Sociology – Senior Seminar
(SOCY 406-002)
Fall 2015
Tuesday // Thursday, 12:30pm - 1:45pm, Temple 2221
Professor:
Jesse Goldstein, PhD
Founders Hall, 827 West Franklin St, Office 205
E-mail: jgoldstein2@vcu.edu
Office Hours: W 3:00pm-5:00pm and by appt.
Teaching Asst:
Sean Doody
Founders Hall, 827 West Franklin St, Office 202
E-mail: doodyst@vcu.edu
Office Hours: Thursday 2-4pm
COURSE WEBSITE: http://rampages.us/goldstein
Course Overview: Congratulations! Enrollment in this course signifies near completion
of your sociology degree! This senior seminar will be a chance for you to develop your
personal interest in sociology while actively collaborating with your peers as a
community of learners. I expect us all to learn from and with one another. As the
instructor, my goal in this class is not to stand in front of the room and ‘teach’ you
anything, but to help facilitate an active and exciting learning environment in which each
of you can follow your sociological imagination in new and exciting ways. I want you to
leave this course feeling confident in your ability to use a sociological analysis to shed
light on the world we live in and to make this world a better place.
I assume you all are coming into this class with a strong theoretical and methodological
foundation upon which we can build a more nuanced understanding of the practice of
sociology. Though all of you will be engaged in your own individual research projects,
together we will be asking ourselves questions about what sociology is, what it can (and
can’t) do, and how we can apply sociological insights to real-world problems and
discussions. In other words, we are going to focus not only on becoming social scientists,
but also on becoming informed citizen-scholars.
This course is almost entirely student directed. In the first part of the course we are going
to explore different ways to engage sociologically with social issues that matter to each of
us. In the second part, each of you will develop one sociological question into a
manageable research project, and you will “do” sociology.
All of you will complete a capstone research project. The final format of this project can
take any number of forms, from a traditional academic research paper to a website or a
video (we will agree on the format ahead of time). I will encourage you all to be creative
with your work, and to figure out the best way to apply your research in ways that can
have a meaningful social impact.
Readings:
The majority of readings we do over the course of the term will be assigned by members
of the class – as you’ll see below, the first half of the class entails groups of students
presenting an array of sociological analyses about a relevant social or political issue.
There may be a few readings beyond this, but for the most part this is not a reading
intensive course. It is a research-intensive course.
Assignments:
There are four assignments you will be asked to complete over the course of the term
First Assignment: Learning about our community of learners (40 points)
We are going to begin the class with a collective sociological investigation of each other.
I want us to understand what sociology even means to each of us individually and who
we are as a community of learners. For this assignment we will:
- Collectively develop a survey that we will administer to one another.
- Collectively develop an interview protocol that we will each use to interview
two classmates.
- Collectively develop an ethnographic project that we will each conduct
fieldwork for.
Together, we will discuss what sorts of conclusions we might be able to draw from this
sort of research. At the conclusion of the assignment you will turn in:
-
(30 Points) Field notes from the two interviews and one ethnographic field
work session that you conduct
(10 Points) A brief assessment of the exercise, including some ideas about
how you would tailor each of these projects to answer a specific research
question. If you were to do re-do this exercise or something similar. Would
you change the study population? The location? The survey questions? The
interview protocol?
Second Assignment: Reading the world - Developing our sociological imagination
(50 points)
The second project is a group exercise. The class will be broken into research groups.
Each group will be responsible for leading class discussion for a day. With your group
you will find something that’s happing in the world – a news item, an event, a media
issue – and you will present it to the class as a topic for sociological analysis. You will
lead our class discussion about the issue, helping us focus on a sociological critique of
whatever it is that you’re presenting. You will give us at least 4 different examples of
sociological research that is related to the topic we’re discussing, explaining to us how
these different researchers went about investigating this issue. What methods did they
use? What questions did they ask? How intensive was their research process? Would you
have done it differently? Are there problems with their approach? Are there things you
are specifically interested in mimicking? You will help us, as a class, brainstorm ways in
which further research about this topic might be conducted, both at a pie-in-the-sky level,
and possibly also in terms of what student(s) might be capable of doing as a capstone
project.
Requirements for the assignment:
1. What is the current event/media issue?
2. What is the sociological question that you want to use this event/issue to analyze?
3. How have sociologists researched this topic in different ways?
a. Show us at least one example of a study using quantitative data.
b. Show us at least one example of a historical and/or theoretical
examination of the topic.
c. Show us at least one example of a qualitative and/or ethnographic
examination of the topic.
4. Help us understand what each of these research methods is, and is not, able to
accomplish.
5. Give us some ideas about further research you could envision being done. What
sorts of questions would it ask? What sorts of methods would it use?
Initial idea and bibliography (10 points): One week prior to the day you present in class,
your group will send me links to the issue/current event that you want to present about,
along with an initial bibliography of potential sociological research to consider using in
your presentation: a minimum of 10 sources, properly cited. I will reply with some
feedback that I expect you to incorporate into your presentation and analysis.
