Soc 308 French Civilization
This course is only offered at the College International de Cannes, France. France is presented through its history, geography and politics. Emphasis is on the media, daily life of young people, educational institutions and fashion-related topics. Course taught in English. (Offered every semester. 3 credits. (When taught in summer, this course is offered for 1 credit.)


Soc 309 La Societe Francaise (French Society)
Prerequisite, must place into upper intermediate French (Intermediaire II) or higher. This course is only offered at the College International de Cannes, France and is taught in French. The course defines principal structures of French society — political, geographical, economic and educational — and examines human aspects of contemporary France. Emphasis is on traditions, innovations, structures and contradictions. (Offered every semester.) 3 credits.


Soc 310 Society and Advertising
Prerequisites, Soc 101 or instructor’s consent. An interdisciplinary investigation into the foundations of advertising. Topics include: historical origins of advertising; the economics of advertising; legal, social, and ethical issues; advertising as a global philosophy, the politics of consumerism; decoding the hermeneutics and semiology of advertising; advertising as behavior modification and manipulation; subliminal advertising; advertising’s influence on the experience of self in modern society; advertising as the modern art form. (Offered alternate years.) 3 credits.


Soc 311 Society and Mass Communications
Prerequisites, Soc 101 or instructor’s consent.
An analysis of mass communications media as a social institution. The course employs an interdisciplinary approach asking what are the origins, history, evolution, and social functions of the mass media; the impact of the media on the social self; the transitions from oral to print to electronic media; the view that the medium is the message. Strong emphasis on electronic media and the impact of media on the social construction of reality. (Offered every year.) 3 credits.


Soc 320 Sociology of Death
Prerequisites, Soc 101 or instructor’s consent. An interdisciplinary investigation of death, dying, and the grieving process. Topics include: the American way of death as a social institution; dying as a psychological process; how society conditions us to deny death and repress grief and loss; how I relate to my own death and the death of significant others. How the experience, fear, and quality of death has changed historically over the centuries. (Offered every year.) 3 credits.


Soc 321 Getting Love Right: Romantic Relationships in Contemporary Society
Prerequisites, none. This course is intended to be a workshop, highly participatory and highly exploratory, rather than a lecture series. We will address our current media permeated models of romantic love — we’re in love with “falling in love.” We will explore the distinction between “falling in love” and “loving,” the role of commitment versus feelings within a relationship, and the model of friendship and its bearing on romantic, sexual relationships. (Graded on a pass/no pass basis.) 1 credit.


Soc 322 Introduction to Meditation
Prerequisites, none. A course engaging in actual meditation practice. Both Zen and Tibetan teachings are utilized. Mindfulness and awareness practice, deep relaxation and seeing the mind clearly are emphasized. (Graded on a pass/no pass basis.) 1 credit.


Soc 323 Sexual Literacy and Society
Prerequisites, none. This course is intended as a workshop, highly participatory and highly exploratory — rather than a lecture series. An examination of our current sexual ideologies, mythologies, and sex education strategies. We address popular and scholarly debates about modern sexuality. We inquire into sexuality, socialization and social repression, as well as explore current understandings of the relationship between sexuality and spirituality. (Graded on a pass/no pass basis.) 1 credit.


Soc 324 Sleeping, Dreaming, Awakening: Reality 101
Prerequisites, none. This is a personal, hands-on seminar/workshop-styled exploration of the experience of sleeping, dreaming, and awakening; lucid dreaming; dream control; dream journals; dream interpretation; dream meditation; conscious sleeping and unconscious sleeping; sleep and death analogies; the nature and meaning of sleeping, of dreaming, of awakening; daytime and nighttime. (Offered every year.) (Graded on a pass/no pass basis.) 1 credit.


Soc 326 Topics in Sociology of Religion
Prerequisites, Soc 101, 102, or instructor’s consent. An examination of selected topics in the sociology of religion. The topics may be relatively narrowly focused and involve an intensive study of a single religion or more broadly focused involving the study of issues across religions. Courses that treat different themes may be repeated for credit. (Offered every year.) 3 credits. Some examples:

Society and Religion
How does social structure quietly yet powerfully shape religious beliefs? How do religious beliefs in turn affect social organizations and cultural and political values?

Mind, Self, and Society in Tibetan Buddhism CH II
(Same as Hon 346 .) This is a ten-day retreat at a Tibetan/American Meditation Center in the spectacular Colorado Rockies. For those interested in the eastern paths of liberation this is a wonderful opportunity to explore your own mind in a new way and to personally experience the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism and their deep relevance for modern life. (Lab/travel fees.) (Offered Interterm.)

Taming the Monkey Mind: Buddhist Psychology and Sociology
(Same as Hon 346 .) This is an eight-day retreat at Land of Medicine Buddha in the beautiful lush evergreen forests of Santa Cruz, California. Students examine the similarities and differences between Western models of the mind and psychology and Buddhist spirituality. (Lab/travel fees.) (Offered Interterm.)
The Quest for a New Age: Contemporary Spiritual Movements in the West
An examination on both a critical scientific and a personal level of what William James has called the “varieties of religious experience” that human beings have undergone, cultivated, and institutionalized with particular emphasis on modern Western society. We will look at the proliferating variety of both exotic and familiar spiritual experiences and traditions currently growing all around us.


