Professor Nicole Marwell nicole.marwell@baruch.cuny.edu
Soc. 74500 – Public Organizations {10939}
Thursdays, 2:00 – 4:00 pm, Room TBA, 3credits
A critical examination of organization theory, blending classical and contemporary perspectives, with a focus on the application of theoretical principles to public organizations. Organizational studies is a vast, interdisciplinary field encompassing micro- and macro-level research in cognitive psychology, social psychology, anthropology, sociology, political science, public administration, history, and economics. This course focuses on concepts applicable to the study of individual organizations, populations of organizations, inter-organizational relations, and the structure of organizational systems. It will cover key works by major theorists in these areas; the historical development of this field of inquiry in the U.S.; relations among public, private, and hybrid organizations; and issues of research design and methodology.
Professor Sharon Zukin
Soc. 82800 – Research Seminar in Urban Sociology {10217}
Mondays, 2:00 – 4:00 pm, Room TBA, 3credits
For students who have already carried out an urban-based research project and want to write up their findings, or revise a paper, for publication, this seminar will operate as a writing group. For the other students, the seminar will launch a new research project on the political economy and culture of local shops in New York neighborhoods. Classes will be divided between discussion and critique of the writing projects, for which students will produce at least three installments during the semester, and discussion of weekly research assignments to be carried out by the research team. This course is an ideal sequel to Sociology U72500 and U82301 and Earth and Environmental Science U78100 and U79903. Registration limited to 12 students. Prospective students should email Professor Zukin with their proposed research project before registering, szukin@gc.cuny.edu.
Profs. Jayne Mooney and Jock Young
Soc. 85000 - THE VIOLENCE OF LIFE {10905}
Mondays, 6:30 – 8:30pm, Room TBA, 3credits
This is a sociology of violence course with a difference; it focuses on why violence is both an anathema and, at the same time, a common part of everyday life and a core cultural concern for movies through to videogames and the daily news. That is, it is concerned with the prevalence of violence and the fascination of violence. We will discuss the gamut of violence from homicide and rape ,through to spree and serial killings to terrorism and the violence of the state, to the harsh realities of war and genocide. The gendered nature of violence will be considered as well as the structural violence of class and ‘race’ and the theories that have arisen in an attempt to provide an explanation. We will focus on why ‘normal’ persons commit extreme violence and why violence is such a ‘normal’ part of the institutions of late modern society. Finally we will turn to how we can tackle the dehumanization and othering which constitute the narratives and psychological mechanisms that make such violence possible.
Indicative reading:
Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Philippe Bourgois (eds) Violence in Peace and in War, Oxford:Blackwells, 2004.
Jack Katz ,The Seductions of Crime, New York: Basic Books, 1988.
Professor Holly Reed holly.reed@qc.cuny.edu
Soc. 71600 – Sociological Statistics II {10207}
Tuesdays, 2:00 – 4:00pm, Room TBA, 3credits
Sociological Statistics II is designed as an applied introduction to statistical concepts and multiple regression for sociologists. The course will review the methods used to collect and analyze quantitative data. Stata, a software package for statistical analysis, will be used in the class sessions. The course is primarily an applied course; although students will be provided with an introduction to underlying theory, the focus will be on application and interpretation rather than derivation of formulae. We will briefly review measures of central tendency and variability and basic bivariate OLS regression, but the course assumes a basic knowledge of both descriptive and inferential statistics. Students will master the application and interpretation of multivariate linear regression and regression techniques for categorical dependent variables, especially logistic regression. Attention will also be paid to topics including: interactions, nonlinearities, variable transformations, regression diagnostics, and missing data and outliers. Finally, there will be a brief introduction to more advanced statistical techniques that are extensions of the basic regression model.
