SOCIOLOGY (SOC)
SOC 101 - INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY
Basic theories and concepts of sociology; culture; roles and norms; personality and group; forms of social organization; class, caste, and race; community; social institutions; collective behavior; social change.
Credits: 3
Attributes: Social Science
SOC 123 - SPORTS AND SOCIETY
Sociological perspective on the socio-cultural characteristics of sport. Examination of the cultural, historical, economic, political, and structural factors (e.g., race, class, gender) that form salient aspects of today's sport activities at various levels. Focus on the characteristics of sports and how they reflect and impact the social climate of society.
Credits: 3
Course Notes: No additional credit granted for SOC 223
SOC 210 - CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL ISSUES
This course focuses on contemporary issues from a sociological perspective. The course will focus on the ways social inequalities (such as class and power relations, race, gender, and global inequality) are produced and reproduced overtime. The course will also examine specific institutional problems which may include the environment, poverty, corporate power, urban and suburban places, the workplace, education, healthcare, crime and justice, and national security. The class will also reflect on the prospects for social justice and progressive policy solutions.
Credits: 3
Attributes: Social Justice Studies, Social Science
Prerequisites: SOC 101
SOC 211 - CONTEMPORARY GLOBAL ISSUES
This course analyzes contemporary global issues through a sociological lens. Its core purpose is to explore the context, structural and cultural causes and consequences of such global issues as colonialism, imperialism, privilege, consumption, corporate power, economic development, debt crisis, labor practices, oppression, neocolonialism, state violence, and militarism.
Credits: 3
Attributes: International Studies, Non-western Culture, Social Science
Prerequisites: SOC 101
Course Notes: Fulfills SOC 210 requirement.
SOC 212 - CONTEMPORARY URBAN ISSUES
This course examines contemporary urban issues from a sociological perspective. The course will focus on the historical forces that shape current racial and class segregation. The class will then examine place-based forms of urban inequality stemming from economic development trends, workplace transformation, and gentrification; urban problems involving schools, the criminal justice system, immigration reform and the suburban crisis; the role of cities in Climate Change; and progressive solutions to urban problems.
Credits: 3
Attributes: Social Justice Studies, Social Science
Prerequisites: SOC 101
SOC 214 - SOCIOLOGY OF CHICAGO NEIGHBORHOODS
Students in this class will explore Chicago’s neighborhoods. We will examine a wide array of social forces that shape neighborhoods, such as: downtown development, urban sustainability and green development, segregation, ethnic enclaves, gayborhoods, gentrification, public housing, public transportation, public schools, policing, and community organizations. Each topic will be paired with a field trip to a specific neighborhood that best exemplifies the topic under examination. Students should take away an in-depth understanding of the social forces that shape neighborhoods in Chicago and a deeper understanding of neighborhoods as a lived experience.
Credits: 3
Attributes: Social Justice Studies, Social Science
SOC 215 - THE FAMILY
Development of families; variations in family patterns in various cultures; role relationships within families; family influences in personality development; mate selection; parent-child relations; family disorganization and reorganization.
Credits: 3
Attributes: Social Science, Women Gender Studies
SOC 220 - HEALTH, ILLNESS, & INEQUALITY
This course explores how the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, capitalism, consumer culture, and the ecological destruction of our planet affects our very well-being. We examine these complex issues by first examining the social determinants of health: the ways that race, class, gender, and environment intersect to produce disease and disability for some and wellness for others. Second, we will look at the social construction of illness, asking how cultural conceptions of illness can explain a variety of health outcomes across different cultural contexts. Finally, we will explore the political economy of medicine: looking at how our health care system, while acting as an institution of public health and healing, also serves as a tool for social control and an engine for capitalist accumulation.
Credits: 3
SOC 223 - SPORTS AND SOCIETY
Sociological perspective on the socio-cultural characteristics of sport. Examination of the cultural, historical, economic, political, and structural factors (e.g., race, class, gender) that form salient aspects of today's sport activities at various levels. Focus on the characteristics of sports and how they reflect and impact the social climate of society. (3)
Credits: 3
Attributes: Social Science, Women Gender Studies
SOC 225 - MCDONALDIZATION OF SOCIETY
George Ritzer's McDonaldization thesis holds that the world is increasingly organized around principles of efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control through nonhuman technology. Although in many ways a restatement of Max Weber's classic analysis of bureaucracy, Ritzer's thesis has been extended in very original ways by others into the analysis of chain stores, restaurants, theme parks, sex work, the operation of police, courts and prisons, and universities. This course will be focused on the McDondaldization thesis, its extensions and its critics.
