WINTER 2024
SOCD44H3S: Sociology of the Arctic
Instructor: J. Hannigan
The thematic focus of this course is the Sociology of the Arctic. With the substantial impact that climate change is having on the Circumpolar North, contemporary issues relating to the changing lifestyles and relationships of indigenous peoples, competition for land and resources, and the growth of a “Global Arctic” are of increasing sociological importance.
SOCD25H3S: Human Rights and Counterterrorism
Instructor: Miray Philips
In the aftermath of 9/11, the international community declared terrorism as the ultimate global threat, catapulting the war on terror and the expansion of counterterrorism measures. In the process, human rights were violated in the name of national security. We will explore the following questions: How is terrorism defined sociologically and legally? How did the terrorism industry emerge? How does counterterrorism lead to the suppression of human rights and civil society? What are the long-term impacts of the war on terror? Along with analyzing government actions, policies, and laws, we will focus on the people who are at the heart of these tensions, whose lives are transformed by the politics of human rights and counterterrorism. We will draw on domestic and international legal cases, UN reports, films, and testimonies. The material in this course will undoubtedly be difficult, but students will walk away with a richer sociological understanding of an issue that has animated the world in the last several decades.
SOCC59H3S: Special Topics in Social Inequality - Social Inequality
Instructor: Mahua Sarkar
This course analyses the production of social inequalities through the simultaneous workings of social structures such as race, class and gender. While the US and Canada are the primary foci of the course, it also draws on examples from other regions of the world to deepen our understanding of the global entanglements of national/regional processes through which social inequalities emerge and are reproduced over time.
SOCD15H3S: Advanced Seminar in Critical Migration Studies - Transnational Mobility and Constrained Labor, Historically and Today
Instructor: Mahua Sarkar
According to global estimates, nearly three quarters of migrants move for work. While we tend to think of migration as voluntary and migrants as ‘free’, rational actors, this upper level undergraduate seminar in historical sociology explores the connections between migration/mobility of people and labour, with particular focus on historical and contemporary forms of constrain/unfreedom/coercion that define human mobility and work experiences across the world.
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FALL 2023
SOCD01H3F: People, Cultures, and Discourses of Toronto
Instructor: Ivanka Knezevic
What can we learn about urban dwellers’ values, opinions, and beliefs by listening to views they express in research interviews, or by looking at documents that communicate cultural beliefs of various urban populations, such as community media, urban policy documents and debates, or the way that news media report on social and political issues of importance to residents of Toronto?
Seminar discussions in the course will focus on current theoretical explanations of specificity of urban cultures, as well as on recent research on the topic of culture and cities. Like urban researchers before us, we will try to understand the relative importance of individual demographic and social characteristics, on one hand, and of decidedly urban context of life – neighbourhoods, size and density of the city, its economy, politics and civil society, on the other - for the way Torontonians think and feel about their lives. How and why does the city matter to them?
Focusing on independent research, the course will require students to engage in all steps necessary to propose, design, and undertake a research project on a topic in urban culture, providing the essential research skills useful in graduate work and other research-intensive contexts.
Learning about and practicing discourse analysis is the methodological focus of this course. We shall consider and apply qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods approaches to discourse or content analysis, and learn basics of ways to combine its results with results of field observation, interviewing, surveys, and other data collection techniques.
SOCC24H3: Special Topics in Gender and Family - Changing Family Life in Canada
Instructor: Rania Salem
This course offers a theoretical and empirical examination of different forms of family and the major changes in the structure and interaction of family life in Canada. In the first half of the semester, we will examine and unsettle the notion that there is (or ever was) a ‘typical’ Canadian family. We investigate major shifts in heterosexual marriage, cohabitation, and divorce, and consider the implications of these shifts for various social actors. We also study the incompatibility of employment and family responsibilities, and how various responses to this incompatibility produce gender and global inequalities. In the second half of the semester, we investigate the diversity of family forms, as well as the problem of violence within the family.