Links to Media Event/Issue you will be analyzing (10 points): Two days prior to your
presentation, your group will post a blog post to the course site. This will be a very short
post, with links to at least one – but preferably two or three short articles or examples of
the current event/issue that your group will be discussing. You will also put your final
bibliography on this post (modified according to any suggestions that I offer after the first
stage of the project.
Leading discussion (25 points): The day of class, your group will be responsible for
leading class discussion. This does not mean you are expected to give a formal
presentation – only that you are expected to be prepared to guide class discussion – to
have thought through some interesting discussion questions, to be prepared to lead
conversation towards issues that you want to cover, and to generally make sure that all of
us learn something during the session.
This is what I expect every presentation to cover:
1. What is the current event/media issue?
2. What is the sociological question that you want to use this event/issue to analyze?
3. How have sociologists researched this topic in different ways?
a. Show us at least one example of a study using quantitative data.
b. Show us at least one example of a historical and/or theoretical
examination of the topic.
c. Show us at least one example of a qualitative and/or ethnographic
examination of the topic.
4. Help us understand what each of these research methods is, and is not, able to
accomplish.
5. Give us some ideas about further research you could envision being done. What
sorts of questions would it ask? What sorts of methods would it use?
Group participation, peer and self-assessments (5 points): At the end of the assignment, I
will ask you to assess how your group worked together.
Third Project: Data Analysis – Senior Exit Survey (60 points)
We are going to continue refining our senior exit survey – and we are also going to begin
to work with the data that’s already been collected. In class you will be introduced to the
data set (and the survey form) that we have begun, and in small groups you will be
responsible for finding some way to pull meaning full information out of the data. This
will involve focusing on a small set of variables and trying to see how they interact with
one another.
I expect each group to present a well-formatted, well illustrated analysis of the data,
supported by any necessary graphs, tables or charts. Assignments should be emailed to
me as a word document that can be printed out and shared with fellow students.
Fourth Project: Major Research Project (150 points)
Our main focus for the term will be your individual major research projects. Each of you
will develop a small research project over the course of the term, getting a taste for what
it is like to conceptualize and implement your own sociological research. From the very
first day of class we will be gearing discussion towards this project, as we learn what
research methods are best able to answer what research questions, and as we discuss what
it means to turn a general area of interest into a targeted, manageable research question
that we can begin to answer through data collection and analysis. In order to make the
project somewhat manageable, I’ve broken it up into a series of stages, which you will
turn in over the course of the semester, allowing numerous chances for me to give you
feedback and help you refine your work. The stages are as follows:
Topical Overview and Preliminary Literature Review (20 points)
Draft: Research Question and Proposal For Data Collection (10 points)
Draft: Introduction, historical and theoretical context and literature Review (20 points)
Draft: Methods Section (10 points)
Draft: Results and Analysis (20 points)
Individual Research Meeting (10 points)
Poster or Media Presentation of Research (20 points)
Final Draft of completed research paper (50 points)
Final bibliography: 10 points
Final introduction, historical and theoretical context and literature review: 20
points
Final Methods, results, analysis and conclusion: 20 points
Fourth Graded Assignment: Class participation (50 points)
This is a seminar that will require your active participation. That not only means regular
attendance, and completing assignments in a timely fashion, but also coming to class
ready and willing to participate. Your grade for class participation will be a reflection of
the energy and effort that you put into the class, as subjectively assessed by me. If you
are ever worried about your class participation grade, please feel free to email me.
Attendance Policy:
I expect you to attend class regularly, though I understand when other obligations get in
the way. Please let me know ahead of time if you are unable to make it to class. Missing
two or less class sessions won’t negatively affect your grade. Missing between 3 and 5
sessions is likely to drop your participation grade significantly. If you miss more than 5
sessions without talking to me prior, I reserve the right to fail you in the class.
Grading:
Each assignment is worth a different amount of points, but here is a general
description of the grading scale that I use. For a 20 point assignment just
multiply this scale by two, for a 30 point assignment multiply it by 3.
IMPORTANT: Though much of your work is going to be done in groups, you will
still receive an individual grade for group work.
3-4 points out of 10 = D
The assignment was handed in, most formal obligations met, but the work shows
clear conceptual gaps, flaws and or omissions. There is an overall lack of
comprehension, clarity and depth to the work. It is possible that this assignment
is totally off-target or basically just paraphrases material found on the internet,
without adding much of one’s own analysis or synthesis.
5-6 points out of 10 = C
The assignment was completed, all formal obligations met, but the work lacks
depth, clarity, and/or a demonstration of comprehension. Grasp of conceptual
material and core arguments is not clearly on display, and there may even be a
few mis-interpretations of key ideas. Research and preparation are either
insufficient, or insufficiently integrated into the final product, which does not
display much original analysis or synthesis of the ideas presented.
7-8 points out of 10 = B
The assignment was completed, all formal obligations met. The work shows a
decent grasp of core concepts and is clearly presented. The author(s) begin to
develop their own perspective on the material in question, and is/are able to
articulate their ideas, and make it clear that not only have they done a fair
amount of research and preparation, but that this work is on display in the final
product.
