Teaching and Syllabi
Sociological Methods
Sociological Methods introduces students to a comprehensive array of research methods used by sociologists. The main goal of the course is to help students understand how valid claims can be made about the social world through social science inquiry. This course differs from other subject-based sociology classes in that this is a training course where you will learn by doing. The course covers a variety of research methods, including experiments, surveys, interviews, ethnography and content analysis. Through a combination of collaborative projects, discussions, lab assignments, and original research, students will conduct a course-wide data collection on a selected topic, and we will conclude with a mini-conference on the research findings generated from the data collection.
Graduate Proseminar: Sociological Methods
This course covers the fundamentals of social science research design. It is designed as an introduction to the philosophical and methodological assumptions and conventions that underlie research in the social sciences. This proseminar introduces graduate students to a comprehensive array of research methods used by sociologists. Emphasis is placed on principles that are applicable in all kinds of research, from surveys to field study, from intensive interviews to historical analysis. This course differs from other subject-based sociology classes in that this is a training course where you will learn by doing. In addition to course readings and a research proposal, students will complete a collaborative class project in conjunction with the Initiative on Cities.
Crime and Justice
What is the relationship between crime and justice in the United States? How do the goals of public safety and social justice interact? How can sociology inform and improve criminal justice policy? This course examines research on crime and policies meant to address the social problems of crime and violence. We analyze this literature in an era of mass incarceration, where the most marginalized populations of the US bear the disproportionate brunt of national and state policy choices. To investigate these trends, we will take an applied approach to studying data and conducting research. The course considers the social context in which crime occurs, and in particular, the relationships between crime, punishment, and poverty/marginality. Key topics include: policing, racial disparities, criminalization, historic shifts in punishment in the United States, abolition, and reparations.
Graduate Seminar: Deviance and Social Control
This seminar explores sociological explanations for why and how certain attributes and behaviors are defined as deviant, the consequences of deviant labels, and how the state creates and enforces rules and sanctions. The sociology of deviance examines rule or norm breaking behavior; the sociology of social control studies how the state surveils, criminalizes, and punishes people for deviant behavior. We address these questions under historic conditions of mass incarceration in the U.S., and thus we focus much of our attention on criminalized behavior and imprisonment in the United States. We will explore how responses to deviant behavior or attributes reflect the state’s orientation to social marginality and vulnerability. Key themes for the course include criminal deviance, gender deviance, poverty, substance use, mental illness, and historic shifts in regimes of punishment, policing, and institutions of social welfare. The first part of the course examines core theories of deviance and social control. Then, we turn to a variety of topics that examine the deviance-social control relationship. In a research project, students will select from a wide range of research topics from behaviors and conditions labeled as deviant (e.g., criminal violence, mental illness, homelessness) to methods of control (e.g., legal sanction, medical treatment, incarceration, social exclusion).