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Intro Soc (Birk) – Page 1
“ 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
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, discussion will be a substantial part of this course. By enrolling in SC001-03, 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 .
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
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Intro Soc (Birk) – Page 2
 For us to practice engaging in civil discourse with one another whether we agree or not
Required Texts:
1.
Readings for Sociology (7 th edition), edited by Garth Massey [Hereafter referred to as “RS”]
2.
Seeing Ourselves: Classic, Contemporary, and Cross-Cultural Readings in Sociology (8 th edition), edited by
John J. Macionis & Nijole V. Benokraitis [Hereafter referred to as “SO”]
3.
Additional Readings in Course Reserves [Hereafter referred to as “Reserves”]
Course Requirements:
• 10% Attendance & Participation
• 10% Co-Leadership of One Class Discussion
• 10% In-Class Quizzes (5 of 7 total unannounced quizzes worth 2 points each)
• 20% First Paper - 5 pg Sociological Autobiography due Thursday, March 1
• 20% Second Paper - 5 pg Sociological Analysis due Tuesday, April 10
• 30% Final Exam (Cumulative) on Monday, May 14 12:30-2:30
Introductory Sociology & the Social Science Core:
• 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?
• Cultural Diversity : 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Creating a Personal Philosophy : 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 life. You should come away with a richer sense of your own place in society and your potential to make a difference in it.
A Note on Academic Integrity:
Violations of academic integrity are a serious breach of the honor code implicit in the everyday operations of university life. 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
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Intro Soc (Birk) – Page 3 you do borrow the words or ideas of another, to give credit where credit is due. 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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Intro Soc (Birk) – Page 4
Date Due Assignment Topic
Tues. 1/17 Introductions
Thurs. 1/19
Tues. 1/24
RS Ch. 2 (Mills: Sociological Imagination); SO Ch. 2 (Berger:
Invitation to Sociology) & SO Ch. 4 (Miner: Body Ritual of the
Nacirema)
RS Ch. 3 (Durkheim: What Makes Sociology Different); SO Ch.
6 (Babbie: The Importance of Social Research) & RS Ch. 6
(Best: Telling the Truth about Damned Lies and Statistics)
The Sociological Imagination
What is Sociology?
Date Due Assignment Topic
Thurs. 1/26
SO Ch. 15 (Mead: The Self); RS Ch. 18 (Goffman: On
Facework); SO Ch. 20 (Goffman: Presentation of Self in
Everyday Life)
The Self
Date Due
Tues. 1/31
Assignment
RS Ch. 14 (Messner: Boyhood, Organized Sports, and the
Construction of Masculinities); Kilbourne: The More You
Subtract, the More You Add (Reserves)
Topic
Gender Socialization
Thurs. 2/2
SO Ch. 39 (Lorber: Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender); West & Zimmerman: Doing Gender (Reserves)
Social Construction of
Gender
Tues. 2/7
Herek: Beyond Homophobia (Reserves); Kimmel: Masculinity as Homophobia (Reserves)
Sexuality & Homophobia
Thurs. 2/9
Tues. 2/14
Thurs. 2/16
Tues. 2/21
RS Ch. 15 (Lareau: Concerted Cultivation and the
Accomplishment of Natural Growth) and MacLeod: The
World of Work (Reserves)
Lubrano: The Bricklayer’s Son (Reserves) and RS Ch. 20
(Bettie: Women without Class)
McIntosh: White Privilege and Male Privilege (Reserves);
Bonilla-Silva: Racism without Racists, Ch. 1 (Reserves)
RS Ch. 22 (Waters: Optional Ethnicities); SO Ch. 44 (Brodkin:
How Did Jews Become White Folks?); SO Ch. 45 (Zhou: Are
Asian Americans Becoming White?)
