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Syllabus
Sociology 1004: Introductory Sociology
Summer Session II 2014 - CRN: 72495
Virtual Classroom
[email protected]
Devon Lee

Introduction

Sociology is the study of social events, behavior, culture(s) and other social phenomenon. The
study of sociology involves everything and anything that is related to human interaction. In this
course, students will be acquainted with the study of sociology and some if its leading theorists.
As such, everyday experiences will be used in this course to engage students sociological
imagination. The objective will be for students to gain ...the vivid awareness of the relationship
between experience and the wider society.
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Purpose

This course is designed to make you think like a sociologist. When you engage social events,
political debates, watch tv, walk the dog, visit across country or travel abroad, this course will
train you to see everyday experiences through a sociological lens. The information in this course
will present examples and theory that will help you to better understand the world that you are in.
Not only will this course help you to understand the world around you, but it will also help you
to understand yourself as a social construction of identities.


1 Mills, C. W.: 1959, The Sociological Imagination, Oxford University Press, London.

You
Legal
Department of
Justice
International law
Law enforcement
Prision Industry
Religious
Christian
Muslim
Agnostic
Athiest
Buddhist
Economic
Global market
Domestic market
Free market
exchange
Political
Liberal
Conservative
Progressive
family
Nuclear
Broken
M/Patriarchal
Education
Elementary
Post-Secondary
Vocational
Graduate
Health
Access
Health care
Dispariteis
Life Chances
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Introducing Sociology

Students will locate topics under the broad umbrella of self and society
by critically engaging topics similar to globalization, the new minority in
2050, the era of technology etc Along with the assumptions those
statements make. Critical questions like: What does that mean for racial
politics? Obama only got 39% of the white vote, what political impact
does race have? Does the race agenda open the door for the woman
agenda, and how are those constructed? From what perspective? Does
the Era of Obama empower all marginalized groups?

While Race, Class and Gender define most of contemporary sociological discourse, we will also
discuss sexual orientation, gender, and sexuality in context to how that intersects with race, class
and gender. Why does it
matter who puts what
where and why is this an
uncomfortable topic? What
are the contemporary
debates on what to do about
gender disparities, and what
concern is Gay Marriage of
the American people, and
what about a collective gay
community? These real and
specific topics will then be
broadened to include more
You
Race
Class Gender
sexual
orientation
Global
National
Local
Individual
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general topics like culture, and identity.

In this class, we will investigate the relationships between the society and the individual. How do
the intersections of race, class, and gender interact on a social and individual scale? Where does
the economy come into play? How are identities valued? How are common perceptions informed
by international relationships and local practices? Where did that coffee that you drank this
morning or that shirt that you are wearing right now come from? From the global market, what
can we take from gender relations?

Within the conversation of gender relations and oppression, we will also talk about gender
expression, sexualities, relations, and discrimination. Within this discussion, please be prepared
to be understanding, uncomfortable, and empowered.

Honor Code

There is a zero tolerance for honor code violations. Given that this is an online course,
collaboration is not discouraged, it is expected that students do not collaborate answers on exams
or forum posts. The Virginia Tech Honor System can be found here.

Disclaimer

This course may cover information and material that may be offensive to some in our class.
Please be advised that opinions and images are not my own or reflective of the Sociology
Department or Virginia Tech. The purpose of images, video footage, oppressive language
etcwill be to offer a perception of reality that is not often frequented, which is marginalized,
oppressed, closeted, or kept covert. Please keep in mind that said portrayals will be used for
scholarly purposes.

Accessibility

Students with special needs that may inhibit their learning experience, please contact me at your
earliest convenience so that I may accommodate you. Also, please be advised that Virginia Tech
offers academic services for students with disabilities. Online and distance learning students with
disabilities are eligible for accommodations and services based on documentation of the
disability. If you have or think that you have a disability, please contact Services for Students
with Disabilities (SSD) staff in Laverly Hall at (540) 231-3788 or [email protected] at your earliest
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convenience. Their office is located at Laverly Hall, STE 310, Virginia Tech, 430 Old Turner
Street, Blacksburg, VA 24061.

Grading

Grading in this course will not simply be determined by how well you are able to recite what is
read and covered in lecture, but how well you are able to relate that to your personal and global
experience. Students will be graded according their performance on online quizzes, participation
and level of engagement of the materials the online forums on scholar. All tests will be timed and
given online. There will be no makeup for any assignments. There will be four online quizzes
and a final that will be administered through Scholar. Participation will be considered through
how well you all engage the forum topics. Extra credit will be announced as opportunities
present themselves. Each extra credit assignment will be worth the value of 4pts and consist of a
1-page reflection of the content as it relates to topics covered in the course. Extra credit will be
limited to 20pts unless otherwise stated.

