HSS 200: Social Sciences and Society; Contact: Kristin Celello, kristin.celello@qc.cuny.edu; Approved by Kristin Celello
and Elizabeth Hendrey, January 25, 2010
Perspectives on the Liberal Arts and Sciences
Course Proposal
General Education Advisory Committee
Queens College, City University of New York
I. Course Information
Course Title:
Social Sciences and Society
3
Credits:
Prerequisites:
None
X Existing course, course number:
HSS200
New course
Department:
Department Contact:
Honors in the Social Sciences
Kristin Celello
Area of Knowledge and Inquiry
(select one)
Context of Experience
(select only if the course
emphasizes one of the
following)
Reading Literature (RL)
Appreciating and Participating
in the Arts (AP)
Culture and Values (CV)
X Analyzing Social Structures
(SS)
Extended Requirements
(select only if the course meets
one of the following)
Pre-Industrial Society (PI)
United States (US)
Abstract or Quantitative
Reasoning (QR)
X European Traditions
(ET)
World Cultures (WC)
Natural Science (NS)
The following information is useful to the subcommittee to estimate the college's progress toward the
goal of offering enough sections and seats in each Perspectives category. How often does the department
anticipate the course will be offered? Please also estimate the anticipated number of sections and
number of seats per section.
X Every semester
Every Fall or
number of sections:
Every Spring
1
number of seats per section:
number of sections:
15
number of
seats per section:
Other:
January 2008
number of sections:
number of seats per section:
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HSS 200: Social Sciences and Society; Contact: Kristin Celello, kristin.celello@qc.cuny.edu; Approved by Kristin Celello
and Elizabeth Hendrey, January 25, 2010
Course Description
Please include a course description. If the course will include variable topics or be taught in various
forms, please provide as many descriptions of specific sections as possible.
This seminar provides a foundation and overview for students in the Honors in the Social
Sciences Program. It introduces students to theories and methods from several social scientific
disciplines, emphasizing the diversity of approaches through which knowledge about “society” is
produced in the academy today. Specific topics include the rise of the social sciences in Europe
and the United States from the late 19th century to the present, the connection between abstract
theory and empirical research, and the contributions to knowledge production of different social
scientific methods, such as archival research, ethnography, household surveys and statistics. Over
the course of the semester, we will make an effort to place the development of major disciplinary
paradigms, schools of thought and scholarly debates in their wider social and political contexts.
Faculty from across the Queens College Division of Social Sciences will give guest lectures.
General Education Requirements: This course fulfills two general education requirements.
Through its discussion of social science theories and methods, it fulfills the “Analyzing Social
Structures” Area requirement. Because it discusses the rise of the social sciences as a distinct
intellectual tradition of the so-called “West,” it fulfills the “European Traditions” Context of
Experience requirement.
January 2008
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HSS 200: Social Sciences and Society; Contact: Kristin Celello, kristin.celello@qc.cuny.edu; Approved by Kristin Celello
and Elizabeth Hendrey, January 25, 2010
II. Criteria for Perspectives Courses
Justification
Please describe how the course will address criteria for Perspectives on the Liberal Arts and Sciences
courses.
Be sure to include an explanation of the course’s specific learning goals for students to make a
connection between these and the general criteria for Perspectives courses.
1. Be designed to introduce students to how a particular discipline creates knowledge and
understanding.
HSS 200 is the introductory course of the Honors in the Social Sciences program. It provides students
with a critical introduction to social scientific knowledge production, emphasizing the diversity of
approaches through which knowledge about “society” is produced by social scientists working in the
academy today. Helping students to learn to compare and contrast knowledge production in different
social scientific disciplines is the central purpose of the course. This cross-disciplinary focus makes it
ideal for the PLAS.
2. Position the discipline within the liberal arts and the larger society.
This course is designed explicitly to position the disciplines of the social sciences within the liberal arts.
It takes an historical approach to the rise and proliferation of the social sciences, and compares and
contrasts contemporary theoretical and methodological approaches from anthropology, economics,
political science, sociology, history, philosophy, and urban studies. Attention to the unique histories of
different disciplines helps students learn to distinguish different social scientific fields from each other,
and from the humanities and natural sciences.
Another central objective of the course is to place the development of major disciplinary paradigms,
schools of thought and scholarly debates in their wider social and political contexts. By focusing on the
politics of academic knowledge production, the course demonstrates to students how the academy is
linked to society-at-large. These connections become most clear in the paper assignment for the course,
in which students write about a debate or controversy within the social sciences. To complete this
assignment successfully, students cannot merely report about a debate (ie. outline two sides). Rather,
they must think much more broadly. A student interested in sociological debates about the efficacy of
welfare reform in the United States, for instance, will explore the history of welfare in America, the
