Intro readings etc.



Unit 1: The Power of Social Forces

Module #1: Welcome to Sociology

UndergraduateSociologyGraduates.Jobs_Download
  • Nathan Palmer’s 2014 blog post from Sociology in Focus entitled “What to Take From Your Sociology Class”:  http://web.archive.org/web/20170925030022/http://sociologyinfocus.com/2014/12/what-to-take-from-your-sociology-class/
  • Read the attached excerpts (see file link above) from two reports put together by the American Sociological Association. The first three pages are from data collected between November 2013 and January 2014 from a sample of 2012 graduates. The last five pages is from a sample of 2005 graduates and comes from data collected in 2005 about plans for the future and then again in early 2007 about what the graduates were actually doing. You can see in these tables the breakdown of occupational categories for sociology majors as well as what kinds of jobs undergraduate sociology students end up with after college.
  • Watch this 9.7 minute video “What is Sociology? Crash Course Sociology #1” at https://youtu.be/YnCJU6PaCio
    Note: Some people find that the presenter in the Crash Course videos speaks too fast. Others may find it difficult to pay attention without it being a little faster. Note that you can slow down or speed up how fast the audio is in the video. When you hover over the video, click on “Settings” (the gear icon), “Playback Speed,” and then select one or choose Custom to write in your own. 1.0 is the original speed. 0.5 would be half speed, 2.0 would be double speed.

Module #2: Systems Thinking

  • Johnson, Allan. 2014. Chapter One: The Forest, the Trees, and the One Thing.” Pages 7-30 in The Forest and the Trees: Sociology as Life, Practice, and Promise (3E). Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
  • Jones, Camara Phyllis. 2000. “Levels of Racism: A Theoretical Framework and a Gardener’s Tale.” American Journal of Public Health 90(8):1212-1215. https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdf/10.2105/AJPH.90.8.1212
  • Dillon, Michele. 2020. Excerpts from Chapter Two: Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), in Introduction to Sociological Theory: Theorists, Concepts, and Their Applicability to the Twenty-First Century (3E). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. 
    >Pages 77-81 (Start at the first paragraph in Chapter Two. Stop when you get to “Social Facts and Social Problems”)
    >Pages 83-102 (Start at “The Nature of Society.” Skip Box 2.1 Georg Simmel on page 90. Stop when you get to “Religion and the Sacred”)

Module #3: The Sociological Imagination

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  • PDF (see above) includes
  1. Excerpts (5 pgs.) from: Mills, C. Wright. 1959. “Chapter 1: The Promise.” Pp. 3-24 in The Sociological Imagination. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
  2. Excerpts (4 pgs.) from: Berger, Peter. 1963. Invitation to Sociology: A Humanistic Perspective. New York, NY: Anchor Books: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group.
  3. Excerpts (1 pg.) from: Collins, Randall. 1998. “The Sociological Eye and Its Blinders.” Contemporary Sociology (27)1:2-7.
  4. Excerpts (1 pg.) from: Feltey, Kathryn. 2012. “Doing Sociology to Make a Difference: Commitment, Values, and the Promised Land.” Sociological Focus 39(3):149-156.

Unit 2: Social Science Research

Module #4: Doing Sociology

Go to http://ori.hhs.gov/TheLab/TheLab.shtml and complete the online simulation.

