Spring 2012 Courses

1000 Introduction to Sociology (4 sem. hours). Adopting a cross-cultural and comparative approach, this course provides a comprehensive overview of sociological principles. Using the sociological imagination, students will explore the relationship between individuals and their social environment, as well as the origin, structure, and function of various social institutions. Specific issues include the self and society, marriage and the family, education, religion, popular culture and mass media, class, gender, and race/ethnicity. This class satisfies Core 6 requirements.

1100 Introduction to Anthropology (4 sem. hours). This course introduces cultural anthropology as a way of understanding and studying culture in all its complexity. The class is discussion-driven and relies on ethnographic texts as primary learning resources. Class discussions will encourage students to consider the implications of cultural variability and to ask deep questions about the nature of human experience and social conditions. At the end of the course, students will possess the tools to examine culture much more closely and critically and to evaluate deep-seated assumptions about the way the world works. This class satisfies Core 6 requirements.

1110 Introduction to Archaeology and World Prehistory (4 sem. hours). This class is designed to introduce students to the world's prehistory and to the anthropological field of archaeology. The class begins with the human family's earliest appearance approximately 5-6 million years ago in Africa and, through the course of the semester, travels down winding global paths to the dawn of written history. As the class works together to unravel humanity's complex past, students may also learning something about the present and our future.

2210 Archaeological Method and Theory (4 sem. hours).This course is designed to introduce students to the practice of archaeology; i.e. How do we actually DO archaeology and make sense of our results? The main foci will be archaeological method (the doing) and theory (making sense). During the semester, students will spend as much time OUT of the classroom as in it. The class will also prepare students who plan to conduct archaeological field research over the course of the summer. In the latter half of the semester, excavations will be conducted at the Manship House Museum.

2850 Cross-Cultural Human Sexuality (4. sem. hours). Many people argue that human sexual activity is a direct result of human evolution and the biological need for reproduction. However, many others point to the tremendous cultural diversity surrounding human sexual activity around the world and suggest that our shared biology does not provide a sufficient basis for understanding and explaining human sexuality. In this course, students will examine ethnographic evidence from various cultural settings as well as theories about human sexuality to evaluate competing answers about the nature and fundamental building blacks of human sexuality. Students will discuss and alanyze the specifics of human sexuality that vary from culture to culture and society to society. The class will also look to identify aspects of human sexuality that are shared across cultural and social groups and ask whether the class can provide explanation for these shared aspects of human sexuality.

3300 Health and Illness (4 sem. hours). Virtually all human beings experience sickness of one sort or another during the course of their lives. However, how they diagnose, treat, and even experience these sicknesses varies from person to person, place to place, culture to culture, and society to society. Using diverse examples from a wide range of social and cultural contexts, students will examine these differences and compare different systems and ask whether states of health and well-being are in fact culturally, socially, and contextually relative. This class will analyze different approaches to healing and healthcare, with a particular focus on how these different approaches fit into larger social and cultural systems. This consideration of larger social and cultural systems will focus on issues such as politics, economics, gender, and religion.

4200 Social and Cultural Theory (4 sem. hours). In this class, students will conduct critical, comparative, and synthetic examinations of historical and contemporary sociological theory, including functionalism, conflict theory, phenomenology, and symbolic interactionism.

4760-02 Asians in America (4 sem. hours). This class will examine how Asian Americans' immigrant origin, their class status before immigration, their family structure, and their cultural tradition have influenced their adaptation and success in the US. The readings will include historical research on the experiences of various Asian ethnic groups and on US immigration policies. In addition to a systematic examination of the history and current situations of these groups and their American journey, we will also compare their experiences with the experiences of other racial groups in the US in terms of social mobility and race relations.

4850 Internship (4 sem. hours).Practical experience and field-based training for majors working with selected organizations engaged in social research, human services, or community services.

4852 Internship (2 sem. hours).Practical experience and field-based training for majors working with selected organizations engaged in social research, human services, or community services.