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Introductory Sociology – Fall 2011
SC001-03 * MWF 3 * Campion 328
Lara Birk * birk@bc.edu * office hours by appointment or before class
“Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.”
– Nelson Mandela
“If you have come here to help me, then you are wasting your time… But if you have come because your
liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”
– Lila Watson
“The trouble around difference is really about privilege and power—the existence of privilege
and the lopsided distribution of power that keeps it going. The trouble is rooted in a legacy that
we all inherited, and while we’re here, it belongs to us. It isn't our fault. It wasn't caused by
something we did or didn't do. But now that it's ours, it's up to us to decide how we're going to
deal with it before we collectively pass it along to the generations that will follow ours.”
– Allan G. Johnson
Welcome to Introductory Sociology!
Whether you are new to sociology or a seasoned major catching up on requirements, you should find this course
challenging but reasonable. My philosophy as an instructor is that you have as much to teach one other as I
have to teach you. As such, conversation will be a substantial part of this course. By enrolling in SC00103, you
hereby agree to do each set of readings **prior** to the class in which we will discuss them and that you will
be an active participant in all class discussions and activities. If you have questions or concerns at any point
during the course, please do not hesitate to talk with me.
Course Objectives:
 For you to develop a sociological imagination that helps you think in new ways about society, the world
around you, people who are different from you, and your own life and self
 For you to strengthen the critical thinking, reading, writing, and speaking skills necessary for success in
college and beyond
 For us to discuss openly important if sensitive topics that affect us all as social beings
 For us to practice engaging in civil discourse with one another whether we agree or not
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Required Texts:
1. Readings for Sociology (6th edition), edited by Garth Massey [Hereafter referred to as “RS”]
2. Seeing Ourselves: Classic, Contemporary, and Cross-Cultural Readings in Sociology (8th edition), edited by
John J. Macionis & Nijole V. Benokraitis [Hereafter referred to as “SO”]
3. Additional Readings in Course Reserves [Hereafter referred to by “Reserves”]
Course Requirements & Grading:
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10 % Co-Leadership of Class Discussion
11% Attendance & Participation
14% In-Class Quizzes (7 of 9 unannounced quizzes worth 2 points each)
15% First Paper (5 pg Sociological Autobiography due 10/21)
20% Second Paper (5 pg Social Analysis Paper due 11/21)
30% Final Exam (Cumulative on 12/14)
Introductory Sociology & the Social Science Core:
Introductory Sociology is a social science core course, and as such, it will reflect all of the critical components of
the BC Core Curriculum:
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Perennial Questions: Is society “fair”? Why do some groups have more power than others? Are we
completely free agents or does society exert some control on and influence over our lives and choices?
How can we resist what is unjust and bring about social change?
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Cultural Diversity: In this course, we will sustain an intense focus on race, class, gender, sexuality, and
disability. We will examine different groups’ relations to power and attend to the many ways in which
these factors intersect and affect our own lives. As we will discuss many sensitive subject matters
throughout the semester, I ask that you treat your fellow classmates with respect and compassion and
focus your critical comments on students’ arguments—never on the student themselves.
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Historical Perspective: The development of a “sociological imagination” is the heart of this course.
Throughout, we will take up C. Wright Mills’ call for us to investigate the relationship between “personal
troubles” and “public issues.” In other words, we will analyze the connections between the seemingly
private events of our own lives on the one hand and history and social structure on the other.
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Writing: While the majority of college students think of writing as something you do once and turn in,
good writing is actually an iterative process—meaning it is something you return to again and again.
Ideas shape writing, and writing shapes ideas. Writing and critical thinking are together the most
important skills you will develop at college. **As such, for both papers, I will allow you to do revisions
provided you truly refine and improve your ideas (and do not merely provide textual edits).**
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Creating a Personal Philosophy: While we will study a great many theoretical perspectives in this
course, we are not learning theory merely for theory’s sake. I will expect you to apply the concepts we
learn to the world around you. I will ask you to consider social problems from different and perhaps
unfamiliar vantage points. I will challenge you to use the course to critically examine your previously
held assumptions and unarticulated beliefs and to develop a thoughtful and informed approach to your
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life and the lives of all those with whom you will make contact. You should come away with a richer
sense of your own place in society and your potential to make a difference in it.
