UBC DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY Graduate Course Offerings for 2014-15
UBC DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY
Graduate Course Offerings for 2014-15
For further information about any specific course listed below, please contact the instructor.
TERM 1
SOCI 500 (3 credits): Foundations of Sociological Thought
Mondays 2:00-5:00pm; Dr. Ralph Matthews, ralph.matthews@ubc.ca
This course focuses on analyzing (a) the underlying questions that the early sociologists were grappling with in the years leading to the middle of the twentieth century, (b) the relative traditions of social thought and where individual sociologists fit into those traditions, (c) the substantive and the epistemological concerns of sociological theorists, and (d) a sociology of knowledge perspective to social thought.
SOCI 502 (3 credits): Research Design and Techniques (Quantitative)
Fridays 9:00-12:00pm; Dr. Gerry Veenstra, gerry.veenstra@ubc.ca
This course focuses on the process of conducting a survey and analyzing the data obtained from the process. It includes consideration of philosophical and ethical issues; causality; research questions; research design; measurement; survey questions; indices and scales; questionnaire formats; sampling; kinds of surveys; transferring data into a statistical software package; and basic analysis of survey data. Upon completion of the course, students should be able to read and constructively critique survey research results, demonstrate the applicability and limitations of various survey administration strategies and undertake a survey project of her/his own.
SOCI 503 (3 credits): Research Design and Techniques (Qualitative)
Tuesdays, 1:30-4:30pm; Dr. Wendy Roth, wendy.roth@ubc.ca
This course is designed for sociology students in the first year of their graduate program or who have little previous experience with qualitative research methods. It focuses on research design issues, data collection, and building skills as a qualitative researcher. The class is intended to be the first in a two-course sequence together with SOCI 515, which focuses on qualitative data analysis. The present course is intended to give students an understanding of several qualitative methodological approaches, but with special emphasis on interview-based research and ethnography/participant observation, with which students will gain hands-on experience. The course will provide an overview of other common qualitative methods used in sociology, including focus groups and case studies.
SOCI 560A (3 credits): Culture and Knowledge
Tuesdays 2:00-5:00pm; Dr. Renisa Mawani, renisa@mail.ubc.caWhat is “Culture” and how does it influence the social world? Is culture divisible from social relations or is it a foundation and condition of social life? In the contemporary moment, “culture” has become a ubiquitous term, one that carries a wide range of meanings. Culture is described and defined through symbols, language, institutional discourses and practices that are materialized in the social world through identities, nationalisms, and tastes. This graduate seminar offers a critical and historical foray into the sociology of culture. The course begins by evaluating classical and foundational texts in the field (including Marx, Adorno and Horkheimer, Durkheim, Mauss, Veblen, Bourdieu, and others) and places them into conversation with critical race, postcolonial, and anticolonial thinkers (such as Fanon, Said, Gilroy, Hall, Gikandi and others). Please note that the course readings overlap, albeit not entirely, with the Sociology of Culture Comprehensive Exam readings.
SOCI 599A 003 (3 credits): Urban Sociology
Wednesdays 2:00-5:00pm; Dr. Nathan Lauster, nlauster@mail.ubc.ca
Course Description: This course is meant to provide students with a broad survey of urban sociology as a field, providing theoretical grounding and support for research and fieldwork set within or otherwise concerning cities. Central questions include: How do cities generate difference, and how do people deal with the consequences? How are cities built and regulated? How can they be variously understood as places, arenas, habitats, networks, and actors? Vancouver and other North American cities provide ready laboratories for investigating research questions, but historical and international breadth of discussion will be encouraged.
TERM 2
SOCI 501 (3 credits): Contemporary Sociological Theory
Wednesdays 1:00-4:00pm; Dr. James White, blanco@mail.ubc.ca
This is a survey course reviewing most of the contemporary theories used in the sociology and social science. There will be some special emphasis on the rational choice theory of James Coleman, Pierre Bourdieu’s cultural conflict theory, and the recent work on inequality and capital by Thomas Picketty. A major text is used as well as assigned readings.
SOCI 509A (3 credits): Sociology of the Environment
Mondays 2:00-5:00pm; Dr. Ralph Matthews, ralph.matthews@ubc.caAll action is situated, and where things happen is often as important in determining the social behaviour and social organization that develops, as the other people in the situation. Simply put, environment matters. Yet, while we may know the environment through our senses, we understand and explain the environment through the meanings that we give to it. This seminar course focuses on (a) how these socially meaningful aspects of environment develop, and how these socially constructed environments come to influence us in turn and (b) how sociological frameworks of explanation can help us to understand the environment and to understand environmental issues in ways that are different from those perspectives found in other disciplines. Among the many topics to be covered are issues of environment change and regulation occurring in British Columbia and Canada – particularly around issues of resource management and environmental impacts.
SOCI 514 (3 credits): Analyzing Quantitative Data in Sociology
Monday 10:00-1:00pm; Dr. Elizabeth Hirsh, ehirsh@mail.ubc.ca
Sociology 514 covers quantitative data analysis techniques used in the social sciences, with a focus on linear modeling. We begin by reviewing the basics of descriptive and inferential statistics and then cover ordinary least squares regression and generalized linear models. While we spend some time discussing statistical motivation, the focus of the class is applied data analysis and interpretation using the statistical software package Stata.
SOCI 584A (3 credits): Health, Illness and Society
Tuesdays 2:00-5:00pm; Dr. Richard Carpiano, richard.carpiano@ubc.caThe sociological study of health and illness (also known as medical sociology) is a longstanding intellectual tradition that emerged from and has informed not only the discipline of sociology, but also the fields of medicine, public health, and population health. This seminar course provides an introduction to medical sociology, covering a variety of focal areas in this broad subfield, including: professional and public conceptions of health, illness, disease, and risk; the experience of living with an illness, the medicalization of personal and social problems; how institutions shape the practices of and care provided by health care professionals; and the mechanisms through which various social factors (e.g., socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, gender, and community) influence mental and physical health throughout the lifespan.