Tues. January 9 – Course Introduction Thurs. January 11 – The Sociological Imagination: Chambliss “The Mundanity of Excellence” Tues. January 16 –The Sociological Imagination, cont. & Structure vs. Agency: Guns, Germs and Steel Prologue (13-25) and Chapter 10 Thurs. January 18 – Humans as Social Creatures: Kvisto and Pittman 2001 “Dramaturgical Society” Tues. January 23 – Functionalist Theory: Gans “Uses of the Underclass in America” Thurs. January 25 – Conflict Theory Wright “Class Analysis: Parable of the Shmoo (pages 1-15)” and intro to “Real Utopias” Tues. January 30 – Gathering and Analyzing Data: Best, “Telling the Truth about Damned Lies and Statistics” & Introduction from Wade (pages 7-26) Thurs. February 1 – American Hookup Discussion: Wade (Chapters 1 & 2) Tues. February 6 – Exam 1; In-Class Section 2: Social Institutions *** Between now and 3/13, make sure to read and take notes on Wade (Chapters 3-7) *** Thurs. February 8 – Meritocracy: McNamee and Miller “The American Dream” & Rivera “Guess Who Doesn’t Fit in at Work” Tues. February 13 – Meritocracy, cont. & Political Economy: Kenworthy “Tax Myths” Thurs. February 15 – Schools: Downey & Gibbs “How Schools Really Matter” Tues. February 20 – Religion: Putnam and Campbell “Religiosity in America: The Historical Backdrop” Thurs. February 22 – Family: Coontz “The Way We Never Were: Defining the Family Crisis” Tues. February 27 – Crime/Criminal Justice System: Chambliss “The Saints and the Roughnecks” and Gunderman “The Incarceration Epidemic” Thurs. March 1 – Power and Social Control, featuring Media: Shearing and Stenning “From the Panopticon to Disney” Tues. March 6 – No Class; Spring Break
March 8 – No Class; Spring Break Tues. March 13 – American Hookup Discussion: Wade (should have read chapters 3-7 by today) Thurs. March 15 – Exam 2; In-Class Tues. March 20 – In Class Documentary: ‘Food Chains’ Section 3: Stratification *** Between now and 4/24, make sure to read and take notes on Wade (Chapters 8 on) *** Thurs. March 22 – Social Class: Lareau “Concerted Cultivation and the Accomplishment of Natural Growth” and Wealth: Shapiro “Wealth” from Pathways Magazine Tues. 27 – Poverty: View “The Raising of America”, Part 1 (link on Moodle) and read Rank “Rethinking American Poverty” Thurs. March 29 – No Class; Professor Merry out of town Tues. 3 – Gender Socialization: Messner “Barbie Girls versus Sea Monsters” Thurs. April 5 – No Class; Annual Meeting of the Southern Sociological Society. Assignment: Read Epstein “Great Divides: The Cultural, Cognitive, and Social Bases of the Global Subordination of Women” and submit typed response to quiz prompt Tues. April 10 – No Class; Furman Engaged; View ‘Race: The Power of an Illusion Part 1 (link on Moodle) Thurs. April 12 – Racial Inequalities & The Social Construction of Race: Waters “Optional Ethnicities” & Take the Implicit Association Test (IAT). Go to https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/ and choose “Project Implicit Social Attitudes.” Then select ‘Take a Test in the top menu bar and complete the test on “Race IAT”. Then read the Frequently Asked Questions document (). With the FAQ in mind, write a 200-word typed paper (bring this to class—it will count for a quiz) answering the question “Do you think the test tells us something important about race in modern society?” Tues. April 17 – How Race Still Matters: View ‘Race: The Power of an Illusion’ Part 3 & write a typed paper in response to the directions/prompts about residential segregation using the link provided on Moodle (counts for a quiz grade) Thurs. April 19 – What Do We Do Now? Francis and Bakehorn “On (not) practicing what we preach” & Gladwell “Small Change”