Sociology (SOC)

SOC 1000 - Introduction to Sociology: The Sociological Imagination - 3 credits

Fall and Spring Semesters

This course serves as an introduction to the discipline of Sociology. Sociology is the study of human interaction and society. This includes both the power of individual actors and larger structures within society. Often times we may understand our decisions and actions to be entirely and exclusively our own, when in fact they are the complicated product of the interaction between ourselves and the institutions and structures of our society. In this course, we will begin to understand the interaction between society and the individual, and how sociologists study and explain social phenomena. Key concepts introduced include: culture, groups, socialization, social interaction, institutions, and inequality.

This course meets the General Education Social Science Breadth and Information Literacy Enhancement requirements.

Not open to students who have taken SOC 1000: Perspectives on Society and Culture or SOC 1000: Social Life.

SOC 1001 - Career and Academic Exploration - 1 credit

Spring Semester

This course will equip Sociology and Justice majors with the tools to succeed in their major as well as make connections and establish relationships with faculty in the department and student support staff at the College. Students will learn about the major, major requirements, internships, and explore the connections to career readiness and career opportunities. Students will also begin to network with our faculty and upper-class students to investigate career and internship possibilities, and students will begin to develop an understanding of how academic, co-curricular and employment experiences influence career readiness and professional development. Focus will be on career readiness competencies essential to success in the justice professions: such as professionalism/work ethic, oral and written communication, career and self-development (interpersonal skills) and teamwork/collaboration and community building. For CJ, SOC, and TJUS majors only. (Same course as CJ 1001).

SOC 1100 - Sociology of Popular Culture - 3 credits

Fall and Spring Semesters

This course examines the social significance of popular culture historically and in the contemporary era. Topic covered include theories of popular culture. Distinctions between “high” and “low” culture, domination and resistance in popular culture, the effect of mass culture on contemporary society, fan cultures, and “textual poaching.” In our examination of popular culture we will also learn about sociological theories and concepts.

This course meets the General Education Social Science Breadth and Information Literacy Enhancement requirements.

SOC 1140 - Quantitative Data Analysis for the Social Sciences - 3 credits

This course provides students with an understanding of how social science research is conducted and how one systematically evaluates quantitative research reported in the social scientific literature. Traditional data analysis, including the topical areas of measures of central tendency and dispersion, probability, sampling distributions, and univariate and multivariate techniques for hypothesis testing are examined. Students learn how to select appropriate statistical tests and how to properly interpret results. Utilizing analysis software such as SPSS or MS Excel, students perform analysis on a variety of social science data. (Same course as CJ 1140).

This course meets the General Education First Year Core Quantitative Literacy requirement.

Prerequisite: Successful completion of MATH 1000 or demonstrated proficiency on the Mathematics Assessment.

SOC 2000 - Contemporary Black Worlds - 3 credits

This seminar explores culturally relevant topics in the contemporary African American world. Changing topic with each offering, students will consider African American experiences from economic, social, historical, racial, cultural, national, and global perspectives. Themes will include such topics as Black Success, contemporary black film, movements for social justice, modern African American literature etc. The specific course description will be in the course selection guide. (same course as BLKS 2000).

This course meets the General Education Diversity requirement.

SOC 2045 - Social Policy and Social Justice - 3 credits

Social Policy is both a philosophical concept and a social process. As a philosophical concept, it considers value dimensions and issues of social justice: equality versus inequality, liberty versus domination, exploitation, and oppression; cooperation versus competition; and considers social policy as a process by which organizations and institutions affect the status, well-being, stability, and security of the members of society. In addition the political, economic and social context of policy evolution will be critically examined.

This course meets the General Education International/Global Interdependence requirement.

SOC 2050 - Social Problems - 3 credits

Offered periodically within a three-year academic cycle

This course systematically analyzes a small selection of major contemporary social problems such as unemployment, environmental degradation and pollution, drugs, and crime, using current research and data. The focus of the course is on the sources, patterns, consequences, and current efforts at intervention and improvement of these problems, and understanding the complexity and interconnectedness of social problems. Understanding how a social problem is constructed and framed in popular media is an important part of understanding not only what is viewed as a social problem, but what we as a society conclude are viable solutions.

This course meets the General Education Social Science Breadth or the General Education Diversity requirement.

