Course Information
Listed below are the approved courses offered by the Department of Sociology. Not all courses offered below will be available every semester. Make sure to check course offerings on the registration portal for each upcoming semester.
Course Descriptions
SOCI 101
Introduction to Sociology
Units: 3
This course is required for the Sociology major and introduces students to basic concepts of sociology: groups, race and ethnicity, class, gender, nation, citizenship, status, role, society, behavior patterns, and social institutions. The approach is broadly comparative, historical, and global in orientation and focus, with an emphasis on the U.S. Particular attention is paid to issues of power, inequality, war, peace, social change, and social justice. Offered every semester.
SOCI 201
Quantitative Methods
Units: 3
This course is required for completion of the Sociology major and provides an introduction to the use of quantitative methods with an emphasis on descriptive statistics. Students learn concepts including quantitative research design, sampling methods, components of survey research, measurement and analysis of variables, and standards of ethical practice. Statistical procedures include central tendency and variability measures, the normal curve, probability, correlation, and regression. Students will also develop basic fluency in SPSS, a statistical software package, to analyze empirical data.
SOCI 202
Qualitative Methods
Units: 3
This course is required for completion of the Sociology major and provides an introduction to the use of qualitative methods such as ethnographic research, field research, individual and focus group interviewing, historical comparative research, and qualitative survey research. Students learn concepts of research design including conceptualization, operationalization, sampling methods, and data analysis. These tools are integral to the execution of qualitative sociological research.
SOCI 210
Social Justice
Units: 3
This is a social problems course that critically examines issues of power, difference and inequality, utilizing comparative, historical, global and other critical perspectives. In an age of widening social polarization, the intersections of power, structure and agency are at the heart of sociological inquiry. Topics covered include stratification, social change, and struggles for peace and justice as they relate to issues of class, race, gender, sexuality and citizenship. The course will consider these issues in local, regional and global contexts, with an orientation towards social justice. This course is open to both majors and non-majors for fulfillment of the Core Curriculum requirements.
SOCI 240
Crime and Inequality
Units: 3
This introductory level course critically examines contemporary social issues in Crime, Justice, Law and Society. It will analyze the historic and contemporary responses of the law-enforcement community to various types of criminal and deviant behavior. The actions of formal agents of social control will be investigated both empirically and theoretically. Topics of the course include: theories of punishment, the criminal justice system, and the enduring tensions between social control and individual freedoms. This course is open to both majors and non-majors for fulfillment of the core curriculum requirements. For sociology majors, it also serves as an introductory pathway to the Crime, Justice, law and Society concentration.
SOCI 270
Law and Social Justice
Units: 3
This course provides a dynamic broad introduction to the study of law as a social institution, in the context of larger questions of inequality and social justice.
SOCI 294
Special Topics in Contemporary Sociology
Units: 0.5 TO 4
An overview and analysis of selected contemporary topics in sociology, this course discusses specific content to be determined by particular interest of instructor and students. May be repeated for credit with different course content. (Offered on demand).
SOCI 301
Sociological Theories
Units: 3
This course is required for completion of the Sociology major and provides an examination of classical and contemporary sociological theories as part of the development of the structures of knowledge, drawing on a wide range of theorists and perspectives, including micro and macro perspectives, consensus and conflict theories, structural functionalist modernization theory, world-systems analysis, critical race and feminist theory, and related questions of structure, agency, and social change. Emphasis is on critical engagement with theorists and perspectives, and their respective strengths and weaknesses.
SOCI 303
Race and Ethnic Relations
Units: 3
An introduction to theory and research relative to minority group relations in the United States, with particular emphasis upon patterns, problems, and consequences of social interaction and cultural diversity among different racial, national, religious, and socioeconomic groups.
SOCI 310
U.S. Society
Units: 3
An introduction to U.S. society within historical and social perspectives. Transitions and transformations in U.S. culture and values are considered in a social context. Topics explored include industrialization, capitalism, social stratification, and the interplay of freedom, democracy, individualism, and volunteerism with the U.S.’s social structure, political institutions, and cultural framework.
