Sociology

Family has been the most important and critical context for individuals throughout their lifetime. Understanding family dynamics and relationships gains more importance as family and family relationships are closely linked to serious social issues, including low fertility rate and family violence. The main purpose of the course is to explore diverse relations observed within the family with the following detailed goals:  

1) To understand important family theories applicable to family relationships;

2) To examine dynamics of relationships within contemporary Korean families;

3) To explore how socio-cultural contexts of Korea have shaped relationships and relationship problems within families;

4) To understand how family relationships can contribute to social problems such as a decrease of fertility rate, educational issues etc. 

This course is to understand diverse family relationships and changes in Korea; to apply appropriate family theories to interpret family relationships, and to predict family relationship changes in future society.

Prerequisites: basic Family Studies courses

In this course, students explore the German-speaking world through a range of cultural materials drawn from the Medieval period to the contemporary. Work in the course is rooted in an understanding of race as a culturally constructed category whose meanings shift in different historical and cultural contexts. From year to year the course’s primary texts might include films, short literary texts, performances, objects, visual artefacts, music and other forms. These are allocated to thematic blocks that focus on key concepts including borders, language, and the body. Weekly exercises in close analysis, alongside key short readings in theory and method, equip students with the critical skills to analyze how cultural materials both construct and challenge ideas about race and ethnicity. 

This course uses uses feminist, decolonizing, and multispecies frameworks to explore our contemporary environmental crisis. Drawing on examples such as climate change, toxic contamination, resource extraction, and biodiversity loss, this course examines the material and conceptual links between human and non-human natures, and cultural, political, economic and social forces.

This course examines the sociology of family life. It covers key theoretical perspectives on the family and personal life and examines the political and cultural context of family life. A key theme of the course will be to identify the ways in which family life is changing and exploring the implications of those changes for individuals, society and social policy. It examines social and demographic trends in marriage, fertility, cohabitation, singlehood and the organization of paid and unpaid work in families and households. Other issues and topics that will be addressed including: gender and family life, dating and relationship formation, the impact of reproductive technologies, same-sex relationships, 'boomerang' kids and fatherhood.

This course examines the ways that crime is constructed and popularized. Given the localized context of colonial Australia, it pays particular attention to crime as a settler colonial construct. The course requires that students read and think critically about their own assumptions, media representations, and the ways that powerful groups define, measure and regulate crime. By examining a range of topics including youth crime, street crime, crime in the home and crimes of the powerful, this course will consider how understandings of crime inform and produce a range of state responses and varied experiences of justice/injustice.

This course introduces students to the analysis of science and technology from a social and cultural standpoint. It also introduces students to the interdisciplinary field of Science, Technology and Society (STS) – also called Science and Technology Studies – which seeks to understand how science and technology shape society and culture, and how society and culture, in turn, shape the development of science and technology.  

This course attempts to ground the analysis of human movement by focusing on the specific historical, sociological, economic, political, and cultural impact of migration from the "migrant's point of view." Accordingly, this interdisciplinary course locates "drivers" for migration in the post-war period, trace the settlement processes, engage with the myriad challenges and developments migrants faced as new workers and citizens, before exploring the impact on succeeding generations. Through a salient ethnographic perspective of experiences, the course provides students with overarching and critical theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of migration, diaspora, and the nation-state in a globalized late modern context.

This course combines the study of inequality and social structure in Spanish society with first-hand experience at NGOs and various other associations. Topics include: social inequality, and social stratification; the labor market in Spain -- an analysis of the current situation; immigration -- the Spanish experience; social mobility; changing values and secularization in Spain; transition to democracy and the awakening of civil society; consensus and conflict-- five decades of mobilization in Spain; social movements and the emergence of new political organizations in the 21st century; Spain in the global framework-- populism, polarization, and politicization of social life.

This course discusses how social science is concerned with issues of environmental justice. It provides an opportunity to carry out a short survey through interviews and/or observations with actors involved in the organization of the Olympic Games in Paris and the environmental contestations to which this event gives rise. The course highlights inequalities of race, gender, and class, and the role of the state, the market, and certain professional groups in the construction of environmental problems. At the same time, the survey conducted provides a fresh perspective on the event.