Comparing the experience of three out of five ethnic groups (e.g. African Americans, Asian Americans, Chicano/Latino, European Americans, and Native Americans) we shall examine historically how each people entered American society and built communities and transformed their cultures in the process. Students will be introduced to the sociological perspective, characteristic methods of research, and such key concepts as culture, community, class, race, social change, and social movements.

This course, which serves as a general introduction to sociology, aims to do four things. First, it will introduce students to the so-called “sociological imagination” or, in other words, to an analytical perspective that is attentive to the ways in which people’s everyday lives are largely shaped by social trends, structures and ideologies. Second, it will explain and illustrate important research methods by which sociologists gather the requisite empirical data to ground their work. Third, it will explore how sociologists actually use this sociological imagination and these research methods to investigate such critical topics as culture and socialization, ethnicity and race, gender and sexuality, social inequality and class, and so forth. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, this course will encourage and enable students to interrogate their own lives, discern how they also constituted by social forces and, in doing so, help them to hone a greater sense of agency in terms of living in ways that seem most authentic to them.

Credit Restrictions

Students will receive no credit for Sociology 3AC after completing Sociology 1, 3 or 3A. A deficiency in Sociology 3 or 3A may be removed by taking Sociology 3AC.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills