The following is a comprehensive list of courses offered by the Department of Sociology. Please check the current schedule of classes for a listing of the courses offered this semester.
Required Courses:
Sociological Thinking
This course is an introduction to fundamental forms of sociological reasoning through key texts from various subfields. It focuses on general analytical and scholarly skills, the relationship between theory and methods, how research is conceptualized, and the nature of sociological writing. 3 CR.
Analyzing Evidence 1
This course will introduce you to the science and craft of social research. Partly, this is a class about the scientific method, and partly it is about learning the basic statistics that sociologists most often use. There will be an emphasis on doing research and learning the tricks and traps of the trade. The focus will be primarily on quantitative research, but will also discuss experiments and qualitative techniques. 3 CR.
Analyzing Evidence 2
This course continues the introduction to research methdology, with a focus on qualitative research and the research process, examining the steps toward developing a sociological research project. A formal proposal for the capstone project will be the final paper for the course. 3 CR.
Development of Sociological Theory
Critical examination of the major treatises and schools in the development of sociological theory from Comte to the 20th century theorists. 3 CR.
Qualitative Methods
This is a field research course focused on beginning the research for the capstone project. 3 CR.
Capstone Seminar
The Seminar focuses on completing the research and writing-up the capstone paper, which will be the final grade for the Seminar as well as the final requirement for the master's degree. The Capstone Seminar combines an intensive writing workshop format, in which students read and critique each other's work, one-on-one work with the instructor, and shared reading of scholarly work for class discussion. 6 CR.
Elective Courses offered in past years:
B2100: Seminar in Marriage and the Family
Marriage and the family as social institutions. Changing family forms in Western civilization. Demographic trends and family size. The modern family and its relation to the total society. Marriage and divorce. Selected problems for discussion and research. Offered in cooperation with the School of Education. 3 CR.
B4100: Comparative Social Systems
Description and classification of whole societies viewed as dynamic social systems in the relevant environmental setting, geographic and historical. Case studies will be selected from the American Indian, African, Oceanic, Asiatic, and European fields. The course is designed to prepare students for an understanding of their own contemporary society. 3 CR.
B6100: Seminar: Problems in Criminology
Criminology and criminal law. Problems in the measurement and statistical analysis of crime; typologies of offenders. Eighteenth and nineteenth century backgrounds of criminological thought; contemporary theories of criminality. Analysis of selected behavior systems in crime recidivism and problems of prediction. Offered in cooperation with the School of Education. 3 CR.
B8000: Deviant Behavior
Societal, legal, moral, religious and sociological definitions of deviant behavior. Current approaches to dealing with the deviant. Deviance as role behavior. 3 CR.
B8100: Sociology of Politics and Collective Behavior
The social bases of political participation and ideology will be explored within the context of modern industrial society. The problem of establishing, maintaining and dissolving political institutions will be examined as well as the relationships between the legitimacy and the effectiveness of political institutions. The social origins of democracy, authoritarianism, and totalitarianism. New approaches to the study of mass movements and collective behavior. 3 CR.
B8300: Sociology of Generations
Socialization processes occurring and associated with infancy, childhood, adolescence, student status, and various stages of adulthood. Secularization of various benchmarks in the life cycle. Special characteristics of each age group, their potential for intergenerational conflict and accommodation, and their relationship to social institutions. Contemporary modifications of age-graded experiences by social structure. 3 CR.
B5100: The Metropolitan Community
An examination of the varied communities that make up the city and their impact upon society based on theories of urbanization and urban life. Included are different religious groups, gays, racial minorities and a variety of social classes. There is special focus on how the groups interact with each other. 3 CR.
B5200: The People of the City of New York
An analysis of the many subgroups that live in New York City. This includes but is not limited to African and Hispanic Americans, Italians, Jews, Irish, etc. Focus on how the city developed historically, its spatial structure, expansion, political, social and economic life. 3 CR.
C0000: Series
Courses given on special issues in sociology, on a rotating schedule, such as public policy, ethnic issues, drug and alcohol problems, etc. 3 CR.
Courses offered in other CUNY graduate programs are available to graduate students in Sociology (with permission of the Graduate Sociology Committee).
Last Updated: 07/04/2015 07:32