Sociology 347
Ron Lembo
Fall, 2011
Amherst College
Sociology from the Margins
The idea of sociology from the margins fixes attention on the marginal side of things, where critical discourse
(of various kinds) reveals displaced and subjugated knowledge. This enables us, as Foucault put it, “to see the
dividing lines in the confrontations and struggles” that the “functional arrangements and systematic
organizations” of modern societies’ normalizing power are designed to mask.1 In this discourse, difference,
not commonality, is arguably the definitive social construct. This is challenging, indeed, for a conventional
sociology which presumes commonality as socially foundational and absorbs difference in its name as the
basis for scientific knowledge.
Social marginalization and its critical discourse emerge from a modern social context distinguished by a
normalizing brand of power. Normalization, according to Foucault, is an incorporative (as opposed to
exclusionary) power operating, among other places, inside the individual, “capturing” experience by doubling
it to generate performative differences between “abnormal” and “normal” which serve simultaneously as
markers of cultural legitimation. Keeping scientism at arm’s length, a reflexive sociology is cognizant of
normalizing power as it aligns itself with critical discourse, working from disciplinary margins to document a
sociality of subjugated knowledge and carry out its own unmasking of power effects.
Readings
Readings marked with an asterisk will be distributed in class and/or available on electronic reserve.
Alexander, Michelle. 2010. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: The New
Press.
Baldwin, James. 1956. Giovanni’s Room. New York: Delta Books.
Chang, Jeff. 2005. Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation. New York: Picador
Goffman, Erving. 1963. Stigma: Notes on the Management of a Spoiled Identity. New York: Touchstone Books.
Morrison, Toni. 1990. Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press.
All books are on reserve at Frost Library and available for purchase at Amherst Books, 8 Main Street,
Amherst.
1Foucault,
Michel. 2003. “Society Must Be Defended:” Lectures at the College De France, 1975-76. New York: Picador, p. 7.
Course Requirements
There will be three shorter essays (5-7 pages each) which address directly the issues raised in readings and
discussion at different points in the semester and a longer paper (10-12 pages) in which you deal with the
course material in a comprehensive manner. I expect your written work to provide evidence that you are
thinking through the course material in a critical manner and developing your own sociological way of seeing
things.
Attendance is required. If you miss more than one class because of an unexcused absence, the final grade
“ceiling” becomes “B+”. Further absences will incur additional penalties. Class participation is an integral
component of a successful seminar experience and my expectation is that you will participate consistently
over the course of the semester. In addition, you will be required to facilitate discussion of the reading
material at least once during the semester (perhaps more than once, depending on the size of the class and
our progress through the material). A good facilitator does the following: (1) identifies key concepts and
arguments in a text; (2) asks critical questions about those arguments; (3) makes connections to other course
material; and (4) promotes class discussion and the discovery of new ways of seeing things. Attendance and
participation contribute to the determination of your final grade.
Approximate Schedule
Weeks 1-3, September 6-20
Reading:
Goffman, Stigma.
Weeks 4-5, September 27 – October 4
Readings:
*Foucault, Michel. 2003. “Lecture one, 7 January, 1976” and “Lecture eleven, 17 March 1976.” “Society Must
Be Defended:” Lectures at the College De France, 1975-76. New York: Picador.
*Foucault, Michel. 2003. “Lecture one, 8 January, 1975” and “Lecture two, 15 January, 1975. Abnormal:
Lectures at the College De France, 1974-1975. New York: Picador.
*Foucault, Michel. 2006. “Lecture twelve, 6 February, 1974.” Psychiatric Power: Lectures at the College De France,
1973-1974.
Paper #1 due Friday, October 7
Week 6, October 18 (Mid-semester break is October 8-11)
Readings:
Morrison, Playing in the Dark.
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*Smith, Shawn Michelle. 2004. “Photography on the Color Line” and “Families of Undoubted
Respectability.” Photography on the Color Line: W.E.B. DuBois, Race, and Visual Culture. Durham, NC: Duke
University Press.
Week 7, October 25
Reading:
*Chauncey, George. 1994. “Trade, Wolves, and the Boundaries of Normal Manhood” and “The Fording of
Queer Identities and the Emergence of Heterosexuality in Middle-Class Culture.” Gay New York: Gender,
Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World 1890-1940. New York: Basic Books.
Week 8, November 1
Reading:
Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room.
Week 9, November 8
Reading:
*Allison, Dorothy. 1994. “A Question of Class,” “What Do We See? What Do We Not See?,” “Not as a
Stranger,” “Puritans, Perverts, and Feminists,” “Public Silence, Private Terror,” “Conceptual
Lesbianism,” “Talking to Straight People,” and “Myths and Images.” Skin: Talking about Sex, Class, and
Literature. Ithaca, NY: Firebrand Books.
*Flavin, Jeanne. 2008. “’Race Criminals’: Reproductive Rights in America” and “’Liars and Whiners’:
Incarcerated Women’s Ties to Their Children.” Our Bodies, Our Crimes: The Policing of Women’s Reproduction
in America. New York: New York University Press.
Paper #2 due Friday, November 11
Weeks 10-12, November 15-29 (Thanksgiving break is November 19-27)
Reading:
Alexander, The New Jim Crow.
Weeks 13-14, December 6-13
Reading:
Chang, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop.
Paper #3 due Friday, December 16
Comprehensive paper due Wednesday, December 21
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