Sociology

SOCY 5031 (3) Research Design

Principles and practice of quantitative sociological research, including the nature of scientific explanation, the relationship between theory and research, research design, measurement issues, sampling, questionnaire construction, and statistical analyses. A key aspect of the course will be developing a quantitative research proposal that addresses a key empirical sociological question.

Additional Information: Departmental Category: General Sociology

SOCY 5037 (3) Hazards, Disasters and Society

Explores the societal dimensions of hazards and disasters, emphasizing disaster theory and research, and key issues in the sociological study of disasters, social vulnerability, and the impacts of disasters in the U.S. and worldwide.

Equivalent - Duplicate Degree Credit Not Granted: SOCY 4037
Additional Information: Departmental Category: Environment and Society

SOCY 5071 (3) Social Inequalities and Social Change

Provides a sociological perspective on social inequalities in the United States, such as those pertaining to social class, race, ethnicity, sex, gender, sexuality, and age. Examines current data of patterns and trends of such inequalities, reviews scholarship on their roots, and critically evaluates social change efforts to redress them.

Equivalent - Duplicate Degree Credit Not Granted: SOCY 4071
Additional Information: Departmental Category: General Sociology

SOCY 5111 (3) Statistics 1: Introduction to Social Statistics

Introduces statistical analysis in the social sciences. Introduces basic techniques of inferential statistics and several bivariate statistical techniques including t-test for the difference in means, chi-square independence, analysis of variance (ANOVA), correlation, and simple regression (OLS). Prepares students for the required course on multivariate regression techniques (Data 2).

Requisites: Restricted to Sociology (SOCY) graduate students only.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: General Sociology

SOCY 5181 (3) Logics of Qualitative Inquiry

A required first-year seminar that introduces the logics of qualitative inquiry in sociology. Introduces the history of qualitative epistemology. Considers the logic of common qualitative methodologies and qualitative research representations. Engages with the logics of inquiry in classic and more recent well regarded qualitative sociological works.

Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Additional Information: Departmental Category: General Sociology

SOCY 5201 (3) Graduate Seminar in Sociological Theory

Examines theoretical approaches to core issues and problems in sociology, including the nature of society, the relationship between society and the individual, the role of culture and social structure, the sources of social power, and the conceptual structure of sociological knowledge itself.

Requisites: Restricted to Sociology (SOCY) graduate students only.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: General Sociology

SOCY 5202 (3) Graduate Seminar in Contemporary Theory

Examines selected sociological theories considered contemporary, including but not limited to cultural sociology, feminist theory, postcolonial thought, actor-network theory, microsociology, field theory, and poststructuralism. Discusses the formation of a sociological canon and the challenge of categorizing theory. Considers the process of theorizing as an acquired skill. Previously offered as a special topics course.

Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade

SOCY 5350 (3) Comparison, Narrative, Meaning, and Method in Historical Sociology

Examines the comparative, narrative, and interpretive methods historical sociologists use when investigating temporally unfolding social processes occurring in the recent or distant past. Through an introduction to the methodological literature and a close reading of exemplary historical research, students will learn to (a) critically evaluate historical sociological research and (b) design methodologically sophisticated historical research projects that address questions that most interest them, potentially incorporating ethnographic and/or quantitative methods into their research designs. Previously offered as a special topics course.

Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.

SOCY 5611 (3) Teaching in Sociology

Learn how to teach sociology more effectively while developing a new content area and a clearer sense of the field. Choose a content area within sociology as the basis for planning a course and developing and practicing different teaching techniques. Department enforced prerequisite: enrollment in the Sociology graduate program.

