Fall 2009
SOCI G4407x The Dynamics of Israeli Society 3 pts. Yinon Cohen.
The seminar will examine the main political, economic, and social processes that have been shaping Israeli society. Emphasis will be on immigration and emigration patterns, the economy and stratification system, the ethnic hierarchy among Jews as well as between Jews and Arabs, the question of democracy, the military, as well as the Occupation and the settlers.
SOCI W4980x-W4981y 2nd YR Practicum: Writing, Publishing 3 pts. D. Vaughan.
Required of all second-year Ph.D. students in Sociology - in preparation of the field statement.
SOCI G6325x French Social Theory 3 pts. S. Khan.
Outlines three major challenges to positivist American social science: those of Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, and Bruno Latour. You will develop a preliminary working knowledge of the thought of these three major thinkers - close attention will be paid to what it means to deploy these ideas in research practice.
SOCI G8280x Quantitative Strategies for Sociological Research 3 pts. T. DiPrete.
Working with selected readings of both theoretical and �best practice� empirical work and discussions of �causal� analysis with strategies for conducting quantitative social research. Much of the class time will involve presentation and discussion of quantitative strategies from the research projects of class participants.
Spring 2009
SOCI G4110y Power and Politics in Organizations 3 pts. P. Levin.
This course provides an institutional perspective on power and politics in the study of organizations. It starts with more macro-level levers of power and proceeds 'downward' through States, fields, and organizations. The aim is to understand theoretically and practically both the active and the more hegemonic forms of power at work in organizational life. Permission of instructor required.
SOCI G4204x Historical Sociology 3 pts. Q. Van Doosselaere.
Each week the seminar will discuss and analyze exemplary works of historical social science. Because historical sociology often deals with large process and large structure, the course will be loosely articulated around empirical examples of 3 large scale social phenomena: 1) the rise of capitalism, 2) state formation and 3) revolution. The focus of the seminar will be on uncovering the social theories and on understanding the methodological approaches of a variety of authors. As such the objective will be to familiarize the seminar's participants with a range of theoretical frameworks, methodological approaches and large substantive sociological topics.
SOCI G6160y Special Topics - Israeli Society 3 pts. Y. Cohen.
In this seminar we will read and discuss 11 new books focusing on three institutions and processes that have been affecting the Israeli society throughout the past 60 years - the military, Israel's 40-year occupation of the West Bank (and Gaza) and the settlement project, and the voluntary and forced migrations of Jews and Palestinians in and out of Israel/Palestine since 1947. Hopefully, two or three of the authors will be able to present their work in the seminar. Prerequisites: None.
SOCI G8190 Social Movements and Social Change 3 pts. Bogdan Vasi
We will engage with some of the main debates in the study of social movements, reading both theoretical analyses of key issues and empirical research on various movements; social change as an outcome of social movements at the local community level, the national level, and the transnational level. The main goal is to help students understand "how social movements matter", or how movements affect social and political change. Prerequisites: None.
SOCI G4100 - Sociology of Consumerism
Ion Bogdan Vasi
3 pts. Prerequisites: None.
SOCI G6040 - Sociology of Mass Violence
Abram DeSwaan
3 pts. Prerequisites: None.
SOCI 6320 - Deciphering the Global: On Method and Interpretation
Saskia Sassen
3 pts. Prerequisites: None.
Spring 2007
SOCI G4192 - Social and Political Movements
Debra Minkoff
3 pts. Prerequisites: None. The emergence and development of social movements. Internal structure, leadership, conditions for success, consequences. Roles of the media, funders, countermovements, rights claims. Special attention to civil rights, women's, and gay and lesbian movements.
SOCI G8100 - The University in American Life
Jonathan Cole
3 pts. Prerequisites: None. The values systems and structures of the university; the university as a transmitter and producer of knowledge; social mobility; stratification; discrimination; affirmative action; political ideology; academic freedom; the process for generating discoveries; intellectual migration; interactions with industry and the federal and state governments; and the threats to the vitality of institutions of higher learning that are critical for the welfare of the nation.
SOCI G9080 - Contextualization of Contexts
Harrison White
3 pts. Prerequisites: None. Structure embeds with process and events with networks among observings and signalings, as variously perceived and constituted in levels and extensions. The central issue is contextualizing contexts wherein social is interdigitated with cultural, narrative with situational.
Spring 2006
SOCI G4028y - Gender & Inequality in Families
Mignon Moore
4 pts. Topics include gender and feminist theories on the family, household division of labor, changing roles of men in families, gay and lesbian family formation, single motherhood, adolescent behavior, and class, race, and family life; explicit emphasis on the interpretation of gender in family life. Open to graduate students and some senior undergraduates with permission from the instructor.
SOCI G4042y - Economic Sociology Meets Economic Geography
Joshua Whitford
3 pts. Priority enrollment - Sociology graduate students. For students interested in economic and organizational sociology, in the interplay of local and global forces, in political economy, and in the intersection of business and policy studies, the course is to be a graduate level seminar tracing the development and future direction of the conversation between the fields of economic sociology and economic geography.
SOCI G4130y - Sociology of Expertise
Gil Eyal
4 pts. A new approach to the classical problems of the sociology of knowledge - the social determination of knowledge and the social roles of those who create, possess, and distribute knowledge. This new approach rejects the current boundaries of inquiry and reunifies them as a network of practices straddling the boundaries of science and the professions.
SOCI G4170y Contemporary Issues in Critical Social Theory
Craig Calhoun
3 pts. Exploration of key issues in the contemporary development of critical social theory such as the relationship among normative, critical and empirical analyses; among analytic perspectives focused on structure, action, power, function, and culture; and among different underpinnings in philosophy of science. Attention will focus especially on major contemporary theorists including Pierre Bourdieu, Michel Foucault, Jürgen Habermas, and Charles Taylor and schools of thought such as rational choice theory, feminism, and Marxism.
SOCI G4371y - Comparative Perspectives On Social Inequality and Mobility
Thomas DiPrete
3 pts. (SOCI G4370 constitutes useful preparation for the material covered in this course).
A comparative perspective on the structure of social inequality and mobility in industrialized societies. Topics include class, income, wealth inequality, and the distribution of poverty. Market, family, and state determinants of inequality and mobility will be addressed, as will the impact of migration on inequality.
