Teaching

Courses

The Social World: This course offers an introduction to the field of Sociology. We begin with an exploration of the sociological imagination, a unique mode of questioning that highlights the importance of social structure and relationships to the most mundane aspects of our lives. Each subsequent week we focus on an area of sociological inquiry: relationships and social structure, science and technology, social identity, social difference, and deviance. Through a series of interactions with “cultural artifacts” students exercise and grow their sociological imaginations throughout the semester in groups and individual projects.

Taught: Summer 2018 | Latest Syllabus

Evaluation of Evidence: In this course, students explore a broad survey of sociological studies and methods including: ethnography, interviews, surveys, and experiments. While this isn’t strictly a methods course, students will cultivate the skills to interpret data, evaluate research design, and critique theoretical claims derived from empirical evidence. Students will leave this course able to critically engage with social research presented in academic settings, mainstream media, and everyday life.

Taught: Summer 2019 | Latest Syllabus

University Writing: University Writing helps undergraduates engage in the conversations that form our intellectual community. By reading and writing about scholarly and popular essays, students learn that writing is a process of continual refinement of ideas. Rather than approaching writing as an innate talent, this course teaches writing as a learned skill. We give special attention to textual analysis, research, and revision practices. In this themed section, we will engage the writing process through an investigation of the ways in which data shapes the world around us. The readings we explore will offer an introduction to how the world is interpreted through data. In this course we will treat writing as a learned skill that can be developed rather than an innate talent. We will do this by making a practice of writing as a mode of thinking, arguing, and conveying ideas.

Taught: Fall 2019 | Latest Syllabus