Additional Information: Departmental Category: General Sociology

SOCY 5750 (3) Climate Politics and Science-Policy

Explores, understands and critically analyzes influences and trends in climate politics and science-policy. Course participants will gain an improved understanding of the myriad factors, pressures and processes that are involved in contemporary climate politics under-girding explicit policy proposals. Course participants will more capably identify consequential spaces of decision-making, recognize tractable places for change and fashion constructive strategies for their own research by way of best available evidence from work done in these areas. Overall, our attention to these course themes, concepts and case studies will help us to more capably understand, analyze and engage in the high-stakes 21st century arena of climate politics and science-policy. Previously offered as a special topics course.

Equivalent - Duplicate Degree Credit Not Granted: ENVM 5750, GEOG 5750 and ENVS 5750
Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade

SOCY 5839 (3) Logics of Social Inquiry

How do we make knowledge about the social world? This question encompasses at least two other sets of questions: epistemological questions about how we come to know things, and practical questions about how we go about answering questions once formulated. To develop a sociological imagination around these inquiries, this course exposes first-year sociology graduate students to different types of inquiries sociologists make and discusses the underlying logics of those inquiries. This course is not a survey of research methods, nor is it designed to train students in particular methods ¿ although students will learn about a range of approaches ¿ from ethnographic to survey to experimental. Instead, the course will expose students to different logics of discovery, the menu of sociological techniques, and how to assess the fit between question and method.

Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade

SOCY 5841 (1-6) Independent Study in Sociology

Graduate variable credit. Instructor consent required.

Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 7.00 total credit hours. Allows multiple enrollment in term.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: General Sociology

SOCY 5937 (1-6) Graduate Research Internship in Environmental Sociology

Offers the opportunity for sociology graduate students specializing in environmental sociology to work with local governmental or non-profit organizations on research assignments. The research topic, academic reading list, and expectations for the final project will be developed collaboratively with a faculty sponsor and organizational representative.

Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 6.00 total credit hours.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: Environment and Society

SOCY 6004 (3) Topics in Criminology

Variety of courses in criminology to be taught by visiting lecturers. See current departmental announcements for specific content.

Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 9.00 total credit hours. Allows multiple enrollment in term.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: Deviance and Criminology

SOCY 6007 (3) Foundations of Environmental Sociology

Provides overview of environmental sociological theory and research including topics such as: public environmental perception, concern, and knowledge; environmentalism as a social movement; environmental justice; energy, technology, and risk; human dimensions of environmental change; and natural hazards and disasters.

Equivalent - Duplicate Degree Credit Not Granted: ENVS 6007
Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: Environment and Society

SOCY 6012 (3) Population Issues, Problems, and Policies

Presents contemporary perspectives on relations between population and society. Focuses on mortality, fertility, and migration, the major demographic areas, with reviews of specific demographic phenomena and controversies.

Additional Information: Departmental Category: Population and Health Issue

SOCY 6016 (3) Topics in Sex and Gender

Covers diverse specializations of faculty in the area of sex and gender. See current departmental announcements or online Schedule Planner for specific content.

Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 9.00 total credit hours.
Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: Sex and Gender

SOCY 6017 (3) Inequality, Democracy, and the Environment

Focuses on the structural forces affecting environmental degradation and environmental behavior by examining the relationships between a) inequality and democratic decision making and b) undemocratic economic and political decision making, U.S. and corporate food and energy policy; and global environmental degradation. Focus will also be placed on the role that global inequality plays in fostering environmental degradation.

Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: Environment and Society

SOCY 6041 (3) Cultural Sociology

Explores "the cultural turn" in sociology and related disciplines. Reviews basic themes in cultural studies: distinguishing "cultural" and "social"; narrative as catalyst between symbols and practices; cultural production processes; self as embodied; culture and power; methods and epistemological issues. Students present their own projects in class and as research papers.

Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: General Sociology

SOCY 6111 (3) Stats 2: Statistic Analysis

Introduces students to mainstream multivariate regression techniques used in the social sciences. The majority of the course focuses on the Ordinary Least Square model and on the extension of this model to nominal, ordinal and count dependent variables. Students analyze data of their choosing with statistical software packages including SPSS, SAS, and STATA. Department prerequisite: SOCY 5111 or equivalent.

