Sociology Courses | 2024-2025 Graduate Catalog | SIU

Theories and problems of social change; their application, with emphasis on the modern industrial period.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as WGSS 407) Examines a range of social issues related to human sexuality and the interaction between sexuality and other social processes. Emphasis is on the relevant concepts, theories, and methods in the field of sexual studies, the social and historical construction of sexuality and the ways in which social characteristics shape sexual behaviors and desires, sexual variation, including its causes and consequences, how basic social institutions affect the rules governing sexuality, the major moral and political controversies that surround sexuality, and the "dark side" of sexual life.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as PHIL 415) An examination of the theoretical structure and nature of the social sciences and their epistemological foundations. The relationship of social theory to social criticism; theory and praxis. Historical experience and social objectivity. Social theory as practical knowledge.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as WGSS 442) Examines social science theory and research on gender issues and contemporary roles of men and women. The impact of gender on social life is examined on the micro level, in work and family roles, in social institutions, and at the global, cross-cultural level.

Credit Hours: 3

An analysis of social behavior in non-institutional settings such as crowds, disasters, riots, mass panics, crazes, cults, and social movements. Emphasis is on the cultural and structural factors leading to collective action and its impact on social change.

Credit Hours: 3

Discussion of theories and evidence pertaining to the socio-structural causes and consequences of inequality based on social class, prestige, power, gender, wealth and income.

Credit Hours: 3

Survey of sociological theories and research on globalization and development: modernization, dependency, world-system, and global economy. Problem areas include population growth and control, economic growth and underdevelopment, role of state, transnational corporations, financial institutions, and organizations, non-governmental organizations, work, population, migration, social movements and resistance, gender, race-ethnic, class, and sexuality issues.

Credit Hours: 3

This course is an introductory survey on the sociology of Racial Inequality. As such, the basic objective of this course is to give students a broad understanding of race and inequality issues in society. This course will require students to become familiar with the critical frameworks and concepts through which social scientists make sense of racial inequality; to come to terms with the ideological, political, and economic mechanisms that perpetuate racist structures; to study the past and present historical contexts within which racial inequality is given shape; and to explore potential venues for change.

Credit Hours: 3

Analyzes the social structures and issues involved in health, illness, and health-care delivery systems in the United States. Explores the economic and political influences on the role of medicine in society, as well as the organization of medical care and health institutions. Critically examines the social processes and factors that influence health and illness behavior.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as CCJ 460 and WGSS 476) A study of women as offenders, as victims, and as workers in the criminal justice system.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as CCJ 462) An examination of the extent and nature of victimization, theories about the causes of victimization, the effects of crime on victims and services available to deal with those effects, victims' experiences in the criminal justice system, the victims' rights movement, and alternative ways of defining and responding to victimization.

Credit Hours: 3

The adult life cycle from a sociological perspective, with emphasis on the later stages of adulthood. Special topics on aging include demographic aspects, family interaction, ethnicity, and cross-cultural trends.

Credit Hours: 3

Survey of concepts, theories, and techniques of population analysis; contemporary trends and patterns in composition, growth, fertility, mortality, and migration. Emphasis is on relationship between population and social, economic, and political factors.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as CCJ 473) An in-depth study of theories of delinquency, analytical skills useful in studying delinquent offenders, systematic assessment of efforts at prevention, and control and rehabilitation in light of theoretical perspectives. Six hours of social/behavioral science recommended.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as POLS 419) An examination of the social bases of power and politics, including attention to global and societal political relations, as well as individual-level political beliefs and commitments; primary focus on American politics.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as POLS 476) Examines the connection between religious beliefs and institutions and political beliefs and institutions. Comparative studies will focus on religious political movements in the United States and throughout the world.

Credit Hours: 3

Varying advanced sociological topics selected by the instructor for study in depth. May be repeated for a maximum of twelve semester hours provided registrations cover different topics. Topics announced in advance.

Credit Hours: 3

A systematic survey of sociological theory with the focus on both classical and contemporary sociological thought. An in-depth examination of selected thinkers whose work laid the foundation for major schools of contemporary sociology, along with an overview of issues in contemporary sociological theory. Students are expected to be familiar with the fundamentals of sociological analysis.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as WGSS 507) Examines the emerging body of work in the fast-growing field of sexuality studies. While the course focuses on sociological research, it takes a few side trips into other disciplines. We begin by discussing the evolution of theory and methodology in the sexual sciences. After briefly considering the contributions of early sexologists and the work of Sigmund Freud, we will survey the sociology of sexuality from its beginnings in quantitative research, through classical sociological theory, social constructionism, and feminism. We'll then examine Foucault's radical rethinking of sexuality and grapple with the challenges of queer theory. The second part of the course will take up several substantive areas in the sociology of sexuality, drawing on cutting edge quantitative and qualitative research.

Credit Hours: 3

Focus on research process: identification of the role of theory, formulation of research questions, research design and quantitative, qualitative, and mixed method data collection techniques. Connections between theory, research design and measurement decisions, and interpretation (answering research questions) are emphasized throughout. Includes practical and ethical issues, e.g. informed consent.

