Jun 02, 2024

Catalogue 2017-2018

Catalogue 2017-2018 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Course Descriptions

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Russian Studies: I. Introductory
	RUSS 171 - Russia and the Short Story (in English) Semester Offered: Fall 1 unit(s) In this course we read and discuss a number of classic short stories by such Russian masters of the genre as Gogol, Turgenev, Chekhov, Babel, and Olesha. Farida Tcherkassova. Satisfies college requirement for a Freshman Writing Seminar. Two 75-minute periods.
	RUSS 172 - Beyond the Looking Glass: Nonsense and Absurd in Russian and European Literature and Visual Arts (in English) Semester Offered: Spring 1 unit(s) This course investigates anti-rational movements in 20^th century literature and visual arts, including theatre and film, such as the Russian Alogism and Transrational (Beyond Mind) Language, DADA, Surrealism, Absurdist literature in Russia, and the French Theatre of the Absurd. The authors and artists include Andrei Bely, Franz Kafka, Aleksey Kruchenykh, Velimir Khlebnikov, Kazimir Malevich, Vassily Kandinsky, Marc Chagall, Daniil Kharms, Samuel Beckett, and Eugene Ionesco. We trace the connections between these developments and their 19^th century antecedents in the work of such masters of English Nonsense as Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll and also give special attention to the unsurpassed Russian absurdist genius Nikolai Gogol. Nikolai Firtich. Russian majors see RUSS 272 . Two 75-minute periods.
	RUSS 173 - Women in Russian Arts: The Power and The Glory Semester Offered: Spring 1 1 unit(s) This course is a survey of the major literary achievements by women writers in Russia and the Soviet Union. Women writers have made tremendous contributions to the Russian literary canon and continue to shape the trajectory of Russian literature to this day. The readings for this course cover major literary genres, including prose, poetry, memoir and drama from the nineteenth century to the present. Lectures and discussions explore questions of gender, genre and the socio-historical evolution of the female subject within the Russian literary canon. Farida Tcherkassova. Readings and lectures in English. Two 75-minute periods accompanied by film screenings.
	RUSS 182 - A Slap In the Face of Public Taste: Revolutionary Art in Russia 1910-1917 Semester Offered: Fall 0.5 unit(s) This course surveys the most turbulent and brilliant period in the development of Russian avant-garde’s literary and visual arts, preceding the political revolutions of 1917, which celebrate the one-hundredth anniversary this year. In English. Nikolai Firtich. First six-week course. Two 75-minute periods accompanied by film screenings.
	RUSS 183 - Nabokov Before “Lolita”: The Making of a Genius in the Age of Jazz and Surrealism. Semester Offered: Fall 0.5 unit(s) This course considers the novels and novellas of Vladimir Nabokov written during the 1920s and 1930s in a broad cultural context of the period. Nabokov became an international celebrity with the publication of Lolita (1955). The scandal and sensationalism aside, the book earned him the reputation as one of the most accomplished stylists in the English language. But in the decades before producing Lolita, Nabokov had had a brilliant literary career as a Russian émigré writer in Europe. This course approaches Nabokov’s pre-Lolita works through a comparison with the writings of Franz Kafka, Evelyn Waugh, Nathaniel West, and the art of Surrealism. The goal of the course is to explore the cultural atmosphere that helped shape Nabokov as we know him. Nikolai Firtich Second six-week course. Two 75-minute periods.
Russian Studies: II. Intermediate
	RUSS 210 - Intermediate Russian Semester Offered: Fall 1 unit(s) Review of the basics of grammar and analysis of more complex grammatical phenomena through the study of literary, historical, and newspaper texts, composition, and discussion. Farida Tcherkassova. Prerequisite(s): RUSS 105 -RUSS 106 or permission of the instructor. Year long course 210-RUSS 211 . Four 50-minute periods plus one hour of oral practice.
	RUSS 211 - Intermediate Russian Semester Offered: Spring 1 unit(s) Review of the basics of grammar and analysis of more complex grammatical phenomena through the study of literary, historical, and newspaper texts, composition, and discussion. The department. Prerequisite(s): RUSS 105 -RUSS 106 or permission of the instructor. Year long course RUSS 210 -211. Four 50-minute periods plus one hour of oral practice.
	RUSS 235 - The Russian Classics: The Great Realists of the Nineteenth Century Semester Offered: Fall 1 unit(s) Individually designed for Russian majors and other students with some knowledge of Russian. Students in this course attend the same lectures and discussions as those in RUSS 135 , but are required to do part of the work in Russian. Nikolai Firtich. By permission of the instructor.
	RUSS 243 - The Genius of Chekov: Theatre and Tales Semester Offered: Fall 1 unit(s) Same as RUSS 143 with one additional track: Individually designed for Russian majors and other students with sufficient knowledge of Russian. Students in this course attend the same lectures and discussions as those in RUSS 143 , but are required to do part of the work in Russian. Two 75-minute periods.
	RUSS 252 - The Russian Modernists: Decadence, Revolution, and the Avant-Garde Semester Offered: Spring 1 unit(s) Individually designed for Russian majors and other students with some knowledge of Russian. Students in this course attend the same lectures and discussions as those in RUSS 152 , but are required to do part of the work in Russian. Nikolai Firtich. Prerequisite(s): permission of the instructor. Two 75-minute periods.
	RUSS 264 - Eurasia: Ethnic Cinema of the Soviet Union and Russia 1 unit(s) Same as RUSS 164 with one additional track: Individually designed for Russian majors and other students with sufficient knowledge of Russian. Students in this course attend the same lectures and discussions as those in RUSS 164 , but are required to do part of the work in Russian. Prerequisite(s): permission of the instructor. Not offered in 2017/18. Two 75-minute periods plus extra periods.
	RUSS 269 - The Great Utopia: Ideals and Realities of the Russian Revolution 1 unit(s) Designed for Russian majors and other students with some knowledge of Russian. Students in this course attend the same lectures and discussions as those in RUSS 169 , but are required to do part of the work in Russian. Prerequisite(s): permission of the instructor. Not offered in 2017/18. Two 75-minute periods, plus occasional film screenings.
	RUSS 290 - Field Work 0.5 to 1 unit(s)
	RUSS 298 - Independent Work 0.5 to 1 unit(s) Program to be worked out in consultation with an instructor. The department.
Russian Studies: III. Advanced
	RUSS 300 - Senior Thesis 1 unit(s)
	RUSS 303 - Senior Project Semester Offered: Fall or Spring 1 unit(s) A 1-unit project done in one semester. The department. Open only to majors and correlates. Prerequisite(s): permission of the instructor.
	RUSS 323 - Chekhov’s Short Stories and Plays 1 unit(s) (Same as DRAM 323 ) Close reading of major plays and selected short stories by Anton Chekhov in a seminar format. Focus on the forms and themes of Chekhov’s works, as well as their historical contexts in terms of dramaturgy, reception and artistic legacy. Special attention is given to the spectrum of interpretations of Chekhov’s works in a transnational context. Accompanied by film screenings. Class discussions are in English but Russian Studies students are required to read part of the texts in the original. Prerequisite(s): RUSS 210 or above, or permission of the instructor. Drama majors see DRAM 323 . Not offered in 2017/18. One 3-hour period.
	RUSS 331 - Advanced Russian Semester Offered: Fall 1 unit(s) A course designed to increase all aspects of Russian proficiency. Includes readings on a wide range of topics, discussion, oral reports, stylistic analysis, written assignments, and review of persistent grammatical difficulties. Farida Tcherkassova. Yearlong course 331/RUSS 332 . Two 75-minute periods, plus one hour of conversational practice.
	RUSS 332 - Advanced Russian Semester Offered: Spring 1 unit(s) A course designed to increase all aspects of Russian proficiency. Includes readings on a wide range of topics, discussion, oral reports, stylistic analysis, written assignments, and review of persistent grammatical difficulties. Dan Ungurianu. Yearlong course RUSS 331 /332. Two 75-minute periods, plus one hour of conversational practice.
	RUSS 371 - Seminar on Russian Culture Semester Offered: Fall 1 unit(s) Advanced seminar on Russian culture. Designed for majors and students with sufficient knowledge of Russian. Topic for 2017/18a: The Myth of Petersburg: Russian Literature and Culture. In this course, we explore the myth of the city of Petersburg, the Imperial Russian capital, founded by Peter the Great in the early eighteenth century as a “window on Europe.” The city has been seen to embody all the contradictions of Russia- East vs. West, imperial grandeur vs. the pathos of the little man, nature vs. civilization, free well vs. fate. We consider the semiotics of space in St. Petersburg through a careful reading of selected literary texts, both prose and poetry- Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Blok, Bely, Gumiev, Akhmatova, Mandelstam, Kharms - and works of literary/cultural criticism. Nikolai Firtich. Prerequisite(s): RUSS 331 or equivalent. Advanced seminar conducted in Russian. One 3-hour period.
	RUSS 373 - Seminar on Russian Literature Semester Offered: Spring 1 unit(s) Focused analysis of an author, work, theme, genre, or literary school in the nineteenth or twentieth century. Topic for 2017/18b: Russian Blockbusters. Modern culture includes the phenomenon of “film classics”, productions of enduring popular appeal which, though not necessarily great achievement of cinematic art, have become universally recognized cultural symbols within a national group. This course involves a close study of a sample of Russian films of this type, including comedies, war films, spy and detective stories, musicals, and sci-fi films. Dan Ungurianu. Prerequisite(s): RUSS 331 or permission of the instructor. Advanced seminar conducted in Russian. One 3-hour period.
	RUSS 374 - Russian Poetry of the Silver Age 1 unit(s) We read and discuss selected masterpieces from the rich poetic tradition of the turn of the twentieth century with its decadence, mysticism, apocalyptic premonitions, and tantalizing artistic finesse. Nikolai Firtich. Prerequisite(s): RUSS 331 or permission of the instructor. Conducted in Russian. Not offered 2017/18. Two 75-minute periods.
	RUSS 399 - Senior Independent Work 0.5 to 1 unit(s) Program to be worked out in consultation with an instructor. The department.
Sociology: I. Introductory
	SOCI 110 - Gender, Social Problems and Social Change 1 unit(s) (Same as WMST 110 ) This course introduces students to a variety of social problems using insights from political science, sociology, and gender studies. We begin with an exploration of the sociological perspective, and how social problems are defined as such. We then examine the general issues of inequalities based on economic and employment status, racial and ethnic identity, and gender and sexual orientation. We apply these categories of analysis to problems facing the educational system and the criminal justice system. As we examine specific issues, we discuss political processes, social movements, and individual actions that people have used to address these problems. Carlos Alamo, Eileen Leonard. Prerequisite(s): permission of the instructor. This class is taught at the Taconic Correctional Facility for Women to a combined class of Vassar and Taconic students. Not offered in 2017/18. One 3-hour period.
	SOCI 111 - Social Change in South Korea Through Film 1 unit(s) (Same as ASIA 111 ) This course explores cultural consequences of the dramatic transformation of South Korea, in four decades, from a war-torn agrarian society to a major industrial and post-industrial society with dynamic urban centers. Despite its small territory (equivalent to the size of the state of Indiana) and relatively small population (50 million people), South Korea became one of the major economic powerhouses in the world. Such rapid economic change has been followed by its rise to a major center of the global popular cultural production. Using the medium of film, this course examines multifaceted meanings of social change, generated by the Korean War, industrialization, urbanization, and the recent process of democratization, for lives of ordinary men and women. Seungsook Moon. Not offered in 2017/18. Two 75-minute periods.
