Sociology
Alexandra M. Hrycak
Social movements, political sociology. On sabbatical and leave 2005-06.
Michael Reay
Sociology of science.
Marc Schneiberg
Economic sociology and organizations.
Erich Steinman
Social movements, race and cultural politics, law and society, political sociology, American Indians, gender and sexuality.
William Tudor
Research methods. On leave spring 2006.
Sociology regards patterns of social relations as embedded in the
historical process and learned as customary behavior—as
institutional practices. Therefore, the sociological perspective is
closely linked to comparative historical and cross-cultural studies
of social institutions and to psychological studies of human
learning.
Sociological study is motivated by skepticism toward commonsense
explanations of social behavior. The sociologist transforms
conventional wisdom into questions that can be examined in a
disciplined, systematic way by asking: what is the evidence for
these propositions, under what conditions might they be confirmed,
and how might they be disconfirmed with contrary evidence?
The department strives to introduce students to alternative ways of
thinking and asking questions about sociocultural and interpersonal
phenomena. Those who are curious and puzzled about why and how
things in the social universe work as they do, who are willing to
be skeptical about the self-evident, obvious, and taken-for-granted
truths of common sense, and have a high tolerance for ambiguity
usually find our courses more interesting and challenging than
those searching for ultimate meanings or looking for the final,
absolute answers.
The department’s program contributes to a general education in the
arts and sciences by surveying sociology’s basic modes of thought
and strategies of inquiry. A vast amount of public and private
decision-making in contemporary society is based on social research
such as public policy evaluation; media, opinion, and marketing
surveys; census studies; and population analyses. To cope with life
in a modern society and to make independent judgments, an educated
citizen should have a critical understanding of what social science
research does to, for, and about him or her. Toward that end, many
sociology courses provide hands-on experience with modern social
research procedures.
To fulfill college or divisional distribution requirements,
students should enroll in Sociology 211, Introduction to Sociology,
followed by another course in the department. Upper-division
courses introduce students to the core fields and paradigmatic
issues of sociological theory and research.
Requirements for the Major
1. Sociology 211.
2. Sociology 311.
3. Sociology 470.
4. Any five additional units of sociology.
5. Junior qualifying examination. This requirement is satisfied by
submitting a paper analyzing two research monographs in an area of
substantive interest, preparatory to senior thesis work.
Instructions are available on request and in the sociology folder
on the courses server.
Recommended: Mathematics 141 is recommended and will apply to the
Group D requirement. Further work in mathematics and in other
fields in the Division of History and Social Sciences is strongly
recommended for students planning to continue their studies at the
graduate level or in professional schools.
