Advanced study in sociology, with specific topics to be announced at the beginning of each semester.

This course explores grieving, trauma, the politics of emotion, and how they are shaped by societies across different cultures and communities. We’ll focus particularly on historical events that defy control, provoke disorientation, and can be conceived of as haunting individuals and societies. In Avery Gordon’s elaboration, “haunting is one way in which abusive systems of power make themselves known and their impacts felt in everyday life, especially when they are supposedly over and done with (such as with transatlantic slavery) or when their oppressive nature is continuously denied" (Gordon: 2020). We will consider how historical and personal traumas related to race, gender, and capitalist exploitation, among others, have the power to disrupt linear time and fragment personal and social realities. Some of the guiding questions in this course will be the following: - How are personal and collective memories (and grieving) constructed from a socio-political and cultural perspective? - What are key sociological theories addressing memory and grieving? - What kind of political, social, and historical events are memorialized by different societies, and what forms do they take in popular culture (such as in film, songs, poetry, tv series, museums, monuments)? - How are these events selected, and which groups are included or excluded in the collective memory that is being created? - What kinds of structural inequalities are challenged or perpetuated through specific manifestations of these art forms and cultural practices? - How can memory and grief be a source of resistance? - What is the meaning of queering memory? We will engage with these topics from a comparative perspective, taking into consideration both European and American societies. We will address the methodological challenges presented by tangible and intangible sites of historical memory, draw on diverse and intersectional sociological approaches, theories, and themes including inequality, autoethnography, critical race theory, queer studies, and more. Students will also be able to pursue their own research project on topics outside a Euro-American context, provided they engage with the methodological literature they learned in class

During Phase 1, students are unable to directly enroll or wait-list into the Sociology 190 capstone seminars via Cal Central. Instead, students must fill out a 190 Placement Request form - https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/F23_SOC190 (Available after April 10th)

Repeat Rules

Requirements class fulfills