Week 1 & 2: Intro to Sociology and Brooklyn College

8/29 (Thurs) Orientation to class and semester

• Review website, syllabus and assignments, and expectations for the semester

9/3 (Tues) Can Sociology help us understand Brooklyn College?

• Read link
• In class: What is Sociology?

• Small groups: sociological exploration of Brooklyn College

9/5 Sociology of the college experience 

Read both articles below, but you only have to post a comment on ONE

• Is college for jobs or expanding the mind?
• First generation in college
• Sign up for weekly photo illustration

Week 3 & 4: What is Sociology?

9/10 Thinking about self and society

• Read: Allan Johnson, The Forest and the Trees: Sociology as Life, Practice, and Promise. Temple University Press, 2008, pgs 13 – 25 (password-protected PDF)
• Post questions/comments

9/12 Exploration of self and society

• post 1st photo illustrations here

9/17 Sociological Imagination and Sociological curiosity

• Read: C. Wright Mills The Sociological Imagination, Oxford Univ Press, chapter 1 (password-protected PDF))
• Read: J. Jacobs “Sociological Curiosity: Updating C. wright Mills” Contexts, vol 20(3) (password-protected PDF))

9/19 Personal problems and social troubles

• post 2^nd photo illustration here
• Introduce sociological autobiography assignment
• In class: the social construction of reality

Week 5 & 6: Culture, Norms, Individual and Society 

9/24 Culture and norms

• Read: Dalton Conley You May Ask Yourself WW Norton 4^th edition pgs 113-127 (password-protected PDF))

9/26 culture, norms, and socialization

• post 3^rd photo illustration here
• In class: “Culture shock”
• Discuss sociological autobiography

10/1 Individuals, society, and social interaction

• Read: Dalton Conley You May Ask Yourself WW Norton 4^th edition pg 132-145 (password-protected PDF))
• In class: practice for sociological autobiography

10/3 NO CLASS, holiday

10/8 Social interaction and shared realities

• post 4^th photo illustration here
• In class: social identity and social interaction
• In class: masculinity and migration
• DUE: draft of sociological autobiography

10/10 Social interactions and shared realities in times of pandemic

Read: K Gutierrez “Chinatown Through a Pandemic: A Phoenix Rising”

Read: E.L. Lopez “’Zoom School’ and the Digital Divide in Immigrant Communities During COVID-19”

Both from J. Entin, J. Theoharis, and A Aja (eds) Until We Are Seen: Public College Students Expose the Inequalities of the COVID-19 Pandemic. U Penn Press 2024

Week 7 – 9: Power and inequality, intersectionality10/8 Social interaction and shared realities

10/15 NO CLASS, conversion day (classes on Monday schedule)

10/17 Power and social institutions: linked concepts

• Read Social Institutions in Sociology
• In class:

• In class link

10/22 Gender

• Read: Lorber, J. (1994). “‘Night to his day’: The social construction of gender.” Paradoxes of gender, 1, 1-8. (password-protected PDF))
• In class: Gender fluidity and colonialism

10/24 intersectional perspectives on gender

• post 5^th photo illustration here
• Draft of autobiography returned
• In class: “What is intersectionality”

10/29 Race

• Watch Race: The Power of an Illusion, part 3: the House We Live In (first 30 minutes only)
• Read: Goldberg et al “Youth Views on Race” Contexts, vol 21(1) (password-protected PDF))

10/31 intersectional perspectives on race

• post 6^th photo illustration here
• DUE Revised/final Sociological Autobiography
• The complexity of gender (and race): Caster Semenya on gender-policing in sports
• In class: Kimberly Crenshaw TED

11/5 Immigration 

• Read article

11/7 Intersectional perspectives on immigration

• In class article
• post 7^th photo illustration here
• Digital archives of immigration stories

Weeks 9 -13: Social institutions (power, structural inequality)

11/12 Education

• Read: Jean Anyon “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work” Journal of Education vol 162(1). (password-protected PDF)
• Extra credit assignment

11/14 Education as lived experience

• In class article
• teaching styles from article
• post 8^th photo illustration here

11/19 Policing/Criminal Justice 

• Article
• Incarceration stats

11/21 Policing in NYC

• post 9^th photo illustration here
• Transformative Justice
• Building alternatives to prisons

11/26 Family as a social institution

• Read article
• Family structures

11/28 THANKSGIVING

Week 14: Social Change

12/3 Social movements and social change 

• Read: Dalton Conley You May Ask Yourself WW Norton 4^th edition pgs 697 – 713 (password-protected PDF))
• ACTUP Oral History archive
• Draft of final project due

12/5 Climate activism

• post 10^th photo illustration here
• Environmental justice
• Sacrifice zones

12/10 Social movements, CUNY, and the birth of the SEEK program

• The Five Demands
• Drafts returned

12/12 & 12/14 Presentations of final projects

Final projects due on date assigned for the final exam