Professor Stanley Aronowitz saronowitz@gc.cun.edu
Soc.86800 - Cultural Analysis {10213}
Thursdays, 4:15 – 6:15, Room TBA, 3credits
The concept of culture embraces two broad terrains: cultural as a way of life; and culture as forms of representation. This course will examine both and try to link forms of cultural representation, especially in music, with the social and cultural contexts within which they are created. It will address, in the first half of the course, the methods of cultural analysis as well as its forms such as "cultural studies" and historical analysis
Music is, arguably, the most ubiquitous art form.The problem of the
cultural meaning of music is complicated by its non-verbal, non visual nature excepting, of course, popular music and its "high" cultural genre, Opera. Among the questions we will examine are:is music self-referential or, like literature and painting, can its social and cultural significance be discerned? If so what are the methods of cultural analysis that assist in this project? What is the history and development of so-called "classical", or high as opposed to popular art forms, especially music. And, we will address the question of the changing status of jazz from its popular roots to its current classical reception. Will rock n'roll, punk, heavy metal and hiphop etc. migrate in time to classical domains?
Profs. Natalie Sokoloff/Delores Jones-Brown nsokoloff@jjay.cuny.edu ; drjb44@aol.com
Race, Gender, Crime, & Justice {10216}
Tuesdays, 6:30 – 8:30pm, John Jay college, 3credits
This course is a critical examination of the interplay between race, gender, crime and justice in the United States. The course will begin by placing the relationship between race, gender and the law in its historical context and identifying the contemporary implications of those socio-legal connections. The role of racialized and gendered institutions in the development of criminological theory will also be explored, particularly as they relate to the contemporary state of minority disproportionate confinement and women’s criminalization and imprisonment. Specific topics will include: examining the practical and legal efficacy of racial/ethnic profiling by law enforcement officials; the use of official crime statistics in the creation of criminal images and in fostering interracial fear of victimization; the disproportionate impact of sentencing legislation across gender and racial/ethnic groups; and, the impact of incarceration on the life chances of men and women with different racial/ethnic backgrounds. Particular attention will be given to how parental incarceration and release impacts the lives of children.
Professor Robert Smith robert_smith@baruch.cuny.edu
Soc. 81200 – Ethnography {10203}
Wednesdays, 4:15 – 6:15 pm, Room TBA, 3credits
This course seeks to help students develop their capacity for ethnographic research and writing. The main focus of the course is for students to work on their own ethnographic projects, ranging from entering the field to writing field notes to producing a finished paper. The class will be conducted collaboratively, with students presenting their field notes to the class each week, and later submitting other kinds of work products for the class to read. We will also read selected works by ethnographers in sociology, whose work we will critique and use as a guide for developing our own work. The central goal of the course is for students to learn to gather raw ethnographic data and convert it into beautiful ethnographic analysis. The ideal outcome would be for each student to write a paper that could become part of a dissertation chapter, or publish it as a refereed journal. This is not an introductory or survey course. It assumes a strong background in social science research.
Professor Victoria Pitts-Taylor vpitts@gc.cuny.edu
Soc. 83300 – Seminar in Gender & Sexuality {10211}
Thursdays, 11:45 – 1:45 pm, Room TBA, 3credits
The Seminar will focus on gendered and sexualized aspects of the body and embodiment. The seminar aims to survey a broad range of topics, including the gendered and sexualized biopolitics of medicine and psychiatry, neuroscience and technology, culture, media and law. The readings will focus on recent works of established scholars and the new work of emerging scholars; some grounding or revisiting of relevant contemporary theory (queer, feminist) will also be offered if necessary. The seminar will include several public lectures during the semester by invited speakers during scheduled class time (complimentary lunch will be provided for these). The aim of these events is to give students an opportunity to discuss readings with authors/scholars themselves. The course material is drawn from a range of disciplines in the social sciences and humanities, and students from all disciplines are encouraged to register.
Professor Ruth Milkman rmilkman@gc.cuny.edu
Soc. 84511 – Sociology of Labor and Labor movements {10206}
Wednesdays, 2:00 – 4:00pm, Room TBA, 3credits
Designed as an introduction to the sociological literature on labor and labor movements (as well as selected literature in allied disciplines), participants in this seminar will study key texts – a mix of classic and contemporary, theoretical and empirical works – regarding the conditions under which workers in capitalist societies organize collectively on the basis of class. The course materials focus primarily on the case of the USA, past and present, but also include some comparative perspectives. Questions to be explored include: What is “class” and what is a “working class”? How have labor movements emerged historically, and how do processes of class formation vary across societies and over time? What is “class consciousness”? What forms of collective organization (labor unions, other formal worker associations, labor-oriented political parties) have working classes adopted and how do these vary over time and space? What types of collective action have workers and their various organizations undertaken? How do inequalities among workers (skill, race, gender, citizenship, migrant status) affect workers’ collective organizations? What is the significance of variation in union organizational types (craft/ occupational unions, industrial unions, unions of “producers,” etc.)? How do unions and other forms of labor organizations draw boundaries of inclusion/exclusion? How do they deal with issues of democracy, bureaucracy, and “the iron law of oligarchy”? Are unions “obsolete” in post-industrial capitalist societies?
