Sociology

• SOCI 112: Social Interaction
• SOCI 122: Race and Ethnic Relations
• SOCI 123: Crime and Delinquency
• SOCI 130: Family and Society
• SOCI 250: Sociological Theory
• SOCI 410: Formal Organizations and Bureaucracy
• SOCI 412: Social Stratification
• SOCI 415: Economy and Society
• SOCI 469: Medicine and Society

SOCI 112: Social Interaction

This is an introductory course in microsociology. This means that we will look closely at social interaction, rather than focusing on the abstractions of social structure examined by most macrosociology courses. We will go “inside social life” to explore the ways that people create, make sense of, reproduce, and/or challenge the meaning and experience of everyday life. We will use a theoretical perspective known as symbolic interactionism, which views humans as continually engaged in the process of seeking and creating meaning through interaction with others. Our starting point will be the social construction of “the self.” However, as we move through the course, we will give increasing attention to the ways that individual action both shapes and is shaped by social contexts and institutional structures.

Ultimately, the goal of this course is to provoke thought about what we take for granted as “natural” about the social order of everyday life, in order that we may think more critically about the ways our own social interactions both reinforce and challenge the cultural practices and social institutions that constrain those very interactions.

Required Textbooks

• Cahill, Inside Social Life, 5th edition (2007), ISBN 978-0-19-53324-14
• Schwalbe, The Sociologically Examined Life, 4th edition (2008), ISBN 978-0-07-33801-17

You may purchase the textbooks at Friday Center Books & Gifts in person, online, or by mailing or faxing in the book order form. Refer to the online ordering site for current book prices. Please see Textbooks for textbook purchase dates.

Course Details

• Instructor: Heather Kane, PhD
• Department: Sociology
• Credit hours: 3
• UNC-Chapel Hill perspectives/requirements fulfilled: The Office of Undergraduate Curricula has links to information about which perspectives this course fulfills under the “Pre-2006 Curriculum” and which requirements it fulfills under the new curriculum (see “2006 Curriculum”).
• View sample course syllabus.

How to Enroll

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SOCI 122: Race and Ethnic Relations

This course is designed to introduce you to the topic of race and ethnic relations from a sociological perspective. The first unit of the course is devoted to becoming aware and conscious of the place and importance of race and ethnicity in our culture. The second unit addresses brief histories of the relationships between and among different racial and ethnic groups in the United States, and, more importantly, the conditions under which those relationships originated and developed. The third unit addresses institutional discrimination by discussing different aspects of how racial and ethnic relationships develop (or not) within the context of social institutions such as the family, education, the economy, the government, and even the media and entertainment.

Required Textbooks

• Farley, Majority/Minority Relations, 5th edition (2005)
• Wu, Yellow
• Wise, White Like Me
• Griffin, Black Like Me
• Santiago, When I was Puerto Rican
• Rodriguez, Hunger of Memory
• Broker, Night Flying Woman
• Davis, Jenkins, and Hunt, The Pact
• Fairclough, Better Day Coming

You may purchase the textbooks at Friday Center Books & Gifts in person, online, or by mailing or faxing in the book order form. Refer to the online ordering site for current book prices. Please see Textbooks for textbook purchase dates.

Course Details

• Instructor: Anne Hastings, PhD
• Department: Sociology
• Credit hours: 3
• UNC-Chapel Hill perspectives/requirements fulfilled: The Office of Undergraduate Curricula has links to information about which perspectives this course fulfills under the “Pre-2006 Curriculum” and which requirements it fulfills under the new curriculum (see “2006 Curriculum”).
• View sample course syllabus.

How to Enroll

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SOCI 123: Crime and Delinquency

This course is an introduction to the sociological study of crime. This course concentrates on the social facts of crime, such as the criminal justice system and the structure of economic inequality, as well as social processes, such as the development of criminal identities through interactions with criminals. We also discuss the environments in which people are embedded, with particular attention to the disruptive settings of the American urban underclass. Finally, we discuss several important sociological theories concerning crime and their implications for public policy.

Required Textbook

• Barkan, Criminology: A Sociological Understanding, 3rd edition, 2005

You may purchase the textbook at Friday Center Books & Gifts in person, online, or by mailing or faxing in the book order form. Refer to the online ordering site for current book prices. Please see Textbooks for textbook purchase dates.

Course Details

• Instructor: Kim Manturuk, MA
• Department: Sociology
• Credit hours: 3
• UNC-Chapel Hill perspectives/requirements fulfilled: The Office of Undergraduate Curricula has links to information about which perspectives this course fulfills under the “Pre-2006 Curriculum” and which requirements it fulfills under the new curriculum (see “2006 Curriculum”).
• View sample course syllabus.

How to Enroll

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SOCI 130: Family and Society

This course introduces students to the sociological perspective on the American family. Both theoretical literature on family and the research process are covered, but the primary focus of the course is on encouraging critical thinking skills in studying and reading about family. Contemporary novels and articles assist students in learning to interweave the emotional experience of family (their own) with the scientific analysis of family (a social institution).

Required Textbooks

• Coontz, The Way We Really Are (1998)
• Edelman, The Measure of Our Success (1993)
• Edgerton, Raney (1985)
• Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed (2001)
• Munsch, The Paper Bag Princess (1988)
• Rubin, Worlds of Pain (1992)
• Stacey, In the Name of the Family (1996)
• Tannen, You Just Don't Understand (1990)
• Tyler, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant (1982)
• Waite and Gallagher, The Case for Marriage (2000)

You may purchase the textbooks at Friday Center Books & Gifts in person, online, or by mailing or faxing in the book order form. Refer to the online ordering site for current book prices. Please see Textbooks for textbook purchase dates.

Course Details

• Instructor: Anne Hastings, PhD
• Department: Sociology
• Credit hours: 3
• UNC-Chapel Hill perspectives/requirements fulfilled: The Office of Undergraduate Curricula has links to information about which perspectives this course fulfills under the “Pre-2006 Curriculum” and which requirements it fulfills under the new curriculum (see “2006 Curriculum”).
• View sample course syllabus.

How to Enroll

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SOCI 250: Sociological Theory

This course is a study of theoretical perspectives in sociology, their relation to contemporary social issues, and their roots in classical social thought. Required for sociology majors.

Required Textbooks

• Lemert, editor, Social Theory: The Multicultural and Classic Readings, 3rd edition (2004), ISBN 978-0813342177
• Collins, Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender, and the New Racism (2004), ISBN: 978-0415951500
• Frye, The Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory (1983), ISBN: 978-0895940995

You may purchase the textbooks at Friday Center Books & Gifts in person, online, or by mailing or faxing in the book order form. Refer to the online ordering site for current book prices. Please see Textbooks for textbook purchase dates.

Course Details

• Instructor: Matt Ezzell, MA
• Department: Sociology
• Credit hours: 3
• Prerequisite: SOCI 101
• UNC-Chapel Hill perspectives/requirements fulfilled: The Office of Undergraduate Curricula has links to information about which perspectives this course fulfills under the “Pre-2006 Curriculum” and which requirements it fulfills under the new curriculum (see “2006 Curriculum”).
• View sample course syllabus.

How to Enroll

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SOCI 410: Formal Organizations and Bureaucracy

In every moment of every day, organizations and bureaucracies affect life in countless subtle and obvious ways. In our post-industrial Western society, formal organizations order our lives and fulfill our needs. Despite their immense influence, most understandings of organizations are vague, shallow, and unspecific.

This course aims to provide you with a thorough sociological understanding of organizations. We will look at where organizations come from, how they change, and how they die. We will examine the ways organizations are structured, the ways they act, and the relationships between individuals in organizations, between individuals and organizations, and between organizations.

A critical and rigorous understanding of organizations and organizational behavior underpins our understanding of the world around us. This course will give you the tools to apprehend organizational forms and processes at work in your life and in your world.

Required Textbooks

• Aldrich and Ruef, Organizations Evolving, 2nd edition (2006)
• Scott and Davis, Organizations and Organizing: Rational, Natural, and Open System Perspectives, 6th edition (2006)

You may purchase the textbooks at Friday Center Books & Gifts in person, online, or by mailing or faxing in the book order form. Refer to the online ordering site for current book prices. Please see Textbooks for textbook purchase dates.

Course Details

• Instructor: Ijlal Naqvi, MA
• Department: Sociology
• Credit hours: 3
• UNC-Chapel Hill perspectives/requirements fulfilled: The Office of Undergraduate Curricula has links to information about which perspectives this course fulfills under the “Pre-2006 Curriculum” and which requirements it fulfills under the new curriculum (see “2006 Curriculum”).
• View sample course syllabus.