Section 1: Introduction to Sociology
Date Due
Assignment
Topic
Wed. 9/7
Introductions
Fri. 9/9
RS Ch. 2 (Mills: Sociological Imagination); SO Ch. 2 (Berger:
Invitation to Sociology) & SO Ch. 4 (Miner: Body Ritual of the
Nacirema)
The Sociological Imagination
Mon. 9/12
RS Ch. 3 (Durkheim: What Makes Sociology Different) & RS
Ch. 4 (Burawoy: Public Sociologies)
What is Sociology?
Wed. 9/14
SO Ch. 6 (Babbie: The Importance of Social Research) & RS
Ch. 6 (Best: Telling the Truth about Damned Lies and
Statistics)
Social Research
Section 2: Micro Sociology: The Self & Social Interaction in Everyday Life
Date Due
Assignment
Topic
Fri. 9/16
SO Ch. 15 (Mead: The Self); Reserves (Cooley: Society and the
Individual “The Looking Glass Self”)
The Self
Mon. 9/19
RS Ch. 13 (Goffman: On Facework); SO Ch. 20 (Goffman:
Presentation of Self in Everyday Life)
Presentation of Self
Wed. 9/21
Reserves (Garfinkel: Studies of the Routine Grounds of
Everyday Activities)
Social Breaching
Section 3: Social Structure & Identity: Gender, Class, Race, Sexuality, & Disability
Date Due
Assignment
Topic
Fri. 9/23
RS Ch. 16 (Messner: Boyhood, Organized Sports, and the
Construction of Masculinities); SO Ch. 22 (Tannen: You Just
Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation)
Gender Socialization
Mon. 9/26
SO Ch. 39 (Lorber: Night to His Day: The Social Construction
of Gender); Reserves (West & Zimmerman: Doing Gender)
Social Construction of
Gender
Wed. 9/28
SO Ch. 40 (Benokraitis: How Subtle Sex Discrimination
Works); SO Ch. 41 (Leeder: Domestic Violence: A CrossCultural View)
Gender Inequality & Sexism
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Fri. 9/30
Parents Wknd
RS Ch. 26 (Lareau: Concerted Cultivation and the
Accomplishment of Natural Growth) & Reserves (Lubrano:
Limbo Ch. 1)
Class & Upbringing
Mon. 10/3
RS Ch. 17 (Bettie: Women without Class) & RS Ch. 29
(Chambliss: The Saints & the Roughnecks)
Classed Identities
Wed. 10/5
Reserves (Herek: Beyond Homophobia) & Reserves (Badash:
Anti-Gay Bullying Suicides)
Sexuality & Homophobia
Fri. 10/7
SO Ch. 21 (Rothenberg: Invisible Privilege); McIntosh: White
Privilege and Male Privilege (Reserves)
White Privilege
Mon. 10/10
NO CLASS
COLUMBUS DAY
Wed. 10/12
Fri. 10/14
Mon. 10/17
RS Ch. 21 (Waters: Optional Ethnicities); SO Ch. 44 (Brodkin:
How Did Jews Become White Folks?); SO Ch. 45 (Zhou: Are
Asian Americans Becoming White?)
SO Ch. 41 (DuBois: The Souls of Black Folk); RS Ch. 18
(Walton: My Secret Life as a Black Man); SO Ch. 43 (Collins:
Controlling Images and Black Women’s Oppression)
RS Ch. 7 (Brandt: Racism and Research: The Case of the
Tuskegee Syphilis Study); Reserves (Solorzano et al: Critical
Race Theory, Racial Microaggressions, and Campus Racial
Climate)
Racial & Ethnic Identities
Race
Race & Racism
Wed. 10/19
Reserves (Powell et al: Toward a Transformative View of
Race)
Intersectionality
Fri. 10/21
Reserves (Garland Thomson: Extraordinary Bodies Ch. 2)
Disability
FRI. 10/21
DEADLINE
FIRST 5 PAGE PAPER DUE
SOCIOLOGICAL
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Section 4: Macro Sociology: Capitalism, Democracy, & Economic Inequality
Date Due
Mon. 10/24
Wed. 10/26
Assignment
Topic
RS Ch. 39 (Weber: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of
Capitalism); SO Ch. 11 (Marx and Engels: Manifesto of the
Communist Party)
SO Ch. 49 (Mills: The Power Elite) & Reserves (Rothkopf:
Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They are
Making, Introduction)
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Capitalism
Democracy
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Fri. 10/28
Mon. 10/31
Halloween
Wed. 11/2
RS Ch. 31 (Gans: Uses of the Underclass in America); SO Ch.
