-
View Academic Calendar
Graduate – Fall 2023
This is a course on research methods for sociology PhD students. The seminar has four objectives: 1) to review foundational principles of research design and contemporary debates in sociological methodology; 2) to introduce students to the practice of different research methods (e.g., survey research, experiments, in-depth interviews, ethnography) while considering the strengths and limitations of various approaches; 3) to familiarize students with the components of a strong empirical paper and prepare them to identify a topic and data for their empirical paper; and 4) to train students in the conduct of responsible research.
This course teaches advanced statistical methods for social science in three segments: (1) causal inference, (2) categorical data analysis, and (3) replication analysis. Emphases are on research designs and practical applications rather than statistical theories or computations. Familiarity with basic probability theory, inferential statistics, and linear regression models for continuous dependent variables is assumed.
Preparation of quantitative research papers based on field experiments, laboratory experiments, survey procedures, and secondary analysis of existing data banks.
This six-week seminar explores the sources and dimensions of long-term change in contemporary society and the agenda for relevant sociological work on those questions. The six sessions focus on the following topics 1) the changing structure of capitalism; 2) climate change; 3) changes in communication and information technology, including the rise of artificial intelligence; 4) changes in population, family structure, and values; 5) immigration, race, and diversity; and 6) democratic breakdown and backsliding.
Source materials used in the study of population; standard procedures for the measurement of fertility, mortality, natural increase, migration, and nuptiality; and uses of model life tables and stable population analysis and other techniques of estimation when faced with inaccurate or incomplete data are studied.
Is everything predictable given enough data and powerful algorithms? This seminar explores that question through social science and computer science research in many domains including life trajectories of individuals, geopolitical events, weather, disease outbreaks, social media and, somewhat speculatively, artificial general intelligence. We aim to identify fundamental limits, learn about common pitfalls, and explore policy implications. Coursework is a mix of reading and empirical work tailored to students' backgrounds. The course is designed to facilitate publishable student research in both social science and computer science.
Course examines how and why society can make us sick or healthy and how gender, race/ethnicity, wealth, education, occupation and other social statuses shape health outcomes. It looks at the role of social institutions, and environment-society interactions in shaping health outcomes and examines how these factors underlie some of the major causes of illness and death around the world including infant mortality, infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, and chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer. The course draws on historical and cross-cultural material from the U.S. as well as global examples from different countries around the world.
This segment of the JDP seminar covers theory and research on social stratification, the major subfield in sociology that focuses on inequality. Course begins by reviewing major theories, constructs, measures, and empirical work on inequality. Weeks two through six focus on institutions that are expected to produce (and reproduce) inequalities, including families, neighborhoods, schools, labor markets, and penal policy.
The Research Apprenticeship involves faculty assignment to students that lead to the acquisition of new research skills by the student and/or may lead to a joint research project during that semester or in the future. This may include quantitative or qualitative research methods and/or a substantive area of research (i.e. a survey of a literature). It is required during each semester of the first two years of graduate study (A,B,C,D). SOC 599A and 599C are offered in the fall and SOC 599B and 599D are offered in the spring.
Undergraduate – Fall 2023
This course seeks to help students understanding the basic elements of the ethnographic method and how it can be applied to the analysis of various public policy settings. We will focus on the suitability of ethnography for addressing at least three basic issues: (1) how people on the ground are affected by public policies; (2) the unintended consequences of public policy; (3) the co-production of public services, particularly the interaction between front line bureaucrats and their clients.
This course seeks to help students understanding the basic elements of the ethnographic method and how it can be applied to the analysis of various public policy settings. We will focus on the suitability of ethnography for addressing at least three basic issues: (1) how people on the ground are affected by public policies; (2) the unintended consequences of public policy; (3) the co-production of public services, particularly the interaction between front line bureaucrats and their clients.
This course seeks to help students understanding the basic elements of the ethnographic method and how it can be applied to the analysis of various public policy settings. We will focus on the suitability of ethnography for addressing at least three basic issues: (1) how people on the ground are affected by public policies; (2) the unintended consequences of public policy; (3) the co-production of public services, particularly the interaction between front line bureaucrats and their clients.
Poverty and inequality are increasing. In this class, a comparative approach will be applied that highlights country differences with a special emphasis on the US Israel comparison. In the first few weeks of this class, basic theories of poverty and inequality will be reviewed, and how theories regarding poverty have changed over the years will be discussed. In the remaining weeks, discussion will turn to substantive topics such as gender, immigration, ethnicity/nationality, age, and health.
The combined deployment of digital systems, massive data collection and computer code have reshaped the basic rules of social life: how people communicate, work, exchange and associate; how they relate to one another, themselves, and the world around them; how institutions, public and private, frame and pursue their social mission and economic purpose; and how they sort, slot, and know populations and individuals. This course will analyze the specificity and power of digital technology as a driver of capital accumulation, a technique of government, an engine of social difference, and a cultural force with its own politics and moral lexicon.
This course will introduce you to the basic concepts, theories, and methods used in social demography. We will apply a comparative approach that highlights country differences with a special emphasis the US Israel comparison. In the first half of this class we will review basic demographic concepts. In the second half of the class we will focus on demography of the family. We will ask how fertility, marriage and divorce differ for different population groups in different countries. We will also learn how demographic processes may be related to the reproduction of poverty, and inequality.
