Department of Sociology

AFST 401/501, Research Methods in African Studies.

The course considers disciplinary and interdisciplinary research methodologies in African studies. The focus of the course is on field methods and archival research in the social sciences and humanities. Topics include use of African studies and disciplinary sources (including bibliographical databases and African studies archives), research design, interviewing, survey methods, analysis of sources, and the development of databases and research collections.

SOCY 501a, Foundations of Sociological Theory.

An intensive reading seminar on the key works of a few select classical social theorists. In previous semesters this course has focused on the works of Max Weber and Karl Marx. (Students who need a broad survey of classical social theory should audit SOCY 151, Foundations of Modern Social Theory.)

SOCY 502a, Contemporary Sociological Theory: Durkheimian Sociology.

The course looks at the work of Emile Durkheim and his legacy for both social theory and empirical sociology. In the first part we examine Durkheim’s major writings and key concepts. Next an exploration is made of the multiple and often contending ways these have been taken up and interpreted over the past one hundred or so years. Particular emphasis is given to the decline in functionalist and positivist readings of Durkheim and his emergence as a major cultural theorist in recent decades. We consider the contributions of Mauss, Bataille, Goffman, Victor Turner, Collins, Lukes, Douglas

SOCY 503a, Historical Explanation.

Provides an overview of the how-to, and the payoff, of a historical approach to the study of politics. Covers a wide range of topics, from the classics of political science and sociology up to recent comparative historical work.

SOCY 504a, Research Methods: Design and Data Collection.

Survey of (re)current debates, problems, and innovations in qualitative and quantitative empirical research, including both data collection and data analysis issues. Focus on assessing and improving validity and generalizability within the theoretical and practical limits of social science research. Aims at developing a set of skills necessary for everyone who is interested in designing empirical fieldwork. Familiarity with statistics may be helpful but is not required.

SOCY 506b, Research Methods: Applied Data Analysis.

Focus on practical experience with analyzing complex data, including data management, exploration, description, and multivariate analysis. Familiarity with the basics of research methodology and statistical inference is required. Special emphasis is given to issues of comparisons across time and space with both descriptive and analytic methods. A second theme throughout the class is how to measure, describe, and explain changes/differences in inequality. The class covers basic statistics as well as multivariate regression models for continuous and categorical dependent variables.

SOCY 507 01 (11168) /EAST501, Social Science Workshop on Contemporary China.

This is a yearlong course for one credit. Students must register for and complete both terms. This workshop examines contemporary Chinese development from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including anthropology, economics, law, political science, and sociology. At each session, Yale faculty, visitors, and advanced graduate students deliver short presentations of current works in progress, circulated in advance, for group discussion and critique. In addition there are two weekend data analysis workshops in each term to which seminar members are invited. One unit of course credit is available to students who attend the colloquium in both terms and submit a thirty-page paper. Permission of instructor required.

SOCY 509b, Advanced Methods of Ethnographic Field Research.

This seminar is a practicum in participant observation. We begin with readings on ethical and methodological issues pertaining to ethnographic fieldwork, but the bulk of the course focuses on workshop-style discussions of students’ experience in their field sites. Participants are required to spend four hours per week in a field site and to write and share field notes, as well as hand in a final paper. Participants should initiate a field placement before the semester begins, as this process can be time-consuming and it is essential that students have access to a site by the second week of the semester.

SOCY 510a^u, Religious Nationalism.

Religious nationalism past and present, East and West; the normative issues the phenomenon raises. Religious roots of Western nationalism; nationalistic propensities of different religious traditions; conditions under which religious nationalism turns violent; and whether religion, nationalism, pluralism, and democracy are compatible.

SOCY 511a, Social Interaction: Modeling the Emergence of Social Structure.

In this course we will focus on some formal approaches to studying social interactions and building empirically testable models of sociological phenomena. Much of the course deals with game theory, in both its classical and evolutionary varieties, and we look in detail at some examples of sociological game theory and at how evolutionary game theory has developed into the approach sometimes called social, or endogenous, interaction models. We spend some time looking at these endogenous interaction models and their variants, such as diffusion and threshold models. Finally we look briefly at the use of agent based models and other simulation techniques in building models of social phenomena. The emphasis throughout is on applications: that is to say, the construction of explanatory models and their testing against empirical data.