How to Enroll

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SOCI 412: Social Stratification

This course consists of the analysis of social structure and stratification in terms of class, status, prestige, and rank. Attention is given to the social roles of elites, professionals, the middle class, the working class, and to comparative topics.

Required Textbook

• Kerbo, Social Stratification and Inequality, 6th edition (2005)

You may purchase the textbook at Friday Center Books & Gifts in person, online, or by mailing or faxing in the book order form. Refer to the online ordering site for current book prices. Please see Textbooks for textbook purchase dates.

Course Details

• Instructor: Stephanie Moller-Smith, PhD
• Department: Sociology
• Credit hours: 3
• UNC-Chapel Hill perspectives/requirements fulfilled: The Office of Undergraduate Curricula has links to information about which perspectives this course fulfills under the “Pre-2006 Curriculum” and which requirements it fulfills under the new curriculum (see “2006 Curriculum”).
• View sample course syllabus.

How to Enroll

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SOCI 415: Economy and Society

SOCI 415 emphasizes the importance of sociological perspectives in understanding and explaining economic activities such as shopping at global retailers, hiring an employee, or obtaining a bank loan to start a business. The course presents a diverse set of perspectives on economic sociology while covering some of the most significant and promising areas of research in the field. It focuses on six main perspectives: institutions and institutionalism, social networks and social capital, cognition and decision-making processes, power, inequality based on race and gender, and consumption patterns, social class, and social groups.

Required Textbook

• Dobbin, The New Economic Sociology: A Reader (2004)

Course Details

• Instructor: Ana Teixeira, MA
• Department: Sociology
• Credit hours: 3
• UNC-Chapel Hill perspectives/requirements fulfilled: The Office of Undergraduate Curricula has links to information about which perspectives this course fulfills under the “Pre-2006 Curriculum” and which requirements it fulfills under the new curriculum (see “2006 Curriculum”).
• View sample course syllabus.

How to Enroll

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SOCI 469: Medicine and Society

The overall goal for this course is to give you an understanding (and appreciation) of the social as well as the biological aspects of medicine, including the meaning of health, illness, medical diagnoses and treatments, and issues concerning the healthcare system. When you have completed the course, you should be able to

• understand the tools to distinguish between disease (biological pathology) and illness (socially determined) as experienced on both the individual and societal levels
• recognize the differences in "illness distribution" both between and within various groups (gender, race, age, and so on) in an attempt to highlight a number of the social determinants of health
• appreciate physicians and other healthcare workers as professionals, including the processes of education and socialization that define their work
• understand the US healthcare system, including a comparison to countries with national healthcare (and form an opinion about potential for reform)
• think critically about how sociology can be applied to the medical field, and use "sociological" tools to uncover the social determinants and consequences of health and disease.

Required Textbooks

For the summer session, five texts are required:

1. Budrys, Our Unsystematic Health Care System, 2nd edition (2005)
2. Budrys, Unequal Health (2003)
3. Cockerham, Medical Sociology, 10th edition (2006)
4. Roter and Hall, Doctors Talking with Patients, Patients Talking with Doctors, 2nd edition (2006)
5. Fadiman, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down (1998)

For fall and spring semesters, six texts are required:

1. Budrys, Our Unsystematic Health Care System, 2nd edition (2005)
2. Budrys, Unequal Health (2003)
3. Cockerham, Medical Sociology, 10th edition (2006)
4. Roter and Hall, Doctors Talking with Patients, Patients Talking with Doctors, 2nd edition (2006)
5. Abraham, Mama Might Be Better Off Dead (1993)
6. Klinenberg, Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago (2002)

You may purchase the textbooks at Friday Center Books & Gifts in person, online, or by mailing or faxing in the book order form. Refer to the online ordering site for current book prices. Please see Textbooks for textbook purchase dates.

Course Details

• Instructor: Rebecca Matteo, MA
• Department: Sociology
• Credit hours: 3
• UNC-Chapel Hill perspectives/requirements fulfilled: The Office of Undergraduate Curricula has links to information about which perspectives this course fulfills under the “Pre-2006 Curriculum” and which requirements it fulfills under the new curriculum (see “2006 Curriculum”).
• View sample course syllabus.

How to Enroll

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