SOC 2060 - Aging and the Life Cycle - 3 credits

Offered periodically within a three-year academic cycle

Focuses on various developmental stages of the life cycle from birth to death including cross-cultural materials, attitudes and values about the aging process, rites of passage, and the accompanying changes of status for the individual. Major milestones of each developmental stage in the life cycle are discussed focusing on often differing societal expectations regarding gender and age. (Same course as PSY 2060).

Prerequisite: Any 1000-level Sociology or Psychology course.

SOC 2090 - Climate Justice - 3 credits

Offered periodically within a three-year academic cycle

Climate change has already begun to disrupt the Earth and society in many ways. It threatens the suitability of the Earth and therefore the future of society. As with other environmental justice issues, climate change threatens the most socially vulnerable among us both in the United States and globally. This course explores climate justice; the unfair and uneven way in which people in different areas of the country (and world) experience the effects of environmental harms caused by climate change. We will explore the links between climate change and socioeconomic factors such as race, class and gender. Emphasis will be placed on the connections between the climate crisis and power, inequality, resistance and social change. Students will critically analyze consumption, public opinion, and denial.

Readings and current news on climate issues and movements will guide students as they explore the agendas and methods of various organizations and campaigns, and develop hands-on group projects that serve to apply this knowledge to local or regional efforts around climate and energy issues. Topics include: conflicts over natural resources, climate refugees, forms of resistance including divestment, and uneven adverse health outcomes caused by climate change.

This course meets the General Education Diversity requirement or the International/Global Interdependence requirement.

SOC 2095 - Environmental Justice - 3 credits

Offered periodically within a three-year academic cycle

In this course, students will explore the disproportionate burdens of environmental contamination and environmental health disparities affecting marginalized communities. Race, class, and gender as well as other socioeconomic factors influence access to a clean environment. We will analyze the concept, available research, and how communities and groups have organized to improve the environments in their neighborhoods, cities, and on native lands. We will also explore the larger environmental justice movement; beginning in the U.S and which is now global. Both the causes and consequences of policies to eradicate these disparities will be examined. Topics include: The Superfund program, clean-up and restoration of contaminated sites, cancer and health disparities research, privatization of water, and hydraulic fracking. Throughout the course case studies are drawn upon to illustrate ideas and facilitate learning. Students will be asked to engage in problem solving and action in their own environments.

This course meets the General Education Diversity requirement or the International/Global Interdependence requirement.

SOC 2120 - Restorative Justice: Community and Incarceration - 3 credits

Offered periodically within a three-year academic cycle

In this course students will explore how social justice is framed in prison settings in the United States and around the world. Students will explore the limitations of the Western legal system and look at alternatives like restorative justice practices. Students will focus on various meanings of social justice and the systemic contradictions within the criminal justice system that are mandated to punish and rehabilitate. The course will also focus on the moral dilemmas and contradictions that arise when exploring issues of racism, immigration policy, Native American history and incarceration. (Same course as CJ 2120).

SOC 2125 - Resiliency Rising: Restorative Justice, Trauma, Healing and Resilience - 3 Credits

This course will explore the trauma field within a restorative justice context including an alternative way to address violence and heal trauma that is driven by relationships not systems. Current trauma theories along with materials that build resilience will be explored. Students will examine how healing past and present traumas, building resiliency leads to more healed communities. Students will explore a process that is grounded in the reality that harm, trauma, violence, happen on the interpersonal familial, community based and structural/institutional levels. Structural causes and conditions that create harm and give rise to interpersonal harms/traumas will be examined. This course will be facilitated through an interdisciplinary framework which combines the head and heart with the aim of cultivating care, concern and compassion toward those impacted by harm, violence, trauma. Students will also develop skills that will allow them to more skillfully deal with the destructive effects brought on by trauma exposure. (Same course as CJ 2125).

SOC 2130 - Sociological Theory - 3 credits

Fall Semester

Can we understand social life just through our experience? Or do we improve our understanding by stepping back and observing it in a wider social context? Social theory helps us answer these questions and becomes a tool for making sense of the world we live in, from the daily interactions of individuals and groups to large-scale social relationships and broad social institutions. Discussing theoretical insights into social life, we come to clearer understandings of individual development, formation of the self, and social roles; power, inequality, and conflict; and social change. We will cover the complex relationships between theory and systematic research and ask whether they account adequately for what we observe in the world we live in. This course satisfies the General Education Reading/Writing Enhancement requirement.

Prerequisite: Any 1000-level Sociology course.

