N.b.: all readings are to be completed before class on the first meeting of the week indicated.

January 17 & 19, 2017
reading: Conley Chapter One
sociology, science, and the liberal arts – our weird historical location – the sociological perspective – technology as the quiddity of who we are

January 24 & 26, 2017
reading: Conley Chapter Two
sociology as a systematic, empirical discipline – research methods – the unnerving pervasiveness of the normal distribution

January 31 & February 2, 2017
reading: Conley Chapter Three
culture – language as scaffolding – diffusion – arguments about ethnocentrism

February 7 & 9, 2017
reading: Conley Chapter Four
socialization – nature versus nurture – the golden age of television

February 14 & 16, 2017
reading: Conley Chapters Five and Six
modernity – groups – networks – deviance – social control

February 21 & 23, 2017
reading: Conley Chapter Seven
stratification – inequality – meritocracy

February 28, 2017
reading: Conley Chapter Eight
gender – sexuality

March 2, 2017
midterm exam

March 7 & 9, 2017
reading: Conley Chapter Nine
race – identity politics – the culture wars

March 14 & 16, 2017
spring break!

March 21 & 23, 2017
reading: Conley Chapters Ten and Eleven
poverty – urban sociology – gentrification

March 28 & 30, 2017
reading: Conley Chapters Twelve and Thirteen
institutions – family – education

April 4 & 6, 2017
reading: Conley Chapters Fourteen and Fifteen
economy – capitalism – the coming jobless economy? – universal basic income – authority – the state – political elites

April 11 & 13, 2017
reading: Conley Chapter Sixteen
religion

April 18 & 20, 2017
reading: Conley Chapter Seventeen
rationalism – science – hostility to science – creationism – anti-intellectualism

April 25 & 27, 2017
reading: Conley Chapter Eighteen
social movements – accelerating rate of social change – technology as the quiddity of who we are

May 4, 2017
final exam, 2:00 – 4:30