Sociology

In this course, students design a social research project; understand the principles and assumptions associated with qualitative research; select and justify the most appropriate research method to answer particular research questions; discuss the advantages and disadvantages of various research methods; distinguish and apply suitable types of analysis to varying research designs; apply appropriate ethical standards to research design; and understand issues of power, inequality and exploitation in qualitative research.

This seminar introduces feminist theories that aim to decentralize the predominantly English-speaking discourse on feminism. It includes texts written in languages other than English or French, with a focus on German-speaking and Latin American feminist works. Decentralization is understood broadly: The course examines feminist perspectives from the peripheries, such as rural areas in contrast to urban centers, and the global south in contrast to the global north. Through these diverse viewpoints, the seminar seeks to expand the understanding of feminism beyond dominant frameworks and critically explore intersections of gender, race, and class.

This special topics course covers everything from TikTok trends to influencer politics, this course examines social media as both technological systems and cultural forces that reshape how people communicate, form identities, build communities, and engage in public life. The course explores the interplay between platform design, user behavior, and broader social structures, developing critical frameworks to analyze digital culture's impact on contemporary society.

This course provides students with the tools needed to understand how domestic violence and abuse was and is now understood in public debate and what the key theoretical underpinnings are to understand domestic violence from a social science lens. The course explores how legislation within different jurisdictions has evolved to reflect new research evidence and changes in public debate, and it critically reflects on what the social policy response to domestic violence is and has been in different settings. The course focuses primarily on the UK context with potential for exploring other countries as case studies.

Cities at War is a lecture series bringing together scholars from war-affected cities to explore how armed conflict shapes urban life and space. Unlike studies that conflate urban militarization with cities enduring active conflict, this series centers on the physical destruction, ruination, and everyday survival strategies within cities at war. It examines how planning, reconstruction, displacement, and commodification are formed by the continuum of times of war and times of peace. A key aspect is the erasure of knowledge, heritage, and memory - both through material destruction and the ideological rewriting of cities in post-conflict nation-building.

This course examines the social, economic, and political processes that maintain hierarchies, drawing on both classical and contemporary theories. By exploring topics such as class, power, race, gender, elites, and cultural capital, the course highlights how inequality shapes opportunities, behaviors, and outcomes. The course investigates both historical and contemporary mechanisms that create and perpetuate stratification, drawing on empirical evidence and theoretical frameworks from sociology and related disciplines. In addition to academic inquiry, the course fosters critical observation and visual analysis, encouraging students to interpret and critique depictions of inequality in everyday life and in cultural media. By connecting abstract concepts to real-world phenomena, students gain a nuanced understanding of the dynamics of inequality and the tools to engage with contemporary debates. The course equips students to reflect on possible solutions to reduce disparities and promote equity in various social contexts.

This course examines theories, concepts, forms and practices of law in contemporary Australian society. It looks at the ways that "harm" is constructed as a legal category and encourages students to ask who is able to name something as either harmful, or not worthy of state intervention, and how this capacity to name effects socio-political relations. To develop this analysis, the course discusses the norms that underpin the capacity to name particular practices as harmful, and engages critically with certain historical and current harms. Examples of such harms might include treachery, riot and disorder, terrorism, payback, the Northern Territory Emergency Response, torture, sadomasochistic sex acts, or female circumcision.

This course discusses the theoretical and methodological foundations of visual sociology, aiming to define, based on theoretical, epistemological, and methodological research, the status of visual sociology within sociology in general. The course introduces the production of visual and audiovisual research documents by integrating the technique and language of photography and videography into a sociological research project. 

The role of media in shaping everyday life is paramount, and understanding it requires consideration of historical, political, economic, and other factors. This course explores the various ways people consume media content in their daily lives, seeking to understand the influence of media on society and culture. It also provides a historical perspective on how media became a crucial component of the human condition. 

The course focuses on the significance of rhetoric for human rights and democracy. The course provides tools to communicate opinions in societal contexts in a respectful, authentic, and effective manner, considering different opinions and interests. Students practice effectively listening to, formulating, and delivering messages.