Catalogue

Sociology

sociology.bard.edu

Faculty

Allison McKim (director), Karen Barkey, Yuval Elmelech, Peter Klein, Joel Perlmann, Jomaira Salas Pujols, Jussara dos Santos Raxlen

Overview

Sociology at Bard aims to provide an understanding of the structure and processes of human societies—from everyday interactions to social transformations of global magnitude. Sociology students learn to systematically examine a wide array of social phenomena, including social inequality, economic systems, political institutions and policy, race and ethnicity, gender, education, culture, religion, family structures, environmental risks, technological change, cities, and criminal justice. The Sociology curriculum offers students a theoretical and methodological foundation for conducting social research and thinking rigorously about important social issues. The most wide-ranging of the social sciences, sociology situates the economic, cultural, and political aspects of human communities within the complex whole of social life and its historical foundations. With its diverse topics, theories, and methodologies, the sociological perspective teaches people to examine the social world in a way that is both rigorous and flexible.

Requirements

Students planning to moderate in Sociology are required to take a 100-level course in sociology (ideally Sociology 101, Introduction to Sociology); Sociology 205, Introduction to Research Methods; and Sociology 213, Sociological Theory, before Moderation. For Moderation, students submit the standard autobiographical outline of past and future work and a 10-page essay on a topic of their choice that has been approved by their adviser. Majors are expected to take two 300-level seminars and three additional electives before graduation. Each student must write a Senior Project based on their own original sociological research.

Recent Senior Projects in Sociology

• “Litigation as Integration and Participation: The Role of Lawsuits in the US Environmental Justice Movement”
• “Regulating Latina Sexuality: Unlearning an At-Risk Framework to Make Meaning of Sexual Autonomy”
• “Under(neath) the Influence: A Study of Micro Influencers and Content Creators and the Dynamics of Digital Labor” 
• “When Punishment Doesn’t Work: The Ideology and Infrastructure of Restorative Justice in Public Schools”

Courses

The Sociology curriculum offers students a theoretical and methodological foundation to examine important social issues. Courses in the program expose students to quantitative, qualitative, and historical research. Students learn to use research to inform policy, and they use social theory to engage profound questions about the nature of social life. Through this training, students acquire skills in conducting systematic social research. 

The following descriptions represent a sampling of courses from the past four years.

Introduction to Sociology
Sociology 101
CROSS-LISTED: AMERICAN AND INDIGENOUS STUDIES
Sociology is the systematic study of social life, social groups, and social relations. This course explores many aspects of social life from the sociological perspective, including work, family, inequality, media, crime, gender, race, and class. Students learn how aspects of life we may take for granted are socially constructed, and how our individual choices and actions are constrained and enabled by social, economic, and cultural structures.

Wealth, Poverty, and Inequality
Sociology 120
CROSS-LISTED: AMERICAN AND INDIGENOUS STUDIES, GSS, HUMAN RIGHTS
Why do some people face severe economic hardship and persistent poverty while others enjoy financial security and experience upward mobility? What are the patterns and sources of this inequality? Is inequality inevitable? Through lectures, scholarly works, documentary films, and class discussions, this course examines the causes and consequences of socioeconomic inequality in the contemporary United States.

Sociology of Race and Ethnicity
Sociology 122
CROSS-LISTED: AFRICANA STUDIES, AMERICAN AND INDIGENOUS STUDIES, HUMAN RIGHTS, LAIS
DESIGNATED: RJI COURSE
The Black Lives Matter movement, the rise of white nationalist groups, and US racial demographic changes have put issues of race and racism at the forefront of national conversations. This course introduces sociological approaches to race and ethnicity, examining questions such as: What is meant when we say race is socially constructed and not biological? What are the sociohistorical processes that have cemented racial stratification? And how does the lived experience of being racialized intersect with other social categories such as gender, immigration status, and socioeconomic class? 

