Courses

A one-semester introduction to the principles of sociological analysis. Through a critical examination of selected topics and themes, this course develops a sociological perspective for the interpretation and understanding of cultural differences, age and sex roles, discrimination, the family and the workplace, bureaucracies, stratification, and the problems of poverty.

An examination of 1) the emergence of race in modern societies, with special emphasis on the North American context; 2) the role of race in shaping power dynamics in the US historically; 3) contemporary consequences of racial power dynamics in the US today.

Examines American class structures,processes and the unequal distribution of resources, as well as aspects of institutionalization that contribute to such inequality. Course focuses on the various social, economic, and political indicators of an individual's position in society, including occupation, income, wealth, prestige, and power, as well as characteristics of life at different levels of the class hierarchy.

This course asks what it means to be a good citizen, good consumer, and good corporation in light of contemporary social and environmental problems by focusing on the relationship between democracy and capitalism. It investigates the complexities of understanding and implementing social responsibility on the local, national, and global level.

This course examines how laws embedded in the US criminal justice system exclude vast segments of the population from full citizenship rights by criminalizing the actions (and very existence) of people of color. Tracing the historical development of criminal policies targeting people of color while largely ignoring white collar criminals, students will encounter a wide range of topics related to policing, criminalization, and mass incarceration, their consequences for individuals, communities and racial inequality, and contemporary social movements seeking racial justice in these areas.

An introduction to the sociological study of deviance, this course explores 1) key theoretical perspectives to deviance and social control, 2) how people come to view certain attitudes, conditions, and behaviors as odd, morally reprehensible, or illegal and 3) the identities and life chances of people who are labeled as "deviant." Pays close attention to the relationship between deviance, power and social inequality. One unit.

An introduction "doing sociology," this class covers the logic and techniques of social scientific research. Readings, lectures, and exercises are designed to help students experience the field and develop methodological skills first-hand. Students will learn how to conceptualize, operationalize and conduct sociological research projects, including constructing research questions, understanding the intersection between theory and data, composing questions and guides for both qualitative and quantitative studies, as well as collecting, entering, and analyzing data and reporting empirical findings.

Students are introduced to both descriptive and inferential statistics (including confidence intervals, chi square, multivariate analysis of variance, and multiple regression). The (mis)use and interpretation of statistics is heavily stressed.

This course examines the interaction between human society and the natural environment, more specifically, the relationships between various environmental and social problems, as well as emphasizes current theory and research in environmental sociology aimed at understanding and addressing those problems. By discussing issues of science and technology, popular culture, disasters, urbanization, racial and gender relations, domination and violence, as well as social movements, and by engaging in issues from a diversity of disciplines including anthropology, biology, economics, geography, psychology, and history, this course will reach a broad understanding of environmental issues. One unit.

Environmental Racism was coined by environmental justice activists to describe situations where communities of color face disproportionate environmental ills and lack environmental privilege. In this course we look at the history of environmental racism, its relationship with capitalism, and several areas where environmental racism is most obvious, including, but not limited to: food, disasters, and the environmental movement itself.

A descriptive and critical study of the 19th- and early 20th-century social thought which informs contemporary sociological theory. Some attention is given to historical influences on emerging sociological theory. Emphasis is placed on four major theorists: Durkheim, Marx, Weber, Simmel and on the 20th-century developments in functionalism, symbolic interactionism and the sociology of knowledge.

This course investigates the evolving role of television in shaping our understanding of the world as it relates to democracy, consumerism, human relationships, and how we make sense of our own lives. More specifically, the course examines the nature of entertainment, advertising, news, and the institutions that create television programming.

Examines the social science literature pertaining to girls both as victims and as perpetrators, as well as structures influencing personal experiences and interpersonal dynamics. In addition to theory related both to gender and violence, topics covered include bullying and relational aggression, sexual harassment, gangs, child sexual abuse, trafficking, and living in a war-torn society.

This course examines how individual bodies, hearts and minds are social phenomena. Topics include language, self, and what it means to be human; the sociology of emotion; the presentation of self in everyday life; micro-social order, disruption, and ontological security; and the micro-politics of interaction. Draws strongly from the symbolic interactionist, dramaturgical, and interpretive traditions.

A thorough introduction to the sociological study of people's experience of late life. Strives to increase awareness of the social, cultural, and historical affects on aging by examining people's accounts of late life and aging, their social and psychological compensations, and the bearing of late life experiences on end-of-life decisions.