SOC 2160 - Urban Life: Culture and Change 3 credits

Offered periodically within a three-year academic cycle

An analysis of urban social systems with a focus on life-styles and change in contemporary American society. The course will center on ethnicity and ethnic groups, using cross-cultural case studies, data on immigrants, and life-styles and family framework. Emphasis will be placed on strategies groups employ to manage and effect political and economic change in an urban ethnic setting. (Same course as CJ 2160).

This course meets the General Education Diversity requirement.

SOC 2175 - Immigration and the US Justice System - 3 credits

Alternate Spring Semesters

Explores the US immigration system, including past and current legislation, migrant admission categories and the visa system, as well as the role of the Department of Homeland Security in immigration processes. The course will utilize sociological perspectives to examine why people migrate, types of immigrants, and their experiences in that process. The relationship between stereotypes about immigration and crime will be critically examined. Immigration systems in other countries will be contrasted with the US system, including the global impact of out-migration. (Same course as CJ 2175).

The course meets the General Education International/Global Interdependence requirement.

Prerequisite: CJ 1000 or SOC 1000.

SOC 2200 - Race and Ethnicity - 3 credits

Fall Semester

Ideas and beliefs about “race” and ethnicity are pervasive in U.S. culture and consciousness. Are they real or socially constructed? When and why did “race,” and theories of racial difference and inequality, emerge as a dominant, and now discredited, worldview? How do institutions such as science, economics, education, and politics influence beliefs and practices about race and ethnicity? How are the lives and opportunities of individuals and groups affected by race and ethnic “membership” in terms of privilege and/or oppression? What choices do we have and what actions can we take in our daily lives to affect how race is lived in America and elsewhere? We will discuss prejudice, discrimination, and power in historical and contemporary contexts focusing on several racial and ethnic groups.

This course meets the General Education Diversity requirement.

SOC 2220 - Death, Dying, and Bereavement - 3 credits

Offered periodically within a three-year academic cycle

This course will examine customs, attitudes and beliefs, and rituals associated with death, dying, and bereavement. Emphasis will be placed death and dying in the developmental cycle of the individual and in a social-cultural context. (Same course as PSY 2220).

Prerequisite: Any 1000-level Sociology or Psychology course.

SOC 2340 - Developing a Foundation for Success: Wellness, Internships and Employment - 3 credits

Fall and Spring Semesters

This course is about you—your interests, values, personal qualities, and work interests/workstyle—and the skills and experiences you want to develop to achieve your academic and career goals. You will use internship search strategies, evaluate internship opportunities of interest to you, and go through a mock internship application process by creating a professional resume, cover letter, and reference list. You will complete a career interest assessment, explore, and assess career options, and engage in career research and analysis of required skills, experience, career pathways, occupational outlook and earnings estimates to shape your career goals and plans. This course may not be used to fulfill requirements for the SOC or CJ minor. (Same course as CJ 2340).

This course is a prerequisite requirement in order to complete a for-credit SOC/CJ Internship.

SOC 2350 - Human Diversity in Criminal Justice - 3 credits

Fall and Spring Semesters

Examines how cultural and individual human differences intersect with the criminal justice system. The course will explore the interaction of the criminal justice system with issues of race, gender, age, socio-economic status, sexual orientation, physical and mental disabilities, culture, religion, and other human differences. The focus will be on how human differences impact all people within the criminal justice system, including victims, offenders, and service providers and how the criminal justice system responds to and/or should respond to human differences, with an emphasis on providing positive solutions and social justice. (Same course as CJ 2350).

This course meets the General Education Diversity requirement.

Prerequisite: CJ 1000 or SOC 1000.

SOC 2402 - Domestic Violence: Family and Intimate Partner Violence - 3 credits

Offered periodically within a three-year academic cycle

Examines the problem of domestic violence from the In this course, students will investigate domestic violence, which includes the scope, nature, and consequences of family violence for individuals and society. Various types of child maltreatment, sibling and elder abuse, intrafamilial homicide, and intimate partner violence will be explored. Students will assess theories of aggression, conflict, and control, and analyze how gender and sexuality, power, and privilege affect family violence. The course will also include discussions of how these crimes are understood and investigated by law enforcement. Students will evaluate social policies for intervention and prevention strategies. (Same course as CJ 2402).

SOC 2420 - Working with Groups and Communities - 3 credits

Offered periodically within a three-year academic cycle

Develops intervention skills in small groups, advocacy, and community organization. Methods and skills designed to help both the group as a whole and individual members are explored and analyzed. The course also provides an introduction to community, organizational analysis, and intervention. Locally based organizing and social planning techniques are studied. (Same course as SWK 2420).