SOCI 311
Sociology of Families
Units: 3
Analysis of the family as a social institution and as a social group, with emphasis on the impact of industrialization on traditional family functions, courtship, role expectations, child rearing, and family stability. The course will examine changes in work patterns, marriage, divorce, and cohabitation over time. Race, ethnicity, and gender differences will also be addressed.
SOCI 312
Gendered Lives
Units: 3
This course explores how gender organizes our society. It focuses on how specific institutions affect individual agency; for example, how do the media, corporate industries, and professional organizations differently influence the social construction of femininity and masculinity? What processes of social activism and resistance do individuals engage to challenge such pressures? Analyses also focus on how conceptions of biological determinism affect behavior. Finally, the intersections of race, class, and sexual diversity among men and women are investigated as they relate to social phenomena such as production, reproduction, identity, and social change.
SOCI 313
Sexualities
Units: 3 TO 4
An analysis of the phenomenon of human sexuality from a sociological perspective. An understanding of the diversity of sexuality, development of sex roles, sexual orientation, historical and cross-cultural views of sexuality, and trends in sexual behavior and attitudes. Topics will include such issues as sexual identity, socialization, social change, and social movements.
SOCI 314
Sociology of Education
Units: 3
An introduction to education as a social process and a social institution. Topics include: the social functions of education; the school as a formal organization and social system; social factors affecting the educational process; and an examination of change and innovation in education.
SOCI 315
Health and Society
Units: 3
This course will provide students with an understanding of how social signifiers, such as race, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and age contribute to disparities in health across different places. Through case studies, students will be encouraged to examine the changing sociologies of health and illness in both a global and local context. Topics will include health care systems, HIV/AIDS, cancer, women’s health, obesity, disability, mental health, and alcohol and tobacco. Throughout the course, special attention will be given to the role of medicalization in the transformation of certain human conditions into categories of health and illness.
SOCI 316
Social Psychology: Sociological Perspectives
Units: 3
This course is centered on the intersection of the individual and society. Our objective is to understand how our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, and implied presence of others. In so doing, we integrate micro and macro sociological perspectives to understand how individual behaviors and social arrangements, such as structures of inequality, are reciprocal and mutually dependent.
SOCI 340
Urban Sociology
Units: 3
The goal of this course is to expose students to the array of topics that occupy the attention of contemporary urban scholars: political, economic, and cultural issues related to urban transformation, urban inequalities, urban design, urban consumption, urban sustainability, and urban security.
SOCI 341
Criminology
Units: 3
An examination of crime and society, with special emphasis on theories of criminality, types and trends in crime, and current controversies in criminology.
SOCI 342
Juvenile Justice
Units: 3
This course provides an empirical description and sociohistorical analysis of the complex social problem of juvenile delinquency. Toward this goal, the course examines the historical circumstances and legal heritage out of which the social construction of juvenile delinquency has emerged. The emphasis of the course is on the process through which juvenile behavior becomes juvenile delinquency and the process through which juveniles become juvenile delinquents. This course also explores theoretical explanations for deviance and law-violating behavior committed by juveniles.
SOCI 343
Corrections
Units: 3
This course is a critical evaluation of America's historic and contemporary use of the correctional system as the primary response to crime and many social problems. This seminar is more about ideology than structure, of paramount interest are the social, political and economic contexts of prisons and the "tough on crime" movement that have produced the largest prison system in the world.
SOCI 344
Social Deviance
Units: 3
An analysis of conceptions of deviant behavior, the nature and prevalence of such behavior, and the theories developed to explain deviance. Emphasis is upon the relationship of such behavior to social structure and social processes.
SOCI 346
Rights, Justice, Law and Social Change
Units: 3
The study of rights, justice, and law as social institutions. After being introduced to the sociolegal foundations of U.S. society and the scope of contemporary law, students will be expected to closely and critically examine the role law plays in the establishment and taking away of individual rights and liberties. Students will also be expected to develop an understanding of justice, how the meaning of justice has changed over the course of U.S. history, and the social forces that have played a role in molding new interpretations of justice. This course places special emphasis on the law’s role in both producing and remedying social inequality. Particular attention is given to the subjects of race, gender, class, civil rights, and privacy rights.