This course is organized around three general themes: (1) an introductory overview of the topic of violence, including theoretical background and structural factors; (2) an analysis of violence-related issues, including family, street, and school-based causes and consequences; and (3) consideration of prevention and intervention strategies and relevant policy implications.

An analysis of religion as a socio-cultural product. Emphasis on the interrelationship between religion and society in a cross-cultural perspective. Major topics include the social functions of religion, the organization of religious practice, and the impact of social change on religion.

A critical study of the institution of modern medicine. Special attention is paid to socio-cultural and political factors influencing susceptibility, diagnosis and treatment. Topics include the social meaning of disease, patienthood, the medical profession, and the organization of medical care.

A critical examination of education in the U.S., with a special emphasis on public schooling. This course considers how the functions and goals of education have changed over time, factors leading to the current crisis in education, and controversial programs for fixing the problems such as vouchers, charter schools, and multicultural education.

Examination of patterns in American family behavior. Strives to increase awareness of the social, cultural, and psychological facets of family life by examining kinship relations, child socialization, dating behavior, patterns of sexual activity, parental decisions, family development, divorce, violence in the family.

This course will provide students with an overview of LGBTQ Studies using a sociological framework that prioritizes questions of history, power, identity, and community. Along with contemporary issues such as marriage equality and bullying in schools, students will learn about important historical events in the gay and trans rights movements. The primary theoretical focus will be on social constructionism, though the course will draw upon a variety of theoretical perspectives that contribute to understandings of gender and sexuality.

On women's and men's gendered experiences at the individual, interactional, and institutional levels; how gendered experiences vary by race/ethnicity, sexuality, social class, and other ways.

This course examines the body as a medium for self-expression and an entity to be controlled. The body is a site where men and women "do gender"; this can have both positive and negative effects on health. Among the topics covered: transgender and intersex conditions; culture and bodies; expression and repression; violence; sports; health behavior engagement; childbirth.

Global Culture & Society

This course focuses on the relationship between tourism and social life by considering how tourist practices are socially shaped and made meaningful within social contexts. This course explores tourism as a lens through which we can understand many of the features of contemporary social life, including modernity, late capitalism, and postcolonial legacies,, consumption and cultural commodification, the aestheticization of everyday life, authenticity,, gender, risk, technology, and mobility .

This senior-level course centers the actions, worldviews, and experiences of colonized peoples as they negotiated freedoms and unfreedoms during the pre-colonial and colonial eras and wrestle with these legacies for today and into the future as we consider abolition, decolonization, and appropriate reparations for this history. Throughout the semester, we will address the histories of colonialism, capitalism, enslaving, and their relationship to contemporary racisms and decolonial movements in the US and abroad. A course project will enable to students to develop concrete understandings of decolonial praxes rooted in indigenous worldviews, knowledges, and actions and the ways in which colonized peoples seek, demand, and maintain their freedom in the face of multiply manifest unfreedoms. This course will change topically each semester depending on current events and student interests, to focus on national and international coloniality and decoloniality.

This course focuses on the explicit connections between higher education and athletics. A historical perspective on the links between these institutions will then lead to discussions about racial and ethnic minorities and women in college sports, activism within college sports, the role of the NCAA, the effect of college sports on academic and occupational attainment, the commercialization of college sports, and recent controversies in college sports.

An advanced community-based learning seminar integrating topics of Catholic social teaching with the study and practice of community organizing. Course includes sociological analysis of Catholic social thought, leadership, power, poverty, social movements, and organizational behavior. Students will analyze and write about their projects in light of course readings.

This course examines first-person accounts of living with various illnesses, including the subjective experiences of illnesses that are mental/physical, acute/chronic, curable/fatal and age-related. Comparisons will be made across both historical and cultural contexts to highlight the socially constructed nature of health and aging. The class will engage the role of labeling theory, postmodern conceptions of health, and differences according to race, class, gender, sexual orientation and age.

This course examines how people experience and cope with negative events such as illness, death, separation or divorce, unemployment, natural disaster and war. Delving into topics that are usually the purview of psychology, our investigations highlight the social nature of self, cognition, emotion and identity. Readings will focus on particular cases of trouble, the roles of religion, psychology and medicine in helping people to cope with tragedy, and cultural and historical variability in how humans make sense of suffering.

This course surveys some of the most exemplary cases of women's efforts to use nonviolence in resistance, social change, and peace building. We will investigate how women's unique social location shapes their particular contribution to the conceptualization and implementation of nonviolence. And we will consider the significance of their efforts in constructing new social spaces for peace and justice. A global range of cases will be explored with a special focus on women in the developing world.

