SCHEDULE OF CLASSES
SPRING 2015
Course
Number
Soc 002-01
Soc 002-02
Soc 002-03
Soc 004-01
Soc 004-02
Soc 111
Soc 122
Soc 125-01
Spc 125-02
Soc 128
Spc 132
Soc 135-01
Soc 135-02
Soc 135-03
Title
Instructor
Intro to Sociology
Intro to Sociology
Intro to Sociology
Social Problems
Social Problems
Sociology of Families
Education & Society
Gender & Society
Gender & Society
Crime and Delinquency
Research Methods
Globalization
Religion & Social Change
Institutional Violence
Zeynep Atalay
Zeynep Atalay
Mark Wilson
John Ely
Philip Fucella
Ynez Wilson Hirst
Robert Bulman
Cynthia Ganote
Cynthia Ganote
John Ely
Robert Bulman
Zeynep Atalay
Mark Wilson
Phillip Fucella
Days
MWF
MWF
T/Th
T/Th
T/Th
MWF
T/Th
MWF
MWF
T/Th
T/Th
M/F
T/Th
T/Th
Time
9:15-10:20
10:30-11:35
8:00-9:35
9:45-11:20
8:00-9:35
8:00-9:05
8:00-9:35
10:30-11:35
11:45-12:50
1:15-2:50
9:45-11:20
1:00-2:40
9:45-11:20
11:30-1:05
SOCIOLOGY ENROLLMENT POLICIES
1. Students taking an upper division course (100-135) should have already taken at least one lower
division course Soc 002 or 004 within the department.
2. Students must have completed Sociology 2 and Sociology 101 in order to take Theory and Methods
courses.
3. Majors are given priority enrollment in upper division courses. Should you be wait listed, you
may be placed in the class after the pre-registration period. Declare your major or minor now.
4. A minimum acceptable grade of C- for coursework is required to count toward the major or minor.
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SOCIOLOGY 002
Introduction to Sociology
002-01 Professor Zeynep Atalay
002-02 Professor Zeynep Atalay
002-03 Professor Mark Wilson
MWF
MWF
T/TH
9:15-10:20
10:30-11:35
8:00-9:35
Take a new look at the social world that surrounds and influences you. How are
you, as an individual, shaped by your society? How do your choices, in turn, shape
society? Sociology offers a unique outlook on our rapidly changing modern society and
culture. You will get a thorough overview in this class of important sociological concepts
such as stratification, culture, socialization, status, deviance and institutions (e.g.,
marriage and family, education, work). You will learn how to study specific areas of
society such as gender, class, race and ethnicity through reading insightful research by
sociologists. Students also are challenged to explore controversial ideas relating to
inequality and social justice. Counts toward Core Curriculum requirements for Social
Historical, and Cultural Understanding and toward American Diversity.
SOCIOLOGY 004
Social Problems
004-01 Professor John Ely
004-02 Professor Phillip Fucella
T/Th
T/Th
9:45-11:20 Service Learning
8:00-9:35
The contemporary world has many social concerns that capture our attention.
Talk show hosts and social critics popularize these issues which range from global
problems, like the environment, to interpersonal problems, like divorce. Topics such as
racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism, urban poverty, and the changing family are
explored in this class. Sociology examines the factors at play in creating and solving
these problems. Both sections count toward the the Core Curriculum’s Social, Historical,
and Cultural Understanding, American Diversity, and Common Good requirements.
Section 004-01 also counts toward the Community Engagement requirement.
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SOCIOLOGY 111
Sociology of Families
Professor Ynez Wilson Hirst
MWF
8:00-9:05
Families are the fundamental building block of society in at least two ways. First,
families are "private institutions" that provide the primary social and physical contexts in
which our lives unfold through birth, life, love, and death. Second, families can also be
seen as "public institutions" that play a major role in generating and perpetuating social
inequalities.
In this course, we will begin by exploring common
assumptions about the "traditional family", comparing this
image with an overview of historical facts and trends about
American family life over the past two centuries. We will then
analyze a number of changes and transformations in
contemporary American family life---the large-scale entrance
of mothers into the paid labor force; increased immigration;
welfare reform and its effects on poor families; divorce rates;
the rise of reproductive technologies; multiracial families; and gay and lesbian
families. We will explore the social and political implications of these changes for men,
women, children, and for society; focusing primarily on patterns and historical trends
within and between groups as defined by gender, race, sexual
orientation, and class. This course is cross-listed with Women’s and
Gender Studies and Ethnic Studies.