	SOCI 151 - Introductory Sociology Semester Offered: Fall or Spring 1 unit(s) An introduction to major concepts and various approaches necessary for cultivating sociological imagination. Although the content of each section varies; this course may not be repeated for credit. Topic One: Classical traditions for contemporary social issues. This section explores the significance and relevance of foundational thinkers of sociology to the understanding and analysis of contemporary social issues and problems. Examples include consumerism, teenage suicide, Occupy Wall Street, and race/ethnicity in colleges; housing, education, immigration, and childhood. Lastly, this course also examines the works of marginalized social thinkers within the classical tradition and considers why they have been silenced, erased and how they can help us to better understand many contemporary social issues. Carlos Alamo, Seungsook Moon, Eréndira Rueda. Topic Two: Cooked! Food and Society. The flavor of this class will come from the impact of the classical debates on the current discourse of sociology, specifically debates on social problems and interpretations of our everyday life. To examine diverse and contentious voices, we will explore theoretical works with a focus on past, present and future of theory and how it reflects the transformation of society, and ask how can we propose a critical debate for our future to realize theory’s promise? Our special focus will be the challenges of food production and consumption in the 21st century. Pinar Batur. Topic Three: Just Add Water!: Water and Society. The flow of this class will be from the impact of the classical debates on the current discourse of sociology, specifically the debate on social problems and the interpretations of our everyday life. To examine diverse and contentious voices, we will explore theoretical works with a focus on past, present and future of theory and how it reflects the transformation of society, and ask how can we propose a critical debate for our future to realize theory’s promise? Our special focus will be the challenges of water consumption and distribution in the 21st century. Pinar Batur. Topic Four: Other Voices: Sociology from the Margins. Ideas about society that we value usually come from the European, the heterosexual, the male or the fully-abled. In this course we will examine sociological ideas from those who may be overlooked, excluded, othered, minimized or dismissed. This may include Ibn Khaldun, David Walker, Maria Stewart, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Mother Jones, Marcus Garvey, Jane Addams, Ida B. Wells, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Horace Cayton and Malcolm X. Diane Harriford. Open only to freshmen; satisfies the college requirement for a Freshman Writing Seminar. Topic Five: Social Inequalities. Inequality is perhaps the most urgent and controversial social and political issue today. Politicians lament rising inequality and debate possible solutions. In this course, we will provide a context for this debate, by examining a broad range of inequalities, by class, race, and gender. We will look at the “haves” and the “have nots,” the 1% and the 99%, from many different angles, drawing on both contemporary and classical materials. Marque Miringoff. Topic Six: Race/Class/Gender. An introduction to key questions, ideas, and methods used by sociologists to make sense of human interaction and the social world. We use classical and contemporary texts to uncover and examine the forces and structures outside of the individual that shape and are shaped by us. Sociology has a long history of concern with inequality; this course pays special attention to how inequalities are structured, experienced, maintained and challenged along the lines of race, class, gender and their intersections. Light Carruyo. Topic Seven: Great Ideas, Discerning Studies. This course centers on an array of enduring ideas associated with the classical tradition in Sociology but extended and enlivened in selected essays, empirical studies and ethnographic accounts. We will examine a variety of concepts including alienation, egoism, anomie and the “iron cage” of rationality, exploring their significance for a contemporary, “post modern” world. Specifically, we will read studies of emotional labor, youth culture, body building, hip hop, and the break up of romantic relationships, seen through the lens of the Sociological Imagination. This class tacks between the conceptual and the empirical, between social structure (Class, Inequality) and social construction (Identity, Self Presentation), with an eye toward Sociology’s (not always consistent) intellectual, personal, and political relevance. The Department. Topic Eight: A Social Justice Approach. This course aims to introduce you to a sociological perspective through an exploration of social justice. We will begin with an analysis of what a sociological perspective entails, including an understanding of the structural and cultural forces that shape our lives and those of the people around us and how, in turn, individuals make choices and influence social change. Social justice delineates and describes injustices such as economic inequality, racism, sexism, and homophobia and, by definition, addresses solutions and alternative social systems. Sociology has a long tradition of commitment to social justice issues and we will consider a wide variety of them including: issues of power, how social advantages and disadvantages are distributed, the relationship between social location and inequality, and the practice of reducing the gap between them at the local, national, and global levels. Social justice is a perspective for understanding and for action. Eileen Leonard. Topic Nine: Sociology of Everyday Life. This section introduces sociology as a perspective that highlights the connections between individuals and the broader social contexts in which they live. We focus a sociological eye on the activities and routines of daily life, seeking to illuminate the social foundations of everyday behavior that we often take for granted. Reading both classical and contemporary texts, we build a sociological imagination and apply sociological theory as we focus our inquiry on issues such as the persistence of inequality, changing patterns of family life, new workplace dynamics, and the power of social networks. William Hoynes, Leonard Nevarez. Topic Ten: No Place Like Home. No matter how much we move, explore, escape, or migrate, there is no place like home. At the threshold of the domestic and the political we encounter a matrix of social forces ranging from issues of personal safety, to public housing, to Homeland Security. This section of Introductory Sociology maps the place of the home through the lens of the sociological imagination. It immerses students in the foundations of social theory, Marx, Durkheim, Weber, and Simmel. We center histories of migration, displacement and settlement in the United States, while employing various forms of research, diverse analytic understandings and approaches to the overlapping social problems of privacy, housing, homelessness, domestic labor and domestic violence that organize our imaginations of home in history and towards issues of justice. Jasmine Syedullah. Two 75-minute periods.
	SOCI 181 - Understanding and Disrupting the School-to-Prison Pipeline Semester Offered: Fall 1 unit(s) (Same as EDUC 181 ) The aim of this course is to provide students with a holistic understanding of the connection between school, community, and incarceration. Given that communities of color and low-income communities are disproportionately affected by the processes associated with the school-to- prison pipeline, throughout the course, we grapple with the continued significance of socially differentiating factors such as race, gender, class, sexuality, disability, and citizenship in shaping public policy and everyday decisions regarding who is considered “deviant”, how “discipline” is enacted and enforced, and how individuals experience these labels, policies and practices. In Part I, the course focuses on the history and development of the school-to- prison pipeline. Key topics focus on the criminalization of students and student behavior, the heavy surveillance found in many schools throughout the country, the types of contact that have evolved between children/youth and the criminal justice system over time, and the economic and market forces driving the creation of the prison-industrial complex. Part II of the course focuses on the subjective experiences of children/youth who are at the center of the mechanisms that maintain the school-to- prison pipeline. A key issue in this part of the course considers the dynamics that have emerged as a result of the demographic divide in American public education: what happens when a predominantly white teaching staff in schools is teaching in schools that enroll predominantly students of color? What role do stereotypes and cultural conflicts play in the labeling and disciplining of students? Throughout the course, we focus on viable strategies that help to dismantle and disrupt the processes that contribute to the school-to- prison pipeline. We consider both policy reforms and transformational alternatives within schools and classrooms. Erin McCloskey and Eréndira Rueda. Prerequisite(s): by application only through the office of the Dean of the College and must be over 21. This course is taught at the Taconic Correctional Facility for Women to a combined class of Vassar and Taconic students. Vassar students must be 21 years of age or older. One 3-hour period.
	SOCI 183 - Disaster and Disorder: The New Normal Semester Offered: Fall 1 unit(s) Disasters have been much in the news these days, and the evidence suggest their frequency is increasing. Hurricanes, droughts, floods, earthquakes, and heat waves are among the natural disasters we have gone through - while “unnatural” man-made catastrophes are many - including economic meltdowns, nuclear power plant accidents, and toxic contamination. Disasters force us to confront the very nature of our society, including problems of poverty, race, ethnicity, age, and gender. They test the relative strength of our safety net, the viability of our institutions, the elasticity of our resources, and the capacity of our technologies. In this course, we look at a variety of case studies, such as Hurricane Katrina, 9/11, Chernobyl, Bhopal, The Gulf Oil Spill, Fukishima, Three Mile Island, and The Great Recession. Marque Miringoff. Open only to freshmen; satisfies the college requirement for a Freshman Writing Seminar. Two 75-minute periods.
Sociology: II. Intermediate
	SOCI 205 - What is a Just Society? 1 unit(s) It grows ever more important — as the world becomes more globalized and cultures and ideologies intersect — to understand what we mean by “justice”. What does it mean to have a just society? In a just society does everyone have his or her basic needs met? Or, in a just society, is everyone free to get as much as they can? Will everyone be happy in a just society? Or will it be acceptable for some to suffer? How do we decide when a society is truly just? Who gets to decide? In a just society, is it simply enough to guarantee everyone constitutional and legal equality? Are notions of justice transcendent? Or do they change over time? The course will provide students with conceptual tools derived from different historical periods and intellectual traditions to highlight the array of possibilities available to imagine a just society. Diane Harriford. Not offered in 2017/18.