Prof. Mitchell Duneier
Soc. 81500 – Microsociology {10210}
Thursdays, 9:30 – 11:30 pm, Room TBA, 3 credits
This class will study how to use ethnography to make sense of social interaction. It is designed for those who are interested in techniques for making social life visible at all of the levels on which it occurs. It will end with a focus on how to make rigorous links between micro and macro phenomena such as race, gender, and capitalism.
Prof. Mary Clare Lennon mlennon@gc.cuny.edu
SOC. 81900 – Interdisciplinary Approaches to Urban Health Research
{10208
Wednesdays, 6:30 – 8:30 pm, Room TBA, 3 credits
This course presents a survey of interdisciplinary approaches to research on urban health. It focuses on how socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, and community-level conditions (and their interactions) contribute to health disparities, primarily in the United States. Readings bring together analyses and discussions from a range of disciplines including epidemiology, psychology, economics, sociology, anthropology, public health, and medicine. Special attention will be given to methodological issues and current controversies and debates within this literature and their implications for policy and interventions. The course is required for all DPH students.
Professors David Lavin & Dean Savage dlavin@gc.cuny.edu
; Dean.savage@qc.cuny.edu
Soc. 84700 - Higher Education and Social Inequality {10212}
Tuesdays, 4:15 – 6:15, Room TBA, 3credits
The course will examine several major equity issues confronting higher education today. To what extent is higher education an institution which serves to narrow ethnic and racial, class, and gender inequalities and to what degree is it implicated in reproducing them? In examining this theme, we shall look at the ways in which higher education is stratified, and debates about the role of community colleges in eroding or maintaining social inequalities. Controversies about access, opportunity, and the consequences of admissions and aid policies will be explored. To pursue these themes, we will be reading a number of recent analyses of the impacts of different policies and institutional factors which influence student success in higher education.
The course will also examine some of the major institutional problems facing higher education today, including shifts in the support for higher education, the widening gap in support for private and public higher education, the sources and effects of the current pressures for outcomes assessment, the growing use of part-time faculty, and shifts in the nature of the academic labor market.
Professor William Kornblum wkornblum@gc.cuny.edu
Soc. 86903 – Sociology of Sports {10204}
Tuesdays, 2:00 – 4:00pm, Room TBA, 3credits
Sociology of Sports: This will be a workshop course in which we will design a potential volume on critical issues in the sociology of sports. The first two weeks of the seminar will be devoted to discussion of broad lines of contemporary research on sports and societies. From this work we will assign each other subjects to develop into class presentations during the remainder of the semester. Our goal by the end of the semester is to have a set of working papers that could be expanded into book of advanced studies in the sociology of sports.
* The place of sports in pre-modern societies (e.g. ball games in Native American societies ) versus the emergence of sports as a form of civil religion (especially football in specific regions of the U.S.)
* The persistence or resurgence of blood sports: atavisim , cultural identity, self-expression ?
* The seeming contradiction in the U.S. between existing high levels of participation in organized sports and high levels of alienation from physical activity.
* Sports as a route to class, racial, and gender equality, disentangling the myths.
* Sports as a passionate subject in popular culture yet an undeveloped area of American sociology (see sportswriter Dave Zirin’s appreciation and critique of contemporary work in the sociology of sports, http://contexts.org/articles/summer-2008/calling-sports-sociology-off-the-bench/ )
The second half of the semester will be devoted to student presentations of their ideas and research.
Preliminary readings will include:
Foster, Rea Douglas, America Learns to Play (a classic history of the emergence of popular forms of American recreation, available online)
C.L.R. James Beyond a Boundary (cricket)
Lever, janet, Soccer Madness – an ethnographic study of soccer in Brazil
Edwards, Harry, The Revolt of t he Black Athlete
Bissinger, Buzz, Friday Night Lights (second ed.)
