This course will function as an advanced seminar focusing on the research interests of the Sociology Department's faculty. Topics vary.
Science, Technology, & Justice: The Making of “Modern” Families
Does reproductive justice include a right to bear children using technological means? What about using 3rd parties like egg and sperm donors? Are reproductive technologies expanding definitions of family or reinforcing race, class, and gender inequalities? This upper-division seminar will examine reproduction from a social justice perspective, with particular attention to how the politics of reproduction are shaped by the intersecting inequalities of gender, race, class, dis/ability, and sexuality. Reproduction is not only a biological process; it is a battleground of social and political struggle. The course will familiarize students with foundational academic and activist approaches to reproduction. Students will learn about the history of and differences between reproductive rights and reproductive justice movements. We will then look at the new questions and challenges reproductive technologies raise for social justice. Cross Listed as UEP 395.
Policing, Power, and Violence
In this course, we will examine policing in the United States from the repression of Indigenous and enslaved peoples in the 18th century to the militarization of policing on the streets and the U.S.-Mexico border today. Using sociological understandings of power, we will analyze the judicial and extrajudicial violence that law enforcement agents engage in and how such violence serves to maintain the unjust and unequal social order. The course will close with us considering arguments for and against the abolition of police forces and prisons.
Sociology of the Southern U.S.
What, and where, is the South? Who is a southerner? What do they do down there, and why do they do what they do? Are the South and southerners still distinctive? By looking at all aspects of Southern life this course will unravel the enigma of the region while pondering a more inclusive and nuanced appreciation of "many Souths" and "southern cultures" including senses of regional identity and allegiance, and in representations of, and cultural stereotypes from and about, the South. Core Program Requirement Met: United States Diversity (CPUD).
Visualizing Gentrification: Bridging Land Use Data and Ethnography
Students are challenged with the myths and realities of gentrification in an immersive discussion. The proposed course weaves urban planning, mapping and data research with qualitative analysis to recognize gentrification drivers, examine the pending experiential trauma of displacement and the community's aspirations and resistance. The course examines the communities of Northeast Los Angeles as they face three colossal planning projects that utilize gentrification as a catalyst and justification for their development.
In a holistic examination of the landscape, course participants will embed with community and other partners to explore the social networks and their relationship to research data. Course discussions will include developing metrics from an activist and documentary perspective to establish the observable community. Students will operate in small teams in developing data and fostering outcomes that reveal the human narrative. They can be visual in nature from ethnographic studies to data visualization, but also critical analysis and policy recommendations of the conditions on the ground. Core Program Requirement Met: United States Diversity (CPUD).