SOCI 371
Inequality and Social Change
Units: 3
An analysis of the structures and dynamics of social inequality, focusing upon competing theoretical explanations and empirical investigations of different arrangements by which wealth, power, and prestige are distributed in human societies.
SOCI 372
Politics and Society
Units: 3 TO 4
An introduction to the sociological analysis of the theory and practice of power in contemporary societies. Emphasis will be placed upon such topics as the nature of political power, social and cultural foundations of political institutions, sources and patterns of political involvement, and the social consequences of various types of power structures.
SOCI 373
Social Institutions
Units: 3
A comparative analysis of the basic structuring of human societies, utilizing the perspective of social systems theory. Topics for discussion will include such fundamental institutionalized processes as social allocation and social power, as well as the development of total societies from simple to complex forms of organization.
SOCI 374
Social Movements
Units: 3
An examination of the short-lived, and often extraordinary, non institutionalized behavioral phenomena of crowds, mobs, riots, panics, and crazes that seem periodically to disturb the orderly flow of human societal life. Also examined will be the processes by which these “social aberrations” may become institutionalized as social movements or as part of a new and emerging sociocultural order.
SOCI 375
Education, Citizenship and Politics in South Africa
Units: 3
This is a study abroad course in South Africa examining the historical, political and educational challenges faced by the post-Apartheid democracy. Students have opportunities to engage with South African communities, specifically the village of Makuleke. Cross-listed as POLS 343.
SOCI 410
Social Change: Global Perspectives
Units: 3
Using sociological perspectives on the roles of cultural beliefs and social practices in shaping people’s lives, this course offers an overview of the organizing principles of society that resulted in the transition of pre-industrial societies to modern industrial states. The goals of the course are to make students aware of the power that social and cultural structures hold over them, of the fact that different societies will necessarily hold disparate views on how societies should be organized, and of the means to assess social/cultural differences in a nonjudgmental way. Topics covered include the technological bases of social organization, sex and gender stratification, demography, nationalism, religion, and civil society.
SOCI 411
Work and Labor
Units: 3
Examination of work, the labor force, and labor markets are integral to sociological theory and research. This course examines how labor and work impact and structure daily life, social structures, and the political economy. In addition, this course examines the relationship between politics and policy and the labor force in the United States.
SOCI 412
Community, Consensus, and Commitment
Units: 3
This interdisciplinary course will be useful for students who seek to understand contemporary social issues in a purposeful and strategic manner. The course utilizes theory and practice in order for students to learn the various dimensions of what constitutes community, and how to apply the tools of community organizing, consensus-building, and sustaining commitment in addressing social issues.
SOCI 413
Fashion System(s)
Units: 3
This course explores various and interlocking fashion systems from a sociological perspective. By focusing on the historical conditions and social arrangements across the globe that sustain fashion systems, this class examines how fashion perpetuates and challenges inequality. Topics include sweatshop labor, pollution, social movements, capitalism, cultural appropriation, gender, race, and class.
SOCI 440
Race and the Criminal Justice System
Units: 3
An examination and analysis of the various structures of inequality as they relate to processes of social control. Emphasis on strategies and techniques utilized to label and combat deviant and criminal behavior. Attention will be focused on the organization and operation of the U.S. criminal justice system.
SOCI 441
Drugs & U.S. Society
Units: 3
This course utilizes the lenses of criminology and sociology in a cross-national, critical evaluation of America’s historic and contemporary drug policies. This course systematically examines the pharmacological effects of legal and illegal drugs, the role of moral panics and moral entrepreneurs in shaping the ‘war on drugs’ and the impacts of criminalization on the community and criminal justice system.
SOCI 442
Sociology of Guns
Units: 3
This course examines guns from a sociological and critical race perspective. It addresses the question of guns in society by focusing on the conditions that shape the gun debate and the meanings attached to guns as objects of danger on the one hand and safety on the other. Additionally, it explores substantive topics related to gun violence, including community violence, mass shootings, domestic violence, and suicide.
