Sociology

This course is an introduction to research in environmental sociology with an emphasis on the social processes, dynamics and institutions that are influential in contemporary environmental crises. It looks at the social dimensions of our natural world and considers how our social life shapes our ecological life (and vice versa!). It will focus particularly on how environmental problems are created by social drivers and experienced unequally. Topics include production and consumption and its environmental effects, inequality and environmental risk, and social movements for environmental justice. 

This course offers a study of Spanish territory and society from a geographical perspective. Topics include: diversity of the physical environment; population in Spain; settlement and the urban system; economic activities; transport and its role in structuring the territory; environmental problems; Spain in an international context.

This course examines characteristics of health disorders that may lead to need for care and social support with special reference to disabilities. Topics include: consequences of illness; primary disabling diseases with early manifestation; primary cardiocirculatory and respiratory diseases associated with disability; primary metabolic diseases associated with disability; disability due to diseases of the musculoskeletal system; disability due to neurological disorders; disability due to psychiatric pathology.

The world faces a variety of identity-based politics that are considered a cause of social divisions today. Ongoing globalization—the process of human movements, networking, and intensifying interconnectivity—has facilitated various interactions, often causing disparities, conflicts, and injustices. At globalization hubs, racially and culturally diversifying populations experienced geographically uneven social transformation. Sometimes, people form “identity” to create “others” as an enemy, and other times, they do so to become “we” to achieve a common goal.  

This course pays special attention to women’s experiences in the United States, a nation known for the diversity of its population. Hoisting the banner of freedom, democracy, and capitalism, the United States engaged in settler colonialism and imperialism through the nineteenth century to lead in shaping the world order and globalization process. The course examines major historical events in their respective socio-historical contexts. By taking local, national, and transnational perspectives, the course explores the complex workings of gender, class, race/ethnicity, ideology, sex, age, etc., in women’s collective power-building and analyze how they affected their identities and society. The course discusses similarities and differences among American, Japanese, and/or societies of class interest, pursuing lessons to be learned from American examples and how this knowledge can better communities today. 

This course analyzes the main demographic phenomena and theories regarding the relationship between different demographic variables and economic, social, and environmental factors. It examines the ethical implications of demographic policies carried out in the last century.

Students complete an internship with a local organization or company. Each placement includes oversight and regular check-ins with an internship supervisor from the company or organization. The Internship Methodology Seminar accompanies the internship placement and offers a platform for reflection, enhancement of skills, and development of cultural competence. It focuses on practical skill application, cultural understanding, and adaptability within professional environments to provide a bridge between academic learning and real-world experience.

This course examines the global condition of women and girls through a feminist lens, discussing this condition as political and sexual. It canvasses topics that exemplify global sexual politics and discusses the harmful results for women and girls. The course aims to cultivate theoretical insight and critical analysis skills that exercise knowledge and examples specifically from feminist scholarship. It aims to promote comprehension of feminist frameworks as well as contemporary problems affecting women and girls globally. 

This course examines the global condition of women and girls through a political-economic lens; specifically, the sexual politics that underpin the global economy. It canvasses different perspectives on women's place in the global economy starting in the 19th century and examines topics like the labor market; class, and waged-based exploitation that exemplify the sexual politics of the capitalist economy and the harmful results on women and girls.

Drawing on prominent social thinkers, this course investigates the social nature of humankind as it relates has to war, and what warfare reveals about the social existence of human beings. The course explores themes of: war in realism; war in rationalism; civil war; just and unjust wars; revolution and war, regular and irregular wars; capital, empire, and war; race, class and warfare in the contemporary world. 

This course examines major world cultures and their languages in a comparative context. Students will gain a critical understanding of culture and diversity through examining the languages and cultures of China, France, Japan, Korea, Spain and Latin America.