Sociology

This course looks at key social movements from the 20th and 21st century and the ways in which culture and cultural expression have been central to representing social causes, communicating concerns, and engendering public support for social change. It examines how technologies have changed the shape of cultural expression, often defining the texture and possibilities of activist practices. The course explores a wide range of cultural practices and their relationship with activism including the visual arts, performing arts, and music. It draws from examples across time and geographic locations. 

This class introduces Korean contemporary films and relevant societal discourses. The course covers the role of film/moving images in contemporary society, the rhetoric of visual media in broader context, and lastly, Korean contemporary films in a more concrete realm. By writing critiques on each subject as well as sharing during class, students challenge their personal feelings and thoughts, broaden their knowledge, and deepen their insights on film media.

This course introduces the main contemporary debates around human reproduction and discusses their potential impact on society, particularly as regards gender roles and family diversity. The course reflects on issues such as the possibility of diverse families and individuals to have children by using assisted reproductive technologies, the question of whether surrogate motherhood or social egg freezing are liberating or on the contrary oppressive for women, and the social implication of whether parents should be allowed to choose some attributes of their future offspring (such as eye color, height, or IQ) if able to do so. The course explores how current events such as the COVID-19 pandemic or the war in Ukraine have impacted the reproductive rights of various categories of individuals and the regulation of human reproduction in different countries, as well as at international level. The course builds on several disciplines, particularly law, gender studies, sociology, and bioethics. It discusses court cases (especially from the European Court of Human Rights), pieces of legislation, media articles and videos, and sociological and philosophical writings and other sources. Students work on topics related to human reproduction as policy makers, law makers, or gender and LGBT+ human rights specialists.

This course introduces methods to analyze international and internal migration. The focus in on economic migrants, including trafficked people, and refugees. The causes of people movement and its consequences for the migrants and refugees and the destination countries are drawn up. Government policies on immigrants are examined from the viewpoint of advancing the economy, national security, satisfying public sentiment and obligations to international treaties. Comparisons between policies on immigrants in Southeast Asia and in Europe and North America are also discussed

This research internship program offers selected students the opportunity to participate in research projects or work as an intern in research centers or organizations at Yonsei University. Students are expected to participate in research projects for approximately 20 hours per week throughout the program. Projects will vary depending on placement. Graded Pass/No pass only.

This course enables students from any subject major to explore gender and sexuality from a critical angle. By looking at the most popular debates from across the world, students examine how cultural makings of body, gender, femininity, masculinity, and sexuality have historically shaped and been shaped by wider social forces. The course visits foundational concepts and theories (feminist and queer theory) in gender studies which draw for example on philosophy, anthropology, sociology, and history. The lectures provide examples from across the globe, to enable students to question their very own norms, in the way people often fail to notice they exist. In seminars, students discuss their chosen examples from popular culture and facilitate discussion of current controversies around gender vis-à-vis the themes and theories covered in the lectures.