SOCY 515 01 (11178) /EPE306/PLSC236/SOCY337,Urban Poverty and Policy.

Study of aspects of urban poverty such as unemployment, homelessness, welfare dependence, isolation, and educational deprivation in the context of recent, current, and proposed policies.

SOCY 519b, The Sociology of Pierre Bourdieu.

Pierre Bourdieu (1930–2002) was arguably the greatest sociologist since the classical generation of Max Weber and Emile Durkheim. This seminar surveys his life’s work. Through an intensive and extensive reading of Bourdieu’s works, students learn what distinguishes Bourdieu’s approach from other classical and contemporary versions of sociology and social science; develop a firm and nuanced grasp of his trademark concepts (“habitus,” “capital,” and “field”); and observe how Bourdieu applied them to the analysis of various social fields (class, gender, the state, politics, art and culture). In short, students learn how to analyze the world in a Bourdieuian fashion.

SOCY 520b/Hist 972b, Revolutions in a Comparative Perspective.

This co-taught course deals with the relationship between theories of revolution and substantive comparative-historical analysis. Topics covered include the causes, processes, and consequences of political and social revolutions; the concept of revolution more broadly; the past, present, and future of “revolution studies.” The course ranges widely over historical and geographical terrain, from antiquity to the twenty-first-century meaning of revolution. We examine the distinctiveness of the great revolutions of early modern Europe; debates on colonialism, race, and revolution; the changing nature of revolutionary movements; and Islam, revolution, and modernity.

SOCY 523b/WGSS623b, Sociology of Sex and Gender.

This course provides graduate students with an introduction to major theoretical approaches to sex and gender, and it covers recent empirical research in key arenas, including work, family, reproduction, and medicine. Readings have been selected to reflect a variety of methodological approaches and to spotlight the ways in which sex and gender intersect with other social categories (e.g. race,class, and nationality) at different stages in the lifecourse.

SOCY 525a, Cultural Sociology.

After a review of a broad range of contemporary perspectives, the seminar proceeds to examine in depth, and in its variations, the strong program in cultural sociology. This includes looking at theoretical ideas about hermeneutics and interpretation, critical theory, semiotics, structuralism and post-structuralism, social drama and ritual, performance studies, and social approaches to symbolic process. It also includes looking at empirical studies that apply cultural methods to such issues as politics, violence, civil society, and collective trauma.

SOCY 526a, Social Stratification.

Social and economic inequalities based on social class and status are a major dimension of individual life chances and life aspirations as well as of the structure and dynamics of societies and the world system. The course is intended to cover the current state of the field in regard to academic and policy debates, theories, methods, crucial research findings, as well as comparative analyses.

SOCY 527a^u, Knowledge in Society.

Post-industrial societies are said to rely deeply on knowledge-based economies, the production and distribution of new knowledge, research, and information. The course examines the social foundations of knowledge regimes, epistemic cultures, and the “value” of knowledge: discursive orders and disciplines; expertise and scientific capital; academic research and economic development; property rights and the governance of knowledge.

SOCY 529b, Legislation.

SOCY 535b, Consumption and Sustainability.

This seminar explores the dynamics of imperial states, societies, and subjectivities, as well as the theoretical literature addressing problems of colonialism and empire. We survey current debates over the question of the imperial status of the contemporary United States, as well as ranging over historical imperial contexts including the Roman and Ottoman empires; the overseas empires of the early modern Western European states; the struggle for imperium in the late nineteenth-century world; twentieth-century colonial empires; and decolonization and imperial aftermath in both the post-state socialist and third worlds. We pay particular attention to the thorny issue of how and why empires are made, cohere, or come apart. The reflections and experiences of both those who operate empires and those who live within their borders are threaded throughout the course.

SOCY 536a, Colonialism and Empire.