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WINTER 2023
SOCD44H3: Advanced Seminar on Issues in Contemporary Sociology - Addressing Historic Wrongs and the Path to Reconciliation: The Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement
Instructor: Mike DeGagné
The course uses as a framework the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement. It remains the largest class action settlement in Canadian history. IRSSA brings together some of the recent history of residential schools, the RCAP report and the government response, and the establishment of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation. It will also cover the Law Commission Report upon which the settlement is based, and the deliberations and intentions for the settlement which in some cases went astray. The elements of the settlement, such as financial measures and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and how each part manifested itself in the following decades will also be discussed. Finally, the absence of Apology in the agreement, and its later impact, will be presented.
SOCD42H3: Advanced Seminar in Sociological Theory – Conservative Social Thought: From the Intransigent Right to the End of History
Instructor: D. Silver
In 1992, Perry Anderson identified four seminal authors as the intellectual basis for “the intransigent right”: F.A. Hayek, Carl Schmitt, Michael Oakeshott, and Leo Strauss. All coming of age in the inter-war period, these four authors have not only been tremendously influential among scholars and intellectuals. They have informed and inspired prime ministers, presidents, and their advisors.
At the same time, they provided much of the basic intellectual template for subsequent conservative social thinkers as they confronted rapid and dramatic social changes from the 1960s to the present: trenchant critiques of the ideas of progress, social engineering, and social justice; assertion of the national and particular over and against the cosmopolitan and the global; defense of human nature over and against relativism and constructionism; the dangers of emancipatory self-expression for the maintenance of political and social order; and more.
In this seminar, we will attempt to enter into and understand these ideas in their own terms, while also engaging with authors who have undertaken critical assessments of this intellectual tradition. Our primary focus will be close examination of ideas and texts, with an eye to how they have informed contemporary debates.
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WINTER 2022
HLT/SOCC51H3: Special Topics in Health & Society – Obesity: Causes, Consequences, and Solutions
Instructor: N. Spence
According to the World Health Organization, over 1.9 billion adults and 340 million children and adolescents are obese. Obesity is a significant issue in society, with a wide range of causes, consequences, and potential solutions. Using a multidisciplinary approach, including social science, public health, medicine, and the humanities, we will critically examine the history of obesity and research evidence to date across a host of issues: individual factors related to lifestyle and behavior, as well as biological influences; physical and mental health; stigma, inequality, and discrimination; socioeconomic costs; and the role of the social determinants of health. A thorough analysis of the responses by key social institutions, including medicine, the economic system, and government, will be conducted. Finally, the challenges faced by regions beyond Western society will be reviewed.
SOCD01H3S: Advanced Seminar in Culture and Cities: The Sociology of the Neighbourhood
Instructor: F. Calderon Figueroa
From the ancient town to the modern megalopolis, the neighbourhood is one of the oldest forms of human association. Despite dramatic transformations in cities, politics, economies, and culture, neighbourhoods remain central and consequential foci of social life. Neighbors socialize frequently with one another, and neighborhoods often provide the physical basis for face-to-face interactions in cities where much of life proceeds anonymously in crowds or virtually online. Neighborhoods are frequently the units of governmental administration, the targets of urban policy, the basis of civic activism, and the arenas of heated political conflict. The neighbourhood in which one grows up and lives has tremendous consequences for one’s life chances and outlook, from health to income to political attitudes and beyond.
This course will closely examine from a number of perspectives the nature, functions, consequences, and causes of neighbourhoods, paying special attention to the ways in which neighbourhoods are changing and enduring in contemporary post-industrial societies.
