Sociology

This course analyzes the human body not just as a biological entity, but as s a cultural construct and a medium for social interactions. 

This is an introductory course on scientific research methods for social welfare research. The course covers the process of formulating appropriate research questions and hypotheses; issues on conceptualization and measurement; components of research designs; basic techniques for testing hypotheses and relationships among variables; and ethical issues associated with conducting social welfare research. Topics include Human inquiry and science, the research process, problem formation, searching and reviewing literature, conceptualization and measurement and scales, assessing quality of measurement instruments, sampling, research designs, evaluation research.

Students will be required to prepare research plans according to a social research framework. 

The course provides an introduction to key areas of analysis in contemporary sociology. Students learn about critical research and debates within the discipline, and of how sociology engages with topical real-world issues. The course centers on the ways in which power relations, social and economic inequalities, forms of identity and difference are shaped in contemporary societies – focusing on both political and socio-economic structures and everyday experiences and identities. These issues include: class, capitals and social mobility; race, ethnicity and culture; gender and sexual identities; politics, social movements and the nation-state.

This course examines theoretical debates about the relationship between state and society as well as the social context within which political actors operate and the extent to which they shape and are shaped by social structures such as gender, ethnicity, nationality, class, race and religion. What role do ethnicity, nation and gender play in contemporary politics? What is the link between identity and politics? And what makes for successful social movements? This course tackles these and other questions against the backdrop of three main sociological approaches to the study of society and politics: functionalism, conflict theories, and symbolic interactionism.

This course is about the problem of crime. It introduces some of the central issues, themes, and concepts involved in thinking critically about crime. Students are concerned with exploring how perspectives drawn from across the social sciences can inform our understanding of this significant contemporary social issue. 

This introductory level course provides a critical review of the evolution of notions of the human to the present day from a philosophical, anthropological, historical, social, and technological perspective.

The course investigates current problems from a posthumanist dimension articulated with at least two of the following perspectives: social, cultural, technological, or ethical, to highlight possible individual and collective impacts, in a way that promotes metacognitive reflection and action on the student's responsibility as an agent of change. Class discussions will focus on personal learning experiences and the usefulness of the post humanist perspective in one's daily reality.

This course examines the relationships between technological developments and cultural change, with a particular focus on digital media. It interrogates the changing theorizations of technology in society by tracing the influence of key texts in media studies, philosophy of technology, sociology, cultural studies and science and technology studies. Students explore the significance of technology in social power, identity, gender, social shaping, class, space, assemblages, actor-networks, experience, thought, time, and materiality. 

Framing the study of gangs in the context of debates on globalization, youth studies and urban sociology, this course approaches street gangs as a lens through which to analyze broader processes of social change and inequality in the contemporary era. Taking in perspectives from children and young people involved alongside the social, economic, cultural, and political forces shaping these experiences, the course equips students with an understanding of gangs that is sensitive to both the micro- and macro-level forces at work in the global era.

This course takes a sociological approach to the study of inequalities in the region. The first sessions provide fundamental sociological tools to approach social inequalities, minorities, and minoritization. It then interrogates the discursive constructions of the Middle East and North Africa region as demographically homogenous (for example, homogenously Arab). Each meeting is based on the study of a factor linked to social inequalities and linked minoritization; under study are minority-groups as well as minoritization based on gender, socio-economic class, race, citizen/migrant status, urban versus rural habitation, language/dialects spoken, religion/sect. The course ends with a study of minority movements that contest their unequal status.

This course focuses on the sociological issues (socialization, social control, regulation, medicalization) that characterize the contemporary world of mental health institutions, practices, and discourse. It covers both the theories and the concrete social processes related to the definition, intervention, and transformations of what used to be called “madness” and is now called “mental disorder.” By questioning the field and modes of intervention of the psychological disciplines, the course also examines the role of mental health in the production and maintenance of social relations. The course thus revolves around three aspects of the concept of mental health: as a field of social practices, as a social norm, and as an object of knowledge produced by the psychological disciplines (psychiatry, psychology, psychoanalysis).