces students to various schools of thought. Offers students the opportunity to learn “how to think” sociologically and theoretically—that is, to go beyond simplistic and descriptive accounts of social phenomena to offer more systematic and insightful explanations.
SOCL 7221. Globalization, Development, and Social Justice. (4 Hours)
Explores the rise of neoliberal globalization and its impact on local and national communities around the world. Examines complex patterns of resistance, including place-based struggles and transnational social movements. Combines theoretical analysis of global capitalism, development, the politics of resistance, and reformist/radical alternatives with the study of concrete struggles in defense of land, labor and human rights, indigenous cultures and identities, and ecological sustainability.
SOCL 7226. Economy, Politics, and Social Change. (4 Hours)
Offers a broad survey of scholarly debates on the redistribution of political power, economic power, and social capital across the globe. Emphasizes an ethnographic analysis of how colonial and imperial legacies inform contemporary arrangements that structure inequality and how political imaginations are exercised through aesthetics, identities, and institutions. Considers how experiments with economic justice and juridical and political forms of justice find expression in contemporary grassroots movements and theories. Draws on interdisciplinary conversations from the social sciences and humanities to examine and compare radical forms of social change across various global contexts.
SOCL 7227. Race and Ethnic Relations. (4 Hours)
Offers a graduate-level seminar in the sociology of race and ethnic relations. Explores the key social, economic, political, and ideological forces shaping race and ethnic relations in the United States, past and present, and the main theoretical, methodological, and substantive debates in the “race and ethnicity” subfield of sociology. Course topics include, but are not limited to, the conceptual and intellectual foundations of the study of race and ethnic relations; the sources and consequences of ethnic and racial identities; urban poverty and dynamics of racial residential segregation; the role of wealth in creating and perpetuating racial inequality; the “new black middle class”; and contemporary debates regarding racial prejudice, discrimination, and redistributive public policies in the United States.
SOCL 7231. Sociology of Prejudice and Violence. (4 Hours)
Examines the roots and consequences of violent behavior in society and the individual. Topics vary from semester to semester, but will include serial murder, massacres, hate crimes, workplace murder, group violence including cults, and mass media portrayals of violence.
SOCL 7256. Contemporary Issues in Sociology. (4 Hours)
Discuss contemporary issues in sociology. Include supervised readings and written reports on special problems. May be repeated without limit.
SOCL 7263. Social Psychology of Stratification. (4 Hours)
Explores the social psychological dimensions of structured social inequality. Overviews the “social psychologies” embedded in the classical social theorists, then explores the literature on sociological social psychology (as opposed to its psychological cousin), identifying key theoretical frameworks and focusing on “social structure and personality” (or “social structure and attitudes”) research. Explores relevant literatures on various “subjective” responses to stratification including the self-concept, stratum (that is, race, class, or gender) identification and consciousness, the process of legitimation, stratification beliefs (or stratification ideology), racial attitudes, and links between these phenomena and various policy attitudes and preferences (support for affirmative action, wealth redistribution, and so on). Also explores the ways in which such responses may contribute to the maintenance and reproduction of the status quo (social reproduction), and social change.
SOCL 7267. Environment, Health, and Society. (4 Hours)
Studies contested illnesses, which are diseases or conditions in which there is dispute over environmental causation. For many diseases and conditions attributed to environmental and occupational exposure, the disease or condition and/or its causes are discovered by laypeople in workplaces and communities, with considerable attention to chemical exposures. This seminar synthesizes a diverse set of fields, encompassing environmental sociology, medical sociology, medical anthropology, science studies, history of medicine, history of science, environmental health, community-based participatory research, environmental justice, and environmental public health. Emphasizes both political economic and ideological factors as determinants of contestation. Also examines issues of interdisciplinary collaboration between social scientists and environmental health scientists.
SOCL 7270. Sociology of Work and Employment. (4 Hours)
Examines the ways in which work organizations powerfully shape individual and social life. Traces such influences with particular emphasis on how organizations differentially affect the distribution of job rewards across class, gender and racial/ethnic lines. Topics include the historical evolution of the management/worker relationship, job segregation by both race and gender, the impact of new technologies on social inequality, the relation between gender and professional careers, govermental efforts to ensure equal opportunity, and the impact of workplace transformation on racial and gender inequalities at work.
SOCL 7273. Gender and Social Policy. (4 Hours)
Provides an introduction to gender and social policy, with emphasis on intersections of inequalities based on class, race, and sexuality. The focus is on equality policies in employment including family-friendly measures and antidiscrimination policies. Includes those focused on child care, poverty, reproduction, and sexuality. Examines the intersections of family, economy, sexuality, and state from a variety of perspectives including cross-national and comparative analysis.
SOCL 7287. Social Movements in Health. (4 Hours)
Offers a graduate seminar centering on health social movements. Also explores general social movement theory and research. Uses concepts from science and technology studies and covers some core medical sociology concerns such as health inequalities; personal experience of illness; and lay-professional disputes over disease identification, causation, prevention, and treatment. Among the movements covered are disability rights, breast cancer activism, medical activism, black health movements, environmental justice, community health centers, patients’ rights, and health access movements.
SOCL 7962. Elective. (1-4 Hours)
Offers elective credit for courses taken at other academic institutions. May be repeated without limit.
SOCL 7976. Directed Study. (1-4 Hours)
Comprises reading and research directed by a faculty member. May be repeated without limit.
SOCL 7990. Thesis. (1-4 Hours)
Offers thesis supervision by members of the department. May be repeated without limit.
SOCL 8960. Exam Preparation—Doctoral. (0 Hours)
Taken while completing one of two PhD field statements under faculty supervision.
SOCL 8984. Research. (1-4 Hours)
Offers an opportunity to conduct research under faculty supervision. May be repeated without limit.
SOCL 8986. Research. (0 Hours)
Offers the student the opportunity to conduct full-time research. May be repeated without limit.
SOCL 9000. PhD Candidacy Achieved. (0 Hours)
Indicates successful completion of the doctoral comprehensive exam.
SOCL 9986. Research. (0 Hours)
Offers the student the opportunity to conduct full-time research. May be repeated without limit.
SOCL 9990. Dissertation Term 1. (0 Hours)
Offers theoretical and experimental work conducted under the supervision of a departmental faculty.
Prerequisite(s): SOCL 9000 with a minimum grade of S
SOCL 9991. Dissertation Term 2. (0 Hours)
Offers dissertation supervision by members of the department.
Prerequisite(s): SOCL 9990 with a minimum grade of S
SOCL 9996. Dissertation Continuation. (0 Hours)
Offers continued thesis work conducted under the supervision of a departmental faculty.
Prerequisite(s): SOCL 9991 with a minimum grade of S or Dissertation Check with a score of REQ