Sociology

This course provides students with a comprehensive, critical analysis of fashion. It provides historical context for the emergence of the fashion industry, examines theories that account for its development and the role it plays in modern societies, and explores critical responses to key issues facing the industry today. The course critically examines the idea that the emergence of fashion both shapes and reflects modern culture and society. From a historical perspective, and in terms of western fashion specifically, this means understanding how fashion has moved from being the preserve of an elite practice to an everyday one, charting its movement from courtly societies in Europe to 20th century spread of fashion to the high street and to subcultural fashions, and from a system of style controlled by a small group of elites (couture designers for example) to street style worn by "influencers." The course also explores the industry from a global perspective, challenging standard of classical narratives about fashion and decolonizing our understandings of the industry, to think about the different ways in which fashion has emerged, developed, and is engaged with and around the world. 

This colloquium prepares students for writing their bachelor’s thesis by guiding them through research design, literature review, theory development, and academic writing. Students learn to formulate strong research questions, identify research gaps, and structure their projects effectively. Through discussions, workshops, and peer feedback, the course builds essential research and analytical skills for successful independent thesis work.

This course introduces the concept of "the family" through both a demographic lens and a sociological perspective. This allows for a macro-micro approach in understanding what structures shape family configurations, processes leading to family formation and dissolution, family practices and transitions during different parts of the life course. Looking first historically at changes to family structures and policies, the course then zooms in onto key debates with the study of families today. Drawing on concepts, theory, and research designs used in population studies and family sociology to study the phenomenon of "the family," students engage in a multi-disciplinary analysis of the various topics introduced through the course.

This course provides critical insights into counterculture, graffiti, street art, underground, punk, hip-hop, political art collectives, etc. Perspectives of anthropology and culture studies are explored. Seminal readings on subcultures, protests, and new social movements are used to discuss the practices of "alternative" urban lives in post-industrial society and certain trends of artistic production. The focus is on the political interpretation of youth subversion and disclosures of power mechanisms. Visuals and field trips to graffiti and other subcultural sites are a part of this course.  

This course introduces and discusses some of the key areas of media sociology. It looks at important figures of the field and their representative work. The point is to get an overview of the complex relationships between media and society. The course pays particular attention to social aspects of journalism and new media.

This course introduces the key insights, concepts, and debates of environmental sociology, with a particular emphasis on climate change, biodiversity, and other major ecological risks at stake in the so-called green transition. In doing so, the course provides the conceptual tools needed to understand, analyze, and critically-constructively engage with key questions of society-wide change towards sustainability: how much of it is currently happening across societal sectors and levels; how has it or is it currently being brought about; what shapes, conditions, or hampers more of it? To frame these questions sociologically, the course starts by reviewing debates on two contrasting diagnoses: the risk society diagnosis of Ulrich Beck and the ecological modernization diagnosis of Arthur Mol, John Dryzek, and others. At stake is the questions of the place of environmental concern, policy, and practice in late-modern social change. From here, the course delves into the main institutional vectors of environmental social change, covering in turn questions of: socio-technical change (green technological innovation, changing infrastructures); political-economic change (shifting modes of governance and politics, new circular market models); activism-driven change (environmental social movements, urban green communities); changing North-South relations (new globalized inequalities, climate justice activism); everyday practice change (emerging consumptions habits, new social distinctions and divisions); cultural value change (continuity and change in moral valuations of ‘nature’ in the Anthropocene). Throughout, focus is on understanding present-day environmental social change in light of historical experience, empirical findings, and key sociological theories (as well as, to some extent, insights from neighboring disciplines). This enables students to take stock of what near-future changes lie ahead. Alongside examining the various substantive dimensions of green transition, the course also discusses adequate methodological strategies affiliated with the different problem complexes and vectors of social change. Throughout, students work on aligning theoretical and empirical insights via their own case analyses.

Although this course focuses on Islamic and Muslim feminisms (in the plural) it also cover women’s experiences with radical Islam, masculinities, LGBTQ+ Islam, and similar phenomena. The course consists of five modules. The first module studies Muslim migration to Denmark and explores Islam in Copenhagen through a field study in which students do photo-journalism. The second module focuses on female and LGBTQ+ imams in Europe. In the third module, students read and listen to artistic productions by Muslim minority women and men in the form of novels, poetry, and music. As part of this module students do a semi-structured interview with either a Muslim or a non-Muslim on private and public perceptions of Islam. The fourth module investigates current Muslim civil rights organizations, and the final module focus on Muslim female piousness.

This course examines academic, public and popular ideas about youth and practices of youth culture. It pays particular attention to the ways young lives are gendered and the role gender plays in the institutions and other contexts in which young people live. Other points of focus include changing conceptions of youth, relationships between policy and youth, images of youth and youth culture, and discourses on (im)maturity, training, and identity.

This course explores the challenges and dilemmas of globalization, especially with regard to global human mobility; cultural flows and transformation; multiculturalism; ethnic communities; identities; citizenship, social divisions and inequality. While taking a global, comparative approach, this course places special emphasis on Japan and other industrial countries. Through lectures, discussions, and other class activities, the class collectively examines and evaluate key concepts and theories to deepen one's understanding of issues related to transnational sociology. 

This course examines the relationship between the Enlightenment and the crisis of the Old Regime in 18th century France. During the decades from the mid-eighteenth century to the French Revolution, the Enlightenment reached its peak, and social, political and cultural changes became evident.  The course deals with not only the writings of several major philosophers but also their life and activities in order to understand the social and political problems with which they were faced at the time.