Requisites: Restricted to Sociology (SOCY) graduate students only.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: General Sociology

SOCY 6121 (3) Qualitative Methods

Training in the systematic observation of people in situations, finding them where they are, staying with them in a role acceptable to them that allows intimate observations of behavior. Students report their findings in ways useful to social science but not harmful to those observed.

Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: General Sociology

SOCY 6821 (1-2) Graduate Sociology Forum 1

Introduces first-year graduate students to the full range of substantive topics, research programs, and other projects in which graduate sociology faculty are engaged. Provides a forum in which issues of the discipline are presented and discussed. Features weekly presentations by graduate sociology faculty.

Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: General Sociology

SOCY 6831 (1) Graduate Professional Seminar

Offers guidance and instruction on topics related to advanced graduate study and academic life beyond graduation. Discussions will include writing journal articles; creating a vitae; writing dissertations; applying for grants and other sources of funding; the academic job search; and what to expect as a junior faculty member.

Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 2.00 total credit hours.
Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: General Sociology

SOCY 6841 (1-6) Guided Research in Sociology

Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 7.00 total credit hours. Allows multiple enrollment in term.
Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: General Sociology

SOCY 6851 (2) Interdisciplinary Social Science Professional Socialization

Trains graduate students and provides professional socialization in interdisciplinary social science research. Open to all interested students, with programming provided by the Institute of Behavioral Science. Sessions include IBS-housed colloquia and workshops in professional socialization, technological tools, interdisciplinary research, ethics, grant writing, etc. Students workshop and submit a research paper.

Equivalent - Duplicate Degree Credit Not Granted: PSYC 6831 and PSCI 6851
Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 4.00 total credit hours.
Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: General Sociology

SOCY 6861 (1-2) Interdisciplinary Training in the Social Sciences Methods Course

This is a new course number for a series of interdisciplinary graduate methods seminars created as part of the new Interdisciplinary Training in the Social Sciences program, which is co-funded by the Graduate School and the College of Arts and Sciences. These courses, which have rotating topics, train graduate students in qualitative and quantitative methods. CARTSS/IBS will arrange three one-credit advanced methods mini-courses each Spring semester. The mini-courses will be taught weekly (two hours per week) for five weeks. The courses will change each spring; topics include a wide variety of advanced statistical analysis methods, machine learning for social sciences, text analysis, experimental techniques, network analysis, survey design, interview protocols, etc. Open to all interested graduate students, with programming provided jointly by the Institute of Behavioral Science (IBS) and the Center to Advance Research and Teaching in the Social Sciences (CARTSS).

Equivalent - Duplicate Degree Credit Not Granted: LING 6861
Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 6.00 total credit hours. Allows multiple enrollment in term.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade

SOCY 6941 (1) Master's Candidate for Degree

Registration intended for students preparing for a thesis defense, final examination, culminating activity, or completion of degree.

Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 6.00 total credit hours.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: General Sociology

SOCY 6951 (1-6) Master's Thesis

Additional Information: Departmental Category: General Sociology

SOCY 7002 (3) Social Disparities in Health

Presents social disparities in health in their social context. Includes the sociology of health behavior; links between health status and social statuses including gender, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status; fundamental causes and other explanations for social disparities in health; environment and health; health insurance disparities; the physician-patient interaction and its consequences.

Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: Population and Health Issue

SOCY 7004 (3) Criminological Theory

Examines the major criminological theories of the 18th through 21st centuries in Europe, Australia, and the U.S. Emphasizes the historical contexts and paradigms of knowledge influencing these theories.

Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: Deviance and Criminology

SOCY 7006 (3) Sociology of Sex and Gender

Theoretical and empirical examination of sex stratification, sex role differentiation, and sex differences in socialization, personality, institutions, and culture.

Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Additional Information: Departmental Category: Sex and Gender

SOCY 7012 (3) The Social Demography of Race

Introduction to relevant, timely research within sociological and social demographic research on race and ethnicity. Specific areas will include conceptual/measurement issues; population size, growth, and migration; health and mortality; marriage, family, and fertility; socioeconomic context; and policy considerations. Course content will be structured around current empirical pieces in sociology literature with emphasis on methodological approach in analyses.

Additional Information: Departmental Category: Population and Health Issue

SOCY 7014 (3) Gender, Race, Class, and Crime

Examines crime and the criminal legal system practices through the lens of intersecting oppressions, particularly racism, sexism, heterosexism and classism.

Equivalent - Duplicate Degree Credit Not Granted: ETHN 6014
Additional Information: Departmental Category: Deviance and Criminology

SOCY 7017 (3) Population and Environment

Reviews research on human-environment interactions, with a focus on ways in which demographic processes influence, and are influenced by, the environmental context. Specific topics include conceptual and analytical frameworks; methodologies; intervening factors shaping human dimensions of environmental change; and regionally-focused research.

Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: Environment and Society

SOCY 7024 (3) Punishment and Social Control

Exploration of sociological perspectives on the criminal justice process. Considers organization of criminal law responses, including enforcing and sentencing. Race, class, gender, and age differences in treatment and sentencing are analyzed.

Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: Deviance and Criminology

SOCY 7026 (3) Feminist Research Methods

Epistemological and methodological issues generated by feminist research and students' own projects.

Additional Information: Departmental Category: Sex and Gender

SOCY 7034 (3) Capital Punishment in the United States

Surveys the history and current status of capital punishment in the United States, with a critical examination of arguments both for and against the death penalty.

Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: Deviance and Criminology

SOCY 7036 (3) Feminist Theory

Examines the main schools of feminist thought and their impact upon sociological theories. Also examines current feminist theoretical debates and their relevance to feminist sociology.

Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: Sex and Gender

SOCY 7111 (3) Data III--Advanced Data Analysis

Denotes third graduate course in sequence of quantitative methods. Following basic inferential statistics (SOCY 5111) and multivariate regression analysis (SOCY 6111), students study advanced statistical techniques such as event history analysis, multilevel modeling, structural equation modeling, and latent class analysis.

Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 9.00 total credit hours.
Requisites: Requires a prerequisite course of SOCY 6111 (minimum grade D-). Restricted to graduate students only.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: General Sociology

SOCY 7121 (3) Qualitative Analysis

Drawing on data gathered through participation, observation and in-depth interviewing, students focus on developing theoretical analyses and exploring classical and post-modern ethnographic writing formats. Students present and revise their papers as well as review journal articles. Department enforced prerequisite: SOCY 6121.

Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: General Sociology

SOCY 7131 (3) Seminar in Social Psychology

Studies the individual in social context. Focuses on theoretical perspectives and substantive issues specific to sociological and social psychology, including socialization, the self, social roles, language, deviance, gender, collective behavior, group processes, attitudes and behavior, social norms,and conformity.

Additional Information: Departmental Category: General Sociology

SOCY 7141 (3) Third-year Paper Seminar

Guides graduate students through the creation of the required third-year paper and helps establish productive writing habits. Includes assigned readings, discussion, peer review, and specific tasks related to scholarly writing. Students will revise and defend the paper during the semester following the seminar. Department enforced prereqs., SOCY 5111 and SOCY 5201.

Requisites: Restricted to Sociology (SOCY) graduate students only.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Additional Information: Departmental Category: General Sociology

SOCY 7171 (3) Special Topics

Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 9.00 total credit hours. Allows multiple enrollment in term.
Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: General Sociology

SOCY 8991 (1-10) Doctoral Dissertation

All doctoral students must register for not fewer than 30 hours of dissertation credit as part of the requirements for the degree. For a detailed discussion of doctoral dissertation credit, refer to the Graduate School section.

Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 30.00 total credit hours.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: General Sociology