	SOCI 207 - Commercialized Childhoods Semester Offered: Spring 1 unit(s) (Same as AMST 207 ) This course examines features of childhoods in the U.S. at different times and across different social contexts. The primary aims of the course are 1) to examine how we’ve come to the contemporary understanding of American childhood as a distinctive life phase and cultural construct, by reference to historical and cross-cultural examples, and 2) to recognize the diversity of childhoods that exist and the economic, geographical, political, and cultural factors that shape those experiences. Specific themes in the course examine the challenges of studying children; the social construction of childhood (how childhoods are constructed by a number of social forces, economic interests, technological determinants, cultural phenomena, discourses, etc.); processes of contemporary globalization and commodification of childhoods (children’s roles as consumers, as producers, and debates about children’s rights); as well as the intersecting dynamics of age, social class, race/ethnicity, gender, and sexuality in particular experiences of childhood. Eréndira Rueda. Two 75-minute periods.
	SOCI 210 - Domestic Violence Semester Offered: Fall 1 unit(s) (Same as WMST 210 ) This course provides a general overview of the prevalence and dynamics of domestic violence in the United States and its effects on battered women. We examine the role of the Battered Women’s Movement in both the development of societal awareness about domestic violence and in the initiation of legal sanctions against it. We also explore and discuss, both from a historical and present day perspective, ways in which our culture covertly and overtly condones the abuse of women by their intimate partners. Darlene DePorto.
	SOCI 214 - Transnational Perspectives on Women and Work 1 unit(s) (Same as LALS 214 and WMST 214 ) This class is a theoretical and empirical exploration of women’s paid and unpaid labor. We examine how women’s experiences as workers — across space, place, and time — interact with larger economic structures, historical moments, and narratives about womanhood. We pay particular attention to the ways in which race, class, gender, sexuality and citizenship intersect and shape not only women’s relationships to work and family, but to other women workers (at times very differently geopolitically situated). We are attentive to the construction of women workers, the work itself, and the meanings women give to production, reproduction, and the global economy. Light Carruyo. Not offered in 2017/18. Two 75-minute periods.
	SOCI 215 - Perspectives on Deviant Subculture 1 unit(s) Sociology as a discipline offers a variety of perspectives on deviance. In recent years mainstream approaches—Functionalism, Conflict Theory, Social Constructionism and Labeling Theory—have been supplemented by Cultural Studies (Gramscian Marxism) and Post Structuralism (including the ideas of Michel Foucault). These different ways of seeing, analyzing, and interpreting “deviance” are deployed in this course by focusing on various marginal communities and deviant subcultures. In particular we look at traditional as well as new religious movements, bohemian subcultures, and music-centered youth culture (punk, hip hop). Other relevant examples and case studies are explored on a selected basis. The Department. Not offered in 2016/17.
	SOCI 216 - Food, Culture, and Globalization 1 unit(s) (Same as ASIA 216 ) This course focuses on the political economy and the cultural politics of transnational production, distribution, and consumption of food in the world to understand the complex nature of cultural globalization and its effects on the national, ethnic, and class identities of women and men. Approaching food as material cultural commodities moving across national boundaries, this course examines the following questions. How has food in routine diet been invested with a broad range of meanings and thereby served to define and maintain collective identities of people and social relationships linked to the consumption of food? In what ways and to what extent does eating food satisfy not only basic appetite and epicurean desire, but also social needs for status and belonging? How have powerful corporate interests shaped the health and well being of a large number of people across national boundaries? What roles do symbols and social values play in the public and corporate discourse of health, nutrition, and cultural identities. Seungsook Moon. Not offered in 2017/18.
	SOCI 229 - Black Intellectual History 1 unit(s) (Same as AFRS 229 ) This course provides an overview of black intellectual thought and an introduction to critical race theory. It offers approaches to the ways in which black thinkers from a variety of nations and periods from the nineteenth century up to black modernity engage their intellectual traditions. How have their perceptions been shaped by a variety of places? How have their traditions, histories and cultures theorized race? Critics may include Aimé Césaire, Anna Julia Cooper, W.E.B. DuBois, Frantz Fanon, Paul Gilroy, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Ida B. Wells, and Patricia Williams. Diane Harriford. Not offered in 2017/18.
	SOCI 234 - Disability and Society 1 unit(s) (Same as STS 234 ) The vision of disability has changed radically over the past twenty years. Public policies have been legislated, language has been altered, opportunities have been rethought, a social movement has emerged, problems of discrimination, oppression, and prejudice have been highlighted, and social thinkers have addressed a wide range of issues relating to the representation and portrayal of people with disabilities. This course examines these issues, focusing on the emergence of the disability rights movement, the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the various debates over American Sign Language, “deaf culture,” and the student uprising at Gallaudet University and how writers and artists have portrayed people with disabilities. Marque Miringoff. Not offered in 2017/18. Two 2-hour periods each week; one 2-hour period is devoted to lecture and discussion of reading materials, the second 2-hour period serves as a laboratory for films, speakers, and trips.
	SOCI 235 - Quality of Life 1 unit(s) (Same as URBS 235 ) In a world of cultural diversity, uneven development, and political conflict, enhancing quality of life is arguably the unifying principle in our ambitions for social planning and personal life. But just what does “quality of life” mean? How did it become a preeminent concern for policy-makers and the public at large? And what is at stake if we subordinate other conceptions of the common good to this most subjective and individualistic of ideas? This course takes up these questions through an examination of quality of life’s conceptual dimensions and social contexts. Topics include global development policy, patient-doctor conflicts over the right to die, the pressures of work-life balance, the influence of consumer marketing, the voluntary simplicity movement, the “quality of life city,” and the cultural divides between conservative “Red States” and liberal “Blue States.” Leonard Nevarez. Not offered in 2017/18.
	SOCI 236 - Imprisonment and the Prisoner 1 unit(s) (Same as AFRS 236 ) What is the history of the prisoner? Who becomes a prisoner and what does the prisoner become once incarcerated? What is the relationship between crime and punishment? Focusing on the (global) prison industrial complex, this course critically interrogates the massive and increasing numbers of people imprisoned in the United States and around the world. The primary focus of this course is the prisoner and on the movement to abolish imprisonment as we know it. Topics covered in this course include: racial and gender inequality, the relationship between imprisonment and slavery, social death, the prisoner of war (POW), migrant incarceration, as well as prisoner resistance and rebellion. Students also come away from the course with a complex understanding of penal abolition and alternative models of justice. Carlos Alamo. Not offered in 2017/18. Two 75-minute periods.
	SOCI 237 - Community Development 1 unit(s) (Same as URBS 237 ) This course provides hands-on lessons in nonprofit organizations, urban inequality, and economic development that are intended to supplement theoretical perspectives offered in other classes. Students examine local efforts to revitalize neighborhoods, provide social services, leverage social capital, and promote homeowner and business investment in the contemporary city. A community development initiative in the City of Poughkeepsie (to be determined) provides the case study around which lectures, readings, and guest speakers are selected. The course includes a special weekly lab section during which students volunteer at local organizations, conduct fieldwork, or otherwise independently gather and analyze data in support of the case study. Students are graded for both their comprehension of course materials (in essays and exams) and their participation in the community-development initiative (through fieldwork and the final report written collectively by the instructor and students). Leonard Nevarez. Not offered in 2017/18. Two 2-hour periods.
	SOCI 245 - Making Waves: Topics in Feminist Activism Semester Offered: Fall 1 unit(s) (Same as AFRS 245 and WMST 245 ) Topic for 2017/18a: Black Women in Feminism. This course explores the role Black women played in the development and growth of feminism in the U.S. from the 19^th Century to the present. We will pay particular attention to the work of Anna Julia Cooper, Audre Lorde and bell hooks. Film, poetry, music, novels as well as articles and books will be among the texts for the course. Diane Harriford. Two 75-minute periods.
	SOCI 247 - Modern Social Theory: Classical Traditions Semester Offered: Fall 1 unit(s) (Same as ANTH 247 ) This course examines underlying assumptions and central concepts and arguments of European and American thinkers who contributed to the making of distinctly sociological perspectives. Readings include selections from Karl Marx, Emile Durheim, Max Weber, Georg Simmel, W.E.B. Du Bois and Erving Goffman. Thematic topics will vary from year to year. Diane Harriford. Two 75-minute periods.
	SOCI 249 - Latino/a Formations 1 unit(s) (Same as AFRS 249 and LALS 249 ) This course focuses on the concepts, methodologies and theoretical approaches for understanding the lives of those people who (im)migrated from or who share real or imagined links with Latin America and the Spanish-Speaking Caribbean. As such this course considers the following questions: Who is a Latino/a? What is the impact of U.S. political and economic policy on immigration? What is assimilation? What does U.S. citizenship actually mean and entail? How are ideas about Blackness, or race more generally, organized and understood among Latino/as? What role do heterogeneous identities play in the construction of space and place among Latino/a and Chicano/a communities? This course introduces students to the multiple ways in which space, race, ethnicity, class and gendered identities are imagined/formed in Latin America and conversely affirmed and/or redefined in the United States. Conversely, this course examines the ways in which U.S. Latina/o populations provide both economic and cultural remittances to their countries of origin that also help to challenge and rearticulate Latin American social and economic relationships. Carlos Alamo. Not offered in 2017/18.
	SOCI 250 - Sex, Gender, and Society 1 unit(s) In the context of general sociological theory, the course analyzes sex roles in various institutional settings. Topics include: the effect of social, cultural and scientific change on traditional notions of male and female; the social construction of masculine and feminine; implications of genetic engineering; interaction of sexual attitudes, sexual practices, and social policy. Diane Harriford. Not offered in 2017/18.
	SOCI 251 - Development and Social Change in Latin America 1 unit(s) (Same as LALS 251 ) This course examines the ways in which Latin American and Caribbean nations have defined and pursued development and struggled for social change in the post World-War II era. We use country studies and development theories (including Modernization, Dependency, World-Systems, Feminist and Post-Structuralist) to analyze the extent to which development has been shaped by the tensions between local, national, and international political and economic interests. Within this structural context we focus on people and their relationships to each other and to a variety of issues including work, land, reproductive rights, basic needs, and revolution. Integrating structural analysis with an analysis of lived practice and meaning making allows us to understand development as a process that shapes, but is also shaped by, local actors. Light Carruyo. Not offered in 2017/18.
