Sociology

This course focuses on race, discrimination, and racial inequalities. The course addresses three key questions: what is race as perceived in the U.S. and Europe, and what are the sources of racial inequalities; what does social science research tell us about patterns and trends of racial inequalities; and what policies can alleviate racial inequalities? The course systematically adopts comparative perspectives focusing on the North American and European contexts. It also addresses research on race and racial inequality within an interdisciplinary lens particularly building on sociology, economics, and social psychology.

This course examines media through a social justice lens – revealing hidden costs and social, political, cultural implications of emerging media technologies and longstanding media practices. It covers key concepts and theories from media studies, journalism studies, cultural studies, sociology, and criminology, with an emphasis on First Nations knowledges and critical approaches to race and gender. 

This course introduces one of sociology's sister disciplines, social anthropology, which is also referred to as cultural anthropology or ethnology. This course has a theoretical and an applied dimension. In the theoretical portion it introduces classical and modern examples of anthropological theory ranging from B. Malinoswki and C. Levi-Strauss to C. Geertz and J. Diamond. The applied portion uses a variety of examples and field studies ranging from geographically closer regions such as Northern Ireland, the Basque country, and South Tyrol, to more "exotic" regions and examples.

This course explores the ambiguous connections between population dynamics and climate change. After a lecture-based acquisition of basic knowledge in the field of demography, the course studies the link between climate change and population dynamics in an interactive way by discussing scientific articles. It discusses which demographic dynamics linked to fertility, mortality, and migration impact environmental changes. Hereby, the course considers questions such as how far climate change can be explained by population growth; whether demographic pressure helps adapting more quickly to climate change; and which regions are the most responsible for climate change, in economic and demographic terms. A particular focus is determining which populations are most vulnerable to climate change and environmental degradation. Based on this fundamental knowledge, it discusses possible actions to dramatically reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and further deterioration of the environment as well as to protect the most exposed and vulnerable populations. It tackles climate-change related education, access to reproductive health care and family planning, gender equality in education and economic participation, investments in public health care services and technical improvements. This allow students to answer questions about what policies should be recommended to alleviate climate change, in the light of population growth and population aging, and which best-practice examples exist that help mitigating the effects of climate change for the most vulnerable.

This course examines the key concepts and current debates in criminology. It covers basic issues such as the definition, measurement and explanations of crime, societal reactions to crime, criminological theories, the role of research and the influence of criminology on public policy.

This course makes connections between national and international policies and discourses on migration, asylum, race and ethnicity, and the experiences of the people whose lives are affected by them. The main context is Ireland, but it also includes perspectives and experiences from Europe and beyond, connecting Ireland to a broader world.

This course provides undergraduate students with basic knowledge of how to conduct empirical research on international relations (IR). The course is organized into two sections. The first section introduces academic writing skills, instructing on how to formulate research questions; implement literature reviews, and prepare an appropriate research design. Given the emerging challenges of artificial intelligence (AI), the class also discusses how to use and avoid the misuse of AI in academic writing. The second section illustrates how to use a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods, including surveys and interviews.  

This course systematically explores family change and family policy. It covers the definition, functions, and theories of the family, analyzes the transformation of family structures from traditional to modern forms, and compares family models and policies in East Asia, Europe, and China. The course delves into issues such as marriage systems, intergenerational care, and gender roles, while also addressing social problems like family poverty and violence. Against the backdrop of the digital age, the course evaluates the effectiveness of family policies, envisions the future of family policies from a global perspective, and cultivates students' analytical and problem-solving skills.

This course offers an in-depth exploration of human sensibilities, tastes, and desires through an interdisciplinary lens, incorporating readings from cultural studies, anthropology, history, literature, journalism, and critical theory. In its earlier iterations, the course focused primarily on the concept of " beauty," not merely as an object but as a site for examining the politics surrounding its definitions and manifestations. In this revised version, the course integrates a critical analysis of new media's role and its profound impact on human conditions and social life. We live in an age saturated with media that function as powerful tools for producing, disseminating, and consuming the information, images, and ideas that shape both the tangible and intangible aspects of culture. The emergence of new media has transformed how we connect with one another, communicate, and interact as members of society. The course begins by delving into a recent viral phenomenon: the intersection of fandom culture and K-democracy, offering a compelling case study on how media reshapes collective identity and social activism. The course is divided into four sections: Section 1 Fandom Culture and K-democracy, Section 2 The Girl and Beauty: Conformity, Recalcitrance, and Negotiation, Section 3 Ethnic Markers and Aesthetic Standards, and Section 4 Back to K-culture and Politics of Beauty.