This seminar examines some of the most pressing social issues of our present by deconstructing fictional accounts of our imagined futures. Through a selection of science fiction (literature, television, and film), students analyze how issues of race, class, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and age are resolved, exacerbated, or ignored in each narrative.

This advanced seminar aimed at returning study abroad students explores the related concepts of home, belonging and citizenship in light of globalization and mobility. In addition to reflecting on personal experiences of home and mobility, we study narrative accounts by refugees, migrants, tourists and expatriates to think in new ways about global citizenship.

The Honors Colloquium will cover topics such as: strategies for thesis work, writing an intro to the thesis, IRB application and approval process, ways to write a review of the literature chapter, ethics in research, writing workshops for the students, practice sessions for the formal oral presentations for the April conferences, publication possibilities, etc. The colloquium will also feature guest speakers who will discuss aspects of graduate studies, professional issues, job market issues, and their own research. Department honors students will continue to be mentored by their individual honors thesis advisor.

The Honors Colloquium is required for students enrolled in the department Honors Program. The colloquium meets biweekly to cover various research topics related to research design, implementation, and dissemination and to help students prepare for their culminating presentations at the Academic Conference. The colloquium is offered on a pass/no pass basis.

Honors students undertake a research project under the direction of a department faculty member. The results are presented in the form of a thesis and two semesters credit, granted at end of second semester. Candidates selected from invited applicants to the Department Honors Committee.

Honors students undertake a research project under the direction of a department faculty member. The results are presented in the form of a thesis and two semesters credit, granted at end of second semester. Candidates selected from invited applicants to the Department Honors Committee.

Students may undertake independent research projects under the direct supervision of a faculty member. Individuals contemplating a research project should make inquiries during their third year, since the project is usually initiated by the beginning of the fourth year. Preference for sociology majors.

Students may undertake independent research projects under the direct supervision of a faculty member. Individuals contemplating a research project should make inquiries during their third year, since the project is usually initiated by the beginning of the fourth year. Preference for sociology majors.

An individualized reading program addressing a topic in sociology not covered in course offerings. Reading tutorials are under the supervision of a sociology faculty member, usually limited to the fourth year students, and arranged on an individual basis. Preference to sociology majors.

An individualized reading program addressing a topic in sociology not covered in course offerings. Reading tutorials are under the supervision of a sociology faculty member, usually limited to the fourth year students, and arranged on an individual basis. Preference to sociology majors.

Program for individual students who wish to pursue supervised independent study on a selected topic or an advanced research project. Ordinarily projects are approved for one semester. Open to selected third- and fourth-year students with preference to sociology majors. Each project must be supervised by a faculty member.

A one-semester introduction to the main modes of cultural anthropological analysis of non-Western cultures, such as those of Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia, Melanesia, Polynesia, sub-Saharan Africa and Native America. Topics include: ethnographic methods; concepts of culture; symbolic communication; ecological processes; introduction to anthropological approaches to kinship, religion, gender, hierarchy, economics, medicine, political life, transnational processes.

This course examines contemporary Asia as an interconnected region that influences world events and as diverse societies, cultures, and nation states that face particular problems as they struggle with issues of globalization, modernity, and neoliberalism while trying to maintain a sense of national or cultural identity. Readings focus on India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Philippines, and the Asian diaspora. Topics include religion, aging, family, gender, politics, economics, class, labor migration, consumerism, ethnicity, and Orientalism.

The UN reports that 2/3 of the global workforce operates in the "informal economy." This course develops an anthropological approach to that fact. Our foundation is the literature on the informal economy in Africa and other parts of the global south, but we will also explore economic processes closer to home. Topics include: the origin, development, and use of the "informal economy" concept, precarious livelihoods, micro-credit and "bottom of the pyramid" ventures, informal networks, illicit trade, smuggling, black markets, and organized crime.

Is there any validity to the claim that women in the Global South have largely been "left out", "marginalized" and even "harmed" by development programs and ideologies? And is development a new form of imperialism? The course begins with discussion of anthropological and feminist critiques of "development" and then examines successes and shortfalls of different strategies used to "bring women back" into development. We then evaluate the gendered impacts of development policies, programs promoted by international development agencies.