	SOCI 253 - Children of Immigration Semester Offered: Spring 1 unit(s) (Same as LALS 253 ) Immigration to the U.S. since the 1970s has been characterized by a marked and unprecedented increase in the diversity of new immigrants. Unlike the great migrations from Europe in the late 1800s and early 1900s, most of the immigrants who have arrived in the U.S. in the last four decades have come from Latin America, Asia, and the Caribbean. New immigration patterns have had a significant impact on the racial and ethnic composition and stratification of the American population, as well as the meaning of American identity itself. Immigrants and their families are also being transformed in the process, as they come into contact with various institutional contexts that can facilitate, block, and challenge the process of incorporation into the U.S. This course examines the impact of these new immigration patterns by focusing on the 16.4 million children in the U.S. who have at least one immigrant parent. Since 1990, children of immigrants - those born in the U.S. as well as those who are immigrants themselves - have doubled and have come to represent 23% of the population of minors in the U.S. In this course we study how children of immigrants are reshaping America, and how America is reshaping them, by examining key topics such as the impact of immigration on family structures, gender roles, language maintenance, academic achievement, and identity, as well as the impact that immigration reforms have had on access to higher education, employment, and political participation. This course provides an overview of the experiences of a population that is now a significant proportion of the U.S. population, yet one that is filled with contradictions, tensions and fissures and defies simple generalizations. Eréndira Rueda.
	SOCI 254 - Research Methods Semester Offered: Spring 1 unit(s) Examines dilemmas of social inquiry. On what basis are sociological generalizations drawn? What are the ethics of social research? Course includes a critical analysis of research studies as well as an introduction to and practical experience with participant observation, interviewing, questionnaire construction, sampling, experimentation, and available data. Leonard Nevarez.
	SOCI 256 - Mass Media and Society 1 unit(s) This course explores media as a social force, an institution, and an industry. We examine what it means to be “mediated,” including how media affects our culture, our choices, and our responses to our media filtered lives. We consider the economics of the media industry, media organization and professional socialization, and media’s influence on the political world and the global media industry. Third, we examine how media represent the social world, i.e., the role of ideology, and how meanings are produced, stereotypes maintained, and inequalities preserved. We reflect on the roles, responsibilities, and interpretive potential of artists, media producers, and media consumers. Fourth, we investigate the nature and consequences of media technology. We end the course with a series of panel presentations in which students present their semester projects. William Hoynes. Not offered in 2017/18.
	SOCI 257 - Reorienting America: Asians in American History and Society 1 unit(s) (Same as AMST 257 and ASIA 257 ) Based on sociological theory of class, gender, race/ethnicity, this course examines complexities of historical, economic, political, and cultural positions of Asian Americans beyond the popular image of “model minorities.” Topics include the global economy and Asian immigration, politics of ethnicity and pan-ethnicity, educational achievement and social mobility, affirmative action, and representation in mass media. Seungsook Moon. Not offered in 2017/18.
	SOCI 258 - Race and Ethnicity 1 unit(s) The course explores the historical and contemporary constructions of race, ethnicity, national and transnational identity. Focus is on the social forces behind racial group dominance and possible responses to this dominance, including assimilation, cultural pluralism, segregation, migration and social movements. The course considers public policies such as affirmative action, immigration law, mass incarceration and gentrification. Diane Harriford. Not Offered in 2017/18. Two 75-minute periods.
	SOCI 259 - Social Stratification 1 unit(s) In this course we examine how social prestige and power are unequally distributed in societies of the past and present. We discuss how control of property and the means of production contribute to a system of inequality. We also analyze the role of commodities in a consumerist society and the relationship of consumption to stratification. We also discuss the concepts of class formation, class consciousness, and class struggle. Additionally, we examine how race and gender serve to contribute to stratification. Diane Harriford. Not offered in 2017/18.
	SOCI 260 - Health, Medicine, and Public Policy Semester Offered: Fall 1 unit(s) (Same as STS 260 ) The Zika Virus, Flint Michigan’s lead crisis, the Heroin-Opioid epidemic, the “health care as a right” debate, the changing role of physicians, are all issues of contemporary concern in the fields of medicine and public health. In this course, we address the analytical context for these problems and debates. We begin by looking at a long-standing problem, the HIV/AIDS epidemic, nationally and globally, its fraught history, current status, social construction, and impact on the fields of medicine and public health. We consider too the history and current status of infectious diseases as a public health crisis. Finally, we look at public health and health care policy, their history, Obamacare, and what may come next. Marque Miringoff. Two 75-minute periods.
	SOCI 261 - “The Nuclear Cage”: Environmental Theory and Nuclear Power Semester Offered: Spring 1 unit(s) (Same as ENST 261 and INTL 261 ) The central aim of this course is to explore debates about the interaction between beings, including humans, animals, plants, and the earth within the context of advanced capitalism by concentrating on the production, distribution, consumption, and disposal of nuclear power. The first question concerning the class is how does Environmental Theory approach nuclear power and its impact on the environment. The second question deals with how this construction interacts with other forms of debate regarding nuclear power, especially concentrating on the relation between science, market and the state in dealing with nature, and how citizens formulate and articulate their understanding of nuclear power through social movements. Pinar Batur.
	SOCI 263 - Criminology Semester Offered: Fall 1 unit(s) The course consists of a consideration of the nature and scope of criminology as well as an historical treatment of the theories of crime causation and the relation of theory to research and the treatment of the criminal. Eileen Leonard.
	SOCI 264 - Poverty and Policy 1 unit(s) To understand poverty, it is not sufficient to simply know of its existence, its rates, or even its effects. We also need to understand the policies and strategies that have attempted to eliminate or ameliorate poverty, and their relative success or failure. Poverty response strategies typically emerge in two ways: “bottom-up” or “top-down.” Bottom-up strategies include the Settlement House movement of the Progressive Era, community organizing (Saul Alinsky movements), social movements, and non-profit and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Top-down approaches are typically governmental, and in the U.S. include the social welfare policies of the Roosevelt, Kennedy, Johnson, Clinton, and Obama administrations. In this course we will look at the nature of both bottom-up and top-down strategies, as well as the philosophies and ideologies that oppose government intervention. We will explore, as well, the origins, structures, and philosophies of other nations, especially the European welfare states and the world-wide effort to target poverty through the Millennium Development Goals. We will consider, in particular, the more restrictive policies of the 1990s created by “welfare reform” which sought to “end welfare as we knew it,” and look at current policies that help or hinder working families – including family leave, sick leave, vacation time, etc. Finally, we will consider the relative success or failure of specific policies that are aimed at hunger, housing, homelessness, and the feminization of poverty. Marque Miringoff. Not Offered in 2017/18.
	SOCI 265 - News Media in the United States Semester Offered: Spring 1 unit(s) This course joins the ongoing debate about the meaning of press freedom and explores the relationship between news and democracy. It will examine how the news media operate in American society and will assess how well the current media are serving the information needs of citizens. Topics may include: the meaning of “objectivity,” the relationship between journalists and sources, news and public opinion, ownership of news media, the relationship between news and advertising, propaganda and news management, and the role of alternative media. William Hoynes.
	SOCI 266 - Racism, Waste and Resistance 1 unit(s) (Same as ENST 266 ) The 21st century will be defined in the dramatic consequences of the current events and movements regarding our waste: global climate change, pollution, resource depletion, contamination and extinction. One of the most striking and consistent observations is that racism plays a major role in placing waste in close proximity to those racially distinct, economically exploited and politically oppressed. This class examines the destructive global dynamics of environmental racism and resistance, as struggles against it. Pinar Batur. Not offered in 2017/18. Two 75-minute periods.
	SOCI 269 - Constructing School Kids and Street Kids 1 unit(s) (Same as EDUC 269 and LALS 269 ) Students from low-income families and racial/ethnic minority backgrounds do poorly in school by comparison with their white and well-to-do peers. These students drop out of high school at higher rates, score lower on standardized tests, have lower GPAs, and are less likely to attend and complete college. In this course we examine theories and research that seek to explain patterns of differential educational achievement in U.S. schools. We study theories that focus on the characteristics of settings in which teaching and learning take place (e.g., schools, classrooms, and home), theories that focus on the characteristics of groups (e.g. racial/ethnic groups and peer groups), and theories that examine how cultural processes mediate political-economic constraints and human action. Eréndira Rueda. Not offered in 2017/18.
	SOCI 270 - Drugs, Culture, and Society 1 unit(s) (Same as STS 270 ) This course draws on a variety of Science Studies and Sociological frameworks to consider the implications of various substances that we conventionally refer to as “drugs.” Topics include medical, psychiatric, instrumental, or recreational use of licit and illicit substances. Relevant conceptional frameworks are used to explore and analyze the impact of new chemical technology, debates regarding the safety and efficacy of pharmaceuticals, the consequences of globalization on patterns of use, policy and enforcement, as well as the social construction of drugs as a social problem. Heroin, Cocaine, Marijuana, Methamphetamine, MDMA, Ayahuasca, ADHD drugs, SSRIs and hormonal Steroids are all of special interest in so far as they constitute strategic sites for the study of social or technological controversy. The department. Not offered in 2017/18. Two 75-minute periods.