This seminar explores the dynamics of imperial states, societies, and subjectivities, as well as the theoretical literature addressing problems of colonialism and empire. We survey current debates over the question of the imperial status of the contemporary United States, as well as ranging over historical imperial contexts including the Roman and Ottoman empires; the overseas empires of the early modern Western European states; the struggle for imperium in the late nineteenth-century world; twentieth-century colonial empires; and decolonization and imperial aftermath in both the post-state socialist and third worlds. We pay particular attention to the thorny issue of how and why empires are made, cohere, or come apart. The reflections and experiences of both those who operate empires and those who live within their borders are threaded throughout the course.

SOCY 542 01 (11179) , Sociological Theory.

The course seeks to give graduate students the basic tools for a constructive engagement with sociological theory and practice.  We read closely the major works that have informed the logic of theoretical inquiry in contemporary sociology.  The main focus is on the writings of Weber, Marx, and Durkheim.  We trace the lineaments of dominant theoretical approaches and explore the ways in which sociologists have contended with these approaches when confronting the central questions of the discipline.

SOCY 543 , Demography Gender and Health.

Comparative survey of research in demography. The interplay of population processes and socioeconomic development; trends in fertility, mortality, aging, and health in both richer and poorer nations; the relationship between women's status and health and demographic outcomes. Readings from a variety of fields, including demography/sociology, economics, epidemiology, and public health.

SOCY 544b, Social Movements.

The course covers the dynamic field of social movement research from its origins to the present day. We discuss developments in theory and methodology primarily from European and American (North and South) perspectives, but touch on others as well. The course is open to graduate students and advanced undergraduates; some knowledge of sociological theory is helpful, but not required. Run as a seminar, the course requires active participation. Instruction includes the use of film and music.

SOCY 548a, The Sociology of the Arts: Classical and Contemporary Perspectives.

This seminar examines sociological perspectives on the arts and popular culture. Emphasis is given to the conceptualization of the arts and popular culture within sociological theory, as well as the interpretation of cultural representations and artifacts, art works, film, music, literature, and so on. Students are exposed to a range of classical and contemporary perspectives and styles of analysis, from the normative to the strictly empirical.

SOCY 550a, A Secular Age?

Do we live in a secular age? How would we know? What, precisely, do we mean by the term secular? Or, for that matter, religious? Is the secular simply the world minus religion? Or is the secular itself a cultural ethos? To what extent do these categories translate to non-Western contexts? Does resurgent religion imperil the secular order of the modern world? Or is an overweening secularism the real danger? These are some of the questions we will consider in this course, which plunges into the ongoing debate about the secular in the social sciences and humanities and to consider how the secular can be made into an object for scholarly research as well as rational reflection.

SOCY 551 01 (22740), Comparative and Historical Methods.

This course provides a hands-on introduction to the craft of comparative and historical analysis. Through a series of small-scale, individual, and group projects, students learn how to frame researchable problems, how to use comparisons to address them, how to work with different types of primary sources, how to transform them into "data," and how to manage this data. In order to create a substantive focus for the course, and to exploit the strengths of Yale?s libraries and archives, the readings and assignments are centered on English history and historiography. The course is designed for graduate students in history and the social sciences but is also open to undergraduates with a strong interest in research.

SOCY 553a, Empires and Imperialism.

A study of empire as a territorial organization of political power. Comparison of empire in different historical periods, from antiquity to European overseas expansion in the fifteenth through twentieth century, and in different geographic contexts in Africa, Asia, and Europe. Review of economic, political, and cultural theories of imperialism, colonialism, and decolonization.

SOCY 557b, Political Sociology.

A survey of key developments in the field of political sociology. Seminar topics include the formation of national states in relationship to the longer history of world empire; political culture; collective action; and contemporary American and transnational regimes of welfare and warfare.

SOCY 558b, Topics in Social Stratification

This course covers empirical, theoretical and methodological issues in the contemporary study of social stratification, inequality and mobility. Topics covered include: inequalities in class, occupations, income, wealth, education, health, lifestyle, and neighborhoods, as well as intergenerational mobility, marriage and family processes, and inequalities of race, ethnicity and gender. The class focuses on the US experience but seeks to place it in a comparative perspective.

SOCY 560 01 (11181) /PLSC734, SOCY 560 01 (22741), Comparative Research Workshop. Fall:

This workshop is a weekly interdisciplinary seminar dedicated to group discussion of work-in-progress by distinguished visiting scholars, Yale sociology graduate students, and in-house faculty from various disciplines. Papers are distributed a week ahead of time and also posted at the Web site of the Center for Comparative Research. Students who take the course for a letter grade are expected to present a paper-in-progress the term that they are enrolled for credit.