Sociology of Gender
Sociology 135
CROSS-LISTED: ANTHROPOLOGY, GSS
This course examines how and why gender is an organizing principle of social life; how social structures and practices construct gender identity and culture; how different groups of women and men experience this gendered order; and how gender is significant within different institutional and interpersonal contexts. The course also considers the ways that gender inequality is intertwined with other axes of oppression such as sexuality, race/ethnicity, and class.

Introduction to Urban Sociology
Sociology 138
CROSS-LISTED: ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
DESIGNATED: ELAS COURSE
More than half the world’s population now lives in urban areas. Thus, the study of social and political dynamics in urban centers is crucial if we are to understand and address the pressing issues of the contemporary world. This course explores these dynamics through an introduction to urban sociology: the study of social relations, processes, and changes in the urban context as well as the diverse methods that social scientists use to understand these dynamics.

Israeli Society at the Crossroads
Sociology 140
CROSS-LISTED: GIS, JEWISH STUDIES, MES
Modern Israel is a diverse society characterized by profound tensions between contending political ideologies, ethnic groups, economic interests, and religious beliefs. This course provides students with the knowledge and analytical tools needed to understand these emerging trends. Selected topics include the “New Jew” and Israeli identity, socialism and capitalism, religiosity and secularism, militarism and democracy, immigration and integration, national identity and minority rights, inequality and the “start-up nation,” gender roles, and family patterns.

Introduction to Political Sociology
Sociology 144
CROSS-LISTED: POLITICS
This course address central concepts in political sociology, especially those dealing with power, politics, and the state. For each section—power, politics, state—students read a conceptual, theoretical piece as well as a historical or contemporary case study. The interplay between theory and case provides ample opportunity to see how political sociologists define concepts and how they use them in their empirical settings.

Introduction to Research Methods
Sociology 205
CROSS-LISTED: AMERICAN AND INDIGENOUS STUDIES, ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES, GIS, HUMAN RIGHTS
This course helps students understand and use various research methods developed in the social sciences, with an emphasis on quantitative methods. They learn how to formulate research questions and hypotheses, choose the appropriate research method for the problem, and maximize chances for valid and reliable findings. They then learn how to perform simple data analysis, and interpret and present findings in a written report. Admission by permission of the instructor.

Deviance and Social Control
Sociology 207
DESIGNATED: HSI COURSE
All societies establish norms of conduct and in all societies individuals violate these norms and experience sanctions for doing so. The sociological study of deviance examines how certain people and behaviors come to be defined and labeled as deviant in certain contexts. The course addresses how issues of class, race, gender, and cultural and historical contexts relate to deviance, and considers topics including mental illness, addiction, nonconforming sexualities, antiestablishment subcultures, youth and delinquency, crime and policing, and public debates about sex work, abortion, and gun control.

Sociological Theory
Sociology 213
CROSS-LISTED: HUMAN RIGHTS
What is theory? And what makes a theory sociological? Simply put, a theory is a way of making sense of social phenomena, from globalization to intimate interpersonal relationships. This course surveys theories foundational to the creation of sociology and the social sciences; theories focused on the transformations of modern society in the 19th and 20th centuries; and responses, critiques, or further developments of these theories. 

Contemporary Immigration
Sociology 214
Why do immigrants come to the United States? Where do they come from, geographically and socially, and how do they handle cultural differences? What is the economic and cultural impact of immigrants on American society? This course examines U.S. immigration since the 1960s—and its effect on both the immigrants and the society they entered. Throughout, the class considers how such questions distinguish the present era from the American historical experience as “a country of immigrants.” Also addressed: the issue of illegal immigrants and the balance of civil liberties and national security in immigration policy.

Punishment, Prisons, and Policing
Sociology 224
CROSS-LISTED: AMERICAN AND INDIGENOUS STUDIES, HUMAN RIGHTS
The amount and type of punishment found in society is not a simple, direct result of crime patterns. To understand how and why we punish, it’s necessary to examine the ways that historical processes, social structures, institutions, and culture shape penal practices as well as how systems of punishment shape society. This course explores the social functions of punishment, its cultural foundations and meanings, the relationship between penal practices and state power, and the role of crime control in reproducing race, gender, and class inequality.