Module #5: Sociology Lab

Unit 3: The Social Self: Social meaning and social interaction

Module #6: Culture as a Social Force


Module #7: The Social Construction of Reality

  • Dillon, Michele. 2020. “Phenomenology: Alfred Schutz, Peter Berger, and Thomas Luckmann.” Pages 282-292 in Introduction to Sociological Theory: Theorists, Concepts, and Their Applicability to the Twenty-First Century (3E). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
  • Rosenhan, David. 1973. “On Being Sane in Insane Places.” Science 179(4070):250-258. (And/or listen to this 29-minute BBC radio story, “The Pseudo-Patient Study,” available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b00lny48).
    Note: While Rosenhan’s article had a profound impact on social change, there are issues with the scientific integrity and ethics of his work, as uncovered by Susannah Cahalan in her 2019 book The Great Pretender. If you are interested (not required), check out this New York Times article about the book: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/27/books/review-great-pretender-susannah-cahalan.html or otherwise do a search for the book to read more about it or listen to an interview with the author.
  • Optional: Hoffman, Andrew. 2012. “Climate Science as Culture War.” Stanford Social Innovation Review Fall:30-37. Alternatively, Hoffman gave a 38-minute talk (an hour with Q&A) on the same subject matter that is available to watch as a video at https://youtu.be/jKtdkf1fo3c
  • Watch Sonia Shah’s 15-minute TED Talk from 2013, “3 reasons we still haven’t gotten rid of malaria,” at https://www.ted.com/talks/sonia_shah_3_reasons_we_still_haven_t_gotten_rid_of_malaria?language=en
  • A great example of social constructionism is this video clip (from a longer documentary called Busting Out) about the social construction of breasts as sexual.

Module #8: Society in self

Berger.SocialControlDownload

Module #9: Self in Society: Social Interaction

Unit 4: Social Inequality

Module #10: Social stratification, class

Module #11: Gender


Module #12: Race

Module #13: Theorizing Social Stratification & Social Change

AllyshipPacketDownload
  • Lee, Taeku. 2011. “Chapter 17. Collective Movements, Activated Opinion, and the Politics of the Extraordinary.” Pp. 257-272 in Sina Odugbemi and Taeku Lee’s (Eds.) Accountability through Public Opinion: From Inertia to Public Action, Washington, D.C.: The World Bank. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/2296
  • Meyer, David. 2003. “How social movements matter.” Contexts 2(4):30-35. Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1525/ctx.2003.2.4.30
  • Loeb, Paul Rogat. 2014. “Chapter 39: The Real Rosa Parks.” Pages 338-342 in Loeb’s The Impossible Will Take a Little While: perseverance and hope in troubled times. New York, NY: Basic Books.
  • Pellow, David Naguib and Robert J. Brulle. 2007. “Poisoning the Planet: The Struggle for Environmental Justice.” Contexts 6(1):37-41. Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1525/ctx.2007.6.1.37
  • Ken Hardy’s Tasks: https://artsmidwest.org/sites/default/files/KenHardyTasks_Handout.pdf
  • Allyship packet (See above attachment)
  • Watch these two 9-10 minute videos by Good Morning America, one of Dolores Huerta at  https://youtu.be/I3ZyUDAh4B0 and one of Judith Heumann at  https://youtu.be/b4LEIk7eQ8U.

Unit 5: Survey & Synthesis

Module #14: Survey of Sociology

Module #15: Survey, Synthesis

Module #16: Wrap-up, Final Exam

Other Readings I don’t use now but used to:

Gloria Steinem’s 1978 article from Ms. Magazine, If Men Could Menstruate

Nyseth, Hollie, Sarah Shannon, Kia Heise, and Suzy Maves McElrath. 2011. “Embedded Sociologists.” Contexts Spring:44-50.

Persell, Caroline. 1990. “Doing Social Research.” From: Persell, Caroline Hodges. 1990. “Doing Social Research.” Pp. 26-36 in Understanding Society: An Introduction to Sociology. 3rd ed. New York , NY : Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. Available at: http://www.asanet.org/sites/default/files/savvy/introtosociology/Documents/Persell%20Methods%20Reading11.htm

Lareau, Annette. 2002. “Invisible Inequality: Social Class and Childrearing in Black Families and White Families.” American Sociological Review 67(5):747-776.

Gaventa, John. 1995. “Citizen Knowledge, Citizen Competence and Democracy Building.” The Good Society 5(3):28-35.

Alvarado, Lorriz Anne. 2010. “Dispelling the Meritocracy Myth: Lessons for Higher Education and Student Affairs Educators.” The Vermont Connection 31:10-20.

Ganz, Marshall. 2011. “Public Narrative, Collective Action, and Power.” Pages 273-289 (Chapter 18) in Odugbemi, Sina and Taeku Lee (Eds.), Accountability Through Public Opinion: From Inertia to Public Action. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank, Washington, DC

Love, Barbara. 1984. “Developing a Liberatory Consciousness.” Pp. 470-474 in Readings for Diversity and Social Justice, edited by M. Adams. L. Bell, and P. Griffin. New York, NY:Routledge.