Toronto has often been called a “city of neighbourhoods,” and we will use Toronto as our living laboratory. In addition to close reading of key texts, students will engage in ongoing field assignments in neighbourhoods across Toronto and its suburbs. Students will work in teams to examine a neighbourhood via multiple techniques―they will triangulate quantitative, qualitative and spatial data analysis. They will learn to collate government statistics from the census with online business data to produce statistical mappings of the neighbourhood, and compare it to others. They will compile media stories, histories, literary documents, music lyrics, and more to analyze the cultural representation of a neighbourhood. They will engage in multiple structured personal field observations to observe the street life and activity patterns that characterize the neighbourhood. Interviews with community leaders and ‘old-timers’ will reveal neighbourhood history and changing perceptions of its character. Digital photos will provide material both for mapping patterns (e.g. in colour schemes or signage) and for visual comparisons across neighbourhoods (in e.g. architectural style).
Combining all of this together across teams will produce a deep and rich understanding of various neighbourhood forms and experiences, providing students with living material to test and extend the ideas of the authors we will read in class.
SOCD05H3: Advanced Seminar in Criminology and Sociology of Law
Instructor: J. Doherty
This course offers an in-depth examination of selected topics in criminology and the sociology of law. Students will be responsible for conducting a presentation on and leading a discussion of one weekly reading during the course. A list of journal articles will be provided on select topics in criminology including corrections, justice, and policing, and the sociology of law for students to choose from on the first day of class. In addition to the major presentation, students will be required to complete an annotated bibliography and research paper on a subject related to criminology and the sociology of law.
SOCD15H3: Advanced Seminar in Critical Migration Studies
Instructor: M. Sarkar
According to global estimates, nearly three quarters of migrants move for work. While we tend to think of migration as voluntary and migrants as ‘free’, rational actors, this upper level undergraduate seminar in historical sociology explores the connections between migration/mobility of people and labour, with particular focus on historical and contemporary forms of constrain/unfreedom/coercion that define human mobility and work experiences across the world.
SOCD44H3S: Advanced Seminar on Issues in Contemporary Sociology
Instructor: J. Hannigan
The thematic focus of this course is the Sociology of the Arctic. With the substantial impact that climate change is having on the Circumpolar North, contemporary issues relating to the changing lifestyles and relationships of indigenous peoples, competition for land and resources, and the growth of a “Global Arctic” are of increasing sociological importance.
SOCD20H3: Advanced Seminar: Social Change and Gender Relations in Chinese Societies
Instructor: P.C. Hsiung
This seminar examines the transformation and perpetuation of gender relations in contemporary Chinese societies. It pays specific attention to gender politics at the micro level and structural changes at the macro level. It engages students in scholarly debates on gender relations and social change in the Chinese societies. By providing guidance and feedback, the instructor helps students acquire substantive knowledge on the subject area and develop transferable, research-based skills. Upon completion of the seminar, students are expected to (1) understand how specific claims are made and substantiated; (2) examine how scholarly research is conducted; and (3) apply such understandings to explore a research question through library research, data analysis, literature review, and presentation of your findings and direction of future inquiry.
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FALL 2021
SOCD25H3: Advanced Seminar in Economy, Politics and Society
Instructor: J. Braun
This course examines markets from a sociological perspective, focusing on three core questions: How do social forces (social networks, institutions, etc) construct markets? How is “rational” economic action constructed and understood by market participants? What are the consequences of living in a society where we interact primarily through markets?
Markets pervade many aspects of our lives. We use them to buy and sell things as trivial as gum and as important as homes. We compete for jobs in labour markets. We rely on investment plans such as RRSPs and RESPs for our retirement and education and borrow in credit markets through student loans and credit cards. Markets are created to solve a growing range of policy problems, such as “cap and trade” markets for CO2 emissions to combat climate change or legalized cannabis markets to undermine illegal drug trafficking.
However, we rarely consider how social forces organize markets. Economists assume that markets are efficient, apolitical mechanisms for allocating resources. But sociologists theorize markets as social arenas which are embedded in social networks and cultural or institutional logics; in other words, markets are constructed from the social relations of participants rather than existing independently of them. These contrasting understandings of markets have important implications for explaining how markets are created and transformed, how people behave in markets, and the consequences of living in a market society.