	SOCI 273 - The New Economy 1 unit(s) (Same as STS 273 ) The new economy is, in one sense, a very old concern of sociology. Since the discipline’s 19th-c. origins, sociologists have asked how changes in material production and economic relations alter the ways that people live, work, understand their lives, and relate to one another. However, current interests in the new economy center upon something new: a flexible, “just in time” mode of industry and consumerism made possible by information technologies and related organizational innovations. The logic of this new economy, as well as its consequences for society, are the subject of this course. Topics include the evolving role of technology in economic globalization; the precarity of today’s workplaces and labor markets; the question of the “creative class”; digital divides in technology access, education, and lifestyles; and the cutting edges of consumerism. Leonard Nevarez. Not offered in 2017/18.
	SOCI 277 - Working Class Studies 1 unit(s) This course explores the emerging, multidisciplinary field of working class studies in the current context of the global restructuring of labor and capital; the massive erosion of economic security, and the persisting significance of class as a category of social analysis. We examine core themes in this field including the centrality of the working class globally, historically and in the contemporary U.S. In addition, we emphasize intersections of class, race, gender and sexuality; the history of working class movements and unionism; routinized labor; migrant farm labor; prison labor; the working class in the academy; and media representations of the working class. We continually highlight the role of activism and social movements among working class people and the potential for social change. Eileen Leonard. Not offered in 2017/18. Two 75-minute periods.
	SOCI 283 - Gender, Sexuality and Abolitionist Activism Semester Offered: Spring 1 unit(s) (Same as AFRS 283 and WMST 283 ) This course arrives at the study of Abolition by way of questions of gender and sexuality often disappeared by both mainstream antislavery and anti-prison movements. We engage firsthand accounts of resistance to slavery, human trafficking, convict leasing, lynching, prisons, solitary confinement, and torture as movements out of racial injustice, labor exploitation, and gender violence and towards new imaginations of collective identity, class, ability, nationality and sexuality – movements that begin with captivity but do not end with emancipation. Readings train students in interdisciplinary methods of research and grassroots analysis scholars and activists have amassed to theorize the complex intersections of public safety and social justice that converge on the lives of racially profiled and gender non-conforming bodies. Jasmine Syedullah. Two 75-minute periods.
	SOCI 284 - Undocumented, Unapologetic, Unafraid Semester Offered: Spring 1 unit(s) (Same as EDUC 284 and LALS 284 ) This course places contemporary discourse about the approximately 11 million undocumented people in the U.S. in its historical, academic, legal, political, social, cultural, and economic context. The course takes a historical look at immigration law and legal enforcement, with a particular focus on the (mis)construction and criminalization of undocumented immigrants. By examining how the concept of undocumented/unauthorized has been created, we understand the ways that the assignation of immigration status excludes and exploits undocumented people. Course content considers the array of social institutions that are complicit in this work (e.g., schools, government agencies, industry, media) and how undocumented people resist these forms of oppression and dominance that are exerted by these institutions. A special focus of this course examines how undocumented students navigate K-12 schooling experiences and pathways to college. Key topics include current legislation like DACA, DREAM Act, SUCCEED Act; current campaigns like Comprehensive Immigration Reform and the Undocumented, Unapologetic, and Unafraid campaign; the privatization and expansion of immigration detention centers; unaccompanied minors; the experiences of families with mixed authorized status; the theoretical intersectionality of xenophobia and nativism with other forms of oppression; and the global capitalist economic forces that create both the need to migrate and the need for immigrant labor. Jaime Del Razo and Eréndira Rueda. Two 75-minute periods.
	SOCI 286 - Accessing the Ivory Tower Semester Offered: Spring 1 unit(s) (Same as EDUC 286 ) Since 2000, there has been a 30% increase in the number of students enrolled in colleges and universities. Over 17 million undergraduates are enrolled in an array of degree-granting institutions across the U.S., with enrollments projected to increase another 14% by 2026. But who goes college? Focusing on the experiences of historically underrepresented students, this course examines the history of higher education’s expansion and the lived experiences of students navigating higher education. Course content that examines the expansion of access to higher education focuses on important developments at the federal, state, and institutional levels. The course covers topics such as the GI Bill, the 1965 HEA, the formation of the community college system, key court cases that have increased access, state-level legislation (e.g., states that allow undocumented students to apply as residents of the state or make them eligible for state financial aid), and institutional policies concerning admission and financial aid. Course content that focuses on student experiences in higher education explores patterns of racial and socioeconomic stratification within higher education by accounting for students’ varying degrees of college preparedness, choice of college and course of study, campus experiences, persistence to a degree, and post-graduate trajectories. This course aims to uncover how various forms of stratification shape personal relationships with peers, faculty, and administration while in college (e.g., student-faculty relationships, peer interactions, dating, networking, satisfaction with their overall college experience, and the accessibility of higher ed administration). Eréndira Rueda. Two 75-minute periods.
	SOCI 287 - Comparative Asian American-Latinx Immigrant Experiences Semester Offered: Fall 1 unit(s) This class compares the immigrant experiences of Latinas/os and Asian Americans in the U.S. Over the course, we cover a broad range of topics related to citizenship, discrimination, immigration, human rights, intermarriage, education, and housing segregation. Together, we understand how these two groups are connected in their political, economic, cultural, and social lives. The historical time frame of the readings and lectures covers the mid-19th century to the 21st century. There is a global approach that focuses on U.S. relations with Latin America and Asia, a major cause of immigration. Long Bui. Two 75-minute periods.
	SOCI 289 - The Sociology of Queer/LGBT Communities Semester Offered: Spring 1 unit(s) This class approaches the sociological study of queer or LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) people. Topics of discussion include debates over sexual orientation, gay marriage, sexual violence, prostitution, and gender expression/nonconformity. We consider controversial “adult-themed” materials that provoke discussion and critical thinking about what it means to be a non-normative sexual being. The historical time frame of the class is mostly the early 20^th century to the 21st century. There is an added transnational dimension with focus on global diasporic sexualities. Long Bui. Two 75-minute periods.
	SOCI 290 - Field Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring 0.5 to 1 unit(s) Individual project of reading or research. The department. May be elected during the college year or during the summer. Special permission. Unscheduled.
	SOCI 298 - Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring 0.5 to 1 unit(s) Individual project of reading or research. The department. May be elected during the college year or during the summer. Special permission. Unscheduled.
Sociology: III. Advanced
	SOCI 300 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Fall 0.5 unit(s) This seminar is intended to provide sociology seniors with a collective and regular learning environment where they can receive systematic guidance from their instructor, and discuss problems they encounter in various stages of thesis writing with both the instructor and their peers. Class will meet at the scheduled period for roughly half the weeks of the seminar, on dates to be announced in the first class. Eréndira Rueda and Jasmine Syedullah. Yearlong course 300-SOCI 301 .
	SOCI 301 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Spring 0.5 unit(s) This seminar is intended to provide sociology seniors with a collective and regular learning environment where they can receive systematic guidance from their instructor, and discuss problems they encounter in various stages of thesis writing with both the instructor and their peers. Class will meet at the scheduled period for roughly half the weeks of the seminar, on dates to be announced in the first class. Eréndira Rueda and Jasmine Syedullah. Yearlong course SOCI 300 -301.
	SOCI 305 - The Social Construction of Race in the U.S. 1 unit(s) This course examines the social construction of race in the United States from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the present. The focus is on the changing racial meanings and identities of specific socio-historical groups and the ways in which social institutions interpret and reinterpret race over time. Contemporary issues addressed include: the construction of “whiteness”, the making of model minorities, color-blindness and the post-racial society, and the emergence of the “mixed race” category. Readings may include Cooper, DuBois, hooks, Collins, Frye, Omni and Winant, and Roediger. Diane Harriford. Prerequisite(s): prior coursework in Sociology or with permission of the instructor. Not offered in 2017/18. One 3-hour period.
	SOCI 312 - Corporate Power Semester Offered: Fall 1 unit(s) This seminar investigates how corporations exert power over society outside of their place in the market. We review the evolution of the corporation, from the late nineteenth century concern over “big business” to the present day of global finance, and examine competing theories and methodologies with which social researchers have explained the power of business. Topics and literatures include corporate citizenship and philanthropy, capitalist networks and organizations, the cult of the “charismatic CEO,” and the faultlines of financial capitalism revealed by the Occupy movement. Leonard Nevarez.
	SOCI 317 - Women, Crime, and Punishment Semester Offered: Fall 1 unit(s) (Same as WMST 317 ) This course begins with a comparative analysis of the involvement of men and women in crime in the United States and explanations offered for the striking variability. It proceeds by examining the exceptionally high rate of imprisonment for women in the U.S., the demographics of those who are imprisoned, the crimes they are convicted of, and the conditions under which they are confined. It deals with such issues as substance abuse problems, violence against women, medical care in prison, prison programming and efforts at rehabilitation, legal rights of inmates, and family issues, particularly the care of the children of incarcerated women. It also examines prison friendships, families, and sexualities, and post-release. The course ends with a consideration of the possibilities of a fundamental change in the current US system of crime and punishment specifically regarding women. Eileen Leonard.
	SOCI 321 - Feminism, Knowledge, Practice 1 unit(s) (Same as LALS 321 and WMST 321 ) How do feminist politics inform how research, pedagogy, and social action are approached? Can feminist anti-racist praxis and insights into issues of race, power and knowledge, intersecting inequalities, and human agency change the way we understand and represent the social world? We discuss several qualitative approaches used by feminists to document the social world (e.g. ethnography, discourse analysis, oral history). Additionally, we explore and engage with contemplative practices such as mediation, engaged listening, and creative-visualization. Our goal is to develop an understanding of the relationship between power, knowledge and action and to collectively envision healing forms of critical social inquiry. Light Carruyo. Not offered in 2017/18. One 2-hour period.