Class
Social Construction of Class
White Privilege &
Colorblindness
Social Construction of Race
& Ethnicity
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Intro Soc (Birk) – Page 5
Thurs. 2/23
Tues. 2/28
SO Ch. 41 (DuBois: The Souls of Black Folk); SO Ch. 43
(Collins: Controlling Images and Black Women’s Oppression)
RS Ch. 8 (Brandt: The Case of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study);
Solorzano et al: Critical Race Theory (Reserves); Powell et al:
Toward a Transformative View of Race (Reserves)
Race
Racism
Thurs. 3/1 Garland Thomson: Extraordinary Bodies Ch. 2 (Reserves) Disability
Thurs. 3/1
DEADLINE
FIRST 5 PAGE PAPER DUE
NO CLASS
SOCIOLOGICAL
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Tues. 3/6 SPRING BREAK
Thurs. 3/8 NO CLASS SPRING BREAK
Date Due
Tues. 3/13
Thurs. 3/15
Tues. 3/20
Assignment
SO Ch. 11 (Marx and Engels: Manifesto of the Communist
Party); SO Ch. 49 (Mills: The Power Elite); Rothkopf:
Superclass, Introduction (Reserves)
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. 23 (Ehrenreich: Nickel and Dimed); SO Ch. 48
(Newman: Getting a Job in Harlem); RS Ch. 25 (Thompson:
Hanging Tongues)
Capitalism & Democracy
Economic Inequality
Date Due Assignment
Topic
Labor
Topic
Thurs. 3/22
SO Ch. 58 (Bowles and Gintis: Education and Inequality); SO
Ch. 59 (Kozol: Savage Inequalities: Children in US Schools);
Aronson: Breaking Barriers or Locked Out? (Reserves)
Educational Inequalities
Tues. 3/27
Thurs. 3/29
Ferguson: Bad Boys, The Punishing Room (Reserves);
RS Ch. 29 (Chambliss: The Saints & the Roughnecks)
Gaztambide-Fernández: Best of the Best, Introduction
(Reserves) and Khan: Getting In: How Elite Schools Play the
College Game (Reserves)
Labeling Theory
Reproduction of the Elite
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Intro Soc (Birk) – Page 6
Tues. 4/3
Thurs. 4/5
Bogle: Hooking Up, Ch. 6 (Reserves);
Armstrong et al: Sexual Assault on Campus (Reserves)
“Sex Ed”
NO CLASS EASTER BREAK
Tues. 4/10
Tues. 4/10
DEADLINE
RS Ch. 28 (Eitzen: Upward Mobility Through Sport); Eitzen:
Big Time College Sports (Reserves); Engstrom & Sedlacek: A
Study of Prejudice (Reserves)
SECOND 5 PAGE PAPER DUE
Sport in Higher Education
SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
Date Due Assignment Topic
Thurs. 4/12
Tues. 4/17
Thurs. 4/19
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)
SO Ch. 29 (Rosenhan: On Being Sane in Insane Places) &
Reserves (Goffman: The Mortified Self Ch. 6)
Deviance
Total Institutions
RS Ch. 5 (Kelman and Hamilton: The My Lai Massacre) &
Meyer: If Hitler Asked You to Electrocute a Stranger, Would
You? Probably (Reserves)
Obedience
Tues. 4/24
RS Ch. 32 (Shearing and Stenning: From the Panopticon to
Disney World) & Williams: Death of the Profane (Reserves)
Social Control
Thurs. 4/26
RS Ch. 33 (Rhodes: Total Confinement: Madness and Reason in the Maximum Security Prison) & RS Ch. 36 (Hunt: Police
Accounts of Normal Force
Police & Prison
Tues. 5/1
Alexander: The New Jim Crow, Introduction (Reserves) &
Street: Felony is the New “N” Word (Reserves)
Racialized Social Control
Thurs. 5/3
Mon. 5/14
12:30-2:30
No Readings
FINAL EXAM (IN-CLASS)
REVIEW
CUMULATIVE
**I reserve the right to make changes to this syllabus at any time, provided I give you fair and ample warning.**
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