SOCY 561 01 (22742) /SOCY325/EAST365, Civil Society in China.

Discussion of the social and political consequences of China?s entry into the global economy. Focus on patterns of inequality and the success of individuals and communities seeking greater social autonomy and political freedoms. Prerequisite: at least one course focused on China after 1911. Knowledge of modern Chinese desirable but not necessary. Optional discussion section conducted in Chinese.

SOCY 562b 01 (11183) , Topics in Cultural Sociology.

After reviewing contemporary sociological perspectives on culture, the seminar concentrates on the intellectual origins, theories, and empirical exemplars of the strong program in cultural sociology. We discuss hermeneutics and interpretation, critical theory, semiotics, structuralism, and post-structuralism; how a cultural-sociological program emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s; and how this program has produced a range of research studies. We examine in particular emerging foci on social drama and performance, cultural trauma, and the iconic turn.

SOCY 563 01 (26522) /INTS301/MMES282/SOCY339 , Imperialism, Insurgency, and State Building in the Middle East.

The historical evolution of political order from Morocco to Central Asia in the past two centuries. Focus on relationships between imperialism, insurgency, and state building. Ottoman, European, and nationalist strategies for state building; modes of local resistance; recent transnational developments; American counterinsurgency and nation-building initiatives in the region.

SOCY 565a/b (11184), Advanced Seminar in Cultural Sociology.

This seminar focuses on the unpublished work of advanced graduate students in cultural sociology at Yale and elsewhere, as well as on just-emerging published work that exemplifies "strong program" work in the cultural sociology and surrounding fields. The format is intended to maximize student participation so as to develop collegial networks of intellectual support as well as capacities for critical evaluation. The workshop may be audited by more advanced graduate students who wish to participate in this process but whose course work is completed, as well as by Visiting Fellows to the Center for Cultural Sociology, or with permission of the instructor.

SOCY 567b^u, Cultural Performances. The Whitney Seminar on New Perspectives in the Social Sciences and Humanities.

“Performance” has become a major new topic in both the humanities and the social sciences, and provides a new bridge for interrelating the disciplines that compose them. Performance allows textual emphasis to be related to contingency and context, symbolic action to be related to power and control, and dramatic production to be related to audience response. In this seminar, we examine the critical texts of this movement and host, in person, some of its most prominent students and practitioners. Also WHIT 971b.

SOCY 570b, Social Theory Trauma and Memory.

This seminar explores sociological approaches to memory and trauma. A central theme is how cultural trauma has influenced the development of social theory, as well as literature and the arts generally. While aimed at graduate students in the social sciences and humanities, the seminar is open to advanced graduate students after consultation with the instructor.

SOCY 577a, Topics in Multivariate Data Analysis.

SOCY 578a (11185) , Logic of Empirical Social Research.

The seminar is an intensive introduction into the methodology of the social sciences. It covers such topics as concepts and indicators, propositions and theory, explanation and understanding, observation and measurement, methods of data collection, types of data, units of analysis and levels of variables, research design (experiments and quasi-experiments), description and causal modeling, verification and falsification, testing and inference, longitudinal analysis. Besides the discussion of selected texts we re-analyze classical studies as well as recent research papers.

SOCY 580a (11186), Methods in Quantitative Sociology.

Introduction to probability and descriptive statistics. In-depth coverage of the linear model and its assumptions.

SOCY 581b (22744), Intermediate Methods in Quantitative Sociology.

This course provides the second part of a two-term introduction to statistical analysis for quantitative social science research. The course covers advanced topics in linear regression and provides an introductory overview of models for categorical and count data, the analysis of time data, and longitudinal data. We also discuss data-related issues such as missing data and weighting, and data that are complicated by issues of nonrandom design.

SOCY 582a (22745), Statistics III.

Covers more advanced statistical topics following on from Statistics II. Topics include matrix algebra, probability, calculus of optimization; properties of estimators; maximum likelihood estimation; identification; simultaneous equation models; estimation of measurement and structural models; simulation methods.

