2022-2023 Course List

Techniques of survey research, interview, and questionnaire construction, field administration, and sampling methodology.

A sociological perspective to examine the history of drug use and abuse in the United States. Multicultural issues in drug abuse, international drug distribution networks, prevention efforts, and legal issues will be discussed.

Examination of ethnographic methodologies in sociology with emphasis on analytic, performance, and autoethnography. Exploration of ethics in ethnography, visual sociology, and first-hand experience in both crafting and presenting ethnographic works.Prereq: SOC 101 or SOC 101W; SOC 201 or similar social science research course with instructor permission.

Prerequisites:

SOC 301W or similar science research course with instructor permission.

Participant observation, focused interviews, and qualitative analysis; students actively participate in a field research project. Prereq: SOC 301W or similiar science research course with instructor permission.

Prerequisites:

SOC 301W or similar science research course with instructor permission.

Analysis of social forces and processes involved in changing norms, values, and structures in traditional and modern societies. Examines both planned and unplanned change.

Theory development and research findings about family systems with a special emphasis on societal influences (social, economic, political) on the changing family.

Analysis of the structures, functions, and origins of religion, its relationship to other social institutions, and its role in modern secular society. Examines processes of individual religiosity and explores current religious movements and trends.

Topics vary as announced in class schedule. May be retaken for credit if topic varies.

Workshop topics vary as announced in class schedule. May be retaken for credit.

For Honors students only.

Focuses on ways sociological theories, perspectives, and methods can be applied to address human concerns; how sociologists make a better world. Participants learn to use sociological methods and concepts (such as theories about social structure, social organization, and social movements) to identify, investigate, and implement solutions to problems of social organization, social process, and social change. Potential applications include issues encountered in various workplace and social situations including community agencies and organizations, government, business, health care, and other social institutions.

Prerequisites:

SOC 301W or equivalent; Senior Standing. 

Reviews sociological competencies and their applications in a variety of professional settings. A faculty-supervised, student-designed capstone project will integrate sociological knowledge, theory and research. Students must have completed or be currently enrolled in all other required courses for the major.

Prerequisites:

SOC 200, SOC 301W and SOC 458

The internship in sociology is designed to provide opportunity to apply classroom learning, to practice and enhance skills, to experience professional socialization, and to explore a career. It also serves as a vehicle for the student to become more aware of personal strengths and identify areas in which further growth is needed.

Prerequisites:

Consent 

A maximum of six credits is applicable toward a single major in the department; three credits toward a minor.

Prerequisites:

Consent 

Introduces students to central topics in medical sociology including: social factors responsible for people's health outcomes; social construction of health illness; health inequalities; evolution of the social institution of medicine; and/or issues realted to race/ethnicity, social class and gender.

Social and social-psychological forces in later life. Problems and prospects of growing old in the United States.

Study of the structure of human response to death, dying, and bereavement in their socio-cultural, interpersonal, and personal context. Formation of children's perception of death, functions of the funeral, euthanasia, and suicide are among the topics to be discussed.

The course will acquaint students with dynamic forces operating in the field of population and development. Includes an introduction to basic theories and techniques of population analysis, with coverage of global economic forces: fertility, morality, and migration. The causes and consequences of overpopulation are discussed with special attention to resource depletion and food shortages.

Examines various forms of family violence, including dating violence, spouse abuse, and child abuse; reviews social theory and empirical research and explores social policy, appropriate responses, and possible solutions.

Implications of sociological knowledge for the administration of Human Services programs. Theoretical and practical aspects of administration with the social service systems.

Applies sociological theories of identity to the experiences of women being released from prison. Taught at the women's prison in Shakopee, Minnesota and integrates MSU students with students drawn from the educational program within the women's prison in Shakopee.

Analysis of the development, structure, and functioning of social processes in large-scale, formal organizations.

Survey of major sociological perspectives on social movements, including theoretical approaches and empirical research on the causes, processes, and outcomes of social movements.

Overview of the role of the United States in an increasingly globalized society with a focus on economic and political inequality, the class structure, the labor process, race and gender relations, the global dimensions of capitalism, and modern crisis tendencies.

Sociological perspectives on social deviance; overview of theoretical approaches; emphasis on symbolic interactionism; issues of social control; research examples and policy implications.