SOC 2450 - Social Policy and Social Justice - 3 credits

This course meets the General Education International/Global Interdependence Requirement.

SOC 2470 - Sex, Gender, and Sexuality - 3 credits

Spring Semester

Sex, gender, and sexuality are social constructions that have enormous impact in society. This course will examine the differences among sex, gender, and sexuality. What are the norms and social expectations associated with each of these terms and what are the consequences for not complying? Cross- cultural patterns will be considered in an effort to recognize and appreciate human diversity and gain insight into the ways we understand and experience ourselves. Discrimination, sexism, and homophobia, and responses to these forms of oppression, will be examined.

This course meets the General Education Diversity requirement.

SOC 2480 - Sport and Society - 3 credits

Offered periodically within a three-year academic cycle

This course will bring a critical sociological perspective to the realm of sports. Students will examine sports and the impact it has in social, cultural, and economic areas of social life, both in the United States and internationally. Using sociological theories such as functionalism, conflict theory and symbolic interaction, students will analyze the role of athletics in society in general and look at particular athletic performances in selected sports. Other variables will be considered, including professional and amateur status, gender, social class, ethnicity, and disability status of athletes and how these variables affect social and personal identity and status, establish strong socializing role models for society, and become important issues in public discourse. The role of sports in rehabilitation, recreation, and in shaping standards of competitiveness and social values will be examined.

This course meets the General Education Diversity requirement.

SOC 2490 - Grassroots: Organizing, Leadership and Social Change - 3 credits

Offered periodically within a three-year academic cycle

This course serves as an introduction to community organizing and similar forms of activism and advocacy. The course material combines theory, case studies, and practical guides that will help students develop the knowledge, skills, and leadership potential necessary to create social change from the bottom up. Students will actively practice what they learn in the classroom through a semester-long community-based action project. This course meets the General Education Active Learning requirement. This course provides an examination and analysis of important federal environmental regulations, including the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and Superfund. The course will explore issues in environmental law and climate change, with a focus on domestic policy efforts to reduce carbon emissions. It examines issues of unequal protection across race, ethnicity and class in various contexts, including air and water pollution, siting of toxic and hazardous waste, and other locally unwanted land uses (LULUs). Students will be asked to reflect how different policies reflect different value choices and how the law may be used as an instrument of social change used to redress environmental injustice.

This course meets the General Education Diversity and Active Learning requirements.

SOC 2505 - Environmental Law, Crime & Justice - 3 credits

This course provides an examination and analysis of important federal environmental regulations, including the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and Superfund. The course will explore issues in environmental law and climate change, with a focus on domestic policy efforts to reduce carbon emissions. It examines issues of unequal protection across race, ethnicity and class in various contexts, including air and water pollution, siting of toxic and hazardous waste, and other locally unwanted land uses (LULUs). Students will be asked to reflect how different policies reflect different value choices and how the law may be used as an instrument of social change used to redress environmental injustice. (Same course as CJ 2505).

This course meets the General Education Diversity requirement.

SOC 2510 - Social Movements and Social Action - 3 credits

Spring Semester

People often band together and challenge existing social arrangements; such efforts are important because they attempt to achieve or resist a social change. This course examines social action, as part of people’s collective efforts to create or oppose changes in society. What constitutes a social movement, when and why they occur, who joins social movements and why, how they are organized, what strategies they use, how they are affected by institutions like the state and the media, and what impacts they have on individuals and on society are all questions that will be addressed in this course. Large scale campaigns, grass-roots efforts, and everyday acts of collective action and community organizing will be explored. Students will be required to participate in collective social action projects.

This course meets the General Education Diversity requirement.

SOC 2600 - Methods in Social Research - 3 credits

Fall and Spring Semesters

This course will critically examine qualitative and quantitative research methods used by social scientists to study the social world. The ways in which social scientists study societies and social issues are carefully examined. This course will challenge students to think more critically about the science of research methods and to become critical thinkers and examiners of data about social life. (Same course as CJ 2600).

Prerequisite: SOC/CJ 1140 or MATH 1150.

