This course is a broad introduction to the field of sociology. Course materials are designed to illustrate the distinctive features of the sociological perspective and to start you thinking sociologically about yourself and the broader social world. To think sociologically is to recognize that being embedded in the world constrains behavior, and that individuals are both social actors and social products. To think sociologically is also to recognize that our contemporary world, with its enduring cultural, political, and economic institutions, is as much a social product as we are. We will begin by covering theoretical and methodological foundations of the sociological perspective. We will go on to explore the concept of social stratification and will survey primary axes of social difference. In the second half of the course we will look more closely at how individuals relate to each other, how social inequality is enacted and reinforced in everyday life, and at the way in which the organization of social life shapes individuals and groups, such as through social networks, residential neighborhoods, schooling, families, and on-line communication.

Full details for SOC 1101 - Introduction to Sociology

Full details for SOC 1140 - FWS: Experience of Work in Contemporary America

Full details for SOC 1170 - FWS: Modern Romance: Dating and Relationships Among Young Adults

Introduces students to the sociological analysis of American society through the lens of film. Major themes involve race, class, and gender; upward and downward mobility; incorporation and exclusion; small town vs the big city; and cultural conflicts over individualism, achievement, and community. We match a range of movies like American Graffiti (Lucas), Ace in the Hole (Wilder), The Asphalt Jungle (Houston), Do the Right Thing (Lee), The Heiress (Wyler), High Noon (Zinnemann), Mean Streets (Scorsese), Nashville (Altman), The Philadelphia Story (Cukor), and A Streetcar Named Desire (Kazan). Each film is paired with social scientific research that examines parallel topics, such as analyses of who goes to college, the production of news, deviant careers, urban riots, the gendered presentation of self, and the prisoner's dilemma.

Full details for SOC 1290 - American Society through Film

Social Problems in the U.S. teaches students how to think like a social scientist when encountering claims about major contemporary issues. Through readings and assignments, students develop an analytical toolkit for evaluating the scope, causes, consequences, and proposed solutions to a wide range of complicated social problems, such as: childhood poverty, racial segregation and discrimination, job insecurity, family instability, discrimination by sexual identity, unequal pay for women's work, gender imbalances in family life, health disparities, food insecurity, drug abuse, and educational inequality. Rather than cover all of these (and other) social problems in depth, the course emphasizes a conceptual framework that can be applied broadly. The semester culminates with a written proposal examining a social problem and developing an approach to address it with public policy.

Full details for SOC 2070 - Social Problems in the United States

Introduction to population studies. The primary focus is on the relationships between demographic processes (fertility, mortality, and immigration) and social and economic issues. Discussion covers special topics related to population growth and spatial distribution, including marriage and family formation, population aging, changing roles and statuses of women, labor force participation, immigrations, urban growth and urbanization, resource allocation, and the environment.

Full details for SOC 2202 - Population and Social Change

In recent years, poverty and inequality have become increasingly common topics of public debate, as academics, journalists, and politicians attempt to come to terms with growing income inequality, with the increasing visibility of inter-country differences in wealth and income, and with the persistence of racial, ethnic, and gender stratification. This course introduces students to ongoing social scientific debates about the sources and consequences of inequality, as well as the types of public policy that might appropriately be pursued to reduce (or increase) inequality. These topics will be addressed in related units, some of which include guest lectures by faculty from other universities (funded by the Center for the Study of Inequality). Each unit culminates with a highly spirited class discussion and debate.

Full details for SOC 2220 - Controversies About Inequality

This course examines K-12 and higher education in the United States through a sociological lens. To accomplish this, we examine how schools and schooling relate to broader social structures and institutions, including neighborhoods, families, and the legal system. Throughout the course we will explore theoretical perspectives and empirical findings that grapple with educational institutions as both engines of social mobility and reflections of societal inequality. Throughout the course, students will learn how sociological frameworks intersect with education policy and will be encouraged to engage with their own educational biographies. Students will investigate a topic of their choice in the sociology of education for the final project.

Full details for SOC 2250 - Schooling and Society

The course reviews the great debates on capitalist economic growth to shed light on the current epochal transformation of the global economy. Can capitalism survive? Can socialism work? The debate continues. Why and how has American capitalism shaped the emergence of dynamic capitalism in China? What enables and guides the emergence of a global high-technology knowledge economy in the 21st century? What is the relationship between capitalism as an economic order and democracy?

