METHODS FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH

Prerequisites: SOCI UN1000 The Social World or Instructor Permission Required for all Sociology majors. Introductory course in social scientific research methods. Provides a general overview of the ways sociologists collect information about social phenomena, focusing on how to collect data that are reliable and applicable to our research questions.

• TR 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Randa B Serhan
  CULPA: 2 Info
• 4 points

METHODS SOCIAL RESEARCH-DISC

Prerequisites: SOCI UN1000 Section Discussion for SOCI UN3010, METHODS FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH

• R 5:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• F 10:10 a.m.-11 a.m.
• Instructor: Jennifer K Leigh
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• Instructor: Seungwon Lee
  Info
• 0 points

Structural Determinants of Health

STRUCTURAL DETERMNTS OF H

 

The COVID-19 pandemic has made the underlying health disparities that exist in the United States more apparent. The traditional biomedical model places the responsibility of these disparities on the choices that an individual makes. The model assumes that one’s smoking, eating and exercising habits are based on personal choice. Therefore, the prevalence of morbidities such as high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes is the result of an individual’s poor decisions. This course will explore how the conditions under which individuals live, work, play and pray impact their health outcomes. Collectively these conditions are referred to as the Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) and often they reveal the systemic inequalities that disproportionately affect marginalized communities. This course will also call upon the need for a paradigm shift from the “Social” Determinants of Health to the “Structural” Determinants of Health. This shift is in recognition that it is the underlying structures (laws, material infrastructure) that impact health outcomes. The development of the SDoH has challenged health care providers to look beyond the biomedical model that stresses an individual’s behavior as the main predictor of adverse health conditions. Instead the SDoH focuses on an “upstream” approach that examines the underlying systemic and racial inequalities that impact communities of color and their health outcomes. An analysis that focuses upstream reveals that government policies and social structure are at the core of health disparities. Through the lens of New York City and its health systems, this course will cover a wide range of topics related to race and health, including: racial inequalities in housing and homelessness, biases in medical institutions, and the unconscious bias that lead providers to have racialized perception of an individual’s pain tolerance. In addition to exposing these inequalities the course will also provide innovative solutions that seek to mitigate these barriers including: home visiting programs, medical respite programs for homeless patients and food as medicine in health care systems. Students will demonstrate their knowledge through individual writing, and class discussion. The course revolves around important readings, lectures, and podcasts that illustrates how one’s class position and the color of one’s skin can influence the access to healthcare one has as well as their experie

• TR 6:10 p.m.-7:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Maati Momplaisir
  Info
• 3 points

MUSIC, RACE & IDENTITY

Analysis of the complex relationship among race, art, organizations, economics, social movements and identity. Emphasis is on shifting conceptions of identity and changing roles of race and racism in the spirituals, gospel music, minstrelsy, rhythm and blues, rocknroll, soul music, Hip Hop and contemporary popular music.

• TR 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• Instructor: Jonathan Rieder
  CULPA: 17 Info
• 3 points

LAW & SOCIETY

Examines how people use law, how law affects people, and how law develops, using social scientific research. Covers law in everyday life; legal and social change; legal subjects such as citizens and corporations, and the legitimacy of law. Recommended for pre-law and social-science majors. No required prerequisites or previous knowledge.

• MW 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Deborah Becher
  CULPA: 8 h-index: 4 Info
• 3 points

SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION

All of us have spent many years in school and understand that schools impact our lives in important ways. But how exactly does formal schooling shape young people? And how do students make sense of their lives in the context of schools and educational systems more broadly? In this class we will examine education as a central institution in modern society, and we will grapple with an important question: What role does education play in reinforcing or challenging broader patterns of social inequality and mobility? Particular emphasis will be placed on higher education as a critical site in which these processes take shape.

• MW 5:40 p.m.-6:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Emily Clark
  Info
• 3 points

Arab New York

ARAB NEW YORK

Arab New York introduces students to a little-known community with a long history in New York City dating back to the late 1800s. Students will explore where Arab American communities thrive in New York and learn about the history of these neighborhoods. Applying sociological theories of assimilation, we will assess how immigrants from the Arab world have fared over time in New York City. 

