SOC 1110: Introduction to Sociological Thinking
Goals: To introduce students to the basic sociological concepts. To show how these concepts are used to analyze society. To increase our knowledge of how society is organized and operates. To encourage creative and critical thinking.
Content: Study of culture, socialization, social institutions such as the family, religion, and government, race, gender, social class, and social change.
Taught: Annually, fall and spring terms.
SOC 1120: Social Problems
Goals: To understand why we have social problems and what we can do about them. To learn about selected social problems.
Content: Poverty, racism, sexism, urban issues, alcohol, and drug abuse. The social problems selected will vary with the instructor.
Taught: Annually.
SOC 1330: Women, Men, and Society
Goals: To introduce students to gender as an area of sociological inquiry.
Content: The course will cover a variety of topics including cross-cultural issues, socialization, education, communication, intimate relationships, employment, crime, politics, spirituality, and health.
Taught: Annually.
Prerequisite: SOC 1110.
SOC 3000: Society, Images and Perception
Goals: To deepen our sensitivities about the way in which people’s “perceptions” are constructed through the works of art, photography, and advertising. To show that images are not neutral objects, but social constructs which shape our attitude about ourselves and others.
Content: Various theoretical and historical works on photography, vision and art by John Berger, Roland Barthes, Malek Alloula, Stuart Ewen, Susan Sontag, and others.
Taught: Annually.
Prerequisite: SOC 1110.
SOC 3250: Juvenile Delinquency/Juvenile Justice
Goals: To understand the etiology of delinquency. To gain an overview of the juvenile justice system—the legal process and correctional systems. To evaluate intervention strategies.
Content: Brief history of juvenile justice; social deviance and psychopathology; crimogenic factors; principles of risk, need and responsibility; continuum of interventions, effective interventions, future trends; careers in juvenile justice.
Taught: Annually.
Prerequisite: One of the following: SOC 1110, PSY 1330, CJFS 1120, or LGST 1110.
SOC 3330: Sociology of Gender
Goals: To understand and evaluate gender as a form of social structure and the consequences that structure holds for individuals and society. To understand gender as a social, rather than purely biological, construct.
Content: Covers a variety of topics including social constructionism, biological explanations of gender difference, feminist theory, and sexuality, as well as a selection of contemporary issues in gender studies.
Taught: Annually.
Prerequisite: SOC 1330.
SOC 3350: Sociology of Racial and Cultural Minorities
Goals: To develop a critical understanding of the different racial, ethnic, and culturally distinct groups in society. To explore a range of theories which seek to explain the nature of minority relations.
Content: May include people of color, Jewish Americans, the Holocaust, the oppression of minority groups, liberation movements, key social institutions that impact the life of minority people, and in-depth consideration of the scientific rationalizations for continued discrimination. Topical focus will vary with the instructor.
Taught: Annually.
Prerequisite: SOC 1110.
SOC 3370: Families in Crisis
Goals: To learn about the different types of family forms and changing functions of the family as a basic social institution. A social problems focus.
Contents: Dating, family violence, divorce, and alternatives to marriage.
Prerequisite: SOC 1110 or WSTD 1010.
Taught: Annually.
SOC 3390: Social Psychology
Goals: To provide an overview of sociological social psychology, specifically the perspective of symbolic interaction. To understand how we become social beings and how, through our everyday interactions with one another, we create and re-create both ourselves and the social world in which we live.
Content: The course will begin with a comparison of sociological and psychological theories of social psychology. We will then turn to symbolic interaction with topics that include meaning and symbols as human creations, language and cognition, impression management, the self, and the social construction of reality.
Taught: Annually.
Prerequisite: SOC 1110 or PSY 1330.
SOC 3440: Urban Sociology
Goals: To explore the advent and growth of cities, the key organizations and concerns of everyday urban life, and the movement of people into and out of cities as well as regional shifts in the distribution of America’s population.
Content: Urban and suburban domination of American life, the way in which the distribution of power has influenced the shape of cities, gentrification, the rise and fall of the “Southern Rim,” the factors that make cities desirable places to live, the various political and social problems which affect all cities and the possible remedies for these problems.
Taught: Annually.
Prerequisite: SOC 1110.
SOC 3500: Culture in Transition
Goals: To become familiar with changing patterns of organization in society. This would include changes in the normative order, the organization of cities, and especially globalization.
Content: The course examines different forms of social organization, ranging from the micro to the macro. We also look at the political and cultural systems of society.
Taught: Annually.
Prerequisite: SOC 1110.
SOC 3530: Political Sociology
Goals: To analyze the distribution of power in society. To explore the role of the state and the ways the key institutions of society affect the potential stability of a social system.
Content: An overview of the field of political sociology and an examination of the reigning political ideologies in American society. The variety of available political ideologies, their dissemination, acceptance or rejection, significance of work, and movements for social change.
Taught: Annually.
Prerequisite: SOC 1110.
SOC 3750: Criminology
Goals: This class addresses these basic questions: What is a crime? Why do people commit crime? Who commits crime? The goals are to acquire a theoretically- and empirically-based understanding of crime in American society.
Content: Crime statistics, theories about crime, specific forms of crime such as, murder, sexual assault, and consensual crime.
Taught: Annually, fall and spring terms.
Prerequisite: One of the following: SOC 1110, PSY 1330, CJFS 1120, or LGST 1110.
SOC 3930: Social Research Methods
Goals: To learn how to design and implement a research project. To become familiar with limits and appropriateness of various qualitative and quantitative research methods.
Content: Various types of research methods such as field research, content analysis, and survey.
Taught: Annually, fall and spring terms.
Prerequisite: SOC 1110.
SOC 3950: Critical Social Theory
Goals: To introduce student to sociological theories and to develop a scholarly sensitivity that is guided and shaped by critical concepts, ideas, and theories. Students will learn that understanding social reality is controversial and complicated.
Content: In order to teach student a sociological way of “thinking” and a critical examination of social issues, the course draws on the works of past and present sociologists.
Taught: Annually, fall and spring terms.
Prerequisite: SOC 1110.
SOC 5330: Sex and Sexuality: An American Perspective
Goals: To understand and evaluate sexuality as a form of social structure and the consequences that structure holds for individuals and society. To understand sexuality as a social, rather than purely biological, construct.
Content: The course will cover a variety of topics, providing a structural analysis of sexuality. Topics include social construction of sexuality, the history of sexuality in America, sexuality and religion, medicine, law, family, commerce, and education. Students have the option to complete the Leadership, Education, and Development (LEAD) component of the Hamline Plan.
Taught: Annually, spring term.
Prerequisite: SOC 3330.
SOC 5950: World System Theory
Goals: To examine the notion of “social change” from a multi-disciplinary viewpoint. The emphasis is on theoretical and historical understanding of the macrostructures that are changed from feudalism to capitalism. The major focus is on a world system. The purpose of the course is to equip students with a much broader understanding of the way society and its institutions function in a global perspective.
Content: Works by Wallerstein, Harvey, and others.
Taught: Annually.
Prerequisites: SOC 3950 or GLOB 1910 and 1920.
SOC 5960: Senior Seminar
Goals: To synthesize the diverse sociology courses taken during the course of the major. To discuss the discipline of sociology—its major issues and debates, its applications, and its occupational relevance. To design and implement a research project.
Content: Ethical problems in sociology, conceptualization, methodology, and analysis of research project.
Taught: Annually, fall and spring terms.
Prerequisites: SOC 1110, 3930, and 3950. Intended for seniors but juniors may enroll with permission.