Required Textbooks
Margaret L. Andersen, Howard Taylor and Kim A. Logo. Sociology: The Essentials. 8
th

Edition. Stamford: Cengage Publishing. 2013. ISBN-10: 1-285-43132-1
Paula S. Rothenberg and Kelly S. Mayhew. Race, Class, and Gender in the United States. New
York: Worth Publishers. 2014. ISBN-10: 1-4292-4217-5
*All other required reading will be available via scholar and is listed below on the daily
schedule.


Assignments

Quizzes: Students will be tested on the culmination of weekly material
Forums: Students will be evaluated on how well they integrate readings into their forum
discussions with given topics coordinated with the daily research questions.

Final: Students will be tested on their cumulative knowledge of course material through
a final exam.
*Exams (quizzes and final) will be primarily multiple choice with some (approximately 4) essay
questions.

Material and Weight

Quizzes (x4): 40% =400pts
Forum: 30% =300pts
Final: 30% =300pts

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Grade Evaluation

You will be graded on the quality of your work and your ability to demonstrate that you
thoroughly understand the material through tests and discussion forums. This will be evaluated
by your ability to demonstrate the following:
Understand the argument/presented information in given material.
o Tell what the argument means in your own words.
o Summarize the argument.
o List key points
Demonstrate how argument can be applied to a REAL situation.
o Applying the knowledge to de/reconstruct major social events.
o Write a story/scene that depicts the argument
Describe what aspects of the argument are limiting or unrealistic
Compare and contrast old/experiential information with newly acquired information.

Learning Objectives

1. Students will be able to understand intersectionality.
a. Students will explain the implications that intersectionality has for social policy and
scholar activism through forum discussions and exams.
2. Students will be able to detail theoretical paradigms and explanations for social
phenomena.
a. Students will debate how those theoretical perspectives shape social policy and
public discourse on class forum discussions.
b. Students will also be able to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of these
theoretical paradigms
3. Students will understand the strengths and weaknesses with the three main paradigms of
sociology (Functionalist, Conflict, Social-Integrationist).
a. Knowledge will be demonstrated and evaluated on tests and forums.

Weekly Schedule

Scale
92-100 A
89-91 A-
85-88 B+
81-84 B
79-80 B-
75-78 C+
71-74 C
69-70 C-
65-68 D+
60-64 D
60 > F
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Week 1 (July 8-11): What is Sociology?
The Sociological Perspective
Doing Sociological Research
Socialization and the Life Course
Week 2 (July 14-18): How do people fit in society?
Social Structure and Social Interaction
Groups and Organizations
Deviance and Crime
Week 3 (July 21-25): Are we equal?
Social Class and Social Stratification
Global Stratification
o What is the relevance of the occupy movement to contemporary U.S. society?
Economy and Politics

Week 4 (July 28-August 1): What will post-Civil Rights look like in 2050?
Race
How race is socially constructed? What is the theoretical significance of the veil in WEB
DuBois double consciousness?
Week 5 (August 4-8): What does the glass ceiling, slut shaming, and homophobia have to do
with me?
Gender
Sexuality
How are gender, and sexuality articulated, positioned within a matrix of domination
and defined in terms of intersectionality?

Week 6 (August 11-15): Captain Planet! What are the problems with environmental, population
and social change?
Environment, Population and Social Change
o How can studying the social world improve the world around you? What are some
relevant changes that you are aware of?
Families and Religion
Education and Health Care
Culture and the Media


Daily Schedule

Week 1: Sociology is
July 8, 2014

Introduce Syllabus
What is sociology
What do you plan on getting
out of this course? What are
your expectations?

July 9, 2014

Essentials:
1. The Sociological
Perspective
3. Doing Sociological
What does sociology attempt
to do and how can it be used?
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Research

July 10, 2014

W.E.B. Du Bois, The Study of
Negro Problems.
What are the significant points
made in this sociological study
and how is it foundational in
sociological thought?
July 11, 2014

Essentials:
4. Socialization and the Life
Course

How are we taught to do and
think the things that we know
and do throughout our lives?
Week 2: How people fit in
society.
July 14, 2014
Essentials:
5. Social Structure and Social
Interaction
13. Families and Religion
How do institutions shape our
lives?
July 15, 2014 Essentials:
6. Groups and Organizations
How are people placed in and
understood as a part of larger
social organization?
July 16, 2014 Essentials:
7. Deviance and Crime
Why is wrong considered
wrong?
July 17, 2014 Race, Class and Gender in the
United States.
(Part VIII)
9. Masked Racism:
Reflections on the Prison
Industrial Complex
What is the prison industrial
complex and how does it veil
racism?
July 18, 2014 Race, Class and Gender in the
United States.
(Part VIII)
Managing Race, Class, and
Gender Hierarchies:
Reproducing Reality
1. Self-Fulfilling Stereotypes
2. Anti-Gay Stereotypes
3. White Lies
4. Am I Thin Enough Yet?
How are race, class and
gender hierarchies
reproduced?
Week 3: The question of
equality.
July 21, 2014
Essentials:
8. Social Class and Social
Stratification