• MW 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Randa B Serhan
  CULPA: 2 Info
• 3 points

Transnationalism, Citizenship, and Belon

TRANSNTNL, CITIZEN, BELON

Transnationalism, Citizenship, and Belonging covers the myriad ways that transnationalism is experienced in both South to North and South to South migrations. Transnationalism and its contenders, globalization and nationalism, will be placed within a broader discussion of belonging based on sociological theories of citizenship, politics of exclusion, and boundary-making. 

• MW 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• Instructor: Randa B Serhan
  CULPA: 2 Info
• 3 points

Sociology of Art

SOCIOLOGY OF ART

This course challenges students to read broadly and across disciplines to develop a robust understanding of the social world of the arts, engaging literatures across sub-fields of sociology, art history, cultural studies, law, policy, and economics to develop analytical strategies for understanding the complex landscape of art, artistic practice, and artistic engagement in the social universe.

• MW 8:40 a.m.-9:55 a.m.
• Instructor: Gillian Gualtieri
  Info
• 3 points

Social Justice: Connecting Academics to

SOC JUST:CONNEX ACAD TO A

This course will create an opportunity for active engagement between students doing sociology and a local organization working for social change by organizing immigrant communities, Make the Road New York. Students will be expected to actively study and/or participate in a project designed by the instructor and organization leaders. The action/research will primarily take the form of interviews (conducting interviews with members and leaders from an organization or campaign) and participant observation (taking part in the activities of the organization/campaign) and analysis of those interviews and observations. To accomplish this collaborative research project, students will take on different roles throughout the course, including that of fieldworker, project coordinator, analysis coordinator, and context researcher. Students will also read, discuss, and write about literature on scholarly-community partnerships and community organizing. Admittance by application and interview only. Preference to Sociology majors. Spanish speakers and writers, juniors, and seniors. 

• T 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Deborah Becher
  CULPA: 8 h-index: 4 Info
• 4 points

CROSSOVER CULTURE

The rise of crossover culture: racially segregated markets and genres; organizational environments and the rise of independent labels; the creative process and black-white conflict and connection; the emergence of rock as a white genre; civil rights, Black Power, and the politics of soul; cultural borrowing and the postracial ethos.

• R 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Jonathan Rieder
  CULPA: 17 Info
• 4 points

Gendered Work and Organizations

GENDERED WORK & ORGANIZAT

This course considers how gender shapes the action within different organizations, reflecting and reproducing broader social systems of inequality, identity, violence, and power in the United States. We will address current issues centered on the gendered nature of institutions and organizations, including the work/family debate, bodies at work, sexual harassment, service work, sex work, and sexual violence to illuminate the mechanisms by which systems of gender inequality shape the meanings and practices of individuals and groups within and across organizations and institutions.

• M 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
• Instructor: Gillian Gualtieri
  Info
• 4 points

ADVANCED TOPICS: POLITICS & SOCIETY

ADV TOPICS POLITICS & SOC

Research and writing intensive seminar on civic and political engagement in contemporary American society, along with critical evaluation of methods used to collect and analyze data on political and social life. Requirements include a final research paper based on independent data collection and analysis. Seminar limited to sociology majors with senior standing (except in exceptional circumstances). Fulfills the Research Paper Option for the senior requirement in sociology at Barnard.

• R 9 a.m.-10:50 a.m.
• Instructor: Andrew S Anastasi
  Info
• 4 points

ADVANCED TOPICS RACE & ETHNICITY

Discusses theories of race and ethnicity, distinctions between prejudice, discrimination, and racism, and the intersectionality paradigm. Under instructors guidance students design a research proposal, conduct their own fieldwork and write a research paper on a sociological question relating to race and/or ethnicity.

• T 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
• Instructor: Gillian Gualtieri
  Info
• 4 points

SOCIOLOGY OF THE BODY

This seminar examines the ways in which the body is discursively constituted, and itself serves as the substratum for social life. Key questions include: How are distinctions made between normal and pathological bodies, and between the psychic and somatic realms? How do historical forces shape bodily experience? How do bodies that are racialized, gendered, and classed offer resistance to social categorization?

• R 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Elizabeth Bernstein
  CULPA: 27 Info
• 4 points