SOCI 470
Sexuality and Borders
Units: 3
This course critically examines sexuality as a set of social and political statuses ascribed to individuals. The course interrogates the ways that laws seek to govern rights and privileges of the citizenry according to these statuses of sexuality, in addition to the ways norms and informal policies prohibit and prescribe individuals' self-expression. The course focuses on issues of crossing borders, both symbolic boundaries, such as norms of families and reproduction within the U.S., as well as passage across national borders for purposes such as marriage immigration, sex tourism, and human trafficking for the sex trade.
SOCI 471
Environmental Inequality and Justice
Units: 3
Using a sociological perspective, this course explores how social power dynamics along racial, economic, and cultural lines are pertinent to understanding people¿s disproportionate access to clean, safe, and productive environments, on the one hand, and their unequal exposure to environmental harms, on the other. Through the critical examination of contemporary case studies, students in this course will gain a greater appreciation of the social causes and consequences of environmental racism and inequality, as well as the efforts that are being taken by social groups engaged in political struggles for environmental justice.
SOCI 472
Criminalizing Immigration
Units: 3
This course provides an overview of sociological research in the field of international migration and focuses on topics including: migration flows into gateway cities such as San Diego, New York, Los Angeles, and Miami; transnationalism; immigration law and policy; immigrant families, activism, citizenship, and work.
SOCI 473
Sustainability: Sociological Perspectives
Units: 3
This course examines the powerful—but highly contested—concept of sustainability. This task is complicated by the fact that “sustainability” has come to mean so many things to so many different entities, and has generated such a diverse body of academic literature, that it’s difficult to make sense of the term. This course will navigate this complex landscape by critically examining multiple definitions and framings of sustainability, and applying these framings to specific case studies on climate change, energy, water, food, transportation, and waste, to name a few. This course will also explore how understanding sustainability and creating a more sustainable world requires integrating multiple disciplinary perspectives. While a sociological perspective is essential to these tasks, so too are perspectives from the natural sciences, philosophy, history, and the arts, among others.
SOCI 493
Field Experience in Sociology
Units: 1 TO 3
Practical experience in a field setting under professional and faculty supervision. Each student will complete 40 to 120 hours of training and service (40 hours per unit of credit) in an assigned field setting. Students may be required to attend an orientation program prior to their placement. Regularly scheduled meetings with the faculty supervisor are required from each student. May be taken for one to three units per semester. Field experience courses may not be applied toward fulfillment of requirements for the Sociology Major. Consent of faculty supervisor is required prior to registration. Pass/fail option only.
SOCI 494
Special Topics in Contemporary Sociology
Units: 0.5 TO 4
An in-depth analysis of selected contemporary topics in sociology, with specific content to be determined by particular interest of professor. May be repeated for credit with different course content.
SOCI 495
Capstone Experience in Sociology
Units: 3
A capstone is an immersive practicum that is designed to allow graduating sociology majors and minors to integrate their previous coursework in sociology, as well as other substantive fields, into a culminating piece of scholarship or applied work. We will meet as a seminar in addition to carrying out independent work. Our work will bring all your preparation in the major or minor to bear on your final core project, while also encouraging you to develop your intellectual identity through a process of critical reflection on your academic career and professional development as you start to chart your future path.
SOCI 498
Internship in Sociology
Units: 3
A practicum course involving a minimum of 120 hours per semester with various community, social service, and criminal justice agencies throughout San Diego County. Students may be required to attend an orientation program prior to their placement. Fieldwork is under the supervision of agency personnel and the faculty supervisor. Regularly scheduled meetings with the faculty supervisor, a learning journal of experiences, and a research paper are required from each student. A maximum of 6 units of credit from internship courses may be applied toward fulfillment of requirements for the Sociology Major. Junior or senior standing and consent of the faculty supervisor are required prior to registration.
SOCI 499
Independent Study
Units: 1 TO 3
Individual study and written research working in close collaboration with a faculty advisor. Consent of instructor and of the department chair are required for registration.