SOCC24H3: Special Topics in Gender and Family
Instructor: J. Doherty
A theoretical and empirical examination of different forms of family and gender relations. Of special interest is the way in which the institution of the family produces and reflects gendered inequalities in society. Themes covered include changes and continuities in family and gender relations, micro-level dynamics and macro-level trends in family and gender, as well as the interplay of structure and agency.
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SPRING 2021
SOCD25S Advanced Seminar - Economy, Politic, and Society
Faculty: K. Barber
In 1989, Francis Fukuyama, amongst others, boldly predicted that we would soon reach "the end of history" - a globalized system marked by the unchallenged ascent of American-style liberalism and neoclassical economics. In 2020, the end has not materialized, and various prominent thinkers are now openly questioning many of the fundamental assumptions and predictions of these ideas and models. How did this happen? In this course, we seek to understood both the classic liberal and neoclassical economic ideas that have defined much of the policy making of the 20th and 21st centuries, its critiques and, most importantly, alternatives.
SOCD44S Advanced Seminar - Sociology of Finance
Faculty: A Grigoryeva
The Sociology of Finance is an advanced course on the sub-filed of economic sociology that focuses on money and finance. The course offers a sociological account of money and finance. The central focus is to examine how money and financial activiies are shaped, facilitated, or even impeded by cultural values and social relations, and show that money and finance cannot be fully understood outside of their social context. The course will cover several topics, including the hsitorical emergence of money a currency, the expansion of the financial system since the 1980s, financial markets, growing household involvement in the stock and credit market, and implications for social life (e.g., how credit scores shape dating).
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FALL 2020
SOCC54H3F – Special Topics in Sociology of Culture: Information and Misinformation in Mass Media: Fake and Real News
Faculty: Ivanka Knezevic
The course considers production of news media, both traditional and online, and its effects on news content. We analyse the news to assess the likelihood that factually accurate, complete, in-depth, and fairly interpreted information will be available to media users. News media are seen as an element of social control and, consequently, as a field of social conflict in developed post-industrial societies.
The first part of the course considers production of news in its social, organisational, and cultural contexts. Economic constraints and political goals of news organisations shape the choice of events to be included in the news, as well as the complex interplay of factual information and interpretation in their presentation.
In the second half of the course, we focus on the phenomenon of fake news: conscious and deliberate misinformation disseminated by mass media. Networked media enable the speed and scope of its production and propagation. We look at both the macro-sociological issues of political power and social inequalities, as well as the micro-processes of identity- and boundary work, as they appear in the fake news phenomenon.
Most research discussed in the course is on contemporary North American media, allowing you to relate your everyday experiences to broader trends in the development of fake and real news.
SOC D01H3F - Advanced Seminar in Culture and Cities
Faculty: K. Barber
In 2007, for the first time on record, the majority of the world’s population were estimated to live in an urban as opposed to rural area, marking the culmination of a rapid urbanization trend that has defined population growth since the early 20th century (United Nations, 2019). By the year 2050, this proportion is anticipated to increase to more than two thirds (68%). We live in an urban world, but what does that mean? What is the city? How can we study it sociologically? What does it mean to be “urban”? What are the social and economic systems that drive the growth and death of cities? How should we understand the distinction between urban and rural? Although it may seem obvious, the binary distinction between urban and rural, the polis and zoë – a division that, at its most stereotypical, is often understood as the contrast between the excesses of a corrupted, amoral modernity opposed with the innocence and balance of Nature - is not only ancient but recurrent across time, place and culture. In this course, we use a series of case studies from some of the world’s best-known urban centers in order to investigate the city not just as a physical place defined by a network roads, buildings, waterways and energy networks but also as a legal relation defined by a series of legal codes and zoning bylaws, an economic and technological relation defined by networks of exchange, innovation, consumption and exploitation and a social relation defined by complex social differentiation, possibility, decadence and, in some views, immorality.