SOCY 583b, Ethnography of the African-American Community.

SOCY 585b, The Sociology of Life Course

Comprehensive overview of the current state of life course theory, methods and research. The first part of the course covers methods of cohort and event history analysis. The second part covers essentials of life course theory: How do societies structure human lives? What is the relationship among human development, aging, and the life course? How do life course patterns change over historical time, and how do they differ between societies? How are welfare regimes, stratification, and life course patterns related to each other? In the third part of the course we read samples of empirical research and do research exercises.

SOCY 589b, Classical Social Theory: The Marx-Weber Debate

Close reading of critical texts by Marx and Weber. Evaluation of the authors“ differences and similarities.

SOCY 590b, Early Modern Empires: Theory and History.

This co-taught graduate seminar explores the dynamics of early modern empires, as well as the relevant theoretical literature that addresses problems of colonialism and empire more generally. Why and where were the successive early modern empires built; how and why did they cohere and come apart? What differentiates them from contemporary or ancient colonialism and empire? Our readings range over varied intersecting historical colonial contexts including the first wave of overseas empire of the western European states; the Ottoman Empire; and imperial orders in Asia and the Americas. The reflections and experiences of both those who operated the levers of empires and those who lived within their borders are featured throughout the course. Students write a primary-source-based research paper at the close of the course. Also HIST 610b.

SOCY 595a (11187), SOCY 595b (22746), Inequality and Life Course Workshop.

In this workshop we present and discuss ongoing research work, primarily but not exclusively quantitative analyses. In addition, we address theoretical and methodological issues in the areas of the life course (education, training, labor markets, aging as well as family demography), social inequality (class structures, stratification, and social mobility), and related topics.

SOCY 597 01 (11188), SOCY 597 01 (22747), Special Topics in Sociology.

Students enroll in Special Topics if they wish to retake a course for credit when there is a new instructor and a substantially different syllabus from the first time they took the course. Only with the permission of the DGS.

SOCY 598 01 (11189), Independent Study.

By arrangement with faculty. Directed Reading Course Selection Form [pdf] should be completed.

SOCY 599 01 (22748), Independent Study.

By arrangement with faculty. Directed Reading Course Selection Form [pdf] should be completed.

SOCY 601a, Work and Gender.

This course examines how workplaces, jobs, and workers come to be structured along gendered lines. The class reads theoretical accounts, empirical studies, ethnographies, and legal cases to obtain an understanding of the mechanisms through which work becomes gendered. Among the questions the course addresses are: Does the workplace reflect or rather actively reproduce gendered social relations and identities? What is the relationship among wage work, citizenship, and gender? How do structural features of organizations tend to reproduce sex segregation and gender harassment? How should we understand the relationship between gender and sexuality at work? Which theories ground past and present interpretations of the law's ban on sex discrimination? Which theories should do so? The representation of gender and work in the popular media is also explored, through an accompanying, required, in-class film series. Self-scheduled examination. Also LAW 20398, WGSS 704a.

SOCY 610 01 (22749) /WGSS745, Race, Gender, and the African American Experience.

This course explores how the social constructs of race and gender impact individual and collective black experiences within major social institutions (i.e., education, family, criminal justice, media and entertainment, and politics and the economy). It also analyzes the ways in which these institutions produce and are constituted by race and gender inequality. Attention is paid to theories of discrimination and to social movements that both differentiate and unite the black experience along gender lines. Enrolled students are required to present the oral and written results of research on race and gender in one such social institution.

SOCY 612 01 (22751), Agency and Action.

The massive turn toward agency and action in the social sciences is the topic of this graduate seminar. We survey the range of theoretical approaches as they play out across various empirical sites, including politics, firms, social movements, and everyday life. The course allots generous space for students to engage the implications of the material for their own research interests.

SOCY 616a, Urban Ethnography.

SOCY 625a, Analysis of Social Structure.

