Status, Power, and Social Justice
Ashley Rondini
arondini@brandeis.edu
Fall 2006
T, Th 5:00-6:30 PM
This course is designed to provide students with an introduction to several key principles of
sociological analysis. This course represents the first half of a year-long curriculum designed
to provide students with the opportunity to think critically about issues of status, power, and
social justice. We will be using the ‘sociological imagination’ to understand:



the ways in which individual-level decisions, attitudes, and actions are informed by,
and also inform, broader social forces;
the mechanisms through which systemic/institutionalized power structures
reproduce societal inequalities; and
the processes through which individuals and groups may either act to sustain status
quo power dynamics, or challenge social institutions and systems to effect change in
the interest of social justice.
Required Reading:
There is a significant amount of reading required for this course. The following books are
required, and will also be on reserve in the library. All additional required readings, as listed
in the syllabus, will be posted on WebCT.


Susan Ferguson (ed.) Mapping the Social Landscape, McGraw Hill, 2002
Beverly Daniel Tatum Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the
Cafeteria?, Basic Books, 1997.
The readings listed for each date on the syllabus should be completed prior to class on that
day, so that students may meaningfully participate in class discussions and activities.
Course Requirements:
 Class Participation (25%): Consistent attendance will be a critical component of
success in this course. In addition, students will be expected to come to class prepared
to meaningfully participate in discussions and activities, having completed all of the
required reading for that day.

Short Papers (50%): There will be five short written assignments. The papers will be
worth a total of 50% of the student’s final grade. Papers should be typed, doublespaced, in 12 point font, one-inch margins and handed in at the beginning of class on
the listed due date. The first short paper will be 2-3 pages in length, plus a
bibliography, and all papers after the first will be 4-5 pages in length, plus a
bibliography. Papers will be evaluated primarily with regard to the student’s ability
to demonstrate knowledge of key concepts in each section by applying course
readings to specific issues as assigned.
1