SOCD10F - Advance Seminar in Gender and Family
Faculty: Prof. Jason Doherty
A critical examination of family patters and gender relations, offering insight into key questions and findings about gender in family studies. Topics include: 1) families in focus - women and diversity in family life over time; 2) family today - gendered social relations in intimacy, parenthood, and work; 3) families and change - consequences of immigration, economic upheaval, and divorce for women; and 4) families and the law - policies, problems, and violence in women's lives.
SOCD15F - Advanced Seminar in Critical Migration Studies
Faculty: J. Harold
This seminar course provides an in-depth understanding of the causes, functions, and consequences of international migration. Immigrants make up a growing proportion of Canada’s population, particularly in the country’s largest cities, and immigration plays an important role in Canada’s economy. Yet, immigration is often constructed as “problem” or “threat” that requires policies or regulations to manage and control . The course examines immigration policies and migrant integration by focusing on the social, political, and economic contexts in which migration takes place. The course focuses on Canada, but makes comparisons with other countries, including the United States. It covers topics that include: citizenship and migrant rights; domestic, care, and agricultural labor; assimilation; and racism and discrimination in migrant policies.
The thematic focus of this course is the Sociology of the Arctic. With the substantial impact that climate change is having on the Circumpolar North, contemporary issues relating to the changing lifestyles and relationships of indigenous peoples, competition for land and resources, and the growth of a “Global Arctic” are of increasing sociological importance.
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SUMMER 2020
SOCC24H3S – Special Topics in Gender and Family – Sociology of LGBTQI+ Families
This class will provide students with an in-depth understanding of the variety and lived realities of families within the LGBTQ+ communities of Canada and the USA. Students
will critically examine normative notions of family across axes of gender, race/ethnicity, class, marital status, and kinship ties, giving particular attention to how LGBTQ+
families challenge these patterns. At the same time, we explore the material, institutional, and legal challenges faced by LGBTQ+ families.
SOCD05H3F – Advanced Seminar in Criminology and Sociology of Law
This online seminar course seeks to expose students to a sociological understanding of law. We will begin by reading and discussing how classical and contemporary theorists understand the sociological movement in criminology. We will apply these theoretical perspectives to current socio-legal issues and policies. This approach will emphasize the social, political, cultural aspects of the law, rather than studying the law through legal doctrines, statutes or judicial opinions. From this vantage point, this course will enable students to understand how the law influences and is influenced by social factors, including race, class, gender, and sexuality.
SOCD25H3 – Advanced Seminar in Economy, Politics and Society
This course examines markets from a sociological perspective, focusing on three core questions: How do social forces construct markets? How is rational action constructed and understood by market participants? What are the consequences of living in a society organized primarily through markets?
Markets pervade many aspects of our lives. We use them to buy and sell things as trivial as gum and as important as homes. We compete for jobs in labour markets. We rely on investment plans such as RRSPs and RESPs for our retirement and education, and borrow in credit markets through student loans and credit cards. Markets are created to solve a growing range of policy problems, such as “cap and trade” markets for CO2 emissions to combat climate change or legalized cannabis markets to undermine illegal drug trafficking.
However, we rarely consider how social forces organize markets. Economists assume that markets are efficient, apolitical mechanisms for allocating resources. But sociologists theorize markets as social arenas which are embedded in social networks and cultural or institutional logics; in other words, markets are constructed from the social relations of participants rather than existing independently of them. These contrasting understandings of markets have important implications for explaining how markets are created and transformed, how people behave in markets, and the consequences of living in a market society.
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WINTER 2020
SOCD11H3 S, Program and Policy Evaluation
Instructor: N. Spence
This course provides an introduction to the field of program and policy evaluation. Evaluation plays an important role in evidence based decision making in all aspects of society. Students will gain insight into the theoretical, methodological, practical, and ethical aspects of evaluation across different settings. The relative strengths and weaknesses of various designs used in applied social research to examine programs and policies will be covered.