Credits: 3
Attributes: Social Science
SOC 228 - LIVING SOCIAL JSUTICE: CAREER AND PERSONAL PATHWAYS
Credits: 3
Attributes: Social Justice Studies
SOC 230 - JUVENILE JUSTICE
Review of traditional and critical theories of crime and deviance. Perspective examined include functionalism, social disorganization, anomie, differential association, labeling, and critical theory.
Credits: 3
Attributes: Social Science
Prerequisites: SOC 101
SOC 240 - WRITING FOR NONPROFITS
Credits: 3
Attributes: Non-western Culture
Prerequisites: SOC 101
Course Notes: SOC 101 or consent of instructor
SOC 241 - CROSS-CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Concepts of cultural anthropology in contemporary non-Western cultures and US; development as it affects traditional ways of life. Economic activities, gender, race, health, kinship and marriage, and trends in anthropological fieldwork. See Anth 240.
Credits: 3
Attributes: International Studies, Non-western Culture, Social Science
SOC 260 - SOCIETY AND THE INDIVIDUAL
This course explores the relationship between society and the individual self, particularly how in the ebb and flow of everyday life, we both consciously and unconsciously, make and remake both social structures and ourselves through social interaction. Our goal is to gain a better understanding of when we are acting as social agents, conscious of our motives and ability to create social change, and when social structures are acting upon us via socialization, social expectation, norms, sanctions, stereotypes, etc. to reinforce the existing social order. Topics include social perception; social influence and persuasion; institutionalized classism, racism, sexism, ageism, and ableism; intimacy and close relationships, emotions and emotion management; and pro-social behavior.
Credits: 3
Attributes: Social Science
Prerequisites: SOC 101
SOC 261 - WRITING FOR NON-PROFITS
Writing for Nonprofits is a problem-based writing course that asks students to practice composing for community-engaged contexts, audiences, and purposes. Students will practice rhetorically sound, professional writing by partnering with a nonprofit organization and promoting their services to a larger audience. Students will also have opportunities to practice collaborative writing, as students will spend the semester working in groups to learn about the services offered by this organization and apply rhetorical concepts that can encourage people in and around Chicago to make use of the organization’s resources.
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: SOC 101
SOC 270 - FOOD AND INEQUALITY
What and how we eat reveal complex relationships between individual eaters and social structures. This course focuses on food as a lens to study the productions and reproduction of social inequality. We explore problems in the food system, such as labor injustices and unequal access to food as well as recent food movements and media representations of food. Applying a sociological perspective, students will reflect on and analyze on how their own food and eating practices are culturally and socially produced.
Credits: 3
SOC 280 - TELLING SOCIOLOGICAL STORIES
Telling stories about lived experiences helps people reflect on their individual lives and communicate the socio-cultural meanings of their experiences. Based on the belief that stories matter sociologically, we examine how narrative storytelling connects the self to larger social forces and explore how storytelling can be used to influence social change.
Credits: 3
SOC 290 - THE RESEARCH PROCESS
Data-gathering techniques in the social sciences; questionnaires, interviews, participant observation, and the use of official statistics. Basic statistical procedures used to analyze and interpret data; the use of computers in research; emphasis on the preparation and writing of research reports.
Credits: 3
Attributes: Social Science
Prerequisites: SOC 101
SOC 291 - SOCIAL STATISTICS: INTRODUCTION TO PROBABILITY & STATISTICS
Elementary probability and probability distributions, random variables, expectation, and variance; binomial and normal probability distributions. Applications to estimation, confidence intervals, statistical testing of hypotheses, two-sample techniques. Correlation and least squares.
Credits: 3
Attributes: Social Science
Prerequisites: MATH 116 or MATH 121 or MATH 110 or Compass-Algebra with min score of 45
Course Notes: Math courses higher than 121 satisfy the prerequisite.
SOC 292 - ELEMENTARY STATISICS LAB
The course incorporates collaborative learning, oral and written reports and technology. Emphasizes techniques, exploration and applications rather than derivation. All projects will use real data and conclusions are not predetermined. Topics include methods of summarizing data, statistical inference and regression.
Credits: 1
Course Notes: Must be taken concuurrently with MATH 217, ECON 234, or, SOC 291
SOC 300 - LIVING SOCIOLOGY: CAREER AND PERSONAL PATHWAYS
Sociologists study the social world and are often well-versed in the ‘problems’ of everyday life. In this course we will 'learn about' and 'engage in' creating social change. Through the planned readings and workshops students will learn theory, advocacy and activist skills, and engage in dialogue about their experiences through a sociological lens. In the end, students interested in pursuing careers informed by a sociological perspective will have tools to connect to or carve a path.