Soc 328 Social Inequality/Stratification
Prerequisites, Soc 101, 102, 211, or instructor’s consent. Inequality among members of the American and international community. Theoretical emphasis on class, racial/ethnic, occupational, age, and sexual inequality. Students examine the social structural bases of inequality and theories to explain the creation of systems and ideologies of subordination. 3 credits.


Soc 329 Experimental Course
Prerequisites, Soc 101 or instructor’s consent. Designed to provide additional opportunities to explore experimental areas and subjects of special interest. May be repeated for credit provided the course content is different. 3 credits.


Soc 335 Society and the Environment
Prerequisites, Soc 101, 211, or instructor’s consent. The air is thick with smog, famine breaks out with frightening regularity, and resources continue to accumulate in selected regions. Yet, in the long run, we are all citizens of this planet and must manage to survive on it and with each other. What are the key issues in this crucial debate that will determine all our futures? What ideas underlie environmentalism, what policies have to be debated, and what are the costs and benefits of different solutions to these problems? (Offered every year.) 3 credits.


Soc 345 Social Psychology
Prerequisites, Soc 101 or instructor’s consent. Discussion and analysis of the relationship between culture, group life, social structure, and human behavior; emphasis upon the dialogue between the individual and the social collective. Focus is on microsocial theory. (Offered every year.) 3 credits.


Soc 347 Society, Culture, and Literature
Prerequisites, Soc 101 or instructor’s consent. (Same as Eng 347.) (Offered alternate years.) 3 credits. Some examples:

Literature of Peace and Justice
Under conditions of violence and oppression, literature often may be one of the few means to challenge injustice and promote peace. Literature may serve as a voice against censorship; it may preserve the humanity of the victim; it may rally those striving for justice. This course is designed to explore the literatures of different cultures as they treat issues of racism, sexual oppression, or economic exploitation.

The Passionate Pair
This class presents the dual perspectives of sociological and literary views of man and woman in their loving struggle to define themselves as individuals, partners, and as members of society. This course includes films, videotapes, visits to museums and/or theatrical events (when appropriate), as well as field research.


Soc 366 Area Studies
Prerequisites, Soc 101, 102, or instructor’s consent. These courses are designed to give a more in-depth examination of the cultures of a given area of the world. Courses which cover different areas may be repeated for credit. (Offered every year.) 3 credits. Some examples:

North and Middle American Indians
Origins, archaeology, ethnology, and linguistic relationships of the Indians of North and Middle America; Mexican peasant culture; contemporary Indian problems.

Latin American Societies
Students examine the cultures of South and Central America both modern and ancient. Mayan, Quiché, Aztec, Inca, Miskito, and Yanomamo are a few of the societies covered.

Pacific Island Cultures
Study of the geography, anthropology, and socioeconomic history of the Pacific Islands, a largely oceanic region characterized by diversity in the environment and culture. Colonial relationships and more recent political transformations are examined. Polynesian, Micronesian, Melanesian, and indigenous Australian peoples are discussed.


Soc 367 Public Interest Research
(Same as Posc 367.) 3 credits.


Soc 372 Images of American Indians
Prerequisites, Soc 101, 102, or instructor’s consent. Students explore the artistic, political, folk, and scientific images of American Indians as demonstrated in literature, art, anthropology, film, and folklore. The accuracy or inaccuracy of these images will be examined along with reasons for their formation. The impact of these images on popular culture and on American Indian societies will be examined. (Offered every year.) 3 credits.


Soc 381 Sociology of Sex and Gender
Prerequisites, Soc 101 or instructor’s consent. Students examine the ways in which macro institutions, (e.g., educational or work systems) and micro institutions, (e.g., ways of conversing) structure gender relations in society, and how gender in turn structures and stratifies the social order. From the perspective of personal identity, we will ask how it is that we experience ourselves as male and female. The social consequences of gender stratification are considered, including such substantive topic areas as the sexual division of labor, sexual politics, and sexual violence. (Offered alternate years.) 3 credits.


Soc 382 Women and Criminal Justice
(Same as Cj 382.) Prerequisites, Soc 101 or instructor’s consent. Examines how women’s involvement with criminal justice, whether as offenders or victims, reflects prevailing ideology about women’s place and function in the wider society. Particular attention is paid to the differential “justice” made on the basis of sex, as well as class and race. 3 credits.


Soc 383 Sociology of Deviant Behavior
Prerequisites, Soc 101 or instructor’s consent. This course examines why societies label behavior deviant and explores the distinction between behaviors considered “socially unacceptable and those considered “criminal.” Theories of deviance, as well as the amount, distribution and patterns of deviance are considered. Discussions may also include political influence, social change, and selected types of deviant activity. (Offered every year.) 3 credits.


