Catalog - Course Descriptions

You will develop and understanding of the science of crime by examining the roles of social, cultural, economic, political, phychological, chemical, biological, and ideological factors in causing criminal behavior.

This course enables students to study women's lives and examines how social, cultural, and political constructions of gender, race, class, sexuality, ability, and nation intersect to shape those lives. This particular course is designed to expose students to the breadth of issues and perspectives, as well as the methods and concepts that are encompassed by women's studies as an interdisciplinary academic discipline. This course is designed to achieve a disciplinary balance with an emphasis on transnational issues relating to women's studies.

What is society? How have societies developed historically? How do they distribute wealth, income, and other resources? How do they organize political authority and economic power? How do they coordinate work? How do they socialize people to "fit in" with those around them? How do they produce popular culture? This course provides answers to these questions in ways that introduce the field of sociology. You will explore a broad range of theories and research showing how sociologists think about and study these questions.

Career Development outlines the many aspects of career planning and helps prepare you in the areas needed to effectively find and obtain a position in their desired career field. You will develop your resume, letter of application, and will practice interviewing using skills learned in the course.

This course explores the concepts, issues, and theories that point to change and continuity in the field of family. Cultural diversity and gender-inclusive issues will point students toward realistic family experiences. A sociological emphasis will investigate how family adjustment and managing family conflict within the context of the attributes of healthy families will define the psychological nature of people in relation to cultural differences.

Daily news reports direct much of our attention to social problems such as crime, poverty, prejudice, and political corruption, yet rarely are such reports accompanied by a discussion of the systematic causes of these problems. More often, we become witness to an endless stream of media coverage reporting seemingly isolated incidents. Seldom are we informed of the decision-making process by which some social problems become selected for coverage while others are ignored. The purpose of this course is to subject the coverage of modern social problems to an in-depth, critical analysis. You will attempt to answer such questions as: "How does a social problem become defined as such?" and "What are the causes or sources of various social problems?".

Persistent inequality in employment, housing, credit markets, consumer interactions, and a wide range of other social domains have renewed interest in the possible role of discrimination. And yet, unlike in the pre-civil rights era, when prejudice and discrimination were overt and widespred, today, discrimination is less readily identifiable, posing problems for social scientific conceptualization and measurement. We begin by defining discrimination and discussing relevant methods of measurement. We then provide an overview of major findings from studies of discrimination; and, finally, we turn to a discussion of the individual, organizational, and structural mechanisms that may underlie contemporary forms of discrimination.