political climate that brought about reform in 1996, why and how sociologists have become invested in
the debate, their varying methods for studying the reform’s efficacy, and their efforts to present these
conclusions to the broadest possible audience.
3. Address the goals defined for the particular areas of knowledge the course is designed to fulfill.
The course fulfills the criteria for the Analyzing Social Structures (SS) Area of Knowledge and Inquiry.
With careful attention directed at the problems, limitations and ongoing need to rethink various
paradigms for analyzing what “society” is and how it should be studied, the course addresses the ways
power dynamics, structural and institutional forces, and cultural systems shape the creation of social
scientific research plans and agendas.
January 2008
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HSS 200: Social Sciences and Society; Contact: Kristin Celello, kristin.celello@qc.cuny.edu; Approved by Kristin Celello
and Elizabeth Hendrey, January 25, 2010
The course also emphasizes the European Traditions (ET) Context of Experience. It introduces students
to the specific history of the rise of the social sciences, treating it as a distinct intellectual tradition of the
so-called “West.”
In addition, a Perspectives course will, where appropriate to its discipline(s) and subject matter:
4-5. Be global or comparative in approach and consider diversity and the nature and construction
of forms of difference.
The course is comparative in several senses: it compares social scientific approaches and methods. It
compares scholarship on different geographic areas, and that on different historical periods. Different
sections may emphasize one axis of comparison more than another, depending upon the backgrounds
and experience of the instructor.
HSS200 deals directly with diversity and difference, placing them at the center of an analysis of the
production and reproduction of social scientific knowledge.
Coursework will engage students in active inquiry (see examples below in Section III).
Criteria Checklist
Please be sure that your justification addresses all three criteria 1-3, below. For criteria 4-8, please
check all that apply and discuss these in your justification.
A Perspectives course must:
1. Be designed to introduce students to how
a particular discipline creates knowledge
and understanding.
2. Position the discipline(s) within the
liberal arts and the larger society.
3. Address the goals defined for the
particular Area(s) of Knowledge the course
is designed to fulfill.
In addition, a Perspectives course will, where
appropriate to its discipline(s) and subject matter:
X 4. Be global or comparative in approach.
X 5. Consider diversity and the nature and
construction of forms of difference.
X 6. Engage students in active inquiry.
X 7. Reveal the existence and importance of
change over time.
8. Use primary documents and materials.
January 2008
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HSS 200: Social Sciences and Society; Contact: Kristin Celello, kristin.celello@qc.cuny.edu; Approved by Kristin Celello
and Elizabeth Hendrey, January 25, 2010
III. Course Materials, Assignments, and Activities
Please provide an annotated list of course readings and descriptions of major assignments or exams for
the course, as well as distinctive student activities that will engage students in working toward the
course goals discussed in the course description and/or justification.
Please include the author and title for each reading or text, along with a short description providing
information about how the reading will contribute to course goals.
Course Materials:
A broad range of course material is appropriate for this course. The texts described below exemplify the
kinds of material that could be used to meet course objectives. This is hardly an exhaustive list.
Flyvbjerg, Bent. 2001. Making Social Science Matter. New York: Cambridge University Press.
This book argues that social scientists in the western tradition have come to rely too heavily on
the methods and philosophy of the natural sciences. Flyvbjerg additionally asserts that social scientists
should be unafraid to apply their research, however incomplete, to “real world” situations. This reading
allows students to understand the distinctions between the natural and social sciences and also asks them
to contemplate what it means for a discipline to “matter” in the twenty-first century, whether or not they
agree with the author’s assessment of the situation.
Luker, Kristin. 2008. Salsa Dancing into the Social Sciences: Research in an Age of Info-Glut.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
This book offers students an introduction to recent philosophical developments in the social
sciences and gives them practical advice about how to pursue research in their chosen fields (essential
for students who will be completing thesis projects as part of the HSS curriculum). Luker’s elucidation
of the distinction between a “research interest” and a viable “research project” is particularly useful for
HSS 200 students as they conduct their own inquiries into major social sciences debates and /or
controversies.
Smith, Mark. 1994. Social Science in the Crucible: The American Debate over Objectivity and
Purpose. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
This book examines the transformation of the American social sciences from their origins in
moral reform to the assent of objectivity as the ultimate goal in research the early to mid-twentieth
century. By focusing on the biographies of key figures such as Robert Lynd and Charles Beard, the
book asks students to think about the relationship between personal experience and professional
trajectories. Furthermore, students learn to that the social sciences are not monolithic and fixed in the
present, but rather exist as a series of competing ideas with distinct histories.
Wolf, Eric. 1982. Europe and the People without History. Berkeley, CA: University of California