Over the past few years the very limit of what is "male" and what is "female" seems to have become more unstable and fluid in our society and around the world. Similarly, recent scholarship on "gender" has disputed conventional academic wisdom of how gender and sexuality are produced, embodied and performed by individuals. Anthropology and feminist theory have furthered these debates by offering a significant reappraisal of "gender" - as a concept, social relationship and category of analysis. In this course, we will develop a critical stance toward the study of gender and sexuality by taking anthropology's and feminism's insights into account as we explore the power dynamics that play into the social construction of the body. We will pay attention to how various peoples (including ourselves), living at different times, have fashioned social distinctions based on gender and sexuality, and how these distinctions have played a role in the organization of political, religious, economic and ideological practices. Among the topics we will cover are: the nature/nurture debate, kinship, psychoanalysis, transgender identity, race, gender under colonialism, and performativity.

The course provides an overview of the ways that anthropologists have approached issues of sickness, disease, and healing, particularly in the study of the cultural construction of health and illness, the therapeutic process, social stratification, and health inequalities. Through case studies and synthesizing readings, the course will review key theoretical, conceptual, methodological and practical approaches to the study of health and illness, using a cross-cultural, global, and comparative perspective. As such, the course is designed to promote an appreciation for the variety of human suffering and responses to illness and healing, as well as to developing a crucial understanding of our own system of medicine as a cultural product. Key course objectives include: 1) to examine the historical trends of Medical Anthropology theory and practice; 2) to compare and contrast current issues and methodological approaches in the field; and 3) to examine ways that anthropological concepts and methods are used in research on national and international health issues

A social scientific, cross-cultural consideration of religious worlds created in such locales as village and urban Indonesia, India, Papua New Guinea, and Africa, especially in terms of their power dynamics vis-a-vis social hierarchies. Covers classic topics such as the study of ritual and ecology, village myth, trancing, shamanism, witchcraft, and sorcery accusations, but also deals at length with such matters as the connections between Christian missions and empire. Also turns an anthropological gaze on contemporary U.S. religions.

An introduction to the cultures, politics and history of Latin America. The course examines past and current issues of the region through ethnographic monographs as well as through a cross-disciplinary approach that includes historical analysis, excerpts from literature, and film. Units focus on: pre-Colombian empires and conquest; the Zapatista revolution against neoliberalism in Mexico; militarization and Maoist rebels Shining Path in Peru; transvestites and Pentecostals in Brazil; "drug wars," "dirty wars" and debates over reconciliation and reparations in Guatemala; labor movements in Argentina; and indigenous and women's social movements that cross national boundaries.

This course takes a broadly comparative and historical perspective, using cross-cultural analysis to understand the workings of politics and power, in Western and non-Western contexts. Topics include: colonialism and its impact on colonized populations; the formation of post-colonial national states; leadership, authority, and the construction of political subjects; and the links between local processes and global political systems.

An introduction to the issues, methods, and concepts of economic anthropology. This course places economic features such as markets, commodities, and money into a larger cross-cultural context by exploring relations of power, kinship, gender, exchange, and social transformation.

A comparative, cultural anthropological exploration of fashion and consumption as tools for the creation, expression, and contestation of social, cultural, economic, political and individual identities. Topics include: anthropological and semiotic theories of materialism and consumption, subcultural styles, colonialism, race, gender, religious dress, globalization and ethnic chic.

This course provides an introductory anthropological account of 20th- and 21st-century Africa. The central theme is the "representation" of Africa and Africans, including the manner in which outsiders have portrayed the continent and its peoples in the past, African responses and rejoinders, and current scholarship and forms of self-representation. We will cover a number of broader themes, including music, race, art, ethnicity, youth, economic activity, "tradition" and "modernity," and the politics of cultural translation.

How does art interrelate to political power and to wealth? This course examines such questions in regard to the art of ancient kingdoms in Asia such as Cambodia's Angkor Wat and Indonesia's Borobudur. Also at issue are the contemporary arts of Southeast Asia, seen too through this anthropology of art lens. Additionally, this course looks at the power dynamics of international art collecting of Asian art and artifacts; the politics and aesthetics of putting Asian art into worldwide museums is also studied. Includes museum study tours.

Nearly a century ago, anthropologist Margaret Meads "Coming of Age in Samoa" introduced a broad public to the issues facing youth in modern society and proposed various approaches to understanding these problems. Paying homage to Meads seminal work, this course examines the subjectivities and daily life experiences of youth navigating the conceptual, territorial and affective borders created by nationalism, war, displacement, occupation, colonialism and other social and political contexts in a variety of global situations. At a time when we are bearing (painful) witness to the suffering of those forced to navigate the unwieldy terrains of a reinstating and strengthening of borders and border walls, we will examine how youth in Israel/Palestine, Kashmir, the U.S./Mexico border, and our nation's own internal "others" 'come of age' by negotiating the construction of identities, movement across (often militarized) spaces, and political violence as they push up against carceral and colonial state formations. At the same time, we will attend to the politics of such witnessing, and the potentials (and impossibilities) of ethnographic engagement with youth struggling to define themselves, their communities and their futures at the border.