SOC 2620 - Diversity in Families - 3 credits

Offered periodically within a three-year academic cycle

A popular image of the “family” is that of a male father and female mother and their children; a self-contained entity. This course explores why that image does not match reality and demonstrates that there are many different kinds of family, kinship, and household arrangements. These variations are the products of custom, and are influenced by social, economic, and political variables/realities. The course examines the various forms families can take, the various roles family members perform, and the function of families in social life. Recent challenges to traditional families, the result of the struggles of people to survive and adapt to a wide range of societal situations, challenges, and changes will be considered.

This course meets the General Education Diversity requirement.

SOC 2760 - Wealth, Poverty and Social Class - 3 credits

Fall Semester

Differential distribution of income, wealth, and power is found across the United States and the globe. The nature and extent of wealth and poverty, and the gradations in between, as well as social policies aimed at addressing inequality are the focal points for this course. How do we measure poverty? What causes poverty and why does it persist? Power relations and value systems underlying the distribution of resources will be considered. While emphasizing the U.S., larger global issues about wealth and poverty will be introduced. The intersection of global location, gender, race/ethnicity, and family background on wealth and poverty will be addressed. Key concepts introduced include: stratification, life chances, status and prestige, lifestyle, power and powerlessness, social mobility, and class conflict.

This course meets the General Education Diversity requirement.

SOC 3008 - Seminar: Selected Topics in Sociology - 3 credits

Offered periodically within a three-year academic cycle

Selected sociological themes will be explored in a seminar format.

Prerequisite: Any 2000-level Sociology course.

SOC 3300 - Sociology of Medicine and the Body - 3 credits

Offered periodically within a three-year academic cycle

Most accounts of health, medicine, and the body focus on biological and physiological factors. Sociology argues that health, illness, and our bodies are deeply social. Health and illness shape how we perceive ourselves and how others perceive us, and are therefore part of our social identities. Access to health care is unequal—due to political, geographic, social and economic forces—which means our mortality and health experiences are social. Politicking and economic bargaining often influence medical policies and institutions; even other institutions, like religion and education, play a role here. Medical knowledge is not purely objective, but is shaped by social dynamics and in turn, medical knowledge shapes societal beliefs. Finally, health social movements shape the treatment, experiences, and visibility of diseases and disabilities. The experience of illness, the social and cultural factors of health and disease, the institution of medicine and its global history will be the focus of this class. Students will be asked to complicate purely biological understandings of health and disease, and reckon with the complex history of medicine.

This course meets the General Education International/Global Interdependence requirement.

Prerequisite: SOC 1000 or one General Education Social Science breadth course.

SOC 3390 - Crisis Intervention - 3 credits

Offered periodically within a three-year academic cycle

Designed to familiarize participants with a definition of crisis from the standpoint of the individual, the family, and a larger social context. Students will develop a specialized understanding of life crises such as adolescence, family violence, and disaster from the perspective of systems theory, learning theory, and developmental theory, using ethnographic materials. Operational models of intervention will be examined. (Same course as SWK 3390).

Prerequisite: SOC 1000 or one General Education Social Science breadth course..

SOC 3404 - Sociology of Violence - 3 credits

Every Year

Study and evaluation of the major sociological theories and research regarding violence, including interpersonal, family, criminal, and institutionalized violence. Contexts regarding how persons are affected as perpetrators of violence and victims of violence are analyzed. Specific topics include cross-cultural and contemporary forms of violence, and social responses to violence. Analysis to social responses includes prevention, treatment intervention strategies, criminalization, and public policies. (Same course as CJ 3404).

Prerequisite: Any 2000-level Sociology or Criminal Justice course.

SOC 3450 - Experiential Learning (Internships) - 3 credits

Requires students to work weekly in field placement and to participate in a seminar or conferences with faculty supervisor. Field experience sites are selected jointly by the student and instructor.

This course meets the General Education Active Learning requirement.

Corequisite: SOC 3450SM.

Prerequisites:

Completion of CJ/SOC 2340 Developing a Foundation for Success, with a grade of C- or better;
A 2.5 cumulative average overall;
No outstanding “Incomplete” in an earlier field placement.

SOC 3450SM - Sociology Internship Seminar - 0 credits

This seminar is required for all students doing an internship in Sociology settings and must be taken during the semester of the Internship. Students must arrange an Internship with the guidance of the Sociology and Criminal Justice Internship Coordinator. In addition to spending time each week in the field supervised by placement personnel and the faculty member/ course instructor students will integrate that learning with weekly on campus course meetings and assignments, discussing practice-based learning, reviewing their field experiences, and documenting their learning.