Full details for SOC 2280 - Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy

This course is modeled after Great Books literature courses in the humanities, but with two important differences: we read non-fiction books in the social sciences rather than the humanities, written by highly prominent contemporary social scientists. The course title refers to the fact that the books are new, hence their potential greatness has yet to be confirmed by the test of time. We choose living authors to give students a unique opportunity: to interact with each of the six authors in Q&A sessions via live or recorded video conferencing. Great Books courses are organized around books rather than the more traditional theme-based approach in most undergraduate classes, and each book is intended to stand on its own. Although the topics vary widely, each of the books addresses fundamental puzzles that motivate social science inquiry regarding human behavior and social interaction. These puzzles cut across disciplinary boundaries, hence the course is co-taught by psychologist Steve Ceci and sociologist/information scientist Michael Macy who provide continuity by calling attention to similarities and differences in theories, concepts, assumptions, and methods between sociologists (who focus on what happens between individuals) and psychologists (who focus on what happens within individuals). The authors vary from year to year but include famous social scientists such as Claude Steele, Daniel Kahneman, Nicholas Christakis, Beverly Tatum, Malcolm Gladwell, and Steven Pinker.

Full details for SOC 2580 - Six Pretty Good Books: Explorations in Social Science

This course will introduce students to the theory and mathematics of statistical analysis. Many decisions made by ourselves and others around us are based on statistics, yet few people have a solid grip on the strengths and limitations of these techniques. This course will provide a firm foundation for statistical reasoning and logical inference using probability. While there is math in this course, it is not a math class per se, as a considerable amount of attention is devoted to interpreting statistics as well as calculating them.

Full details for SOC 3010 - Statistics for Sociological Research

This course provides an introduction to the ways in which medical practice, the medical profession, and medical technology are embedded in society and culture. We will ask how medicine is connected to various sociocultural factors such as gender, social class, race, and administrative cultures. We will examine the rise of medical sociology as a discipline, the professionalization of medicine, and processes of medicalization and demedicalization. We will look at alternative medical practices and how they differ from and converge with the dominant medical paradigm. We will focus on the rise of medical technology in clinical practice with a special emphases on reproductive technologies. We will focus on the body as a site for medical knowledge, including the medicalization of sex differences, the effect of culture on nutrition, and eating disorders such as obesity and anorexia nervosa. We will also read various classic and contemporary texts that speak to the illness experience and the culture of surgeons, hospitals, and patients, and we will discuss various case studies in the social construction of physical and mental illness.

Full details for SOC 3130 - Social Studies of Medicine

This course will examine how health disparities are defined and measured, sources of health disparities, and strategies to reduce health disparities. During the course students will learn of the complexities of factors that influence patterns of disease and health at multiple levels by analyzing studies of health outcomes, the social conditions that are related to the health of populations, and some of the mechanisms through which these patterns are produced. (HCP-EL)

Full details for SOC 3180 - Health Disparities

Disasters are usually sudden events that result in catastrophic loss of life and/or property. They are often described using terms like disorder, chaos, and panic - descriptions which belie the highly socially structured nature of disasters. This course takes a closer look at disaster situations using a sociological lens. We will examine the social elements of several disasters, including the sinking of Titanic, the collapse of the World Trade Center towers on 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and others. Through these cases, students will learn about (1) the social-psychological and collective dynamics that govern behavior in disaster situations, (2) the role social networks and organizations play in disaster occurrence, response and recovery, and especially (3) the role of social disadvantage in shaping vulnerability to and mortality risk in disasters.

Full details for SOC 3650 - Sociology of Disasters

This course introduces the classics in sociology - primarily works by Karl Marx, Max Weber, emile Durkheim, and Georg Simmel. Students will also study some works of Adam Smith, Alexis de Tocqueville, Jane Addams, W.E.B. Du Bois, Talcott Parsons, members of the Chicago School of Sociology, and others. Special emphasis is placed on the concepts, ideas, and analytical approaches that characterize the foundations of sociology, and how those elements have informed the broader scholarly dialogue in sociology since its inception.

Full details for SOC 3750 - Classical Sociological Theory

Is the welfare state a protector from capitalism or an accomplice to capitalism? Social safety nets and capitalist markets have a complicated relationship for workers. Healthcare, retirement pensions, unemployment insurance –these provisions protect workers from the risks of getting sick, old, and fired. These same provisions are also tremendous sources of capital, invested into the very employers and asset-managers who pose risks to workers. This contradiction is not an "American thing," but extends to social democracies like the Netherlands who steward one of the largest national capital-funded pensions. This course uncovers these complexities of the welfare state, with special theoretical and empirical attention to labor. Geographically it will focus on the United States, with frequent international comparisons to examine the commonalities and differences of welfare states. And lastly, it will be equal parts sociology and history, illuminating the origins, transformations, and inequalities of the welfare state in the United States.

