• • What is Sociology?
  • Background of Sociology: The Industrial Revolution and Modernity.

Reading assignment

• • Openstax. Why study sociology. In Introduction to Sociology 2e. OpenStax CNX. Dec 18, 2019 https://openstax.org/details/books/introduction-sociology-2e.
  • Openstax. The history of sociology. In Introduction to Sociology 2e. OpenStax CNX. Dec 18, 2019 https://openstax.org/details/books/introduction-sociology-2e..

• • Classical sociologists and their theories: Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Emile Durkheim
  • Modern theoretical approaches: functionalism, Marxism, feminism, rational choice theory, and postmodernism

Reading assignment

• • Section 1.3. Theoretical perspectives in sociology. In: Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Open Textbooks. https://doi.org/10.24926/8668.2401

Supplementary reading

• • “Marx Was Right: Five Surprising Ways Karl Marx Predicted 2014: From the iPhone 5S to corporate globalization, modern life is full of evidence of Marx’s foresight” by Sean McElwee, Rolling Stone, Jan 30, 2014

Continued

Movie Review 1: 02/12

• • Asking and answering sociological questions.
  • Why do we need methods?
  • The difference between quantitative methods and qualitative methods

Reading assignment

• • Approaches to Sociological Research in  Introduction to Sociology 2e
  • Research Methods in Introduction to Sociology 2e

Supplementary reading

• • “Survey research controversy, white anti-racist activists, and supernatural beliefs” The Contexts Graduate Student Board in Context, 2009
  • “How to Do Ethnography Right” by Syed Ali and Philip Cohen in Context, 2018

Culture and Society

Reading assignment

• • 3.1 What Is Culture? – Introduction to Sociology 2e | OpenStax
  • 3.2 Elements of Culture in Introduction to Sociology 2e, OpenStax
  • 3.3 Pop Culture, Subculture, and Cultural Change in Introduction to Sociology 2e, OpenStax
  • 3.4 Theoretical Perspectives on Culture in Introduction to Sociology 2e, OpenStax

Classes follow a Monday schedule

Reading assignment

• • Anderson, L.V. 2014. Limits of the Locavor. Dissent Magazine.

Reading assignment

• • Section 4.1. The importance of socialization. In: Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Open Textbooks. https://doi.org/10.24926/8668.2401
  • Section 4.2. Explaining socialization. In: Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Open Textbooks. https://doi.org/10.24926/8668.2401
  • Section 4.4. Socialization through the life course. In: Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Open Textbooks. https://doi.org/10.24926/8668.2401
  • Agents of Socialization, in Sociology by University of Minnesota

Continued

Reading assignment

• • Section 8.1. Systems of stratification. In: Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Open Textbooks. https://doi.org/10.24926/8668.2401.
  • Section 8.2. Explaining stratification. In: Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Open Textbooks. https://doi.org/10.24926/8668.2401.
  • Section 8.3. Social class in the United States. In: Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Open Textbooks. https://doi.org/10.24926/8668.2401.

Reading assignment

• • Desmond, Matthew. Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City (Excerpt, BB)

Fieldtrip & quick report: 03/12

Reading assignment

• • Section 1o.5. Racial and ethnic inequality in the United States . In: Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Open Textbooks. https://doi.org/10.24926/8668.2401.
  • Openstax. What is social stratification. In Introduction to Sociology 2e. OpenStax CNX. Dec 18, 2019 https://openstax.org/details/books/introduction-sociology-2e.

Reading assignment

• • Lee, Jennifer, Frank D. Bean, and Kathy Sloane. 2003. “Beyond black and white: remaking race in America.” Contexts 2(3): 26-33 (BB)
  • Chavez, Leo. 2013. “DREAMers and Anchor Babies.” The Latino threat: Constructing immigrants, citizens, and the nation. Stanford University Press (BB)

Writing assignment: 03/26

Continued

White Beauty

Reading assignment

• • Glenn, Evelyn Nakano. 2008. “Yearning for lightness: Transnational circuits in the marketing and consumption of skin lighteners.” Gender & society (BB).

“Where Beauty Means Bleached Skin” The New York Times, November 26, 2016 (BB)

Reading assignment

• • Section 11.1. Understanding gender and sex. In: Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Open Textbooks. https://doi.org/10.24926/8668.2401.
  • Section 5.1. Social structure: The building blocs of social life. In: Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Open Textbooks. https://doi.org/10.24926/8668.2401.
  • Section 5.3. Social interaction in everyday life. In: Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Open Textbooks. https://doi.org/10.24926/8668.2401.

Movie Review 2: 04/22

Continued

Reading assignment

• • Charles, Maria. 2011. “What gender is science?” Contexts 10(2): 22-28 (BB).
  • Orenstein, Peggy. 2006. “What’s wrong with Cinderella.” The New York Times 6(1): 34 (BB).
  • Gender, Sexualization, and Rolling Stone by Mary Nell Trautner and Erin Hatton

• • Global commodity chains.
  • We will watch a lot of videos to discuss globalization!

Reading assignment

• • Openstax. Global stratification and classification. In Introduction to Sociology 2e. OpenStax CNX. Dec 18, 2019 https://openstax.org/details/books/introduction-sociology-2e.

• • Global commodity chains.

Reading assignment

• • Textbook-like reading: The McDonalization of Society
  • Jesus Leal Trujillo and Joseph Parilla’s “Redefining Global Cities” Brookings Institute

Post-war America: Mass Consumption, Suburbia and Class Identity

Reading assignment

• • 20.2 Urbanization in Introduction to Sociology 2
  • Becky Nicolaides and Andrew Wiese, “Suburbanization in the United States after 1945” in Urban History. 

• • Post-war America: Mass Consumption, Suburbia and Class Identity

Reading assignment

• • Textbook Chapter 19
  • Zukin, Sharon. 2009. “How Brooklyn Became Cool” Naked city: The death and life of authentic urban places. Oxford University Press: Pp35-62
  • “Gentrification: Timeline”  in Next City
  • Gentrification in National Geographic