Soc 390 Socialization Through the Life Span
Prerequisites, Soc 101 or instructor’s consent. A comprehensive birth through old age study of human growth and behavior tracing the psychosocial development stages. Students survey the social and environment factors including the influences of society, culture, small groups, and the family on development of the person. (Offered every year.) 3 credits.

Soc 395 Topics in Sociology
(Same as Soc 295, 495.) Prerequisites, Soc 101 or instructor’s consent. An examination of selected topics in sociology. Courses that treat different themes may be repeated for credit. (Offered every year.) 3 credits. Current examples:

Group Seminars and the Craft of Teaching
Undergraduate students take on the real role of teachers and guide seminars, read journals, and evaluate their students’ work with grades.

The Sociology of Self
A sociological investigation of the persistent question, “Who am I?” Students explore the extent to which answers are drawn from the social construction of status and role thus driving the experience of a real self undercover.

Population and Demography
At current rates the 5.7 billion population of the planet will double in forty years making current problems of overpopulation even worse. This course examines the size and composition of human populations as determined by births, deaths, and migration. Age-sex profiles and the theory of demographic transition are examined, as are policy issues such as birth control, family planning, and national and global population policies.

Social Movements in the Sixties
Through film, literature, and direct commune-experimentation a fresh look with beginners eyes at this most outrageous decade, this most idealized and despised decade, this most creative and anarchic decade. Protests, civil rights, Vietnam, sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll.

Women at Work
A redefinition of “work” on the part of those who do it and those who study it might facilitate a better understanding of the work lives of women. Students examine the concept of “work force” as a male category which has consigned women to a residual place. Specific topics will include paid and unpaid labor in public and private settings, the division of labor in the home, the gendered wage-gap, global social change and women’s work, and the meaning of work in women’s lives.
Sociology of the Family
This course engages a critical, in-depth analysis of the ways in which families are seen by society and the ways in which they see themselves. Topics to be covered include: family politics, division of labor, ch ild care, economics, health, leisure, and the politics of the family.

Child Abuse
An introduction to and overview of the phenomena of child abuse as it relates to the helping professional. This class will examine the definition and cause of child abuse from a sociological, cultural, and psychological perspective. The legal and child welfare systems will be studied in addition to treatment and prevention aspects of the child abuse issue.


Soc 396 Indians of California CH II
California is the state with the largest American Indian population. There are over 200 cultures indigenous to the Golden State with 104 reservations; 32 of these are in Southern California. Students will become familiar with the history, culture, and contemporary lives of this rich California heritage. Topics include early man in California, the development of Spanish, Mexican, and American presence and their effects on the native people. (Offered every year.) 3 credits.


Soc 401 Field Research Methods
Prerequisite, Soc 201, Soc 305. An introduction to field research in naturally-occurring settings. Data collection through participant observation and interviewing with emphasis on the construction of field notes. Ethics of field research, entree to the field site, maintenance of the research relationship, and closure are emphasized through classroom discussion and activity in selected field sites. Analysis of data using the comparative method of grounded theory is introduced. (Offered every year.) 3 credits.


Soc 402 Quantitative Data Analysis
Prerequisite, Soc 201. Students will analyze data from a national survey of Americans and make original discoveries about the nature of social life. Students will learn to use SPSS, the computer program used widely by professional sociologists. Each student will prepare an original research report modeled after published journal articles, and especially good papers from this course may be suitable for publication. 3 credits.


Soc 404 Global Family Systems
Prerequisites, Soc 101, 102, 211, or instructor’s consent. Students examine the concept of family from the perspective of culture. Every society has families which vary widely in their structure. How is the family related to the structure and function of the larger society? What forms does the family take and why? 3 credits.


Soc 410 Topics in Criminology and Deviance
Prerequisites, Soc 101, 211, or instructor’s consent. Students examine selected topics in criminal justice. Topics may include a range and variety of courses such as gangs, women in criminal justice, pornography, violence, government, victimless crime, organized crime, and criminal careers. The topics may be narrowly focused and involve an intensive study of a single issue or application, or more broadly oriented toward the study of a subject. Courses that treat different themes may be repeated for credit. 3 credits. Current examples:

Gangs and Gang Behavior
(Same as Cj 410 .) This course addresses theories of gang behavior, modes of law enforcement, and correctional intervention dealing with street gang formation and activities (e.g., Latino, Samoan, Vietnamese, Armenian, Filipino), as well as characteristic differences among Gangbangers, Taggers, and others.

Victimless Crimes
(Same as Cj 410 .) This course examines various criminal offenses that often lack a complaining “victim” in the usual sense that tend to generate intense social debate due to the consensual nature of these crimes (e.g., drug use, prostitution, certain sexual activities, gambling). The societal implications of social control policies will be discussed.

Death and the Law
(Same as Cj 410 .) This course provides an introductory view of the various components of a medicolegal death investigation with emphasis on the resultant societal impact. The student will examine their personal perspectives as they study types of death which come to the attention of the Coroner’s Office. The course also introduces the student to assorted career opportunities available within forensic science and related careers.