37 (Eglitis: The Uses of Global Poverty: How Economic
Inequality Benefits the West)
RS Ch. 22 (Ehrenreich: Nickel and Dimed); SO Ch. 48
(Newman: Getting a Job in Harlem); Reserves: (McLeod: Ain’t
No Makin’ It Ch. 5)
RS Ch. 24 (Thompson: Hanging Tongues); RS Ch. 25 (Paules:
“Getting” and “Making” a Tip); RS Ch. 28 (Romero: Maid in
America)
Economy
Labor
Resistance
Section 5: The Sociology of Education: The Reproduction of Inequality
Date Due
Assignment
Topic
Fri. 11/4
SO Ch. 58 (Bowles and Gintis: Education and Inequality); SO
Ch. 59 (Kozol: Savage Inequalities: Children in US Schools)
Educational Inequalities
Mon. 11/7
Reserves (Ferguson: Bad Boys Ch. 2) & Reserves (Aronson:
Breaking Barriers or Locked Out?)
Race & Class in Education
Wed. 11/9
Reserves (Gaztambide-Fernández: Best of the Best,
Introduction)
Elite Boarding Schools
Fri. 11/11
Reserves (Khan: Getting In: How Elite Schools Play the
College Game) & Reserves (Deresiewicz: The Disadvantages
of an Elite Education)
Reproduction of the Elite
Mon. 11/14
Wed. 11/16
Reserves (Sex: An Interview with Donna Freitas) & Reserves
(Armstrong et al: Sexual Assault on Campus)
RS Ch. 27 (Eitzen: Upward Mobility Through Sport) &
Reserves (Engstrom and Sedlacek: A Study of Prejudice
Toward University Student-Athletes)
“Sex Education”
Sport in Education
Section 6: Deviance & Social Control
Date Due
Assignment
Topic
Fri. 11/18
SO Ch. 28 (Durkheim: The Functions of Crime); SO Ch. 30
(Anderson: The Code of the Streets); SO Ch. 31 (Farley:
Prostitution: A Worldwide Business of Sexual Exploitation)
Deviance
Mon. 11/21
SO Ch. 29 (Rosenhan: On Being Sane in Insane Places) &
Reserves (Lemert & Branaman: Goffman Reader Ch. 6)
Total Institutions
MON. 11/21
DEADLINE
SECOND 5 PAGE PAPER DUE
SOCIAL ANALYSIS
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Wed. 11/23
NO CLASS
THANKSGIVING HOLIDAYS
Fri. 11/25
NO CLASS
THANKSGIVING HOLIDAYS
Mon. 11/28
Wed. 11/30
Fri. 12/2
RS Ch. 5 (Kelman and Hamilton: The My Lai Massacre) &
Reserves (Meyer: If Hitler Asked You to Electrocute a
Stranger, Would You? Probably)
RS Ch. 32 (Shearing and Stenning: From the Panopticon to
Disney World) & Reserves (Williams: The Alchemy of Race
and Rights Ch. 3)
RS Ch. 33 (Rhodes: Total Confinement: Madness and Reason
in the Maximum Security Prison) & RS Ch. 34 (Hunt: Police
Accounts of Normal Force
Obedience
Social Control
Police & Prison
Mon. 12/5
Reserves (Alexander: The New Jim Crow) & Reserves (Street:
Felony is the New “N” Word)
“The New Jim Crow”
Wed. 12/7
STRUCTURED REVIEW SESSION
REVIEW
Fri. 12/9
Q & A REVIEW SESSION
REVIEW
Wed. 12/14
9:00-11:00AM
FINAL EXAM (IN-CLASS)
CUMULATIVE
**I reserve the right to make changes to this syllabus at any time, provided I give you fair and ample warning.**
A Final Word on Academic Integrity:
Violations of academic integrity are a serious breach of the honor code implicit in the everyday operations of
university life. The pursuit of knowledge and the fostering of civil discourse can only occur in an environment of
trust. Presenting another’s work as your own is not only intellectually dishonest but also wasteful. Engaging in
any form of cheating, plagiarism, and the like only cheats you of the education you are here to get. As such, you
are expected to present only your own work, ideas, and insights as your own and, in cases where you do borrow
the words or ideas of another, to give credit where credit is due. On the first day of class, I ask that you sign a
pledge agreeing to abide by the University’s rules on academic integrity.
For a full statement on the University’s academic integrity policies, please see:
http://www.bc.edu/offices/stserv/academic/integrity.html.
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