SOCD25H3 S, Advanced Seminar in Economy, Politics, and Society.
This seminar course provides students with the tools to apply a sociological interpretation to economic phenomena with a focus on firms, labor markets, consumption, underground economies, and globalization, among others. Throughout the course, we examine these phenomena through three competing perspectives: economic, structural, and cultural.
SOCD51H3 S, Capstone Seminar in Culture, Creativity, and Cities
Instructor: C. Childress
This course provides a hands-on learning experience with data collection, analysis, and dissemination on topics discussed in the Minor in Culture, Creativity, and Cities. It involves substantial group and individual-based learning, and may cover topics as diverse as the role of cultural fairs and festivals in the city of Toronto, the efficacy of arts organizations, current trends in local cultural labour markets, artistic markets inside and outside of the downtown core, food culture, and analysis of governmental datasets on arts participation in the city.
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FALL 2019
SOCD01H3 F, Advanced Seminar in Culture and Cities: The Sociology of the Neighbourhood.
Instructor: Professor Daniel Silver
From the ancient town to the modern megalopolis, the neighbourhood is one of the oldest forms of human association. Despite dramatic transformations in cities, politics, economies, and culture, neighbourhoods remain central and consequential foci of social life. Neighbors socialize frequently with one another, and neighborhoods often provide the physical basis for face-to-face interactions in cities where much of life proceeds anonymously in crowds or virtually online. Neighborhoods are frequently the units of governmental administration, the targets of urban policy, the basis of civic activism, and the arenas of heated political conflict. The neighbourhood in which one grows up and lives has tremendous consequences for one’s life chances and outlook, from health to income to political attitudes and beyond.
This course will closely examine from a number of perspectives the nature, functions, consequences, and causes of neighbourhoods, paying special attention to the ways in which neighbourhoods are changing and enduring in contemporary post-industrial societies.
Toronto has often been called a “city of neighbourhoods,” and we will use Toronto as our living laboratory. In addition to close reading of key texts, students will engage in ongoing field assignments in neighbourhoods across Toronto and its suburbs. Students will work in teams to examine a neighbourhood via multiple techniques―they will be required to triangulate quantitative, qualitative and spatial data analysis. They will learn to collate government statistics from the census with online business data to produce statistical mappings of the neighbourhood, and compare it to others. They will compile media stories, histories, and literary documents to analyze the cultural representation of a neighbourhood. They will engage in multiple structured personal field observations to observe the street life and activity patterns that characterize the neighbourhood. Interviews with community leaders and ‘old-timers’ will reveal neighbourhood history and changing perceptions of its character. Digital photos will provide material both for mapping patterns (e.g. in color or signage) and for visual comparisons across neighborhoods (in e.g. architectural style).
Combining all of this together across teams will produce a deep and rich understanding of various neighbourhood forms and experiences, providing students with living material to test and extend the ideas of the authors we will read in class.
SOCD15H3 F, Advanced Seminar in Critical Migration Studies
Instructor: J. Harold
This course examines the causes and consequences of migration in global historical context. The course engages students with theoretical and empirical work on questions around belonging, citizenship, integration, multiculturalism, and others. Underlying the examination of migration flows, the course focuses on how forms of inequality take shape in immigration policy and everyday practice. Students will engage critically with scholarly and media discourse on migration, which will be situated in contemporary political debates in Canada and beyond.
SOCD44H3 F, Advanced Seminar on Issues in Contemporary Sociology -- The Sociology of Career Decision-Making
Instructor: L. Williams
The Sociology of Career Decision-Making will explore some of the main theoretical and research-based themes that relate to the individual and social experiences of careers and work. We will focus on core questions around the characteristics and conditions of work and occupations that shape the experience of the self-concept and identity – including classic themes about job control, autonomy, challenge, complexity, and authority. Other features of the course will include the ways that interpersonal dynamics and organizational structures shape individual psychological and social experiences both at work and beyond the boundaries of the workplace. The latter will be particularly emphasized, as careers often span well beyond the bounds of the workplace. We will also address important questions about the aspects of health, well-being, and quality of life as they relate to how people make career decisions.
