Sociology
Brent Simpson, Chair
The department offers two undergraduate majors. Students may elect programs leading to the Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology or to the Bachelor of Science degree in sociology. Students may also attempt to graduate with honors in sociology if they have a 3.50 overall average and a 3.50 in sociology. Under that program students are required to conduct, write, and defend a research project.
Courses
An introduction to sociological facts and principles: an analysis of group-making processes and products.
Carolina Core: GSS
Selected theoretical orientations, methodological procedures, and illustrative substantive data pertaining to social structures.
Offers a sociological lens to develop critical ways of thinking about sex and gender as social processes in everyday lives. This course considers how sex and gender shape and affect the experiences of women, men, girls, boys, and individuals who live in the spaces in-between (those who are intersex or transgender) across a wide range of social institutions (family, work, education, politics, etc.).
Cross-listed course: WGST 300
Carolina Core: GSS
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Diversity and Social Advocacy, GLD: Professional and Civic Engagement Leadership Experiences
Historical and contemporary power relationships in race, social class, gender, and sexual orientation.
Cross-listed course: POLI 305, WGST 304
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Community Service, GLD: Diversity and Social Advocacy, GLD: Professional and Civic Engagement Leadership Experiences
Sociological perspectives related to selected aspects of religious behavior. Includes references to non-Western religions.
Cross-listed course: RELG 338
Carolina Core: GSS
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Diversity and Social Advocacy
An analysis of formal and informal organization, the interrelationships among public and private agencies, and means through which community action programs are initiated, coordinated, and maintained.
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Community Service, GLD: Professional and Civic Engagement Leadership Experiences
A sociological analysis of the distribution of wealth and income in selected societies.
Carolina Core: GSS
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Community Service, GLD: Diversity and Social Advocacy, GLD: Professional and Civic Engagement Leadership Experiences
Introduction to key areas of population studies. Methodological approaches, time trends, regional differences, and contemporary policy issues.
Carolina Core: GSS
Relationships among and changes in populations, social organization, technology, and the environment.
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Professional and Civic Engagement Leadership Experiences
Bureaucracies in the public and private sector, their internal dynamics and relationship to the social environment.
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Professional and Civic Engagement Leadership Experiences
Analysis of aging as a process of socialization and the status of older people in society, their roles in the community, demographic aspects of aging, and the impact of aging upon social institutions.
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Diversity and Social Advocacy
Overview of global population history, theory, statistics, and issues related to recent population trends.
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Global Learning
Selected theoretical orientations, methodological procedures, and illustrative substantive data pertaining to the relations between the individual and society.
An introductory survey of the social aspects of suicidal behaviors and attitudes.
Theories, methodology, and substantive issues in the study of social deviance.
A consideration of the child in the family group, play group, school group, and community.
Sociological perspectives and research findings related to adolescence.
A critical examination of factors that lead to the widespread acceptance of paranormal claims.
Contemporary social issues such as poverty, health, the criminal justice system, globalization and the environment, their causes and possible solutions.
Carolina Core: GSS
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Community Service, GLD: Diversity and Social Advocacy
Analysis of urban trends, characteristics, and functions of cities with reference to the social psychological factors in urban living. Attention is directed to the emergence of urbanism in the United States, with particular reference to the Southern region, and to institutions, problems, and city planning.
An analysis of crowds, publics, social movements, and the mass society in terms of their institutional and social psychological consequences.
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Professional and Civic Engagement Leadership Experiences
Theoretical and empirical approaches related to race/ethnicity and the current state of race relations in America, with some attention to global issues.
Cross-listed course: AFAM 355
Carolina Core: GSS
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Diversity and Social Advocacy, GLD: Professional and Civic Engagement Leadership Experiences
This is a course about the demographics, measurement, ideologies, and theories of U.S. poverty.
Analysis of educational institutions, organizations, processes, and their effects in contemporary society.
Cross-listed course: EDFI 357
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Diversity and Social Advocacy
Health and illness in relation to social institutions. The organization and professionalization of medicine and social barriers to medical care.
Analysis of social phenomena and sociological questions through various forms of media, including films, TV, photography, and other visual media.
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Diversity and Social Advocacy
Theories, methods, and substantive issues in the study of sport in contemporary societies.
Qualitative and quantitative methods of sociological research.
An introduction to concepts and application of quantitative methods, including descriptive and inferential statistics. Emphasis on analysis of empirical sociological data.
Examination of key ideas from classical, modern, and contemporary sociological theories.
Reading and research on selected sociological topics. Course content varies and will be announced in the schedule of classes by title.
Contract approved by instructor, advisor, and department chair is required for undergraduate students.
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Research
Analysis of personal, social and organizational networks, their structural patterns, practical consequences, and principles of formation and change.
Theory and research concerning the interrelationship between the polity and social structures.
An analysis of the contemporary American family emphasizing social stratification, mobility, occupations, and urbanization.
Theory and research in social stratification.
Interrelationships of major social structures within communities.
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Diversity and Social Advocacy
Selected theoretical orientation, methodological procedures, and illustrative substantive issues pertaining to organizations.
Theories and issues relating to the definition of and response to crime and/or deviance.
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Diversity and Social Advocacy
The analysis of core methodological and substantive issues in the study of social structures.
People's demographic lives, structural contexts, and social change. Emphasis on the socioeconomic context in which lives unfold.
Social factors in the development, identification, and treatment of mental illness.
A survey of methods of analysis and research findings with emphasis on the social and economic concomitants of internal migration. Cultural, economic, and historical aspects of international migration. Effects of governmental policies on immigration and emigration. Examination of selected countries.
Analysis of urbanization using contemporary and historical data from developing societies. The demographic components of metropolitan growth and the changing structure of metropolitan communities.
Introduction to methods used to answer theoretical, empirical, and practical sociological questions, including scientific inquiry and research design.
Advanced survey of social psychological perspectives and research on inequality, discrimination, power and status, cooperation and collective action, social norm and morality, networks and relationships.
A behavioral analysis of small groups.
An exploration of theoretical perspectives, methodological approaches, and substantive issues in the study of interpersonal power and authority.
A systematic analysis of the interrelation among the creation, involvement, recognition, and control of deviance.
Social psychological perspectives on family behavior.
A systematic analysis of interrelationships among social acts, selves, roles, transactions, and language.
Review of theoretical and empirical developments in the sociology of law, including classical and modern sociological theories of law and selected sociological themes of law in various social settings.
Interrelationships among society, culture, and contemporary science.
Advanced inquiry into the relationship between education and inequality.
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Diversity and Social Advocacy
Theoretical perspectives on society and social behavior.
Advanced survey of methods used in sociological research.
Readings and research on selected sociological topics. Course and content varies and will be announced in the schedule of classes by title.
Advanced Independent study. Contract approved by instructor, advisor, and department chair is required.
Reading and research.