Sociology

History—both the actual physical materials that help historians establish a timeline of events of the past and the imaginings contemporaries have of those events—is a crucial part of feminist and gay rights activism. This course analyzes feminist organizing in the U.K. and gay rights organizing in the U.S. from two perspectives. First, it delves into specific historical moments that have created significant cultural and political reverberations, such the 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York and the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp from 1981. Second, it examines how those events and others become parts of the storytelling used by the feminist and gay rights movements as tools to advance their demands in specific national contexts. From this dual articulation, the seminar examines the relationship between the past and the present as well as the stakes that this reciprocity has for advancing or hindering social progress. Students engage in independent and original research as they learn to engage in historical archival research and think about these issues from the perspective of apprentice scholars.

This course offers a study of the main sociocultural processes that make up human life such as socialization and social control. It analyzes social inequalities-- class, gender, ethnicity-- and social change. Topics include: primary dimensions of social stratification, inequality, and social exclusion-- gender, ethnicity, social class; primary structures, institutions, and social practices-- family and kinship, education, religion, etc.; social change and globalization.

This course introduces population issues, concepts, theories and typical methods by encompassing the fields of demography, sociology, and economics. It provides an overview of various aspects of demographic dynamics in fertility, migration, aging, education, family and household structure, health and mortality. This course also examines the relationship between population and development, and their potential consequences from sociological, economic and geographical perspectives.

Ghana Society and Culture II is a follow-up to Ghana Society and Culture and builds upon the skills acquired in the first semester. This course is purely a Research class with three-week intensive field work in subject areas such as History, Political Science, Sociology, Geography, Public Health, Gender and Development and others. The course has 15 hours of lectures/seminar and over 80 hours of field interactions. 

This course examines the sociological approaches to the systematic analysis of law, its operation, and its significance in society. It studies law as a major social phenomenon related to other aspects of society and explores its pervasive influence on human behavior and society. Topics include the sociology of law; the justification of law; major foundational works on law and society; the social basis of law, including folkways and mores, law and culture, legal pluralism, living law and book law, traditional or customary law and modern law, approaches to the study of law, and legal positivism; the consensus perspective or law as an integrative mechanism; the conflict perspective or law, power, and ideological control; law as an instrument of social change; the acceptance and legitimacy of law; the professional guardians of law; judges, courts, and disputes; and the enforcement and invocation of law.

This course explores the intersection between food cultures and food politics, with an eye towards arguments and debates that have animated French culinary culture. How is food a portal for studying the changing dynamics of cities, global systems, and national identity? In what ways has food been employed to construct notions of community and belonging? Through discussions of interdisciplinary course readings, reporting and writing assignments, and excursions around the city of Paris, students consider how food structures identities, everyday practices, and political lives. Topics include food as a lens through which to study power and social relations in national, global, and local contexts; French culinary concepts, debates, and institutions as contested and dynamic ideas; everyday food practices in Paris; and food cultures and food politics in France and the United States.

The course is an introduction to early Irish society and culture. The period covered was one of great change for Irish society: the arrival of Christianity with a new language, the rise of new, forceful power groupings, and the opportunities and challenges posed by the intrusion of the Vikings. Underlying these transformations there was continuity and we examine the evidence for the survival of earlier belief, specifically in burial records and the role of women in the administration of associated rituals. We look at the institution of kingship, with rituals & taboos grounded in Paganism.  We consider the position of slaves in Irish society, their role in the running  the household, in labor, and intensive agricultural economy. Students engage with myth and saga literature of the time to deepen the their understanding of early Irish culture and society.