The Environment and Society
Sociology 231
CROSS-LISTED: ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES, HUMAN RIGHTS, STS
DESIGNATED: ELAS COURSE
The world’s environmental problems and their solutions are not merely technical; they are social as well. This course explores climate change, food systems, health disparities, and natural disasters to critically assess the relationship between society and the environment at local and global scales. With particular attention on environmental justice, the course also explores the ways in which scholars, citizens, and policy makers respond to racial, class, and social inequities and other contemporary environmental challenges.

The American Family
Sociology 247
How do we choose the people we date and eventually marry? What effect does marital separation have upon the success of children later in life? Focusing primarily on family patterns in the United States, this course examines the processes of partner selection, the configuration of gender and family roles, and the interrelationships among family and household members. 

Sexualities
Sociology 262
CROSS-LISTED: GSS, HUMAN RIGHTS
Although sexuality is often considered to be inherently private and individual, this course examines sexuality as a social phenomenon. It asks how sexual identities and social categories of sexuality come to be and how they are maintained or changed over time. It also explores how historically specific social contexts shape the meaning of sexual experiences and how we use sexuality to define ourselves, produce social hierarchies, and mark moral boundaries. Throughout, the course considers the important role of gender in the social organization of sexuality.

Global Inequality and Development
Sociology 269 / GIS 269
See GIS 269 for a full course description. 

Democracy and Religious Pluralism
Sociology 273
CROSS-LISTED: REL
DESIGNATED: OSUN COURSE
This course brings the study of democracy together with notions of religious pluralism to ask how democratic regimes can adapt to increasing religious pluralism and avoid the pitfalls of creating fixed majorities and minorities. Recent research recognizes that explaining variations in democratic experience requires close attention to sociological structures and historical traditions. Using examples from around the world, the class explores the differences between relatively homogeneous societies and societies where varieties of religious commitments and expanding religious publics inhabit democracy and pose a different set of issues.

Sociology of Education
Sociology 276
CROSS-LISTED: AMERICAN AND INDIGENOUS STUDIES
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed deep inequalities in public schooling, but were schools ever great equalizers? This course uses a sociological lens to examine the structure of schooling in society. With a focus on inequality in the American education system, students explore how schools influence academic outcomes, engage students’ families and communities, and allocate resources across axes of race, gender, and socioeconomic class. The class also considers how out-of-school spaces participate in the informal and potentially transformative education of children and youth.

Ethnoreligious Identity and Politics in the Middle East and South Asia
Sociology 277
CROSS-LISTED: GIS, HISTORICAL STUDIES, POLITICS, RELIGION
DESIGNATED: HSI AND OSUN COURSE
The Middle East and South Asia are areas of democratization and conflict around issues of ethnic, religious, and communal organization. This course brings together expertise in sociology, political science, and history, as well as different methodological approaches to comparisons between regions and cases. The class focuses on India, Pakistan, Turkey, and Egypt to understand the historical legacies of communalisms in imperial and colonial contexts, and the impact of religious and ethnic politics as they developed in the postdemocratic era.

Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Theory
Sociology 306
CROSS-LISTED: HUMAN RIGHTS, PHILOSOPHY
Should we think of law as being about rules, and, if so, do those rules have a fixed meaning? What is the best way to conceptualize the relationships among law, politics, and society? Such questions are asked by scholars of legal philosophy, or jurisprudence—and are similar to foundational questions in political and social theory. Developments in jurisprudence and social theory—from Critical Race Theory to natural law and feminism—have often been mutually influential. This seminar introduces core debates in jurisprudence that have been linked to developments in social theory. 