Emphasizing analytically integrated viewpoints, this course develops a variety of major contemporary approaches to the study of social structure and social organization. Building in part on research viewpoints articulated by Kenneth J. Arrow in The Limits of Organization (1974), by János Kornai in an address at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences published in 1984, and by Harrison C. White in Identity and Control (2nd ed., 2008), four major types of social organization are identified as focal: (1) social networks, (2) competitive markets, (3) hierarchies/bureaucracy, and (4) collective choice. This lecture course uses mathematical and computational models – and comparisons of their scientific styles and contributions – as analytical vehicles in coordinated development of the four species.

SOCY 628 01 (11192), SOCY 628 01 (22752),Workshop in Cultural Sociology.

This workshop is designed to be a continuous part of the graduate curriculum. Meeting weekly throughout both the fall and spring terms, it constitutes an ongoing, informal seminar to explore areas of mutual interest among students and faculty, both visiting and permanent. The core concern of the workshop is social meaning and its forms and processes of institutionalization. Meaning is approached as both structure and performance, drawing not only on the burgeoning area of cultural sociology but on the humanities, philosophy, and other social sciences. Discussions range widely among methodological, theoretical, empirical, and normative issues. Sessions alternate between presentations by students of their own work and by visitors. Contents of the workshop vary from term to term, and from year to year. Enrollment is open to auditors who fully participate and for credit to students who submit written work

SOCY 630, Workshop in Urban Ethnography.

The ethnographic interpretation of urban life and culture. Conceptual and methodological issues will be discussed. Ongoing projects of participants will be presented in a "workshop" format, thus providing participants with critical feedback as well as the opportunity to learn from and contribute to ethnographic work "in progress." Selected ethnographic works will be read and assessed.

SOCY 631a, Sociology of Work.

SOCY 633b, Economic Sociology.

This course provides an overview to the field of economic sociology. Focus is on continuity and change in theory and method over time, from the field’s foundations to the so-called new economic sociology of the last fifteen years. Texts include works by Marx, Weber, Bourdieu, Granovetter, Hamilton, North, and Fligstein.

SOCY 643b, Transitions and Transformation in Eastern Europe and Latin America.

A comparative discussion of the political economy of reform and restructuring in Eastern Europe and China. Processes of institutional and social transformation in each region are examined, with particular attention paid to the effectiveness of different transition policy packages.

SOCY 647b (22753),

Focus is on identifying and exploring robust alternatives/complements to the rational choice models that have come to dominate so much of the analysis of social (including organizational) processes in recent years. Specifically, emphasis is placed on a range of mathematical models and related analytic approaches originating outside of the rational choice literature--in fields such as social network analysis, evolutionary biology, organization theory, and the law. Possible starting points include the Boorman-Levitt network matching model (see, e.g., Scott A. Boorman and Paul R. Levitt, “The network matching principle: A model of efficient resource allocation by informal social networks in non-profit and other non-market social structures,” Economics Letters, 1982, 10, 1-7) and its applications to non-profits and complex statues; weak ties models of job information transmission and other information transfer in elite social networks; “garbage can” models of the internal problem-solving dynamics of complex organizations.

SOCY 654 01 (21953)/WGSS719/AFAM415/SOCY366/AMST415/AFAM719/ERM345/AMST680, Race, Racisms and Social Theory.

An overview of the historical and theoretical issues deriving from the comparative study of race and racisms with special attention to the relationship between the category of "race" and the development of the human sciences. A core consideration of "race" as a problem in the sociology of knowledge is supplemented by material from other disciplines: history, philosophy, economics, politics, and literature.

SOCY 656 01 (11193), Professional Seminar.

This required seminar aims at introducing incoming sociology graduate students to the department and the profession. Members of the department are invited to discuss their research. There are minimum requirements, such as writing a book review. No grades are given (taken as an audit). The Sociology DGS is responsible for the seminar. Held biweekly.

660 01 (24315) /AFAM825, African American Family Formation and Class Structure.

This course will trace the formation of contemporary African American class and family structures investigating how evolving racialized class-gender relations shaped 21st Century populations of poor and affluent blacks. Emphasizing an interdisciplinary approach, we draw methods and texts from each of the social sciences, history, and literature to explore important relationships between social behavior (agency) and blocked opportunity. In addition to subjecting leading contemporary texts to close reading critiques, we discuss several classical sociological and historical texts as well as autobiography, popular media, and rap music to investigate several important but largely neglected questions.