Sociology

Gender, as an institution and a social structure, influences the way we define ourselves, behave and speak and further determines our place within the family, at school, in workplaces, and in the broader society. We will use this course to explore how gender shapes our identities, opportunities, and everyday life. The course includes seven themes: (1) conceptual tool kits; (2) gender, space, and place; (3) gendering work; (4) gender and family; (5) transgender; (6) intersectionality; (7) gender in the global context. Theme One ‘Conceptual Tool Kits’ introduces main theories and key literature on gender. Theme Two discusses the relationship between gender and space by reading literature on feminist geography. Theme Three focuses on gender in labor markets, organizations, and everyday workplaces. Theme Four ‘Gender and Family,’ looks at gender relations between couples and family members. The course then briefly explores the multi-faceted connections between gender, sex, sexuality, and other social characteristics, such as class and race, in Themes Five and Six. Theme Seven looks at the differences and similarities in gender relations in various cultural and social contexts in the globalized world.  

This course introduces basic statistical methods of empirical social research. It covers how these approaches assemble, describe, and draw inference from information at hand, namely, data. The topics covered in this course range from basic statistical concepts to numerical and graphical descriptions of samples, to correlation and regression describing relationships between variables, and to statistical inference for populations. In so doing, we discuss the strengths and weaknesses of various statistical approaches. The course also introduces the statistical package called R to analyze a variety of data. 

This course provides an overview of Latin American society and culture. Specifically, it focuses on Hispanic culture and its underlying characteristics, and examines the social and historical contexts in which manifestations of popular culture have developed in various regions of Latin America during the 20th century.

Gender issues are salient concerns in modern society. Gender issues are not only related with family relationships but also closely connected with social phenomena and policies. From the sociological perspective, this course provides a basic understanding of gender issues within family relationships. It covers femininity and masculinity as applied to family relationships and social issues and examines how gender issues interact with diverse socio-cultural and historical environments. 

The course covers various theories and models of culture-cognition interaction within particular domains of human life, e.g. religion, science, play, work, environment, gender, and health. The course introduces theories of how cultural practices and ideas work to align norms, values, and behaviors among members of a given society. The course also introduces to qualitative and quantitative methods that are relevant for studying the link between culture and cognition.

This course explores key philosophical questions relating to youth, young people, and children; considering their practical relevance. It does so by starting from the personal experiences of course members along with contrasting case studies of diverse life courses. What is it to be a child or a young person? How have these categories been applied to us, and by us, in our own lives, and how have they been applied elsewhere?