Race, Class and Gender in the
United States.
(Part V)
3. Kevin Drum, Rich People
Create Jobs! And Five Other
Myths That Must Die for Our
11. Gender Gap on Wages is
What is the gap between the
rich and poor and why is it
there?
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Slow to Close
12. Women Losing Ground
July 22, 2014 9. Global Stratification How does the gap between the
rich and the poor happen on
the global scale?
July 23, 2014 Race, Class and Gender in the
United States.
(Part V)
6. Barbara Ehrenreich and
John Ehrenreich, The Making
of the American 99% and the
Collapse of the Middle Class

Naomi Wolf, Revealed: How
the FBI Coordinated the
Crackdown on Occupy
How does social stratification
lead to inequality and how is
inequality maintained?
July 24, 2014 Race, Class and Gender in the
United States.
(Part VIII)
6. Plutocratic Culture:
Institutions, Values and
Ideologies.

7. Media Magic: Making
Class Invisible
How are social control
mechanism instituted and
naturalized?
July 25, 2014 Essentials:
15. Economy and Politics
How does the economy and
peoples role in it shape lived
experience?
Week 4: What will post-Civil
Rights look like in 2050?
Race
July 28, 2014
W.E.B. Du Bois, Souls of
Black Folk: Of Our Spiritual
Strivings

W.E.B. Du Bois, Dark
Water: Souls of White Folk
How are racial performances
different between Blacks and
whites?
July 29, 2014 Race, Class and Gender in the
United States.
(Part V)
2. Dr. King Weeps From His
Grave.
7. Wealth Gaps Rise To
Record Highs Between Whites,
Blacks, Hispanics: Twenty-To-
One.
15. Cause of Death: Inequality

Essentials:
What are some of the features
American society that have
gotten worse over time?

What have been some
corrective assessments and
measures?
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10. Race and Ethnicity

Reginald Robinson, Human
Agency, Negated Subjectivity,
and White Structural
Oppression: An Analysis of
Critical Race Practive/Praxis
July 30, 2014 Race, Class and Gender in the
United States.
(Part I)
3. Constructing Race,
Creating White Privilege.

Osagie Obasogie, Do Blind
People See Race
How are people socialized to
see race and how does
socialization create a racial
hierarchy/inequality?
July 31, 2014 Patricia Hill Collins,
Introduction From Black
Power to Hip Hop.
What is the social and cultural
context that Hip-Hop is
presented in?
Week 5: What does the glass
ceiling, slut bashing, and
homophobia have to do with
me?
August 1, 2014
Essentials:
11. Gender

Race, Class and Gender in the
United States.
(Part IX)
2. Feminism: A
Transformational Politic
How is gender constructed?

How doe race, class and
gender intersect with one
another?
August 4, 2014 Essentials:
12. Sexuality

Race, Class and Gender in the
United States.
(Part I)
6. The Social Construction of
Sexuality.
How is sexuality constructed?
August 5, 2014 Essentials:
2. Culture and the Media

Race, Class and Gender in the
United States.
(Part VIII)
5. Advertising at The Edge of
the Apocalypse.
How does the media reinforce
bias and how is this a cultural
phenomenon?
August 6, 2014


Kimberle Crenshaw,
Intersectionality

Race, Class and Gender in the
How to racial and gender bias
help to reinforce social and
economic inequality?
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United States.
(Part IV)
1. The Problem:
Discrimination
(Part V)
11. Gender Gap on Wages is
Slow to Close
12. Women Losing Ground
Race, Class and Gender in the
United States
August 7, 2014 Julia Baird Tables have
Turned on Slut Shamers

Jessica Ringrose, and Emma
Renold Slut-shaming, girl
power and sexualisation:
Thinking Through the
Politics of the international
SlutWalks with Teen Girls
How does the objectification
of women lead to slut shaming
and how is this being fought
against?
August 8, 2014 Race, Class and Gender in the
United States.
(Part IX)
4. Interrupting The Cycle of
Oppression: The Role of Allie
as Agents of Change
How can privilege be used to
empower the oppressed?
Week 6: Captain Planet! What
are the problems with
environmental, population and
social change?
August 11, 2014
Essentials:
16. Environment, Population,
and Social Change

Race, Class and Gender in the
United States.
(Part III)
1. A Nation of None and All of
the Above
2. A New Century:
Immigration and the U.S.
3. Impossible Subjects: Illegal
Aliens and the Making of
America.
What changes are fear and
how is that fear socially
constructed?
August 12, 2014 Essentials:
2. Culture and the Media

Race, Class and Gender in the
United States.
(Part VIII)
4. White Lies
How does the media inform
and reinforce bias and social
fissures?
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5. Advertising At the Edge of
the Apocalypse

August 13, 2014 Essentials:
15. Economy and Politics

Race, Class and Gender in the
United States.
(Part V)
18. Inequality Undermines
Democracy
How is democracy
undermined through
inequality?
August 14, 2014 Essentials:
14. Education and Health Care
How do the institutions of
education and healthcare
frame well-being?
August 15, 2014 Good Luck! Final Exam Submission Date