Document Type

Syllabus

Publication Date

Fall 2023

Course Description

“(Sociology) should rather cause us to see things in a different way from the ordinary man, for the purpose of any science is to make discoveries, and all such discoveries more or less upset accepted opinions.” Emile Durkheim In this course, we will gain a sense of the basic theories, topics, and methods of sociology in order to view the world through a sociological lens. We will be challenged to rethink the everyday assumptions we hold about society and go beyond any “common sense” notions of the social world. We will learn to take a sociological perspective, which involves reaching beyond our own experiences and opinions. Learning critical thinking skills will enhance our ability to understand the diverse world we live in. We will hopefully gain a heightened awareness of how our surroundings affect not only who we are but how we interact with others. We begin the semester by exploring what sociology is and how sociologists study a wide array of topics. We will look at social stratification and how patterns of inequality are built into the social structure in such areas as race, class, and gender. We will then address the social construction of reality through a variety of topics including deviance, health and illness, sexuality and the family.

Student Outcomes

Students will be able to: • Use the sociological imagination to differentiate between personal troubles and public issues. • Understand stratification and inequality by race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, and other important identity markers. • Interpret social interactions at the micro, meso, and macro levels. • Identify and analyze strategies that individuals and organizations have used in the past and can develop in the future to address and ameliorate social injustice.

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