	SOCI 353 - Bio-Social Controversy 1 unit(s) (Same as STS 353 ) Scientific controversies take place not only within scientific communities but may be joined and waged in public arenas as well. This course is centered around the intense reaction triggered by extension of biological explanations and evolutionary logic to all aspects of contemporary life including race, sex/gender, violence and social behavior in general. Scientific Controversy is a strategic site for analyzing the social dynamics of various disputes including those among biological and cultural anthropologists, academic scientists and transgender activists, and between advocates of divergent views of race and sexual difference. Alternative perspectives – Darwinian feminism and efforts by transgender biologists to challenge the gender binary – are also relevant to our conversation. The range of conceptual frames deployed to interpret these controversies includes Popperian philosophy of science, the sociology of Relativism and Rhetoric, and a Foucauldian power/knowledge perspective. The department. Not offered in 2017/18.
	SOCI 356 - Culture, Commerce, and the Public Sphere 1 unit(s) (Same as MEDS 356 ) This course examines the culture and politics of the public sphere, with an emphasis on the changing status of public spaces in contemporary societies. Drawing upon historical and current analyses, we explore such issues as the relationship between public and commercial space and the role of public discourse in democratic theory. Case studies investigate such sites as mass media, schools, shopping malls, cyberspace, libraries, and public parks in relation to questions of economic inequality, political participation, privatization, and consumer culture. William Hoynes. Not offered in 2017/18.
	SOCI 365 - Class, Culture, and Power 1 unit(s) This course examines central debates in the sociology of culture, with a particular focus on the complex intersection between the domain of culture and questions of class and power. Topics include: the meaning and significance of “cultural capital,” the power of ideology, the role of the professional class, working class culture, class reproduction, gender and class relations, and the future of both cultural politics and cultural studies. Readings may include Gramsci, Bourdieu, Gitlin, Aronowitz, Fiske, Willis, and Stuart Hall. William Hoynes. Not offered in 2017/18.
	SOCI 367 - Mind, Culture, and Biology 1 unit(s) (Same as STS 367 ) What can memes, genes or Darwinian social science tell us about religion, literature, or consumer culture? To what extent can Biology explain culture or at least inspire substantive debate about the role of ideas? This course addresses the “Darwinization of culture” and explores various competing perspectives ranging from Evolutionary Psychology and Bio-Sociology to Memetics and Social Construction. Seminar discussions include controversial attempts to interpret Homeric epics (Gottschall’s The Rape of Troy), to claim universal standards of beauty (Etcoff’s Survival of the Prettiest), and to account for the existence of a personal god (Boyer’s Religion Explained). Consider that Science – arguably our most reliable source of valid knowledge – can also serve as a source of contentious ideas that are simultaneously engaging, provoking and perhaps (for some) even dangerous. The department. Not offered in 2017/18. One 2-hour period.
	SOCI 368 - Toxic Futures: From Social Theory to Environmental Theory Semester Offered: Fall 1 unit(s) (Same as ENST 368 and INTL 368 ) The central aim of this class is to examine the foundations of the discourse on society and nature in social theory and environmental theory to explore two questions. The first question is how does social theory approach the construction of the future, and the second question is how has this construction informed the present debates on the impact of industrialization, urbanization, state-building and collective movements on the environment? In this context, the class focuses on how social theory informs different articulations of Environmental Thought and its political and epistemological fragmentation and the limits of praxis, as well as its contemporary construction of alternative futures. Pinar Batur. One 2-hour period.
	SOCI 369 - Masculinities: Global Perspectives Semester Offered: Spring 1 unit(s) (Same as ASIA 369 ) From a sociological perspective, gender is not only an individual identity, but also a social structure of inequality (or stratification) that shapes the workings of major institutions in society as well as personal experiences. This seminar examines meanings, rituals, and quotidian experiences of masculinities in various societies in order to illuminate their normative making and remaking as a binary and hierarchical category of gender and explore alternatives to this construction of gender. Drawing upon cross-cultural and comparative case studies, this course focuses on the following institutional sites critical to the politics of masculinities: marriage and the family, the military, business corporations, popular culture and sexuality, medicine and the body, and religion. Seungsook Moon. Prerequisite(s): previous coursework in Sociology or permission of the instructor. One 3-hour period.
	SOCI 380 - Art, War, and Social Change Semester Offered: Spring 1 unit(s) (Same as AMST 380 ) In recent years the “War on Terror” has expanded. Many politicians are eager to declare “World War III,” and the refugee crisis continues to challenge the world. Militarism is increasing, and the public may once again come to accept the idea of sending ground troops abroad. In a climate such as this, it is vital to consider how nations conceptualize war, and equally important how groups and individuals might argue against it. To address these issues, this course looks at a body of work that challenges the precepts of war, or mourns its losses. Works include novels, films, music, art, memorials, poetry, and photography. Marque Miringoff.
	SOCI 382 - Race and Popular Culture 1 unit(s) (Same as AFRS 382 and LALS 382 ) This seminar explores the way in which the categories of race, ethnicity, and nation are mutually constitutive with an emphasis on understanding how different social institutions and practices produce meanings about race and racial identities. Through an examination of knowledge production as well as symbolic and expressive practices, we focus on the ways in which contemporary scholars connect cultural texts to social and historical institutions. Appreciating the relationship between cultural texts and institutional frameworks, we unravel the complex ways in which the cultural practices of different social groups reinforce or challenge social relationships and structures. Finally, this seminar considers how contemporary manifestations of globalization impact and transform the linkages between race and culture as institutional and intellectual constructs. Carlos Alamo. Not offered in 2017/18. One 2-hour period.
	SOCI 383 - Dissent at the End of the Anthropocene 1 unit(s) (Same as ENST 383 and INTL 383 ) Thomas Jefferson famously argued, “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.” The hallmarks of globalization—financial oligarchies, resource depletion, environmental pollution, global climate change, profound inequality—have given us the most convincing evidence to date that the ideals of progress, optimism, and humanism that have grew out of the Enlightenment are not fulfilling their promise. Perhaps these concepts became corrupted, or perhaps this is because these thought-systems have not paid adequate attention to the ethical dimensions of our economic, geopolitical, and social development, and counter cultural movements. On the other hand, movements of dissent have grown up around these ideals since at least the eighteenth century and some argue that if the Anthropocene, “the age of humankind,” is to continue, we will have to fundamentally change our thinking. This course addresses the legacy of progressive “counter-Enlightenment” movements to develop an understanding of their discourse. Pinar Batur. Not offered in 2017/18. One 3-hour period.
	SOCI 384 - Prophetic Praxis of Liberation Semester Offered: Spring 1 unit(s) (Same as AFRS 384 ) In the West, teachings of liberation have transcended their geographic, religious, and cultural origins. Liberation theology, nonviolence, sustainability, yoga and mindfulness emerge out of intersections between American and African indigenous traditions, Eastern and Western religious traditions, and secular visions of liberation. In the face of strident demagogues, desperate fundamentalist takeovers, massive cultural disruption, human displacement, faceless wars, and planetary crisis prophetic traditions give voice to new imaginations of power and justice. This course draws on literatures from across several prophetic traditions, from the Civil Rights Movement to #BlackLivesMatter, from struggles for tribal sovereignty to national decolonization to trace the prophetic tradition from the roots of its contemplative social imagination of power through its many movements for justice and liberation. Jasmine Syedullah. One 2-hour period.
	SOCI 385 - Women, Culture, and Development 1 unit(s) (Same as INTL 385 , LALS 385 , and WMST 385 ) This course examines the ongoing debates within development studies about how integration into the global economy is experienced by women around the world. Drawing on gender studies, cultural studies, and global political economy, we explore the multiple ways in which women struggle to secure well-being, challenge injustice, and live meaningful lives. Light Carruyo. Not offered in 2017/18.
	SOCI 386 - Ghetto Schooling 1 unit(s) (Same as EDUC 386 and LALS 386 ) In twenty-first century America, the majority of students attend segregated schools. Most white students attend schools where 75% of their peers are white, while 80% of Latino students and 74% of black students attend majority non-white schools. In this course we will examine the events that led to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka and the 60-year struggle to make good on the promises of that ruling. The course will be divided into three parts. In part one, we will study the Brown decision as an integral element in the fight against Jim Crow laws and trace the legal history of desegregation efforts. In part two, we will focus on desegregation policies and programs that enabled the slow move toward desegregation between 1954 and the 1980s. At this point in time, integration efforts reached their peak and 44% of black students in the south attended majority-white schools. Part three of the course will focus on the dismantling of desegregation efforts that were facilitated by U.S. Supreme Court decisions beginning in the 1990s. Throughout the course we will consider the consequences of the racial isolation and concentrated poverty that characterizes segregated schooling and consider the implications of this for today’s K-12 student population, which is demographically very different than it was in the 1960s, in part due to new migration streams from Latin America, Asia, and the Caribbean. Over the last 40 years, public schools have experienced a 28% decline in white enrollments, with increases in the number of black and Asian students, and a noteworthy 495% increase in Latino enrollments. Eréndira Rueda. Not offered in 2017/18. One 2-hour period.
	SOCI 388 - Schooling in America: Preparing Citizens or Producing Worker 1 unit(s) (Same as EDUC 388 ) We consider the role that education plays in US society in relationship to the political economy at different historical periods. In Part I, we examine democratic views of schooling (i.e. schooling functions to prepare citizens for participation in a diverse society) and technical views of schooling (i.e. schools prepare students to participate in the capitalist economy), as well as critiques and limitations of each view. In Part II, we examine current school reform efforts, such as modifications of school structure, curriculum and instruction, and the move to privatize schooling. In Part III, we discuss the future of education in our increasingly global capitalist society. Eréndira Rueda. Prerequisite(s): SOCI 151 . Not offered in 2017/18.
	SOCI 399 - Senior Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring 0.5 to 1 unit(s) Individual project of reading or research. May be elected during the college year or during the summer. The department. Special permission. Unscheduled.