Credit Hours: 4

Focus on research strategies involving the systematic exploration, documentation and analytic description of social settings, interactions, meanings, lifeworlds and texts. Includes discussion of field observation, depth interviewing, oral histories/narratives, case studies, biographies and life histories, focus group interviewing, content analysis of written and visual data, historical/archival investigations, among other approaches.

Credit Hours: 4

Emphasis is on the development of teaching skills and pedagogical knowledge for instructors in sociology.

Credit Hours: 3

Provides a foundation in univariate and bivariate descriptive statistics, inferential statistics including hypothesis testing about population parameters and bivariate and multivariate relationships, and measures of association for nominal, ordinal, and interval-ratio variables, and an introduction to bivariate and multivariate correlation and linear regression (including concepts of causal modeling and control variables). Restricted to graduate standing.

Credit Hours: 4

Provides in-depth instruction in multiple regression including assumptions of linear model, diagnostics and corrections for violation, exploratory factor analysis, using categorical dependent variables (logistic and multi-nominal regression), nonlinear relationships, interactions, and extensions to advanced techniques as time allows. Prerequisite: SOC 526A (or successful pass of proficiency test).

Credit Hours: 4

Content varies with interests of instructor and students. Special approval needed from the instructor.

Credit Hours: 2-4

Comparative study of power, social class, and status; conceptions of social structure and measurement techniques; explanations of social and occupational mobility; institutions and differential life changes.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as WGSS 542) Overview of the theoretical approaches, substantive issues, and techniques of research and measurement in the study of American family life. Approaches include structural functionalism, conflict theory, and the feminist critique. Among the substantive topics are family roles and relationships, kinship, relationships of the family to other institutions and family change.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as WGSS 544) Examines major theories, themes, and research methods on the intersection of gender, race, class, and sexuality. Topics may include: construction of gender, race, class and sexual identities; work; social movements; intersection of family and work; parenting and reproduction; historical and cross-national dimensions.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as WGSS 545) This course is designed to investigate how gender structures the workplace, as well as how men and women both reproduce and negotiate gender at work. Focusing on select topics, we will develop an understanding of workplaces as gendered organizations and discuss sex segregation, wage inequality, the glass ceiling, the glass escalator, sex work, men and women in nontraditional occupations, the body at work, emotional labor, aesthetic labor, immigration and work, globalization, and unemployment and welfare. Also, this class will take an intersectional approach to analyzing and discussing issues of gender inequality at work; meaning, we will take seriously how gender intersects with race, ethnicity, class, and sexuality to shape both inequality and resistance at work.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as WGSS 547) This graduate seminar is a sociology of gender course that focuses on changes in the subfield itself and in peoples' lived experiences in terms of gender, gender relations, and gender stratification. Readings and discussions will trace the development of the sociology of gender over the last several decades. We will discuss how ideas and theories have changed over the years including changes in concepts and in how sociologists define, problematize, and theorize about sex and gender as traits, identities, relations, structures, and systems. We will also explore 'objective' or actual change (or lack of change) related to gender in individuals, groups, and societies.

Credit Hours: 3

Theoretical and empirical study of the origin, location and function of religious ideas and institutions in society.

Credit Hours: 3

Overview of theories, research and prevailing issues of race and ethnic relations in contemporary societies. Discussions will include world expansion during colonialism, political economy of minority groups, class and gender issues in the global development.

Credit Hours: 3

A seminar designed to survey the major sociological approaches to social movements and collective action. Emphasis will be on movement culture, social movement organizations and the social environment in which collective action occurs.

Credit Hours: 3

This course is designed to explore the ways in which revolutions have been theorized. It sets out to study Classical (Chinese, French, and Russian) and Modern (Cuban, Mexican, Iranian, and other Third World) historical cases, as well as contemporary popular uprisings. This course will require students to become familiar with the structural causes of revolution; the cultural and ideological roots of revolutionary mobilization; the emotional, gendered, and story-telling dimensions of revolution-making; and the relationship between globalization and more contemporary attempts at Radical Social Change.

Credit Hours: 3

A survey of classical and contemporary theoretical perspectives related to crime and justice.

Credit Hours: 3

Open to graduate students with a major in sociology. Graded S/U only. Special approval needed from the instructor and departmental director of graduate studies.

Credit Hours: 1-4

Supervised readings in selected subjects. Graded S/U only. Special approval needed from the instructor and departmental director of graduate studies.

Credit Hours: 1-8

Special approval needed from the chair.

Credit Hours: 1-16

For those graduate students who have not finished their degree programs and who are in the process of working on their dissertation, thesis or research paper. The student must have completed a minimum of 24 hours of dissertation research, or the minimum thesis, or research hours before being eligible to register for this course. Concurrent enrollment in any other course is not permitted. Graded S/U or DEF only.

Credit Hours: 1

Must be a Postdoctoral Fellow. Concurrent enrollment in any other course is not permitted.

Credit Hours: 1