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SOCIOLOGY 122
Education & Society
Professor Robert Bulman
T/Th
8:00-9:35
We all are experts in education. With at least 12 years of experience in school
we could all write brilliant ethnographic accounts of the educational process. We all
have something to contribute to the study of this subject. This course offers students the
tools to analyze their own educational experiences as well as the experiences of others.
We begin with a question that is at the heart of many sociological analyses of
education: Does schooling help individual students to become upwardly mobile in
society? Or does it reproduce the social status of successive generations of
students? What are the mechanisms of mobility and reproduction? We look specifically
at the problem of unequal educational attainment in schools. We ask, to what extent is
inequality in educational attainment due to the role of the student, the school, the
family, peers, or forces in the wider society? We will also study how the dynamics of
race, class, and gender play themselves out in schools.
We then move to a more in-depth look at the role that schools play
culturally. That is, how do schools constitute themselves as communities? How do they
contribute to the racial, gender, class, and sexual identity of their students? How do
students make sense of their educational experiences? In order to help answer these
questions we will read several ethnographic accounts of schools as well as discuss our
own experiences in school. We also study how education is understood in the popular
culture.
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SOCIOLOGY 125
Gender & Society
125-01 Professor Cynthia Ganote
125-02 Professor Cynthia Ganote
MWF
MWF
10:30-11:35
11:45-12:50
Within the U.S. today, the term “feminist” is often stigmatized
and misunderstood. Meanwhile, the problems of gender-based
violence, discrimination based on sexuality, and political
underrepresentation for women still exist in our society. In this
course, we will examine these gender-related problems and
their root causes through a diverse set of theoretical lenses. In
addition, we will examine the construct of masculinity and some
of its problematic consequences for both men and women.
Finally, we will consider what we as a society or as individuals
can do to reduce gender inequalities in the U.S. This course is
cross-listed with Women’s & Gender Studies.
SOC 128
CRIME & DELINQUENCY
Professor John Ely
T/Th
1:15-2:50
Crime affects our lives in many ways. We commit crimes and are victims of them.
Crime entertains us in literature, television and film. Crime fills the pages of our
newspaper and the evening news. Crime scares, angers and excites us. Many of our
conceptions of crime are preconceptions, the results of attitudes and prejudices
("prejudgings") handed to us through socialization and culture. From these conceptions,
we form opinions about what crime is and what to do about it.
There will be two objectives in this course. The first objective will be to learn the
dominant theories of crime that have evolved over the last two hundred years.
According to these theories: What is crime? What is a criminal? Why do people commit
crime? What can we do about crime? The second objective will be for you to analyze
your own conceptions of crime. Do you agree with these theories of crime? If so, why?
If not, why? What are your conceptions of crime? Why do you think your conceptions
are valid? There are no rights or wrongs. You are not asked to agree with anything in
this course. You are asked only to think about crime from a broader societal level.
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SOC 132
SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH METHODS
Professor Robert Bulman
T/Th
9:45-11:20
How do we know what we know? As sociologists, everything we know about the
social world is the result of carefully designed and executed research. We must
systematically collect data about the social world in order to understand how the world
works and to test our theories about the world. This course is an introduction to how
sociologists design research projects, how they collect data, and how they use that
data when they construct a sociological argument. Sociologists use many different types
of research methods. We will read about, evaluate, and practice a variety of research
tools used by sociologists. We will conduct participant observation, in-depth interviews,
survey research, and content analysis.
Prerequisite: Sociology 101.
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SOC 135-01
SPECIAL TOPICS: GLOBALIZATION
Professor Zeynep Atalay
M/F
1:00-2:40
What is globalization? Is this really a new phenomenon or have we been living it for the
last 400 years? How is it changing the nature of our everyday experiences? In this course
we answer these questions by exploring the global nature of contemporary social,
economic, political, and cultural change. We begin the course by tracing the roots of
globalization back to colonialism. We discuss the current form of economic globalization
by focusing on corporate control of food, the global pharmaceutical industry, sweatshop
labor, and the feminization of the labor force. Next, we turn our attention to cultural
dimensions of globalization with a special focus on music industry, tourism, and
consumption. We then move to some of the social issues that exacerbated by
globalization, such as hunger, poverty, human trafficking, and modern day slavery. We
conclude the course by discussing social movements and non-governmental
organizations combating these global social problems. This course is cross-listed with
Women’s & Gender Studies.
