Schedule for SOCY 2102
Outline of Class Sessions and Mandatory Reading Assignments
Session 1: Course Introduction/Syllabus Review
Module 1. An Invitation to Contemporary Sociology
Session 2, 3, 4 and 5:
- Warshay, Leon H. “The Current State of Sociological Theory: Diversity, Polarity, Empiricism, and Small Theories.” The Sociological Quarterly, vol. 12, no. 1, 1971, pp. 23–45. JSTOR.
Module 2. Conflict Theory
Session 6, 7 and 8:
- Simon, Richard M. “The Conflict Paradigm in Sociology and the Study of Social Inequality: Paradox and Possibility.” Theory in Action, vol. 9, no. 1, 2016, pp. 1-31.
https://transformativestudies.org/wp-content/uploads/10.3798tia.1937-0237.16001.pdf
Session 9:
- First Student Group Presentation
- Readings for the Presentation:
- Schoeder, Ralph. “Contemporary populist politics through the macroscopic lens of Randall Collins’s conflict theory.” Thesis Eleven. Vol. 154, Issue 1, October 2019. Pp. 97-107.
- Brown, Hana. “Racialized Conflict and Policy Spillover Effects: The Role of Race in the Contemporary U.S. Welfare State.” American Journal in Sociology, Vol. 119, No.2 (September 2013), pp. 394-443.
https://osf.io/5zcrj/download
- Schoeder, Ralph. “Contemporary populist politics through the macroscopic lens of Randall Collins’s conflict theory.” Thesis Eleven. Vol. 154, Issue 1, October 2019. Pp. 97-107.
The group members are encouraged to use any YouTube video of their choices to illustrate the issue of conflict in contemporary society.
Module 3. Contributions of Black Scholars to Contemporary Sociology
Session 10 and 11:
- Wright, Earl II; Calhoun C. Thomas, 2006, “Jim Crow Sociology: Toward an Understanding of the Origins and Principles of Black Sociology Via the Atlanta Sociological Laboratory, Sociological Focus, Volume 39, Issue 1, p. 1-18.
Session 12 and 13:
- Morris, A. (2017). “w. e. b. du bois at the center: from science, civil rights movement, to black lives matter.” The British Journal of Sociology, 68(1), 3-16. DOI: 10.1111/1468-4446.12241
Session 14: Midterm Exam In-Classroom
This midterm exam will cover topics studied between the second session (January 31, 2024) and the thirteenth session (March 13, 2024). To do well in this exam, revise notes taken during the Professor’s lectures, and study the mandatory readings from the syllabus.
Module 4. Symbolic Interactionism
Session 15 and 16:
- Halas, Elzbieta. “Herbert Blumer on the Interactional Order of the Democratic Society.” Polish Sociological Review, no. 177, 2012, pp. 3-18. ProQuest
Session 17:
- Second Student’s Group Presentation
- Reading for the Presentation:
- Goffman, Erving. 1959. “Performances” In The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life by Erving Goffman. New York: Anchor Books.
- Goffman, Erving. 1959. “Performances” In The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life by Erving Goffman. New York: Anchor Books.
The members of the group are encouraged to use any YouTube video of their choices to illustrate the issue of symbolic interactionism in contemporary society.
Module 5. An Overview of Contemporary Sociology in Latin America and the Caribbean
Session 18, 19 and 20:
- Briceño-León, Roberto. “The Five Dilemmas of Latin American Sociology.” In The ISA Handbook of Diverse Sociological Traditions, edited by Sujata Patel, SAGE Publications, Limited, 2009. ProQuest Ebook Central
Session 21:
- Third Student Group Presentation
- Reading for the Presentation:
- Walsh, Catherine. “Afro In/Exclusion, Resistance, and the “Progressive” State: (De)Colonial Struggles, Questions, and Reflections.” In Black Social Movements in Latin America. From Monocultural Mestizaje to Multiculturalism. Edited by Jean Muteba Rahier. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.
- Walsh, Catherine. “Afro In/Exclusion, Resistance, and the “Progressive” State: (De)Colonial Struggles, Questions, and Reflections.” In Black Social Movements in Latin America. From Monocultural Mestizaje to Multiculturalism. Edited by Jean Muteba Rahier. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.
Module 6. Contemporary Theory of Modernity: Critical Theory The Frankfurt School and Habermas
Session 22, 23 and 24:
- Adams, Bert N., and R. A. Sydie. “Critical Theory: The Frankfurt School and Habermas.” In Contemporary Sociological Theory, SAGE Publications, Incorporated, 2002. ProQuest Ebook Central
Module 7. Sociology & the Quest for Social Justice
Session 25:
- Watch Documentary “13th” and Discuss in-classroom
https://youtu.be/krfcq5pF8u8?si=Tk9c9csfBrCR5KQLSession 26
- Feagin, Joe. R.“Social Justice and Sociology: Agendas for the Twenty-First Century.” American Sociological Review, 2001, Vol. 66 (February: 1-20).
Session 27
- Bobo, Lawrence D. “Somewhere Between Jim Crow and Post-Racialism: Reflections on the Racial Divide in America Today.” Daedalus: The Journal of American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2011, 140 (2) Spring.
Session 28
- Wilson, William Julius. “Black Youths, Joblessness, and the Other Side of ‘Black Lives Matter.’” Ethnic & Racial Studies, vol. 39, no. 8, June 2016, pp. 1450–57.
- Apata, Gabriel O. “I can’t Breathe’: The Suffocating Nature of Racism,” Theory, Culture & Society. 2020 Vol. 37, No. 7-8: 241-254.
Group members are strongly encouraged to use any YouTube video of their choices to illustrate the issue of social justice in contemporary society.
Undergraduate final examinations start on May 17, 2023. The Professor will inform you about the exact date to turn in your small-group final paper.
