Sociology

• CAS SO 418: Seminar: Sociology of Medicine
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: junior or senior standing and at least two previous sociology courses; or consent of instructor. First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120) - Focuses on major topics in the area of health and medicine, with different themes each semester. Topics have included Global Health; Health Disparities; and Death and Dying. Check with instructor for topic. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry II, Writing- Intensive Course, Research and Information Literacy.
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  • Research and Information Literacy
  • Social Inquiry II
  • Writing-Intensive Course
• CAS SO 420: Seminar: Women and Social Change in the Developing World
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: junior or senior standing and at least two previous sociology courses; or consent of instructor. - The class goes around the world to examine similarities and differences in women's experiences, with a focus on the Global South, the poorer countries of the world, in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. It focuses on social, political, cultural, and economic issues. Comparisons will be made with women's experiences in the US and other wealthy countries of the world. A seminar, students are expected to discuss the readings each week.
• CAS SO 425: Seminar: Sex and the City
  Explores the relationship between sexualities and place. Taking us from big city "gayborhoods" to rural hamlets, the course considers how sexual identities and behaviors interact with place ecologies and processes, from gentrification to suburbanization. Effective Fall 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: The Individual in Community.
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  • The Individual in Community
• CAS SO 431: Seminar: Genders, Sexualities, and Youth Cultures
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: senior standing or consent of instructor. - Investigates the social construction of gender and sexuality in adolescence. Engaging critical approaches to youth cultures, the course examines the structural conditions that shape gender and sexuality norms, and the ways youth navigate and redefine their social worlds. Effective Fall 2023 this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: The Individual in Community, Social Inquiry II, Research and Information Literacy.
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  • The Individual in Community
  • Research and Information Literacy
  • Social Inquiry II
• CAS SO 437: Seminar: Sociology of Culture
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: junior or senior standing and at least two previous sociology courses; or consent of instructor. - The sociology of culture in the twenty-first century. Focuses on the connection between the mind and culture. Examines the interdependence between culture, society, and individuals, and how belief, faith, knowledge, symbol, ritual, and the like both produce and are products of social organization.
• CAS SO 438: Seminar on International Migration
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: junior or senior standing and at least two previous sociology courses; or consent of instructor. - Explores key themes in international migration. It emphasizes connections between current topics in immigration, and sociological theories that explain immigrant pathways, mobilities, and outcomes. Students engage in analytical memo-writing that make these links, and write a final term paper. Throughout, the course emphasizes how the intersection of inequalities--of legal status, gender, race and class--shape immigration processes. Effective Fall 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Social Inquiry II, Research and Information Literacy.
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  • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • Research and Information Literacy
  • Social Inquiry II
• CAS SO 440: Seminar: Comparative Political Cultures
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: junior or senior standing - Explores the "deep cultural" level behind the daily conduct of politics. A theoretical framework relying upon Tocqueville and Weber is developed and then applied to unveil the political cultures of the United States, Germany, England, Russia, China, Japan, and Mexico.
• CAS SO 442: Seminar: Urban Inequality in the Americas
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120) - This course examines major theoretical approaches to the study of the city and uses them to explore key features of urban inequality in the United States and in Latin America. In the first part of this course, we examine the strengths and weaknesses of five core theoretical paradigms for studying the city and how these have been challenged over time. In the second part of this course, we use these theoretical tools to examine distinct examples of urban segregation in American and Latin American cities. Effective Spring 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Research and Information Literacy.
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  • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • Research and Information Literacy
  • Writing-Intensive Course
• CAS SO 448: Culture, Markets, and Inequality
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: junior or senior standing and at least two previous sociology courses; or consent of instructor. - This seminar examines commerce as a cultural process, focusing on cultural production and consumption practices in fields like fashion, music, and bodily goods and services. Traces the cultural construction and maintenance of gender, race, and class inequalities in markets.
• CAS SO 452: Contemporary Debates in Sexualities Research
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASSO241 OR CASWS200) First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120). - Engages sociological debates about sexual identities, politics, and practices. Students consider how sexualities are expressed and regulated through various institutions and how they intersect with race, class, gender, citizenship, and other domains of inequality. Also offered as CAS WS 452. Effective Fall 2023, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU HUB areas: Writing-Intensive, Research and Information Literacy.
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  • Research and Information Literacy
  • Writing-Intensive Course
• CAS SO 459: Deviance and Social Control
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120). - Explores sociological explanations for why attributes and behaviors are defined as deviant, the consequences of deviant labels, and how the state criminalizes and punishes people for deviant behavior. Examines how responses to deviance reflect the state's orientation to social marginality. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Social Inquiry II, Research and Information Literacy.
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  • Research and Information Literacy
  • Social Inquiry II
  • Writing-Intensive Course
• CAS SO 460: Seminar: Economic Sociology
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: junior standing and at least two prior sociology courses, or consent o f instructor. - Introduction to core theoretical perspectives and debates in contemporary economic sociology (structural/network, cultural, institutional/political, and performativity) with a special attention paid to morality of markets, commensuration and construction of value, money, credit and finance and inequality. Effective Spring 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Ethical Reasoning, Social Inquiry II, Critical Thinking.
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  • Critical Thinking
  • Ethical Reasoning
  • Social Inquiry II
• CAS SO 465: Intersectionalities: Theories, Methods, and Praxis
  Undergraduate pre-requisites: junior standing or consent of instructor. - Intersectionality," is one of the prominent contributions made by critical race feminist scholars that now broadly extend across disciplines. This course takes stock of the multiple ways that intersectional scholars and activists conceptualize intersectionality in relation to sociological theory, research problems, design, and praxis.
• CAS SO 483: Gentrification Studies
  This seminar explores the process of urban gentrification from an interdisciplinary perspective, examining the variegated histories, geographies, and sociologies of gentrification globally, thinking through comparative urbanism. It considers definitions of gentrification, how theorizations developed over time, and key concepts.
• CAS SO 497: Understanding Meritocracy
  PreReq: Junior or Senior standing and at least two previous Sociology courses; or consent of instructor. Challenges students to sociologically evaluate the concept of meritocracy, its origins, its societal implications, and contemporary adoption as an ideal worth striving for. Reviews empirical research on perceptions around and explanations of social inequality. Explores how beliefs about inequality are mobilized in class and racial conflict and in what ways people's beliefs are or aren't likely to change. Fall term. Effective Fall 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry II and Critical Thinking.
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  • Critical Thinking
  • Social Inquiry II
• CAS SO 499: Field Practicum
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: CAS SO 100 and SO 201, requires some foundational knowledge of sociological ideas and methods. - Joins real world experience in social change and social impact work with seminar-based coursework that encourages critical reflection, develops professional experience, and builds skills of sociological research and analysis. Effective Fall 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area:
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  • Social Inquiry II