Credits: 3
Attributes: Social Science
Prerequisites: SOC 101 (may be taken concurrently)
Course Notes: Additional credit will not be given for both SOC 289, and SOC 300., No additional credit granted for SOC 300 as "SOCIOLOGY IN, ACTION.
SOC 303 - SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY
Development of classical perspectives within sociology. Karl Marx, Max Weber, Emile Durkheim and others.
Credits: 3
Attributes: Social Science
Prerequisites: SOC 101 and 9 Credit Hours of Sociology
Course Notes: 9 semester hours in SOC or instr. consent
SOC 318 - SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND SOCIAL CHANGE
Since the 1970s a new form of 'neoliberal' capitalism has emerged. Neoliberalism rode in on attacks against 'big government' and 'special interests', accompanied by promises of economic growth and greater efficiency. In practice, neoliberalism has failed to deliver on these promises. Everywhere it has been implemented, neoliberalism has produced mounting inequality and increasing insecurity for the vast majority. Rather than reducing the size of government, neoliberalism has shifted the weight of government from social programs benefitting poor and working people to massive subsidies for the wealthy, the military-industrial complex, and the prison-industrial complex. This course examines the rise of neoliberalism, its contradictions, and its current crisis. In response to the constant refrain that 'there is no alternative', the course also explores alternatives to neoliberalism in the form of economic democracy and worker self-managed enterprises.
Credits: 3
Attributes: Social Justice Studies, Social Science
Prerequisites: SOC 101 and 3 Credit Hours of Sociology
SOC 319 - LATINO URBAN EXPERIENCE
This course focuses on the contemporary urban experience of Latinos, particularly the contributions they make to U.S. society and the challenges they face. Topics include the impact of globalization on immigration and labor markets, gentrification of Latino neighborhoods, the rise of the Latino middle-class, and immigration policy, etc.
Credits: 3
Attributes: Hispanic Studies, International Studies, Non-western Culture, Social Justice Studies, Social Science
Prerequisites: SOC 101
SOC 320 - THE SOCIOLOGY OF INEQUALITY
Nature and function of social inequality. Selected theories of inequality; American stratification system; comparative inequality; indicators of social class position; class consciousness and identification; prestige and power; class position and its correlates; processes of social mobility.
Credits: 3
Attributes: Social Justice Studies, Social Science
Prerequisites: SOC 101
SOC 325 - EDUCATION AND SOCIETY
Social factors involved in educational processes within US society. The interaction of educational institutions with various cultural, economic, and social factors.
Credits: 3
Attributes: Social Justice Studies, Social Science
Prerequisites: SOC 101
SOC 327 - RACE & ETHNIC RELATIONS
Race and ethnicity in the US; history and present status of various racial and ethnic groups; political economy of race; changing public discourse of race and racial identities.
Credits: 3
Attributes: Non-western Culture, Social Justice Studies, Social Science
Prerequisites: SOC 101
SOC 329 - WHITENESS IN A GLOBAL SOCIETY
Course addresses the history, economics, politics and social construction of whiteness. Specific focus on three white deep-settler countries (countries that whites colonized, controlled, and stayed for generations): U.S., Australia and South Africa. These three countries share many similarities and by examining the differences we can develop a sophisticated understanding of the (re)production of white privilege, white power and the continuation of white supremacy world-wide.
Credits: 6
Attributes: International Studies, Social Science, Travel Based Study
Prerequisites: SOC 101
Course Notes: Sophomore standing or above.
SOC 330 - SOCIOLOGY OF MENTAL HEALTH AND ILLNESS
Mental disorders as major social problems; concept of mental illness in popular understanding, psychiatry, and social sciences; cultural, social-psychological, and sociological theories of development of mental disorders; empirical studies of cultural variation and social variables in mental disorders; social aspects of patient career; social prevention of mental disorders.
Credits: 3
Attributes: Social Science
Prerequisites: SOC 101 and 3 Credit Hours of Sociology
Course Notes: or instructor consent
SOC 331 - CRIMINOLOGY
Social processes and criminal behavior; theories of crime; social factors and causes of crime; law enforcement and the judicial process; corrections; prevention of crime.
Credits: 3
Attributes: Social Science
Prerequisites: SOC 101 and 3 Credit Hours of Sociology
Course Notes: Sophomore standing or above.