Corequisite: SOC 3450.

SOC 3600 - Chocolate Cities - 3 credits

Offered periodically within a three-year academic cycle

Using award winning books, Chocolate Cities (2018) and Color of Law (2017), as guiding texts, this course is designed to explore the major cultural, economic, political, and social issues that have influenced the development of racially segregated cities (and city-spaces) in the United States. Specifically, this course focuses on the African American experience. Chocolate Cities— supplemented with additional texts in cultural studies, urban sociology, urban history, and critical geography as well as music from the eras/genres of blues, soul, and hip-hop—provides a new paradigm for understanding the history of African American “placemaking,” a communal and agentic response to a shared history of institutionalized racial discrimination.

This course meets the General Education Diversity and Information Literacy Enhancement requirements.

Prerequisite: Sophomore standing.

SOC 3640 - Deviance and Social Control - 3 credits

Offered periodically within a three-year academic cycle

Examines people’s behaviors and attributes that others come to believe are deviant. Reviews sociological theories that account for deviance. Explores different forms of social control that define and aim to prevent and inhibit deviance. Analyzes deviance as both a violation of social norms and a possible prelude to social change. The importance of deviance and social control theory to crime and criminal justice will be reviewed. Race, gender, and social class will be considered as factors that influence people’s perceptions of people as deviant and how those people are treated. (Same course as CJ 3640).

Prerequisite: Any 2000-level Sociology or Criminal Justice course.

SOC 3900 - Senior Seminar: Doing Sociology - 3 credits

Spring Semester

Synthesizing theory and research requires critical reflection and evaluation. Students draw on their acquired knowledge to demonstrate a strong understanding of the discipline through actively doing sociology. Graduating seniors are asked to integrate sociological knowledge, theory, methods, research design, and action in order to create and complete a research project on an approved topic.

Prerequisites: SOC/CJ 2600, SOC 2130 and senior standing.

SOC 3901 - College to Career Transition - 1 credit

College to Career Transition is focused on preparing you for what’s next—entering your professional career and/or graduate/professional school. You will engage with career development and career readiness best practices, coaching, and self-reflection to better understand, communicate and execute your career goals. This is a hands-on class where you learn by doing inside and outside of class. Our journey will focus on your career development, goals and plans starting with career interest and career finder research and analysis. You have the opportunity to practice, make mistakes, ask questions and prepare for a successful job search by understanding the career search process from start to finish, including preparing for a successful job search using job search tools and strategies, networking, applications, customized resume and cover letter, pre-employment requirements such as background checks and interviewing. This course is intended for students in the fall of the final year. (Same course as CJ 3901).

Prerequisite: CJ/SOC 2340.

SOC 3905 - Honors Research Proposal - 3 credits

Spring Semester

In this course students will work on independent Honors projects. Students seeking to achieve departmental honors will work with a faculty mentor in the literature review and development of a research proposal. The proposal will be the basis for the honors study completed in SOC/CJ 3910 the subsequent semester. This is an individually negotiated course requiring faculty approval prior to enrollment. (Same course as CJ 3905).

Prerequisites: B+ in SOC/CJ 2600, GPA 3.3, Second semester Junior or rising Senior status.

SOC 3910 - Honors Research Project - 3 credits

Fall Semester

This is the second course in the two-course sequence for students seeking to achieve departmental honors. Students will work with a faculty mentor to implement the research protocol developed in SOC/CJ 3905 Honors Research Proposal. Students will collect and analyze data and prepare findings for dissemination. This is an individually negotiated course requiring faculty approval prior to enrollment. (Same course as CJ 3910).

This course meets the General Education Active Learning requirement.

Prerequisites: SOC/CJ 3905, GPA 3.3, Rising Senior or Senior status.

SOC 4000 - Independent Research - 3 credits

Synthesizing theory and research require critical reflection and evaluation. Students draw on their acquired knowledge to demonstrate a strong understanding of the discipline through actively doing sociology on a topic of current interest involving research or an active sociological project under a faculty member’s supervision. Students are asked to integrate sociological knowledge, theory, methods, research design, and action in order to create and complete a project on an approved topic. The course will also help the student prepare for their own professional journey post-graduation, whether that be transitioning to work in the field, professional advancement, and/or pursuing graduate school. Students may take this course more than one time for credit.

This course meets the General Education Active Learning requirement.

Prerequisites: SOC/CJ 2600, SOC 2130 and senior standing