An examination of cultural anthropology's main data-gathering strategy: long-term ethnographic fieldwork of small communities, often located in non-Western cultures. Topics include: review of the methodology literature, participant observation, in-depth interviews, designing field studies, oral histories, spanning deep cultural divides via fieldwork. Often involves hands-on fieldwork in Worcester.

A historical examination of the development of different theoretical perspectives in cultural anthropology. This course explores, compares, and critiques different schools of thought about human society and culture, from the 19th to the 21st centuries, looking at the ways in which anthropological scholars and those from related disciplines have attempted to understand and explain the human condition.

This course examines how our lives, identities and futures have been and will be transformed by new biotechnologies. From pharmaceuticals and genomics to plastic surgery and organ transplants, our subjectivities are entering a posthuman era of uncharted ethical and political implications. In this course, we will learn the analytical tools necessary to understand how medical science approaches the body in order to produce knowledge and capital. We will also examine how race, gender and sexuality are being reconfigured within this new paradigm.

This course will critically examine the wide variety of approaches, tactics, discourses and objectives adopted by activists from around the globe in the effort to further LGBTQ+ rights, and discuss the ways that this activism centered on sexuality and/or gender identity intersects with race, class, religion, nationality and cultural identity. Although many nations around the world have experienced important advances over the last few decades in the effort to include LGBTQ+ populations, we cannot assume that progress on these issues is uniform or that it will look the same in different contexts. The course will push students to consider the ways that Western LGBTQ+ identities cannot be imposed on other contexts uncritically, and to consider how global activism can complicate efforts in different localities, render certain identities vulnerable, or participate in neocolonialist forms of pinkwashing. Queer activism that is truly global and sensitive to cultural difference requires queering activist practices themselves, and creating equal partnerships rather than top-down approaches to spreading LGBTQ+ rights.

The Honors Colloquium will cover topics such as: strategies for thesis work, writing an intro to the thesis, IRB application and approval process, ways to write a review of the literature chapter, ethics in research, writing workshops for the students, practice sessions for the formal oral presentations for the April conferences, publication possibilities, etc. The colloquium will also feature guest speakers who will discuss aspects of graduate studies, professional issues, job market issues, and their own research. Department honors students will continue to be mentored by their individual honors thesis advisor.

The Honors Colloquium will cover topics such as: strategies for thesis work, writing an intro to the thesis, IRB application and approval process, ways to write a review of the literature chapter, ethics in research, writing workshops for the students, practice sessions for the formal oral presentations for the April conferences, publication possibilities, etc. The colloquium will also feature guest speakers who will discuss aspects of graduate studies, professional issues, job market issues, and their own research. Department honors students will continue to be mentored by their individual honors thesis advisor.

Honors students undertake a research project under the direction of a department faculty member. The results are presented in the form of a thesis and two semesters credit, granted at end of second semester. Candidates selected from invited applicants to the Department Honors Committee.

Honors students undertake a research project under the direction of a department faculty member. The results are presented in the form of a thesis and two semesters credit, granted at end of second semester. Candidates selected from invited applicants to the Department Honors Committee.

Students may undertake independent research projects under the direct supervision of a faculty member. Individuals contemplating a research project should make inquiries during their third year, since the project is usually initiated by the beginning of the fourth year. Preference for sociology/anthropology majors.

Students may undertake independent research projects under the direct supervision of a faculty member. Individuals contemplating a research project should make inquiries during their third year, since the project is usually initiated by the beginning of the fourth year. Preference for sociology/anthropology majors.

An individualized reading program usually addressing a topic in anthropology not covered in course offerings. Reading tutorials are under the supervision of an anthropology faculty member, usually limited to the fourth year students, and arranged on an individual basis. Preference to anthropology majors.

An individualized reading program usually addressing a topic in anthropology not covered in course offerings. Reading tutorials are under the supervision of an anthropology faculty member, usually limited to the fourth year students, and arranged on an individual basis. Preference to anthropology majors.

Program for individual students who wish to pursue supervised independent study on a selected topic or an advanced research project. Ordinarily projects are approved for one semester. Open to selected third- and fourth-year students with preference to sociology/anthropology majors. Each project must be supervised by a faculty member.