This class qualifies for cross-listing with Women’s and Gender Studies as one of its
learning goals is identifying the ways in which economic, cultural and political
globalizations are embedded in gendered structures. One of the core topics of this course
is feminization of global labor: Women contribute to the global economy as contingent
labor in global production networks and as care-workers in Global Cities. Students will
gain an understanding of the ways in which globalization positions and affects men and
women differently, and produces new modes of gender stratification.
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SOC 135-02
SPECIAL TOPICS: RELIGION & SOCIAL CHANGE
Professor Mark Wilson
T/Th
9:45-11:20
From conservative and liberal Christians arguing over US politics, from Jews and Muslims
struggling with justice and social inequality in the Gaza Strip, and from hippie oriented
“Jesus Freaks” arguing about violence and war with Christian Patriots, religion in society
has often played a role in shaping how individuals and social groups express their
preferences for social change. Drawing upon classical texts in the Sociology of Religion,
this course explores what sociologists have identified as religion’s public and social role
in movements of social, cultural and political change, in contrast to what might be
considered as religion’s more private and personal role in maintaining social control and
functioning as the “opium of the people,” in Karl Marx’s terms. In the first half of the
course you will examine the socio-historical processes of religion, of religious rituals and
religious performances in shaping class, social stratification, power and domination in the
rise of Modern Capitalism. In the second half of the course, you will be invited to visit
congregations and to explore the role of religion in shaping liberation, justice and hope in
new social movements center around justice for the poor, the dismantling of racism in
the US, and the empowerment of women and LGBTIQ people seeking to create through
the religious institutions practices of inclusion, common to LaSallian social/religious
teachings, in resistance to social inequalities and exclusion that religious communities
often maintain. This latter section of the course will focus on liberation theology in
Catholic communities, the role of congregations during the Civil Rights and Black Power
Movements, and the activism of feminists and queer theologians in shaping “open and
affirming” communities of faith.
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SOC 135-03
INSTITUTIONAL VIOLENCE
Professor Philip Fucella
T/Th
11:30-1:05
Where criminology courses usually look at violence perpetrated by criminals and deviant
individuals, this course focuses on the violence wielded by those with social authority to
do so. We will examine broadly the role of violence in modern societies by looking at the
works of Norbert Elias, Rene Girard, and Slavoj Zizek. We will consider the proposition
that as everyday violence has decreased, violence enacted by modern social institutions
has become more concentrated and lethal. Specifically we will examine the ways in
which violence is organized, legitimated, and performed by social institutions and their
agents. We will look at the following institutional spheres in which violence is or has
been legitimately practiced: the military, the police, the family, churches, schools,
medicine, and sport. We will consider 1) how the legitimate use of force in these realms
has changed over time; 2) how members of those institutions learn to practice violence;
and 3) the effects of institutional violence on those both inside and outside of these
institutions. As a sociology course, we will obviously study the relationship of
institutional violence to broader relations of race, social class, and gender.
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SOCIOLOGY HONOR SOCIETY
ALPHA KAPPA DELTA
Alpha Gamma is the California chapter of Alpha Kappa Delta, the International
Sociological Honor Society. To be eligible for membership a student:




Must be an officially declared sociology major or demonstrate a serious interest in
sociology within an official program of the host institution
o Sociology minors are eligible
Must be at least a junior (third year) by standards of the host institution
Must have maintained the equivalent of a 3.0 GPA in sociology courses taken at
the host institution prior to initiation and the equivalent of an overall grade point
average of at least 3.3.
Must have completed at least four regular courses in sociology at the host
institution prior to initiation (exclusive of extension or courses graded pass/fail)
The motto of AKD is “To investigate humanity for the purpose of service,” a view in
keeping with the Lasallian tradition. The society promotes an interest in the study of
sociology, research of social problems, and other social and intellectual activities leading
to improvement in the human condition.
AKD holds an undergraduate student competition with the first prize of $5,000, a
possible publication in Sociological Inquiry, $500 in travel expenses to the American
Sociological Association meeting, and a $1,000 scholarship for a sociology graduate
program.
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