This is an advanced Seminar meant to deepen understanding of central themes in American Studies, Asian American Studies, and Latino/a Studies.The Seminar concentrates on historical trajectories, social and economic evolution, and cultural contributions to nation making on the part of Asian Americans and Latino/as. We will investigate colonial antecedents and processes of exclusion/stigmatization but also acts of resistance and claims on citizenship that have consistently identified the trajectory of immigrants and their descendants throughout American history.

Technology and society are unthinkable without each other, each provides the means and framework in which the other develops. To explore this dynamic, this course investigates a wide array of questions on the interaction between technology, society, politics, and economics, emphasizing the themes such as innovation and regulation, risk and failure, ethics and expertise. Specific topics covered include nuclear power and disasters, green energy, the development and regulation of the Internet, medical expertise and controversy, intellectual property, the financial crisis, and the electric power grid.

Why do people love Broadway musicals? How do audiences engage with musicals and their stars? How have fan practices changed since the 1950s alongside economic and artistic changes in New York and on Broadway? In what ways does "fan of" constitute a social identity? How do fans perform their devotion to a show, to particular performers, and to each other? This class examines the social forms co-created by performers and audiences, both during a performance and in the wider culture. Students will practice research methods including archival research, ethnographic observation, in-depth interviewing, and textual and performance analysis.

This is the second class of the quantitative methods field sequence in the PhD. in Politics, which covers foundations in mathematical statistics,applied statistics, and econometrics for Ph.D. students in Politics and other social and behavioral sciences. It is a continuation of POL 572. It reviews the linear model and covers panel data models, generalized method of moments, nonlinear regression, non-parametric methods, and resampling methods, among other topics.

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.

This course provides students an introduction to the study of social networks. In the first half of the course we will learn the core theories that describe the structure of networks and the processes through which things, such as information and disease, spread through networks. Then, in the second half of the course, we will see these theories applied in a variety of areas such as online filter bubbles, HIV/AIDS, and social fads.

This course seeks to provide a sociological account of crime and punishment. Why do people commit crime? How should we respond to crime? How has crime policy changed over the past several decades? What are the consequences of recent crime policy? By reading classic and contemporary sociological research, policy analysis, and media coverage, we will explore the themes of crime and punishment in contemporary society.

Who succeeds in school, and why? What do schools teach students, in addition to reading, writing, and arithmetic? What is the role of schools in modern society? How do schools reproduce, interrupt, or legitimate the social order? In this course, you will apply sociological perspectives to the study of education.

This course will provide a scientifically informed understanding of how population processes shape society and how they are, in turn, shaped by social, economic, policy, and environmental context. Focusing on the four core demographic processes (fertility, nuptiality, mortality, and migration), readings and lectures demonstrate the demographic underpinnings of high-profile issues such as population decline, immigration, childlessness, population aging and social transfer programs, complex families, social inequality, and the impact of climate change. We will read and discuss treatment of these issues in academic outlets and the popular press.

This course takes a close look at the foundational texts and critical concepts in the discipline of sociology, focusing on classical theorists. The primary goal of the class is to help students understand theories of society and the organization of human communities. Key authors include Marx, Durkheim, Weber, Dubois, Burke, Hobbes, Locke, Tocqueville, and Arendt. We will put these authors in their historical contexts, explore how they can be used now to understand the social world, and examine how they might be deployed in empirical research contexts.

Sexuality is fundamental to the organization of society -- both in the U.S. and across the world. Though sexuality carries important personal significance, the understanding of why and how it influences our lives is inextricably woven into a complex, global fabric. The aim of this course is to unravel this fabric and reveal the deeply globalized nature of sexuality in the modern era and how this shapes understandings of sexuality, the sexual identities available to us, and how the state regulates it -- especially from a global, comparative perspective.

This course examines economic phenomena from a sociological perspective. We first consider conceptual tools that sociologists have used to understand economic life and connections between economy and society. We then apply these concepts to a rich array of topics including labor markets, worklife, firms, commodification and consumption, credit and finance, social stratification and inequality, and contemporary transformations of capitalism

This seminar focuses on the structural and institutional foundations of racial discrimination in the United States. It emphasizes the contributions of sociologists, some of whom will participate as invited guests. The course gives a historical overview followed by an investigation of key legislative actions and economic factors inhibiting racial equality. Subsequent topics include migration and immigration; urban development; and residential segregation. The end of the course reviews resistance movements and policies aimed at addressing systemic racism, including restorative justice and reparations.

This course will analyze and evaluate the social, psychological and cultural underpinnings of long-standing "everyday" experiences common to Asian Americans (e.g., navigating biculturalism, microaggressions and model minority stereotypes) that may impact identity and mental health, as well as the psychosocial causes and consequences of significant current events that impact different Asian groups in the U.S., such as affirmative action.

This course on ethnographic research methods is for first year sociology PhD students. The seminar 1) reviews foundational principles of ethnographic design; 2) introduces students to important debates in ethnography; 3) outlines different approaches to ethnography, considering the strengths and limitations of various approaches; and 4) familiarizes students with the components of ethnography to prepare them to evaluate and execute ethnographic projects.

This course explores a range of advanced statistical methods used in quantitative social science research. The first half of the course focuses on generalized linear models and maximum likelihood estimation, and the second half of the course focuses on applied causal inference and quasi-experimental methods. We emphasize both proper implementation of these statistical strategies and critical engagement with their key assumptions. Familiarity with introductory probability theory and multivariate linear regression is required.

Preparation of quantitative research papers based on field experiments, laboratory experiments, survey procedures, and secondary analysis of existing data banks.

This six week course approaches the problems of crime and violence from the perspective of social scientists. Students learn about the central concepts, findings, debates and questions in the study of crime, violence, and punishment over time, moving from explanations that focus on the individual criminal toward explanations that focus on contexts and situations that make violence more likely. The course ends by studying active policy debates in the United States. Throughout, the class spends a substantial amount of time thinking about how to understand crime and violence through the collection and analysis of data.

Poor students lag academically behind their more advantaged peers, and explanations for this achievement gap are hotly debated. While some have pointed to the quality of education offered in public schools as the primary culprit, others have drawn attention to the role of out-of-school factors in creating and exacerbating these gaps. In this course, which is a graduate-level introduction to the sociology of education, we make sense of competing explanations of pre-K-12 educational performance through a sociological lens, and evaluate the possibilities for and barriers to closing achievement gaps.

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.

Introduction to communications policy and law, covering classical dilemmas and current controversies over the media, including such topics as freedom of the press, libel and privacy, the precarious economics of journalism, communications regulation, power of the giant tech platforms, and disinformation.

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.

Sociologists see social inequality as produced by market exchanges, non-market organization of social groups, and political institutions. This unit aims to (1) develop an understanding of sociological analysis of inequality, and (2) introduce key empirical research in stratification and inequality. Weber's essay provides the classic statement of this approach, elaborated in theories of market networks, cultural transmission of group identities, and forms of citizenship.

This course will examine different crises confronting cities in the 21st century. Topics will range from informal settlements, to immigration, terrorism, shrinking population, sprawl, rising seas, affordable housing, gentrification, smart cities. The range of cities will include Los Angles, New Orleans, Paris, Logos, Caracas, Havana, New York, Hong Kong, Dubai among others.