Hudson Valley Cities and Environmental (In)Justice
Sociology 319 / Environmental Studies 319
CROSS-LISTED: AMERICAN AND INDIGENOUS STUDIES
DESIGNATED: ELAS COURSE
How do urban processes of growth, decline, and revitalization affect different groups, particularly along dimensions of race, class, and gender? This two-semester, place-based research seminar looks closely at this question by examining the historical, political, and social landscape of nearby Kingston. The course looks specifically at issues of food justice, pollution, access to resources, environmental decision-making processes, and housing security. Students develop and carry out their own project with a community partner. Admission by permission of the instructor.

Punishment and Society: Race, Inequality, and Criminal Justice
Sociology 326
CROSS-LISTED: AFRICANA STUDIES, AMERICAN AND INDIGENOUS STUDIES, HUMAN RIGHTS
The United States began a world-historic transformation of its criminal justice system in the 1970s that led to the highest incarceration rate of any nation. Lesser sanctions, like probation, also expanded; policing changed form; and new modes of social control proliferated throughout social institutions. This advanced seminar delves into recent research on this punitive turn and the role of punishment in society. Prerequisite: Sociology 224 or permission of the instructor.

Social Problems
Sociology 332
CROSS-LISTED: AMERICAN AND INDIGENOUS STUDIES, HUMAN RIGHTS
What is a social problem? What are the origins and consequences of social problems and why are they so persistent and difficult to solve? This course explores the causes and consequences of various social problems in the United States. Particular emphasis is placed on the examination of disparities in socioeconomic status (e.g., education, poverty, employment, and wealth).

Tricks of the Trade: Qualitative Research Practicum
Sociology 333
CROSS-LISTED: AMERICAN AND INDIGENOUS STUDIES, ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES, GIS
To study social life, researchers often turn to methods of inquiry based on observing everyday activity, talking to people, and unpacking the meanings of public discourse, such as ads and news coverage. To prepare students for this kind of qualitative research, the course focuses on ethnography (participant observation), in-depth interviewing, and discursive/content analysis. Ideal for students from various majors who plan to use these methods for their Senior Project.

Governing the Self
Sociology 346
CROSS-LISTED: HUMAN RIGHTS
This seminar examines institutional and political attempts to govern social life by shaping the self. It engages theoretical questions about the relationship between the self and power, social control, the state, and the construction of knowledge. In doing so, it also engages debates over agency and individualism, and links the microlevel of everyday experience with macrolevel questions of power and politics in contexts such as consumer culture, psychological treatment, prisons, self-help groups, the internet, and public health.

Empires, City-States, and Nation-States: An Exploration of the Social and Political Dimensions of Rule
Sociology 348
CROSS-LISTED: HISTORICAL STUDIES
This course explores the three different models of political and social governance in historical and comparative fashion. The class first studies concepts of state, power, and governmentality, and then moves to exemplary cases of empire (the Roman and Ottoman Empires), Italian city-states (as well as contemporary city-states), and transitions to nation-states.

Race, Space, and Place
Sociology 356
CROSS-LISTED: AFRICANA STUDIES, AMERICAN AND INDIGENOUS STUDIES, ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES, GSS, HUMAN RIGHTS
DESIGNATED: HSI COURSE
This seminar explores how race and racism are constructed through spatial means. Drawing on historical, theoretical, and ethnographic analyses, the class considers how racism is reproduced through particular kinds of spatial arrangements, and how racially marginalized groups subvert power and engage in place making. By the end of the course, students are able to articulate “place” as an active player rather than the background upon which racism and inequality happen.

Sociology’s Historical Imagination
Sociology 358
CROSS-LISTED: HISTORICAL STUDIES
Historians and historical sociologists have attempted to reconstruct the past using evidence left behind from previous times. They use and shape this evidence to make convincing arguments about how processes, events, and practices—the construction of race and racism, the rise of capitalism, or social practices of medieval society—unfolded over time. The course surveys different approaches to using the past and tackles substantive issues of interest to politics and society in contemporary society.