Press.
This book tells the history of the social sciences from the late 19th century to the present. By
highlighting the political and economic connections of those who were ignored, exploited and
marginalized by European colonialism to European nation-states, it also offers an interesting alternative
January 2008
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HSS 200: Social Sciences and Society; Contact: Kristin Celello, kristin.celello@qc.cuny.edu; Approved by Kristin Celello
and Elizabeth Hendrey, January 25, 2010
to mainstream historical accounts of the last 500 years of world history. It is particularly useful in
helping students to rethink their assumptions about European or Western superiority.
Major Assignments
Reaction papers. Students write short (2-3 pages, double-spaced) papers in response to guest lectures by
social scientists. The papers answer the following question: What aspects of the social world does the
guest speaker investigate, how does he or she do it, and what do you find unique or interesting about his
or her approach? As the semester progresses, the papers should compare a speaker’s frameworks,
methods and sources of “data” to that of other speakers.
Research Paper: Students produce an account (6-8 page draft and a 10-12 page final paper) in which
they historicize and analyze a major social scientific controversy or debate. Debates abound in the
social sciences. Since the 1960s, for example, scholars have debated whether inner city residents are
poor because they live in a “culture of poverty” or because of changes in urban labor markets. There are
also controversies over professional and research ethics. In anthropology, for instance, Europe and the
People without History author Eric Wolf created a major controversy in the early 1970s by publishing
documents showing that anthropologists had engaged in secret intelligence gathering activities for the
U.S. and Thai governments during the Vietnam War. Students pick a controversy or debate and explain
what it tells us about academic knowledge and the politics of its production. To accomplish this, they
must do more than simply describe a controversy or debate. Instead, they must situate it in its broader
social and political context. Students additionally will present an oral presentation related to their
research paper.
January 2008
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HSS 200: Social Sciences and Society; Contact: Kristin Celello, kristin.celello@qc.cuny.edu; Approved by Kristin Celello
and Elizabeth Hendrey, January 25, 2010
Perspectives courses must be recertified every five years, and we are seeking ideas for how to best carry
out this assessment. What forms of evidence that the course is meeting its goals as a Perspectives course
would be appropriate to collect for this course during the next five years? How would you prefer
assessment to be conducted? How might evidence of effective teaching and student learning be
collected and evaluated?
The Director of the Honors in the Social Sciences Program will coordinate assessment activities
with the Dean’s office. Syllabi will be collected and reviewed periodically to assess the extent to
which they continue to meet the criteria for Perspectives courses. We will collect this information
and periodically submit a short report to the GEAC. Methods such as embedded assessment of
course assignments and classroom assessment will be used to determine the extent to which this
course is meeting the PLAS goals.
Furthermore, the Division has established for itself a comprehensive outcomes assessment
committee that is currently discussing various ways to collect and evaluate a wide variety of
evidence of effective teaching and student learning. As this committee makes recommendations,
we will integrate them into our own program evaluation activities.
January 2008
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HSS 200: Social Sciences and Society; Contact: Kristin Celello, kristin.celello@qc.cuny.edu; Approved by Kristin Celello
and Elizabeth Hendrey, January 25, 2010
V. Administration
What process will your department develop to oversee this course, suggest and approve changes, and
conduct assessment? Who will be in charge of this process? Also indicate whether the course will be
primarily taught by full-time or adjunct faculty, or by a combination of the two types of instructor.
HSS200 is taught exclusively by full-time faculty under the direction of the Director of the
Honors in the Social Sciences Program. The Director will work with the Dean’s office to devise a
teaching manual, based in large measure on this proposal, for distribution to all faculty teaching
this course. The manual will include sample syllabi as well. The Dean’s office will oversee all
administrative matters and evaluation protocols for its Perspective courses.
VI. Syllabus
Please attach a sample syllabus (or set of syllabi, for courses on variable topics or courses that will be
taught in variable formats).
Some resources to guide syllabus construction:

The Provost's page outlining guidelines for syllabi:
http://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/provost/Cur_stud/Syllabus expectations.htm

Sample syllabi for W courses, from Writing Across the Curriculum:
http://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/writing/wsyllabi.htm

Goals for Student Writing at Queens College:
http://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/writing/Goals.htm

Harvard’s Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, suggestions for syllabus planning:
http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k1985&pageid=icb.page29695

Lehman College’s Gen Ed Syllabi Project:
http://www.lehman.edu/lehman/programs/generaledu/gened_syllabi_project.html
Submit this completed form and a sample syllabus (or set of syllabi) by email to Eva Fernández
(eva.fernandez@qc.cuny.edu), Director, Center for Teaching and Learning.
January 2008
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