S. Birrell & CL Cole, eds. Women, Sport & Culture, , Human Kinetics Press, 1994.
Frank, Robert. The Winner Take All Society
Bowen, William G. Reclaiming the Game: College Sports and Educational Values
Professor Kenneth Gould kgould@brooklyn.cuny.edu
Soc. 84510 - Environmental Justice {10222}
Mondays, 11:45 - 1:45 pm, Room TBA, 3credits
Who reaps the benefits of improvement in environmental quality, and who pays the costs? Who bears the burden of environmental decay, and to whom do the social gains accrue? This course focuses on the distributional dimensions of environmental protection and environmental degradation, both domestically and globally, with an emphasis on the synergistic impacts of race and class stratification in the distribution of socio-ecological benefits and costs. Substantive areas of focus will include urban segregation and unequal access to environmental amenities, the sitting of hazardous facilities in communities of color and poor communities, unequal protection of environmental health, green gentrification, ecocide and the subjugation of indigenous peoples, rural extraction economies, appropriation of resources from Native lands, population control initiatives directed at peoples-of-color, and the national and transnational export of hazardous waste to the "Souths_. The course will also examine the social origins and impacts of an increasingly globalized environmental justice movement, and its relationships to civil rights, labor, and mainstream environmental movements.
Professors Richard Alba & Nancy Foner ralba@gc.cun.edu: nfoner@hunter.cuny.edu
Soc. 85902 - Immigration in Europe and North America: Comparative Perspectives {10215}
Thursdays, 4:15 – 6:15, Room TBA, 3credits
Western European countries, on one side of the Atlantic, and the United States and Canada, on the other, have had to deal with the incorporation of millions of immigrants in the past few decades. These countries have responded to and provided different opportunities for immigrant minorities and achieved varying degrees of success in different institutional arenas. Through a comparative approach, this course will seek to identify -- and explain -- the contrasts as well as parallels in Western Europe and North America, a process that can deepen our insight into the underlying causes of immigrant inclusion and exclusion. We will be examining issues pertaining to religion, race, educational achievement among the second generation, political and labor market incorporation, and residential segregation. Among the questions we will address: How exceptional really is the United States in incorporating immigrants? How important is it that the United States and Canada are settler societies that were initially peopled by immigrants? Are there institutional spheres in which European countries differ more from each other than from the United States and Canada? How significant are national models of integration in Europe and North America as compared to actual policies, institutional arrangements, and economic structures in explaining cross-national differences in immigrant incorporation? To what extent are we witnessing a convergence process, that undercuts national differences, in the responses to and effects of immigration in Europe and North America?
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Professor Barbara Katz Rothman bkatzrothman@gc.cuny.edu
Sociology of Health & Illness {10205}
Thursdays, 2 – 4PM, Room TBA, 3credits
Illness writes the body: our sense of self, of health, of our physical being, takes meaning from the contrast with illness. And the social world writes illness: what it is to be ill; what categories of illness are acknowledged; how illness is defined, treated, managed, and determined. The study of illness places us at the intersection of agency and social control; body and society; the "natural" and the "technological"; the self and the social world.
This course is an introduction to some of the basic concepts of Medical Sociology, beginning with the theoretical perspective that grew out of Symbolic Interactionism and labeling theory to offer a sociological understanding of illness. The first topics to be explored will be birth and death, then AIDS, a variety of 'mental disorders,' as we more generally consider social epidemiology, the social causation of disease, or disease as written in race, sex, and class; illness as performance and as representation; and medicalization, placing more and more areas into the medical frame.
Course requirements: Discussion of weekly readings for the first six or seven sessions, then student presentations of work-in-progress; final paper on "The Social Construction of X," topics to be chosen in consultation with members of the seminar.
Professor Juan Battle jbattle@gc.cuny.edu
Soc. 85913 – Introduction to Africana Studies {10221}
Wednesdays, 2:00 – 4:00pm, Room TBA, 3credits
Paying specific attention to literature that addresses race/ethnicity, gender, class, and sexual orientation, this course provides a critical consideration of the contributions of Black intellectual thought and experience in the United States. The course will follow a timeline that moves from before slavery, to the rise and fall of Jim Crow, to the Civil Rights Movement, through the countercultural 1960s & 1970s, the conservative 1980s, the prosperous (for some) years of the Clinton administration and 1990s, through the “compassionate conservativism” W. Bush period (please, stop laughing), up to and including the current years of Obama.