Full details for SOC 3800 - The Welfare State and Its Contradictions for Workers

This introductory course introduces students to issues and debates related to international migration and will provide an interdisciplinary foundation to understanding the factors that shape migration flows and migrant experiences. We will start by reviewing theories of the state and historical examples of immigrant racialization and exclusion in the United States and beyond. We will critically examine the notions of borders, citizenship/non-citizenship, and the creation of diasporas. Students will also hear a range of perspectives by exposing them to Cornell guest faculty who do research and teach on migration across different disciplines and methodologies and in different world areas. Examples include demographic researchers concerned with immigrant inequality and family formation, geographic perspectives on the changing landscapes of immigrant metropolises, legal scholarship on the rights of immigrant workers, and the study of immigrant culture from a feminist studies lens. Offered each fall semester.

Full details for SOC 3820 - Migration: Histories, Controversies, and Perspectives

This course considers how the social world “gets under the skin” to affect individuals’ health. We’ll focus on key social contexts of everyday life – including the neighborhoods where people live and the social relationships in which they are embedded – and their direct and indirect implications for health outcomes. There are two main components of this course. First, we’ll read and discuss recent sociological research on social context, health, and health-related behaviors, paying attention to the strengths and weaknesses of various methodological approaches and identifying gaps in current knowledge. Second, students will develop their own research questions about the relationship between social context and health, and we will use population-based social survey data to explore these. Class instruction will include research question development, basic statistical analysis of survey data, workshopping early results, and social scientific writing. Short research reports written during the semester will provide a foundation from which students will write a final paper that examines how health is a product of social context.

Full details for SOC 4120 - Health and Social Context

How does gender shape everyday life, social institutions, and people’s opportunities? This course explores these questions through the lens of sociology, introducing students to key ideas and debates about gender in society. We will examine topics such as what gender is, how it is understood and enacted in everyday interactions, gender roles, masculinity and femininity, variation across social groups, and cross-national perspectives. We will also consider how gender influences work, family, politics, culture, and social inequality. Readings include a mix of qualitative and quantitative research as well as several recent books. The course welcomes students from any background who want to better understand one of the central forces shaping social life.

Full details for SOC 4370 - Sociology of Sex and Gender

Full details for SOC 4390 - Social Dynamics and Computational Methods

This seminar will look broadly at challenges to democratic institutions in the United States and Europe. To think about the present, we will delve into historical fascism as well as nationalism and populism. We will (1) respond to contemporary political events in the US and beyond; (2) explore the terms fascism and populism which in the last few years have come to dominate our political vocabulary in the media and the academy; (3) mobilize the instructor's area of academic expertise (fascism and populism) in the service of broad liberal arts concerns. The course focuses upon themes and readings. It is not chronological-rather it looks at different iterations of the same ideas, concepts, and fears as they emerge in different historical contexts. Seminar materials draw upon various sources: scholarly articles, films, and if possible, an occasional guest lecturer.

Full details for SOC 4540 - Fascism, Nationalism and Populism

This is a capstone seminar for seniors who are interested in graduate or professional study in scientific disciplines that focus on human behavior and social interaction. The intent is to provide seniors with an opportunity to summon, integrate, and apply insights that they have acquired over the course of their undergraduate education, and give prospective graduate students the opportunity to lead discussions in a large introductory lecture course, Six Pretty Good Books. Each seminar member is part of a two or three-person team that leads the discussion together, under the supervision of a graduate teaching assistant. Seminar meetings are devoted to building lesson plans for leading an effective discussion of each of the six books. The authors vary from year to year but include Malcolm Gladwell, Michelle Alexander, Nate Silver, and Nicholas Christakis. All authors have agreed to participate in a Q&A session with the students which seminar members are required to attend.

Full details for SOC 4580 - The Science of Social Behavior

This is for undergraduates who wish to obtain research experience or to do extensive reading on a special topic.

Full details for SOC 4910 - Independent Study

Students choose a sociology faculty member to work with on research to write an honors thesis. Candidates for honors must maintain a cumulative GPA at least an A- in all sociology classes.

Full details for SOC 4950 - Honors Research

Continuation of SOC 4950. Continue to work with honors supervisor and work on and write an honors thesis.

Full details for SOC 4960 - Honors Thesis: Senior Year

This course provides a forum in which students and others can present, discuss, and receive instant feedback on their inequality-related research. Its primary goals is to help students advance their own research; its secondary goal is to introduce selected debates in the contemporary inequality literature in a more comprehensive fashion that is possible in the introductory graduate-level seminar on inequality.

