Sociology (SOC) Courses

SOC1001 Sociology I

This course provides an introduction to sociology with the focus of study on how humans interact within a society, both as individuals and in groups. Emphasis is placed on sociological methods and perspectives/paradigms.
Offered at Charlotte, Online, Providence
3 Semester Credits

SOC2005 Honors Seminar: Social Inequalities

Gender, race, class: Have you ever wondered about the extent of those inequalities today? How are inequalities accomplished and maintained? This honors seminar serves as an introduction to sociology with a focus on the inequalities of race, gender and especially class. The operations of these inequalities are studied at both the micro, person-to-person level and the macro, institutional level. Students make use of both qualitative and quantitative research methods to explore how the micro and macro levels of analysis connect, and also how race, class and gender intersect.
Prerequisite(s): ENG1024 or English placement, honors or SHARP status.
Offered at Charlotte, Providence
3 Semester Credits

SOC2035 Sociology of Aging

Aging is a lifelong process that affects individuals, families and cultures across the globe. It encompasses a multitude of dimensions — physiological, emotional, cognitive, economic and interpersonal — that influence a person's physical and social well-being. This course examines aging from multiple perspectives and addresses the roles that individuals, families, service industries and government play in attempting to meet the needs of this growing population.
Prerequisite(s): SOC1001 or SOC2005.
Offered at Online, Providence
3 Semester Credits

SOC2050 Cultures of Africa

This course gives students a grounding in the cultures of Sub-Saharan Africa. Students consider how the lives of Africans have been shaped by many forces: geographic, economic, religious, historical, political, linguistic and social. Students become more familiar with many Sub-Saharan African cultures by examining films, television programs, literature and newspapers from around the continent, in addition to more traditional academic sources.
Offered at Charlotte, Providence
3 Semester Credits

SOC2100 Sociology of the Family

This course introduces students to the sociological investigation of the core institution of family. Emphasis is on social, cultural, political and economic forces on family systems and to changes in family life and family structure both in the United States and globally.
Offered at Providence
3 Semester Credits

SOC3020 Culture and Food

This course is on the sociology of food. Students think and rethink the place of food in the human experience and consider topics such as how food and gender intersect, symbolic group boundaries affect how people eat and drink, and cultures share and adapt each other’s foods. Students explore how the discipline of sociology examines food as a cultural and social artifact and the role that it plays in societies today.
Prerequisite(s): ENG1020 or ENG1024 or English Placement or SOC1001 or SOC2005.
Offered at Charlotte, Online, Providence
3 Semester Credits

SOC3060 Deviant Behavior

The purpose of this course is to provide students with a clear understanding of the nature and meaning of deviance. Students learn what is considered the norm in society, what is outside the norm, and how each is relative in nature. Theoretical explanations, cross cultural references and in depth analyses of deviant behavior are studied from the three dominant sociological paradigms. Who defines deviance, what is deviant, why deviance persists, the effect of labels, and the personal and social effects of deviance are discussed.
Prerequisite(s): SOC1001 or SOC2005.
Offered at Charlotte, Online, Providence
3 Semester Credits

SOC3100 Sociology of Race and Ethnicity

This course confronts the questions of whether every person has both a race and an ethnicity, if these "memberships" matter more in some people's lives than others, and why there is conflict sometimes about what the groups are and who belongs where. Focus is primarily on the United States, but global migration is an important part of the story both in the nation’s founding and today as national borders greet global citizens with mixed results. Rather than a survey that characterizes one racial-ethnic group after another, this course emphasizes the social construction of races and ethnicities as historically specific, relational and changeable.
Prerequisite(s): SOC1001 or SOC2005.
Offered at Providence
3 Semester Credits

SOC3200 Environmental Sociology

This course explores the relationships between society and the environment. It investigates how sociologists and others analyze human-nature interactions. Focus is on how environmental factors such as regional climate change, toxins, availability of resources and natural disasters have shaped social phenomena and how human activities have impacted biological systems and the physical environment. Students investigate the social structures and institutions in our society affecting environmental quality at the local, national and global levels. This course also assesses relevant characteristics of society such as intersecting inequalities, types of environmental movements and social change.
Prerequisite(s): SOC1001 or SOC2005.
Offered at Online, Providence
3 Semester Credits

SOC3300 Gender in Global Perspective

This course explores the ways in which gender is distinctly socially constructed in societies and places across the globe. Emphasis is on the social factors that shape gender relations and make ideas about gender different in one place from another. Exploring how the elements of everyday life and society interact (culture, economics, politics, history and religion), this course investigates the performances of gender roles and the expectations that align with them. The social construct of the binary idea of gender is challenged in human terms, from both biological and socio-cultural perspectives. This course also uses case studies of various gender relations internationally to explore the many contexts in which ideas, scripts and performances of gender occur.
Prerequisite(s): SOC1001 or SOC2005.
Offered at Providence
3 Semester Credits

SOC5030 The Global Food System

This interdisciplinary course provides students with an overview of food systems characteristics, exploring how local and regional influences compare with those occurring at the global level. Exploration of major historical developments in the food systems of the past 500 years occurs in order to comprehend how they are influenced by social, political, economic and ecological environments. Students explore the complexities and diversity of the global food system identifying potential challenges facing producers, consumers and policy makers. Aspects of the global food system are examined in the context of a variety of environmental and social challenges ranging from sustainability, climate change and ecosystem degradation to rising rates of obesity and malnutrition. Students debate the challenges of providing a modern food system that can sustain a growing global population living in the midst of increasingly post-industrial societies.
Offered at Providence
3 Semester Credits