Final Exam: (25%): The final exam for this course will be given in class. This will be
an open-note exam which will involve application of the key concepts that we have
explored over the course of the semester.
**Note: If you are a student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis University and wish
to have an accommodation made for you in this class, please see me immediately.**
Course Outline and Readings
Section 1: Basic Principles of Sociological Analysis
Key Concepts: power; structure vs. agency; intersectionality; Fundamental Attribution Error,
intersection of biography and history; “mindful skepticism”; “sociological imagination”
Thursday, August 31st
Course Overview
Introduction: What is Sociology?
Tuesday, September 5th
Ferguson, Mapping the Social Landscape
 Chapter 1 (Mills, “The Promise of Sociology”)
 Chapter 4 (Schwalbe, “Finding Out How the Social World Works”)
Section 2: Primary Groups, Solidarity, and Identity
Key Concepts: group identity and solidarity, unequal power between groups, privilege, power in
institutions, mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion, constructing “otherness”, incentives and
disincentives/rewards and punishments, domination and subordination
Thursday, September 7th
Ferguson, Mapping the Social Landscape
 Chapter 5 (Haney, Banks, and Zimbardo, “Interpersonal Dynamics in a
Simulated Prison”)
Film: Quiet Rage
Tuesday, September 12th
On WebCT:
 Zimbardo, “Power Turns Good Soldiers Into Bad Apples”
 Jean Baker Miller, “Domination and Subordination”
Presentation: Interview with Craig Haney/Abu Ghraib Slide Show
Thursday, September 14th **(Assignment #1 Distributed)**
Ferguson, Mapping the Social Landscape
 Chapter 15 (Adler and Adler, “Peer Power: Clique Dynamics Among
School Children”)
2
Section 3: “Othered” Bodies and Minds: Health, Illness, Disability, and Stigma
Key Concepts: labels, processes of stigmatization, management of stigma, deviance, normalization,
“sick role”
Tuesday, September 19th
On WebCT:
 Goffman, “Stigma and Social Identity”
Thursday, September 21st **(Assignment # 1 Due)**
On WebCT:
 Shapiro, “You Just Don’t Understand”, & “Tiny Tims, Supercrips, and
the End of Pity”
Tuesday, September 26th
Ferguson Mapping the Social Landscape
 Chapter 19 (Rosenhan, “On Being Sane in Insane Places”)
 Chapter 47 (Parsons, “The Social Structure of Medicine”)
Thursday, September 28th **(Assignment #2 Distributed)**
Ferguson Mapping the Social Landscape
 Chapter 49 (Karp, “Illness and Identity”)
 Chapter 20 (McLorg & Taub, “Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia: The
Development of Deviant Identities”)
Section 4: The Social Construction of Gender & Sexuality
Key Concepts:socialization, binary social constructions; sex as biological/gender as social; gender and
privilege; heterosexism/homophobia and privilege; the reproduction of gender through social
institutions and the media
Thursday, October 5th
Ferguson Mapping the Social Landscape
 Chapter 11 (Lorber, “Night To His Day: The Social Construction of
Gender”)
In-Class Activity: Act Like A Man/Act Like A Woman
Tuesday, October 10th **(Assignment #2 Due)**
On WebCT:
 Miedzien, “Beyond the Masculine Mystique”
Thursday, October 12th
Ferguson, Mapping the Social Landscape
 Chapter 12 (Messner, “Boyhood, Organized Sports, and the Construction
of Masculinities”)
Film: Tough Guise
3
Tuesday, October 17th **(Assignment #3 Distributed)**
On WebCT:
 Wolf, “The Beauty Myth”
Film: Still Killing Us Softly
Thursday, October 19th
Ferguson, Mapping the Social Landscape
 Chapter 9 (Kaw, “Opening Faces: The Politics of Cosmetic Surgery and
Asian American Women”)
On WebCT:
 Collins: “The Sexual Politics of Black Womanhood”
Tuesday, October 24th **(Assignment #3 Due)**
Ferguson, Mapping the Social Landscape
 Chapter 52 (Ferguson, “Bad Boys: Public Schools in the Making of Black
Masculinity”)
 Chapter 30 (Sadker and Sadker, “Failing at Fairness: Hidden Lessons”)
On WebCT:
 Stein, “No Laughing Matter: Sexual Harassment in K-12 Schools”
Thursday, October 26th **(Assignment # 4 Distributed)**
Ferguson, Mapping the Social Landscape
 Chapter 22 (Boswell and Spade, “Fraternities and Collegiate Rape
Culture: Why Are Some Fraternities More Dangerous Places for
Women?”)
On WebCT:
 Kokopeli And Lakey, “More Power Than We Want”
 Weinberg, “Conversations of Consent”
Tuesday, October 31st
On WebCT:
 Lenore Walker, “Myths and Reality”
Thursday, November 2nd
Ferguson Mapping the Social Landscape
 Chapter 53 (Stacey, “Gay and Lesbian Families are Here”)
On WebCT:
 Ruth Hubbard, “The Social Construction of Sexuality”
 Pharr, “Homophobia: A Weapon of Sexism”
Section 5: The Social Construction of Race, Part I: Identity, Ideology, and Images
Key Concepts: racialization; race cognizance; power evasive/”colorblind” racial discourse; essentialism;
white privilege
Tuesday, November 7th**(Assignment #4 Due)**
4
Ferguson, Mapping the Social Landscape
 Chapter 31 (Omi and Winant, “Racial Formations in the United States”)
Tatum, Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?
 “The Complexity of Identity”
Film: Race: The Power of An Illusion, Part I
Thursday, November 9th
On WebCT:
 Yamato, “Racism: Something About the Subject Makes it Hard to Name”
Tatum, Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?
 “Defining Racism”
Tuesday, November 14th **(Assignment # 5 Distributed)**
Tatum, Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?
 “Critical Issues in Latino, American Indian, and Asian Pacific American
Identity”
Film: Skin Deep
Thursday, November 16th
On WebCT:
 McIntosh, “Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”
 Doane, “Rethinking Whiteness Studies”
Tatum, Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?
 “The Development of White Identity”
Tuesday, November 21st
On WebCT:
 Collins: “Mammies, Matriarchs, and Other Controlling Images”
 Cofer, “The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria”
 Staples, “Just Walk On By”
Tuesday, November 28th**(Assignment #5 Due)**Final Exam Study Guide Distributed**
Ferguson, Mapping the Social Landscape
 Chapter 29 (Espiritu, “The Racial Construction of Asian American
Women and Men”)
On WebCT:
 Shaheen, “TV Arabs”
Film: Slaying the Dragon
Thursday, November 30th
Film: The Color of Fear
Tuesday, December 5th
** In Class Final Exam**
5