SOC 339 - SOCIOLOGY OF DEATH, DYING & LOSS
This interdisciplinary course interrogates the social, cultural, psychological, medical, ethical, philosophical, and spiritual issues that surround and possibly give meaning to the experiences of dying, death, loss, mourning, and living on after the death of significant people in our lives. Visual materials and methods (film, websites, videography, and photography) are combined with traditional materials methods of analysis (reading, class discussion, and class reports) to explore various themes including: the death system; societal responses to death, including those that are untimely, violent or preventable; end-of-life illnesses including Alzheimer’s, dementia, heart disease, and cancer; caring for the dying and the filial crisis; burial and memorializing rituals; assisted death, right-to-die, euthanasia, and the social causes and impact of ending one’s own life by suicide; and the ideas of immortality and transcendence.
Credits: 3
Attributes: Social Science
Prerequisites: SOC 101 (may be taken concurrently)
SOC 340 - GENDER AND SOCIETY
The social construction of gender definitions; focus on how gender roles in the family, media, and work place are constructed.
Credits: 3
Attributes: Social Science, Women Gender Studies
Prerequisites: SOC 101 and 3 Credit Hours of Sociology
Course Notes: Plus 3 hours of SOC or instructor consent.
SOC 342 - GLOBAL RACE
Course centers on the origins, discourse and outcomes of racialization processes on a global level. Students learn the specific processes of racialization by researching at least one non-North American country. Racialization will be understood at the intersection of gender, sexuality, citizenship, class and religion. Course has five sections: theorizing race; origins of racializing humanity (from egyptian elavery to the Enlightenment); modern theories of race (from Eugenics to racial formation theory); colonization and slavery (development of racialized capitalism); and Europeans and the development of whiteness.
Credits: 3
Attributes: International Studies, Social Science
Prerequisites: SOC 101
SOC 346 - COMMUNITY ORGANIZING
Examination of community organizing theories and approaches. Focuses on cases studies and hands on experience.
Credits: 3
Attributes: Social Justice Studies, Social Science
Prerequisites: SOC 101 (may be taken concurrently) and 3 Credit Hours of Sociology
Course Notes: or instructor consent.
SOC 355 - CLIMATE CHANGE, CITIES, AND JUSTICE
Climate Change is fundamentally transforming how humans live. U.S. cities must adopt policies to reduce carbon emissions and adapt to changing climate conditions. This course examines current and future impacts of climate change on cities, focusing on extreme weather events like wildfires, floods, hurricanes, rising sea levels, urban heat waves, and water shortages. We analyze how these extreme weather events amplify environmental injustices and lead to the mass displacement of people, creating a new type of immigrant – the climate refugee. We also explore solutions that Resilient Cities across the globe have already implemented in their infrastructure and services to both mitigate and adapt to climate change, accommodate growing climate refugee populations, and enhance environmental equity. These include sustainable building and urban environmental design, affordable housing, low-carbon public transportation systems, and accessible green spaces.
Credits: 3
Attributes: Social Justice Studies, Social Science
Prerequisites: SOC 101 (may be taken concurrently) or ENG 102 (may be taken concurrently)
Course Notes: No additional credit granted for SOC 355 as, URBAN INEQUALITY SOC JUSTICE
SOC 356 - SOCIAL JUSTICE INSTITUTE
This course offers students the unprecedented opportunity to explore ideas about justice with a variety of scholars and activists. Students will investigate contemporary issues of social justice in both theory and practice. The course is a participatory, discussion-based class that will entail active involvement.
Credits: 3
Attributes: Social Justice Studies, Social Science
SOC 381 - SPECIAL TOPIC
Topics vary by semester and faculty's expertise.
Credits: 3
Attributes: Social Science
Prerequisites: SOC 101 and 3 Credit Hours of Sociology
SOC 390 - THESIS
By arrangement with faculty.
Credits: 3
Attributes: Social Science
Course Notes: By arrangement with faculty.
SOC 394 - INTERNSHIP
Internship with a local organization involving sociological study. An internship requires working the equivalent of 8 hours/week (10 hours summer) for a total of at least 120 hours at the site of the selected organization. Students will meet the internship requirements of the department (e.g., journal, final paper). Offered in conjunction with faculty advisor, by faculty consent, and requires an advanced signed contract.
Credits: 3
Attributes: Social Science
Course Notes: Consent from Sociology Faculty.
SOC 395 - INDEPENDENT STUDY
Topics should not be part of regular curriculum. Student should demonstrate significant interest in and preparation for topic selected.
Credits: 1-4
Attributes: Social Science
Course Notes: or instructor consent