Full details for SOC 5190 - Workshop on Social Inequality

Epidemics and pandemics throughout history have revealed strong associations between core aspects of social structure – including factors at both the individual level (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, and SES) and population level (e.g., community features like density, poverty, walkability, occupational composition, and government). This course will discuss and explore the role these factors play in shaping the spread of infectious disease throughout populations, especially with respect to rapid, widespread, and deadly events like epidemics and pandemics. Students will learn about research on these topics through frameworks such as network epidemiology, diffusion, social stratification, sociology of disasters, and political sociology. Students will plan and engage in fieldwork in and around Ithaca in an effort to identify key risk factors that may affect our preparedness for and vulnerability to future epidemics.

Full details for SOC 6035 - Social Structure & Epidemics

This course will expose students to ethnography, experiments, small-N comparison, content analysis, archival research, internet data scraping, data visualization, network and sequence approaches, and more. We will begin to answer the following core questions: What are the strengths of different methods? What are their weaknesses? What assumptions about research design issues are built into each method? What assumptions about the scientific status of sociology are built into each method? How can different methods be combined so that their strengths and weaknesses balance one another?

Full details for SOC 6130 - Logics and Methods of Sociological Research

Introduces students to theories and methods of data collection techniques such as in-depth interviews, ethnography, focus groups, and surveys as well as mixed-method approaches used in policy and evaluation research. Addresses the strengths and weaknesses of various methods and the design of qualitative and mixed-method studies. Covers epistemology, ethics, induction and deduction, measurement, validity, and triangulation. Also discusses more concrete issues such as gaining access to a field site, developing a qualitative interview guide and survey questionnaire, conducting a qualitative interview, managing data, and assessing data quality. (MPA-DA, MPA-DATSCI, MPA-TPA)

Full details for SOC 6150 - Qualitative, Survey, and Mixed Method Approaches to Policy Research

How does gender shape everyday life, social institutions, and people’s opportunities? This course explores these questions through the lens of sociology, introducing students to key ideas and debates about gender in society. We will examine topics such as what gender is, how it is understood and enacted in everyday interactions, gender roles, masculinity and femininity, variation across social groups, and cross-national perspectives. We will also consider how gender influences work, family, politics, culture, and social inequality. Readings include a mix of qualitative and quantitative research as well as several recent books. The course welcomes students from any background who want to better understand one of the central forces shaping social life.

Full details for SOC 6370 - Sociology of Sex and Gender

Full details for SOC 6390 - Social Dynamics and Computational Methods

This seminar will look broadly at challenges to democratic institutions in the United States and Europe. To think about the present, we will delve into historical fascism as well as nationalism and populism. We will (1) respond to contemporary political events in the US and beyond; (2) explore the terms fascism and populism which in the last few years have come to dominate our political vocabulary in the media and the academy; (3) mobilize the instructor's area of academic expertise (fascism and populism) in the service of broad liberal arts concerns. The course focuses upon themes and readings. It is not chronological-rather it looks at different iterations of the same ideas, concepts, and fears as they emerge in different historical contexts. Seminar materials draw upon various sources: scholarly articles, films, and if possible, an occasional guest lecturer.

Full details for SOC 6540 - Fascism, Nationalism and Populism

This is a course on networks and text in quantitative social science. The course will cover published research using text and social network data, focusing on health, politics, and everyday life, and it will introduce methods and approaches for incorporating high-dimensional data into familiar research designs. Students will evaluate past studies and propose original research.

Full details for SOC 6610 - Text and Networks in Social Science Research

Event history analysis (also known as hazard or survival analysis) is a family of methods for the study of discrete outcomes over time. Typical sociological examples are demographic events (births, deaths), entry and exit from a social status (like marriage) and structural change (such as social revolutions). This class introduces main concepts, models, and measurement issues in event history analysis, and provides students with an opportunity to gain practical familiarity with these methods.

Full details for SOC 6660 - Event History Analysis

For graduates who wish to obtain research experience or to do extensive reading on a special topic. Permission to enroll for independent study is granted only to students who present an acceptable prospectus and secure the agreement of a faculty member to serve as supervisor for the project throughout the semester.

Full details for SOC 6910 - Independent Study

The object of our inquiry is labor: as an activity, a class position, a social movement, an institution, a political subject. A sociology of labor must take as its charge identifying the historically specific constitution of labor in relationship to processes of capitalist development, colonialism, gendered and racialized forms of domination, culture, and technology. Integrating an account of such broader social phenomena reveals insights into labor that would not be possible were we to restrict our inquiry to the workplace. But as one of the fundamental social categories, the concrete manifestation of multifarious labor in any given setting is simultaneously a window onto the basic architecture of society.

Full details for SOC 7350 - Labor Sociology

Work with a faculty member on a project that is related to your dissertation work.

Full details for SOC 8910 - Graduate Research

Work with chair of your committee on your dissertation work.

Full details for SOC 8950 - Thesis Research