Students who have no experience in this area are welcome, as are students with more advanced knowledge in the field. Unlike many other courses addressing the issue of Black intellectual thought, throughout this entire course particular attention will be given to the intellectual contributions of women.
Because students will be exposed to (and contribute from) a wide variety of perspectives on the subject, this course is appropriate for students in the traditional social sciences (e.g. sociology, anthropology, psychology, urban education, and history) as well as more contemporary ones (e.g. women’s studies, race studies, American studies, cultural studies, lesbian and gay studies).
Professor Cynthia Fuchs Epstein cepstein@gc.cuny.edu
Soc. 70200 – Contemporary Sociological Theory {10203}
Wednesdays, 4:15 – 6:15 pm, Room TBA, 3credits
This course will deal with major schools of twentieth century contemporary theory: functional analysis, structuralism, symbolic interactionism, conflict theory, ethnomethodology, exchange and rational choice theory, the sociology of emotions, cultural sociology and feminist sociological theory. Readings will include selections from the works of major writers in these fields and commentaries on them. Most sections will also include a recent journal article that uses one or more of these theories.
The aim is to provide a basic familiarity with a range of perspectives, to critically analyze them and to assess their utility for further work in sociology. There will be no attempt to cover every perspective and sub-field. Specialists from the faculty will be guests for certain sections.
The course will begin by considering the place of theory in society, the nature of theorizing, broad approaches to theory and meta-theory, and what constitutes sociological analysis. It will then turn to special approaches. The impact of various theories on popular culture and social movements will also be considered.
Professor Sujatha Fernandes sujathaf@yahoo.com
Soc. 85600 – Rethinking Neoliberalism {10219}
Wednesdays, 11:45 – 1:45 pm, Room TBA, 3credits
Neoliberalism is typically understood as a set of economic policies that attempt to privatize and deregulate the economy in order to promote free trade, foreign direct investment, and export oriented industrialization. This course seeks to explore the larger global trajectory of neoliberalism, situating it within evolving social and historical processes of late capitalism, and discussing the possibilities that it may make available for political action. We will also examine the transformations in governance, subjectivity, and power associated with neoliberalism. Drawing on sociological, anthropological, and historical approaches from diverse regional contexts including the United States, Latin America, Africa, and Asia, this course aims to provoke reflections about the multi-dimensional nature of neoliberalism.
The course will probe the ways in which citizenship, public space, and social movements have been reconfigured during the current neoliberal moment. What are the discourses and practices by which neoliberal rule is justified? How has neoliberalism altered the terrain in which social actors operate? What might a post-neoliberal world look like? Readings will include Wendy Brown, Michel Foucault, Naomi Klein, David Harvey, Aihwa Ong, Biju Mathew, and Jean and John Comaroff.
Professor Mauricio Font mfont@gc.cuny.edu
Soc. 85600 – States, Social Change and Development{10218}
Tuesdays, 4:15 – 6:15 pm, Room TBA, 3credits
Explores theories of the rise and evolution of the state and its relationship to large-scale social change and development. The seminar discusses classic and contemporary approaches—from Marx and Weber to Tilly, Moore, Skocpol, Evans and other authors that represent the comparative historical, political economic, institutionalist, rational choice and other theoretical perspectives. The first part of the course gives emphasis to states and modern bureaucracies in the context of market expansion and transitions to capitalism, late industrialization, contemporary forms of development, and great social revolutions. We will then spend a few weeks on key features of modern polities: democracy and democratization, collective action and contention, welfare states, and national integration and culture. The last third of the semester concentrates on reactions to exogenous shocks and crises, failed states, and globalization. Depending on student interest, the seminar may also be adjusted to take into account other areas of state action. A list of candidates includes infrastructure development, financial regulation, revolutionary and socialist models, conflict and wars. We will emphasize cases and comparative studies—within and across regions and times. This seminar will be of particular significance to those contemplating additional research in this field. The review of major works may also appeal to those interested in the study of political processes and their relationship to social transformations. For additional information and updates, contact the instructor at mfont@gc.cuny.edu
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