Document Type

Syllabus

Publication Date

Spring 2023

Course Description

The goal of the course is to familiarize students with the discipline of sociology, its core concepts, sociological perspectives, and the way sociological analysis is conducted. This course is designed to acquaint students with compelling social issues in society and discuss the various contributions sociology has made to the understanding of complex social issues. The course aims to focus on understanding social issues at global, national, and local levels. It will help you, the students, develop a critical lens to understand these issues at various (temporal and spatial) levels and determine how and why a particular set of populations are affected by challenges more than others. The course addresses social, economic, racial, and gender inequality that has historically existed in society.

Student Outcomes

We will:

  • Learn how social, economic, and political relations interact and react with each other within a larger society
  • Utilize class concepts to support your opinions about social issues
  • Describe key concepts in each unit and make connections between the concepts in different units
  • Use sociological theories and concepts from class to analyze social issues
  • Learn to design sociological projects using sociological research tools
  • Develop skills to identify and solve well-defined and ill-defined problems both collaboratively and individually and apply these skills to problems facing humanity.

This will prepare students to understand current and future challenges to humanity (pandemics, environment, world peace) can only be resolved when you have the tools to tackle these issues. Working alone or with others, you will frame and solve the problems in your lives. By the end of the semester, you will be able to apply major sociological concepts to understand and explain the world you live in. You will also develop critical media literacy skills, have the ability to identify connections between various social issues, and utilize your critical thinking skills by asking questions, evaluating arguments, and exploring alternative points of view. In this course, you will learn how to read ~30 pages of reading material per week and balance your reading with deadlines for assignments.

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