9-10 out of 10 = A
Not only was the assignment completed, with all formal obligations met, but
there is a sophisticated engagement with core concepts that is clearly articulated.
The author(s) is/are able to demonstrate critical and creative insights through
their work. To get an A, the author(s) will show that they are able and willing to
take risks with the assignment and with their ideas – pushing themselves to
draw their own informed conclusions and to develop their own critical analyses,
building off a nuanced understanding of the materials we discuss in class, and
the additional research they conduct.
Total points available: 350
A: 315 points or higher
B: 275 points or higher
C: 225 points or higher
D: 175 points or higher
IMPORTANT PEASE NOTE: If you got all “3’s” on your assignments (which
I’ve classified as “D” above - you would not get enough points to pass this
course. In order to pass you need to have a minimum average of “5” over all the
assignments – which would total 175 points). That means you cannot just get by
with mediocre work and still pass this class – at some point, on at least one or
two assignments, you will have had to have done at least average or above
average work.
Technology Policy
Unless you are told otherwise (by me) my general policy is to keep the classroom
free from devices. All of them. I will ask you to respect this rule - as I do it for the
benefit of our shared classroom experience. Not adhering to this rule will
negatively affect your class participation grade.
Course Schedule
1a.) Thursday August 20 (First Class)
Introduction to the class, begin developing questions and strategies for first research
project.
Research Roundtable: we will begin work shopping individual research interests.
2a.) Tuesday August 25
Finalize protocols for first assignment. Discuss interview and ethnographic strategies.
Assign interviews.
Research Roundtable: we will workshop individual research interests. Everyone needs to
be prepared to discuss some ideas they have for a possible research focus.
2b.) Thursday August 27
Introduction to Reading the world: Either Sean or I will lead this first reading the world
session. We will warm ourselves up to the process and discuss strategies for facilitating
large group discussions. We will assign groups for this assignment
3a.) Tuesday Sept 1
Use class period to conduct (some) interviews
3b.) Thursday Sept 3
Fieldnotes are due prior to class. We will discuss the process and our findings during
class. Reading the world groups will have some time to meet.
Reading the world: Initial idea and bibliography due: ALL GROUPS!
4a.) Tuesday Sept 8
Reading the World: Group 1
4b.) Thursday Sept 10
Reading the World: Group 2 and Group 3
5a.) Tuesday Sept 15
Reading the World: Group 4 and Group 5
Out of class: Individual research meetings
5b.) Thursday Sept 17
Reading the World: Group 6
Workshop: Research Strategies at the Library
Out of class: Individual research meetings
6a.) Tuesday Sept 22- BIKE RACE
6b.) Thursday Sept 24 – BIKE RACE
7a.) Tuesday Sept 29
In class: work-shopping our research question, methods and strategies
7b.) Thursday Oct 1
In class: work-shopping our research question, methods and strategies
DUE: Topical Overview and Preliminary Literature Review (20 points)
8a.) Tuesday Oct 6
In-class work session: Developing a research plan
DUE: Draft Research Question and Proposal For Data Collection (10 points)
8b.) Thursday Oct 8
In-class workshop: Writing a literature review and introduction
8b.) Tuesday Oct 13
In-class Work session: Getting our research started
Discuss assignment: Data Analysis: Senior Exit Survey
9a.) Thursday Oct 15
In-class Work session: Senior Exit Survey data analysis
9b.) Tuesday Oct 20
No Formal Meeting
10a.) Thursday Oct 22
In-class workshop: Writing a literature review and introduction
Due: Data Analysis: Senior Exit Survey
10b.) Tuesday Oct 27
DUE: Draft Introduction, historical and theoretical context and literature Review (20
points)
11a.) Thursday Oct 29
In class: check-in on research status
11b.) Tuesday Nov 3
In class: check-in on research status
DUE: Draft Methods Section (10 points)
12a.) Thursday Nov 5
No formal meeting
Individual research meetings
12b.) Tuesday Nov 10
No formal meeting
Individual research meetings
13a.) Thursday Nov 12
In Class workshop: Writing results, analysis and conclusion
13b.) Tuesday Nov 17
In Class workshop: Revisiting our introduction, theoretical context and literature review
14a.) Thursday Nov 19
In class workshop: bringing it all together
DUE: Updated bibliography (10 points)
14b.) Tuesday Nov 24
In Class workshop: presenting our research (posters, presentations, etc.)
DUE: Draft Results, Analysis and Conclusion (20 points)
15a.) Thursday Nov 26 – NO CLASS
15b.) Tuesday Dec 1
In class: peer-editing workshop, poster/media development workshop
In class: evaluating our work, thinking about the future
16a.) Thursday Dec 3 – Last Class
In class presentations of research
DUE: Poster or Media Presentation of Research (20 points)
16b.) April 30 - May 8: final exams
DUE: Final Draft of completed research paper (20 points)
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*Content Last updated July 2014