This course examines the social impact of driverless cars, a rapidly evolving technology that promises to revolutionize the way we travel. Through a sociological lens, we will explore how driverless cars are expected to affect safety, accessibility, employment, urban planning, and environment, as well as privacy and data security. Drawing on interdisciplinary literature, we will analyze the benefits and drawbacks of driverless cars from a sociological perspective. Through readings, discussions, and projects, students will develop a critical understanding of the social impact of driverless cars and the future of transportation.
This seminar introduces the study of gentrification, with a focus on mapping projects using GIS (Geographic Information Systems) software. Readings, films, and site visits will situate the topic, as the course examines how racial landscapes of gentrification, culture and politics have been influenced by and helped drive urban change. Tutorials in ArcGIS will allow students to convert observations of urban life into fresh data and work with existing datasets. Learn to read maps critically, undertake multifaceted spatial analysis, and master new cartographic practices associated with emerging scholarship in the Digital and Urban Humanities.
This seminar introduces the study of gentrification, with a focus on mapping projects using GIS (Geographic Information Systems) software. Readings, films, and site visits will situate the topic, as the course examines how racial landscapes of gentrification, culture and politics have been influenced by and helped drive urban change. Tutorials in ArcGIS will allow students to convert observations of urban life into fresh data and work with existing datasets. Learn to read maps critically, undertake multifaceted spatial analysis, and master new cartographic practices associated with emerging scholarship in the Digital and Urban Humanities.
Seminar sociologically explores elements of the American Jewish experience: identity, ethnicity, Jewish diversity, denominationalism, adaptation, acculturation vs. contra-acculturation, including intermarriage. We investigate Jewish population and attitudes, ritual and rites of passage, popular culture, Jewish education, antisemitism and philosemitism, messianism, and the role of Israel. Students will analyze one of these topics in depth in the real life of Jews. A field trip to Brooklyn is included.
This survey course will introduce you to the central issues in K-12 education policy. We will first consider the normative dimensions of education policymaking: What are the substantive and distributional goals of K-12 public education? What does, and should, equality of educational opportunity mean in theory and practice? After introducing a framework for combining values and evidence, we will consider the empirical evidence on a range of policy levers, including policies that address school accountability, teacher quality, school choice, and curricula.
For the last 60 years, the United States has been engaged in a near-constant effort to reform American schools. In this course, we will make sense of competing explanations of educational performance and evaluate the possibilities for and barriers to improving American public schools and for reducing educational disparities by family socioeconomic status, race, and gender. In doing so, we will grapple with the challenges that researchers and practitioners face in evaluating educational policies.
For the last 60 years, the United States has been engaged in a near-constant effort to reform American schools. In this course, we will make sense of competing explanations of educational performance and evaluate the possibilities for and barriers to improving American public schools and for reducing educational disparities by family socioeconomic status, race, and gender. In doing so, we will grapple with the challenges that researchers and practitioners face in evaluating educational policies.
This class examines the transpacific entanglements between the United States, Asia, and the Pacific Islands. The central aims of the course is to 1) unpack how narratives of American exceptionalism and rescue have historically been used to justify US military and capitalist interventions in Asia and the Pacific Islands and 2) connect the ways in which this contributes to the continued dispossessions, displacements, movements, and racializations of Asian and Pacific Islander peoples.
This course surveys Asian American and Pacific Islander experiences in sociology, anthropology, American studies, ethnomusicology, and education. This course develops an account of racializations beyond the black/white binary while situating Asian American and Pacific Islander experiences of exclusion and differential inclusion in the larger context of US wars and empires Asia and the Pacific Islands; settler colonialism; racial capitalism; displacement & migration; and popular culture and mass media.
For the first time, most people now live in cities. One in seven humans lives in an urban slum. We analyze the political, economic, and social dynamics that both create and arise from urbanization, informality, and attempts to govern our contemporary urban world. We ask how formal and informal institutions change inequalities of shelter, work, race, and other social identities, across urban space. We investigate the links between the processes of urbanization and climate change, and how they shape the politics of cities. We draw from cases across the globe and the US, along with a range of social science methods and theoretical perspectives.
The aim of this course is to provide you with the tools to think about elites within democratic societies. The course is divided into four modular units: (1) The Decline of Aristocracy, (2) Creating an American Elite, (3) Elites and Power, and (4) A New Elite. For each of these units we will spend one week reading a theoretical approach to understanding the theme, one week on an empirical case to put this theory in context, and one week reading a novel that works with the themes of the theory and research we have read.
Sociology as a discipline was not institutionalized until the early 20th century, but sociological thinking predates the discipline by at least a century. In this course, we examine the development of social thought through the writings of sociology's founders as they developed the idea of the social and its relationship to the development of the individual and to economic and political transformation. While the course lingers on Marx, Weber, Durkheim and Simmel, it also explores their intellectual contexts, their interlocutors and their legacies up through the middle of the 20th century.
For the first time, most people now live in cities. One in seven humans lives in an urban slum. We analyze the political, economic, and social dynamics that both create and arise from urbanization, informality, and attempts to govern our contemporary urban world. We ask how formal and informal institutions change inequalities of shelter, work, race, and other social identities, across urban space. We investigate the links between the processes of urbanization and climate change, and how they shape the politics of cities. We draw from cases across the globe, along with a range of social science methods and theoretical perspectives.
For the first time, most people now live in cities. One in seven humans lives in an urban slum. We analyze the political, economic, and social dynamics that both create and arise from urbanization, informality, and attempts to govern our contemporary urban world. We ask how formal and informal institutions change inequalities of shelter, work, race, and other social identities, across urban space. We investigate the links between the processes of urbanization and climate change, and how they shape the politics of cities. We draw from cases across the globe, along with a range of social science methods and theoretical perspectives.