Science, Technology and Society: I. Introductory
	STS 105 - 20th Century Revolutions in Physics 1 unit(s) (Same as PHYS 105 ) Lord Kelvin, one of the most distinguished physicists of the 19th century, is famous for his 1900 proclamation: “There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now.” In the fall of that same year Max Planck provided the spark that would become the revolutionary fire from which a new physics was born. The multiple revolutions in physics that proceeded Kelvin’s proclamation are the subject of this class. We examine the developments of Quantum Theory, Special and General Theories of Relativity, and Modern Cosmology studying each in its proper historical context. From both primary and secondary sources we learn the basic concepts that became the fabric of today’s physics. Along the way, we are sure to unearth both the undeniable impacts these discoveries have had on society and the contingency surrounding the nature of these scientific revolutions. José Perillán. Not offered in 2017/18. Two 75-minute periods.
	STS 111 - Science and Justice in the Anthropocene Semester Offered: Spring 1 unit(s) (Same as ESCI 111 and GEOG 111 ) Geoscientists have proposed a new designation in the geologic time scale for our current time period, “the Anthropocene.” The designation reflects the fact that human beings are acting as geological agents, transforming the Earth on a global scale. In this freshman seminar course we explore the possibilities of reconfiguring the actions of humans in the Anthropocene so as to lead to a flowering of a new Era once called ‘the Ecozoic’ by cultural historian Thomas Berry. Jill Schneiderman. Open to freshmen only; satisfies college requirement for a Freshman Writing Seminar. Two 75-minute periods.
	STS 131 - Genetic Engineering: Basic Principles and Ethical Questions 1 unit(s) This course includes a consideration of: 1) basic biological knowledge about the nature of the gene, the genetic code, and the way in which the genetic code is translated into the phenotype of the organism; 2) how this basic, scientific knowledge has led to the development of a new technology known as “genetic engineering”; 3) principles and application of the technology itself; 4) the ethical, legal, and economic issues which have been raised by the advent of this technology. Among the issues discussed are ethical questions such as the nature of life itself, the right of scientists to pursue research at will, and the role of the academy to regulate the individual scientific enterprise. Jennifer Kennell. Not offered in 2017/18.
	STS 146 - The Culture and Chemistry of Cuisine 1 unit(s) (Same as CHEM 146 ) A basic biological need of all organisms is the ability to acquire nutrients from the environment; humans accomplish this in many creative ways. Food is an important factor in societies that influences population growth, culture, migration, and conflict. Humans discovered the science and art of food preparation, topics that are explored in this course, not in a single step but rather as an evolving process that continues to this day. This course develops the basic chemistry, biochemistry and microbiology of food preparation; explores the biochemical basis of certain nutritional practices; covers social and political aspects of foods throughout world history. It covers controversies like genetically modified organisms, the production of high-fructose corn syrup, and the historic role of food commodities such as salt, rum, and cod in the world economy. Course topics are explored through lectures, student presentations, and readings from both popular and scientific literature. The course includes a few laboratories to explore the basic science behind food preparation. Miriam Rossi. Not offered in 2017/18.
	STS 160 - Relatively Uncertain: A History of Physics, Religion and Popular Culture 1 unit(s) (Same as PHYS 160 and RELI 160 ) This course examines the cultural history of key ideas and experiments in physics, looking in particular at how non-scientists understood key concepts such as entropy, relativity, quantum mechanics and the idea of higher or new dimensions. It begins with an assumption that’s widely accepted among historians – namely, that the sciences are a part of culture and are influenced by cultural trends, contemporary concerns and even urgent personal ethical or religious dilemmas. In this course we are attuned to the ways that physicists drew key insights from popular culture and how non-scientists, including religious or spiritual seekers, appropriated (and misappropriated) scientific insights about the origin and nature of the world, its underlying laws and energetic forces, and its ultimate meaning and purpose. Brian Daly and Christopher White. Not offered in 2017/18. Two 75-minute periods.
	STS 172 - Microbial Wars Semester Offered: Spring 1 unit(s) (Same as BIOL 172 ) This course explores our relationship with microbes that cause disease. Topics including bioterrorism, vaccinology, smallpox eradication, influenza pandemics, antibiotic resistance, and emerging diseases are discussed to investigate how human populations are affected by disease, how and why we alter microorganisms intentionally or unintentionally, and how we study disease causing microbes of the past and present. The use of new technologies in microbiology that allow us to turn harmful pathogens into helpful medical or industrial tools are also discussed. David Esteban.
	STS 186 - Philosophy of Medicine Semester Offered: Fall 0.5 unit(s) (Same as PHIL 186 ) How does medicine look at and see the body? What kind of body does it envision, and what the means by which it locates within the space of the body that which threatens the body’s organic unity? This six-week course engages in the philosophies of medical perception and diagnostic practices. From the constitution of health and disease in a body, the discovery of illnesses (as a category, and located in the body), to the construction, via legislation, of a healthy society (body-politic), and the use and abuse of metaphors of disease, this course examines the ways in which medical science fashions its object of study, discovers and diagnoses buried beneath the symptom the movements of disease, and aims to treat the body of the individual and society from the constant threat of illness. Readings include authors such as: Georges Canguilhem, Frantz Fanon, Michel Foucault, Annemarie Mol, and Susan Sontag. Required work includes reading, short weekly writing assignments, class participation, and attendance. Osman Nemli. Second six-week course. Two 75-minute periods.
Science, Technology and Society: II. Intermediate
	STS 200 - Conceptualizing STS: Theories and Practice Semester Offered: Spring 1 unit(s) An introduction to the multidisciplinary study of contemporary science and technology through selected case studies and key texts representing the major perspectives and methods of analysis, including work by Thomas Kuhn, Robert Merton, Bruno Latour, Sandra Harding, Helen Longino, and Naomi Oreskes. Some of the issues include the concept of scientific revolution, the nature of “big science” and “high technology,” the sociology of scientific knowledge, the social construction of science and technology, the ethics of funding/owning science and technology, and feminist approaches to science and technology. José Perillán. Prerequisite(s): one other Science, Technology and Science course. Two 75-minute periods.
	STS 202 - History of Modern Science and Technology Semester Offered: Fall 1 unit(s) This course is a survey of major developments in Western science and technology from 1800 to the present with increased attention to contemporary developments in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Major issues include the rise of weapons ammunition (automatic firearms), viral immunization (HIV/AIDS), the human sciences (Darwinism), reproductive technology (birth control), cybernetics (AI), and genetic manipulation (cloning). These topics are discussed in relation to larger processes of colonialism, militarism, higher education, and queer/women’s rights. Students will learn from this course that science and technology are phenomena rooted in historical events, emerging through human exchange, social controversies, and political challenges. Long Bui. Prerequisite(s): one unit of natural or social science. Two 75-minute periods.
	STS 220 - The Political Economy of Health Care Semester Offered: Fall 1 unit(s) (Same as ECON 220 ) Topics include the markets for physicians and nurses, hospital services, pharmaceuticals, and health insurance, both public and private; effects of changes in medical technology; and global health problems. A comparative study of several other countries’ health care systems and reforms to the U.S. system focuses on problems of financing and providing access to health care in a climate of increasing demand and rising costs. Shirley Johnson-Lans. Prerequisite(s): ECON 102 . Students with a strong quantitative background may enroll with the instructor’s permission.
	STS 222 - Bioethics and Human Reproduction 1 unit(s) Scientific and technological advances are revolutionizing the ways in which human beings can procreate. This has given rise to debates over the ethical use of these methods, and over whether and how law and public policy should regulate these procedures and recognize the family relationships created by their use. This course examines topics such as fertility treatments, the commodification of gametes and embryos, contraceptive development and use, genetic screening and genetic modification of embryos, genetic testing in establishing family rights and responsibilities, and human cloning. We examine issues surrounding the ethical use of these methods, and consider whether and how law and public policy should regulate these procedures and recognize the family relationships created by their use. Nancy Pokrywka. Not offered in 2017/18.
	STS 226 - Philosophy of Science 1 unit(s) (Same as PHIL 226 ) This course explores general questions about the nature of scientific inquiry, such as whether science is fully rational, and whether even our best scientific theories really provide us with accurate depictions of the natural order. The course also treats philosophical issues that arise in relation to specific scientific theories. These include whether life originated in a series of unlikely accidents, whether human cognition may be understood in purely computational terms, and whether we should embrace the existence of multiple universes and abandon the requirement that scientific theories be testable. Douglas Winblad. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level course in Philosophy. Not offered in 2017/18. Two 75-minute periods.
	STS 231 - Topics in Archaeology Semester Offered: Spring 1 unit(s) An examination of topics of interest in current archaeological analysis. We examine the anthropological reasons for such analyses, how analysis proceeds, what has been discovered to date through such analyses, and what the future of the topic seems to be. Possible topics include tools and human behavior, lithic technology, the archaeology of death, prehistoric settlement systems, origins of material culture. May be repeated for credit if the topic has changed. Topic for 2017/18b: People in a New World. (Same as ANTH 231 ) Approximately 15,000 years ago, according to current scientific thought, humans expanded into the last large landmass left in the world without human inhabitants: The Americas. Who were these people? How did they get here and from where? What were the environmental and ecological conditions they faced, and how did they overcome them? What technologies did they bring with them, and what new technologies did they create in order to colonize these continents? This course examines the history of studies of the earliest Americans, what theories emerged about their origins over time, which have been discarded, and which still exist and compete with one another. Our current sources of information about the earliest immigrants – archaeology, biological anthropology, linguistics, ecology, genetics, geology, geophysics, chemistry among them – are examined to consider what leads they can produce and how they must be evaluated in coming to conclusions about what happened in the Americas 20-10,000 years ago. Lucy Johnson. Prerequisite(s): ANTH 100 or ANTH 235 . Two 75-minute periods.

