Sociology

From the patriotic tunes of the inter-war mandatory period to the underground music of the Arab Uprisings, Middle Eastern and North African popular music is deeply entangled with politics. Since the late nineteenth century, states and various social groups have attempted to channel the power of patriotic hymns and subversive songs. This course draws on the sociology and anthropology of culture to revisit the history of the region through music. It looks beyond periods of political upheaval to understand the everyday significance of musical practices in authoritarian, neoliberal, and postcolonial settings. Whether we understand it as a tightly knit web of meaning or as a soundwave that travels around and beyond the Middle East, popular music – its production, circulation, and consumption— tells a larger story about the making and remaking of identities and power relations in modern nation-states in the region.

This course examines the major contemporary theories and the central concepts relevant to the study of social stratification in advanced industrial societies, with particular attention to class inequalities. It presents some of the key findings from the comparative literature on social stratification and shows how theoretical debates can be tested against empirical data. This course offers a comprehensive introduction to key debates in the field of social stratification, including debates on meritocracy, the declining significance of social class, the causes of income polarization, and the determinants of gender and ethnic stratification in contemporary societies.

This course examines human behavior and social environment from the following perspectives: biological; psychological; social/political perspectives; Angles and spiritual; genetics; sociobiology; evolutionary psychology; psychoanalysis; behaviorism; humanism; lifespan development; systems theory; symbolic interaction theory;  feminism; empowerment theory; transpersonal psychology.

Through the study of this course

(1) Knowing the structural interpretation of the previous sociological mainstream, the students will be able to master the origin, the relationship between cultural concept, culture and structure (society) in development, transformation and debate.

(2) Through extensive reading of existing research model articles, the students can grasp the cultural perspective to interpret several social phenomena (Cultural Society: understanding the cultural influence on social processes) or the basic skills to analyze cultural phenomena (Sociology of Culture: understanding the social influences on cultural formations).

(3) Help the students to be familiar with classical and contemporary empirical research and theoretical literature on culture, and help graduate students to choose, standardize and complete their own research topics (including cultural and structural content topics).

This course provides an introduction to sociology as both a field of study and an academic discipline. Organized around key sociological concepts, it explores fundamental aspects of human societies, including inequality, gender, power, culture, and social change. Through these themes, students critically examine how societies function, evolve, and shape individual and collective experiences.

This course provides knowledge and skills to ascertain ways of improving the current state of human rights in Korea in accordance with the changing environment of the international community. It also covers and evaluates the validity of current human rights regulations and institutions. Finally, through assessment of theoretical debates about social movements it analyzes Korean civil society and social movements.

This course examines the role of sport (with an emphasis on soccer and cycling) in Italian society from historical and contemporary perspectives. It considers the relationship between sports and such issues as gender, race, class, ethnicity, sexuality, nationalism, nation-building, the Italian economy, and the role of the media in order to determine how developments in sports have influenced, and have been influenced by, Italian politics and society. The course explores sport in Italy from 1860 to the present.