Classes are small, with an enrollement limit of 30.
Sections typically meet two days a week and the course is taught in a class-discussion environment.
Since juniors and seniors do not register for this course, it represents an ideal opportunity for first and second-year students to get to know one another. Perhaps the most appealing aspect of SOC 101 is the character of sociology as a field of study. Students and scholars alike turn to sociology for answers to the most fundamental questions about the human condition, questions concerning the self and others, power and oppression, conformity and deviance, diversity and hegemony, stability and change. The teaching of introductory sociology at Smith is based on books and articles by twentieth-century sociologists rather than by general textbooks. Students engage the major ideas, studies, and discussion of social life as these have been framed by prominent scholars in the field.