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SUMMER 2019
SOCD05H3 – Advanced Seminar in Criminology and Sociology of Law
Why are some careers viewed as legitimate while others are not? Why do individuals opt into work which may be seen as illegitimate by many? How do these individuals think about their work and what it means for their broader identities and lives? To address these questions, this course examines a series of occupations which vary from being non-normative to widely stigmatized. From professional gamblers to more traditional “career criminals” such as persistent thieves, students will learn how different career paths become feasible for individuals due to a complex intersection of factors such as socio-economic status, race, gender, and ongoing life experiences.
SOCD25H3 - Advanced Seminar in Economy, Politics and Society
Topic: Sociology of Markets
Markets pervade many aspects of our lives, but we rarely consider the social forces that organize markets. Economists assume that markets are efficient, apolitical mechanisms for allocating resources. But sociologists theorize markets as social arenas in which transactions are embedded in social networks and cultural or institutional logics; in other words, markets are constructed through social relations rather than existing independently of them. This course examines markets from a sociological perspective, focusing on debates over the social forces that create and transform markets, how "rational" market action is constructed and understood, and the consequences of living in a market society.
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SPRING 2019
SOCD10H3S Advanced Seminar in Gender and Family
Course Description: This course offers an in-depth examination of selected topics in Gender and Family. This course sets out from the notion that we live in a time of change in family life. Throughout this course, we will explore marriage patterns, cohabitation, divorce rates, couples, blended and single-parent families, lesbian and gay couples (and parents), living alone, juggling employment and family life, children living at home, gendered work in the home, as well as love and monogamy. In this course, we will challenge and problematize some of what is considered “natural” in terms of family life.
SOCD21H3, Immigrant Scarborough
Course Description: This course examines Scarborough as an immigrant gateway. Students will have the opportunity to conduct in-depth empirical research of their own and link the data they have collected to theoretical debates about migration, transnationalism and multicultural communities. This discussion-centered seminar course will pay particular attention to the themes of social change, social exclusion and social inequality.
SOCC40H3S Contemporary Sociological Theory
Course Description: This course covers key topics and theorists in contemporary sociological theory. It provides an introduction to major contemporary social theorists, focusing on their sociology and theories in historical context. It will introduce you to key perspectives of Functionalism; Symbolic Interactionism, Ethnomethodology; Social Constructionism, Structuralism, Postmoderism, Postcolonial Theory, and Intersectionality. We will address key themes, such as the tensions between political/public engagement and scholarship, the micro-meso-macro level of analysis issue, and the question of excluded/marginalized/optimal marginal creative thinkers. While the span of contemporary theory is vast, and continues to grow, this course provides an in-depth snap shot of many of the main theorists and schools of thought.
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FALL 2018
SOCD05H3F: Advanced Seminar in Criminology and Sociology of Law - L. Williams
Why are some careers viewed as legitimate while others are not? Why do individuals opt into work which may be seen as illegitimate by many? How do these individuals think about their work and what it means for their broader identities and lives? To address these questions, this course examines a series of occupations which vary from being non-normative to widely stigmatized. From professional gamblers to more traditional “career criminals” such as persistent thieves, students will learn how different career paths become feasible for individuals due to a complex intersection of factors such as socio-economic status, race, gender, and ongoing life experiences.
