My primary teaching
interests include social stratification, social theory, urban sociology,
race and ethnicity, and the practice of ethnography.
COURSES
FALL 2007
SOCIOLOGY 405, SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES. Tuesday 5:45-9:00 p.m.
This course is an advanced theory course that
presupposes a fluency with Marx, Weber, and Durkheim,as well as a
familiarity with some contemporary sociological theory. Using a seminar
format we will attempt a compressed study of selected works from Goffman,
Hall, Bourdieu, and Foucault. We will examine their theoretical tools,
problematics, methodologies and applications in relation to practice,
power, knowledge, as well as their usefulness for a sociological-social
psychoanalysis. The objectives of the course are fivefold: (1) to sharpen
your analytical skills; (2) to trace out some of the core issues, dilemmas,
and developments of sociological theory as they are expressed by these
thinkers; (3) to explore their use for social and cultural analysis; (4) to
think dialectically by placing these thinkers in dialogue with each other,
and (5) to undertake a critical analysis of a particular analysis of
society through application of these theorists.
SOCIOLOGY 331, SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY. Tuesday/Thursday
11:50 a.m. - 1:20 p.m.
This course is designed to examine the
contributions of classical and contemporary sociological theory to
understand the main social structures, processes and contradictions of
modern capitalist societies. The objectives of the course are fourfold: (1)
to broaden and deepen your theoretical horizon; (2) to trace out some of
the core issues, dilemmas, and developments of sociological theory; (3)
explore key concepts and points of contention within theory (for example
identity / power / knowledge / truth/ symbolic classification, power and
resistance, the project of social science); and (4) to gain an in-depth
understanding of sociological theory that will allow us to “practice the
craft of sociology” in order to critically and reflexively analyze the
social world.
SOCIOLOGY 205, SELF AND SOCIETY. Tuesday/Thursday
3:10-4:40 p.m.
This course examines sociological perspectives
on the self and society. In particular, this course will focus on the way
that small group interaction mediates the self and society, both individual
action and social structure, making the study of small group interaction
generalizable to larger social patterns of organization. Through group
interaction we can understand how individuals see themselves, come to
understand themselves, create culture, form community, and generate social
networks. The dynamics of small groups provide us with an opportunity to
address issues of socialization, the creation of communal standards,
explore social arenas of action where behavior is reinforced or challenged,
and how meaning making processes work themselves out in terms of how people
come to understand their worlds, and the routines that structure and orient
them within those worlds. In doing so, we will draw upon concepts and
methodologies from symbolic interactionism, micro-sociology, and social
constructionist perspectives on social life.
WINTER 2008
SOCIOLOGY 495, CONTEMPORARY SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY. Thursday 5:45-9:00 p.m.
This course is an advanced theory course that
assumes a solid foundation in both classical and contemporary social
theory, especially the works of Marx, Nietzsche and Freud. The purpose of
this course is to familiarize students with a body of theory, practice, and
method which draws its inspiration from non-foundational thinkers of
sociology, and with a body of literature concerned with understanding the
social not through the dominant sociological traditions but through a
heterodoxical tradition. Using a seminar format we will study selected
works of Foucault, and Deleuze and Guattari as carrying on the legacy of
Marx, Nietzsche and Freud. We will examine their theoretical frameworks,
and methodologies in relation to marginality and exclusion, practice,
power, knowledge, surveillance and control, as well as their usefulness for
a critical socioanalysis.
SOCIOLOGY 495, SPATIAL ANALYSIS (Writing Project Seminar). Wednesday
5:45-9:00 p.m.
This course is an advanced theory and intensive
writing course that presupposes both a solid foundation of classical and a
familiarity with a broad range of contemporary theory, and an established
research agenda on urban issues. Using a seminar format we will study
selected works from a variety of sociologists, philosophers, and urban
geographers on the issue of spatial analysis. This seminar is designed to
expose you to the realm of urban research that focuses on the dynamics of
space and place as they relate to our lived experience and everyday
practices. In doing so, we will focus on the relation of space and
place to the built environment, culture, identity, the economy, and the
politics of cities. Rather than treating space and place as vacuums to be
filled or inevitable products of nature, we will explore how they are
constructed, and contested by identifiable socio- historical and
geographically specific social, cultural, political, and economic
situations. This course requires instructor approval for admission.
SOCIOLOGY 355,
CHICAGO
AS A SOCIAL SYSTEM. Tuesday / Thursday
3:10-4:40 p.m.
This course provides a critical consideration
of
Chicago
as a social system through a consideration of the history of the “
Chicago
School
” of ethnography. Within the urban context, racial and class
stratification are central themes in this tradition. More specifically this
course will explore how social actors in various categories interact and
generate different dimensions of the urban experience in everyday life.
Through the course, we will 1) explore the specific claims made by each
work about the cultural and social organization of the urban environment of
Chicago
; 2) focus on the methodological research designs (small groups, places,
spaces, boundaries and the presentation of evidence that are deployed in
these works – fieldnotes, participant observation, interviews, maps, and
statistical data); 3) explore how these works fit into contemporary
research and the social and economic dynamics of Chicago and more generally
the American metropolis.
SPRING 2008: ON LEAVE |