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Course Descriptions

RUSS 171 - Russia and the Short Story (in English)

RUSS 172 - Beyond the Looking Glass: Nonsense and Absurd in Russian and European Literature and Visual Arts (in English)

RUSS 173 - Women in Russian Arts: The Power and The Glory

RUSS 182 - A Slap In the Face of Public Taste: Revolutionary Art in Russia 1910-1917

RUSS 183 - Nabokov Before “Lolita”: The Making of a Genius in the Age of Jazz and Surrealism.

RUSS 210 - Intermediate Russian

RUSS 211 - Intermediate Russian

RUSS 235 - The Russian Classics: The Great Realists of the Nineteenth Century

RUSS 243 - The Genius of Chekov: Theatre and Tales

RUSS 252 - The Russian Modernists: Decadence, Revolution, and the Avant-Garde

RUSS 264 - Eurasia: Ethnic Cinema of the Soviet Union and Russia

RUSS 269 - The Great Utopia: Ideals and Realities of the Russian Revolution

RUSS 290 - Field Work

RUSS 298 - Independent Work

RUSS 300 - Senior Thesis

RUSS 303 - Senior Project

RUSS 323 - Chekhov’s Short Stories and Plays

RUSS 331 - Advanced Russian

RUSS 332 - Advanced Russian

RUSS 371 - Seminar on Russian Culture

RUSS 373 - Seminar on Russian Literature

RUSS 374 - Russian Poetry of the Silver Age

RUSS 399 - Senior Independent Work

SOCI 110 - Gender, Social Problems and Social Change

SOCI 111 - Social Change in South Korea Through Film

SOCI 151 - Introductory Sociology

SOCI 181 - Understanding and Disrupting the School-to-Prison Pipeline

SOCI 183 - Disaster and Disorder: The New Normal

SOCI 205 - What is a Just Society?

SOCI 207 - Commercialized Childhoods

SOCI 210 - Domestic Violence

SOCI 214 - Transnational Perspectives on Women and Work

SOCI 215 - Perspectives on Deviant Subculture

SOCI 216 - Food, Culture, and Globalization

SOCI 229 - Black Intellectual History

SOCI 234 - Disability and Society

SOCI 235 - Quality of Life

SOCI 236 - Imprisonment and the Prisoner

SOCI 237 - Community Development

SOCI 245 - Making Waves: Topics in Feminist Activism

SOCI 247 - Modern Social Theory: Classical Traditions

SOCI 249 - Latino/a Formations

SOCI 250 - Sex, Gender, and Society

SOCI 251 - Development and Social Change in Latin America

SOCI 253 - Children of Immigration

SOCI 254 - Research Methods

SOCI 256 - Mass Media and Society

SOCI 257 - Reorienting America: Asians in American History and Society

SOCI 258 - Race and Ethnicity

SOCI 259 - Social Stratification

SOCI 260 - Health, Medicine, and Public Policy

SOCI 261 - “The Nuclear Cage”: Environmental Theory and Nuclear Power

SOCI 263 - Criminology

SOCI 264 - Poverty and Policy

SOCI 265 - News Media in the United States

SOCI 266 - Racism, Waste and Resistance

SOCI 269 - Constructing School Kids and Street Kids

SOCI 270 - Drugs, Culture, and Society

SOCI 273 - The New Economy

SOCI 277 - Working Class Studies

SOCI 283 - Gender, Sexuality and Abolitionist Activism

SOCI 284 - Undocumented, Unapologetic, Unafraid

SOCI 286 - Accessing the Ivory Tower

SOCI 287 - Comparative Asian American-Latinx Immigrant Experiences

SOCI 289 - The Sociology of Queer/LGBT Communities

SOCI 290 - Field Work

SOCI 298 - Independent Work

SOCI 300 - Senior Thesis

SOCI 301 - Senior Thesis

SOCI 305 - The Social Construction of Race in the U.S.

SOCI 312 - Corporate Power

SOCI 317 - Women, Crime, and Punishment

SOCI 321 - Feminism, Knowledge, Practice

SOCI 353 - Bio-Social Controversy

SOCI 356 - Culture, Commerce, and the Public Sphere

SOCI 365 - Class, Culture, and Power

SOCI 367 - Mind, Culture, and Biology

SOCI 368 - Toxic Futures: From Social Theory to Environmental Theory

SOCI 369 - Masculinities: Global Perspectives