SOCD15F: Advanced Seminar in Critical Migration Studies - J. Harold
This course examines critical policies, processes and practices as they relate to migration, belonging, identity, inequality, work & labor, and citizenship. The course examines these in relation to race, class, and gender to better understand the interlocking systems of power, privilege, and inequality embedded in migration policy and practice. Key questions addressed in this course are: How does the patchwork of immigration policies affect migration flows and the daily realities of immigrants in Canada? How do contexts of entry and exit shape the identity, citizenship, and experiences of immigrants? How is inequality associated with the social, political, and economic integration of immigrants? The course engages students with theoretical and empirical work around these questions and others. It also aims to develop students’ ability to engage critically with scholarly work and media discourse, and to participate in action-oriented research.
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SUMMER 2018
SOCD44H3 Y – Advanced Seminar on Issues in Contemporary Sociology
The Sociology of Contemporary Visual Art. This course focuses on all forms of visual art (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.) and examines the social arrangements and individuals that produce art, the dealers, museums, and economic arrangements responsible for distributing and selling art, and the people that look at, engage with, and buy art.
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WINTER 2018
SOCC59H3 Special Topics in Social Inequality: The Sociology of Food and Diets
When we grab a snack, prepare a dish, or visit a restaurant, we tend to think that our selections reflect our preferences. In this course, we will challenge preference-based assumptions by examining how our food environments are structured and how social inequalities manifest in diets. We will examine how global and national political and economic workings shape local food systems, how people resist these workings and actively re-define their food environments, how taste preferences are constructed, and how people use food to express their social relationships.
SOCD10H3 ~ Advanced Seminar in Gender and Family
In this course, we will read and evaluate recent research related to the sociology of families and gender with a focus on North America. We will explore the diversity of family forms and processes, highlighting specific topics that demonstrate how social forces shape gender and family relations. Topics covered include marriage, cohabitation, parenting, childhood, work-family conflict, divorce, religion, foster care, residential schools, and family violence. Students are encouraged to suggest topics of interest not currently covered by the course schedule.
SOCD25H3 ~ Advanced Seminar in Economy, Politics and Society
This seminar course provides students with the tools to apply a sociological interpretation to economic phenomena with a focus on firms, labor markets, consumption, underground economies, and globalization, among others. Throughout the course, we examine these phenomena through three competing perspectives: economic, structural, and cultural
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FALL 2017
SOCC54 ~ Special Topics in Sociology of Culture
Although shopping is described as a pastime, a closer look reveals that it involves more than leisurely checking out deals or grudgingly buying one's needs. In fact, our habits of buying goods and services - our practices of consumption - are heavily influenced by our social world. In this course, we will examine how people reproduce social divisions through consumption, and how people use consumption to challenge the status quo. We will draw on sociological theories to make sense of how consumption is structured, how social desires are transformed, and how shopping involves identity politics.
SOCC46H3 ~ Special Topics in Sociology of Law
This course draws on sociological theory as well as Canadian and international research to explore the purchase, use, sale, production and trafficking of illicit substances including, but not limited to, heroin, cocaine, cannabis, psychedelic drugs and methamphetamines. Topics that will be covered include: addiction; the incidence and prevalence of illicit drug use in Canada and around the world; the relationship between drugs and crime; and both domestic and international drug policies.
SOCD05H3 ~ Advanced Seminar in Criminology and Sociology of Law
This seminar explores the topic of drug policy (both domestic and international) drawing on an historical-comparative sociological framework. Topics that will be covered include the historical development of drug prohibition in Canada, the War on Drugs in the US, international drug treaties, and alternatives to drug prohibition such as harm reduction and cannabis legalisation. Critical evaluation of the effectiveness of drug policies will be a major focus of this seminar.
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SUMMER 2017
SOCD44H3, Advanced Seminar on Issues in Contemporary Sociology
“This changes everything”: Debates in sociology of mass media
Why do mass media systems all over the world differ from each other? Does this matter for the quality of life of their respective audiences? Are the “new media” really as new as marketing tells us they are? Do they empower us to turn from consumers to creators, or wrap us into cozy cocoons of information that protect our chosen identities? The course will address these and other questions through a review of current issues and debates in Canadian and international sociology of mass media.