PREVIOUSLY DELIVERED COURSES
Research Methods for the Social Sciences (SOC 302)
This course exposes students to the basic elements of social research. Research plays an integral role in helping us to understand the social world and is the foundation on which much social scientific knowledge rests. The range of research methods and methodologies used by social scientists is large and continually expanding so it will not be possible to expose students to all methods in one class. In this course, I teach students about many of the key concepts, methods, and purposes of research. Social research is necessarily an applied science, and as such, this course gives students the chance to roll up their sleeves and apply what class learnings to real social problems. The goal here is to elevate students comfort level with social research and the application of the scientific method to social problems. At the end of this course, most students will have a solid command of the basic logic, concepts, and tools of social research that will help them to evaluate the quality and reliability of social policies and research. Students also acquire a stronger set of marketable research and data skills, improved critical thinking, and the ability to make evidence-based decisions.
Global Poverty & Sustainable Development (SOC 348)
The purpose of this course is to provide students with a broad exposure to international development in the 21st century, with special focus on the measurement and analysis of poverty and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Students read literature from leading experts in the fields of world development and are exposed to the extensive non-governmental organizational literature on sustainable development. In addition, students learn a) about the history of world development and how it has varied over time and across countries, b) learn to measure poverty, c) analyze inequality in development, and d) summarize and present findings in technical reports and professional presentations.
Social Science Research Methods (SOC 511)
This course reviews the principles, concepts, and foundational assumptions of empirical social research. The curriculum of this course is designed to introduce students to a number of the most common empirical research methods, which includes those that have been at the core of the social sciences throughout the modern era. The guiding principles of the most common methods include an ideographic, deductive, positivist, and quantitative orientation toward scientific inquiry. This is not to say that there are not, and have not been, other approaches to science (nomothetic, inductive, constructivist, and qualitative) nor that the dominant methods are necessarily the best methods…in many instances they are not. But the classical empirical methods reviewed in this course did become institutionalized in the discipline and do represent the foundation and backbone of modern social science research practice, including both fundamental (basic) and applied science. Students will learn how to conduct literature and data reviews, design surveys and experiments, collect qualitative and comparative\historical data, and explore secondary survey data. Being able to document the research process and to effectively and efficiently communicate results and new discoveries is both a critical and essential skill of the contemporary researcher. One of the primary objectives of the course is to help you learn to design research and communicate results.
Social Inequality (SOC 534)
This course is designed to expose students to the history, present, and future of social inequality. Students review many of the seminal works in the field of social stratification and inequality studies, written by leading scholars in the discipline. Students will learn how social inequality happens by studying what has been theorized and observed in the study of labor markets, social classes, racial and ethnic groups, gender, education, occupations, and nationality. As a field of study, social inequality is among the oldest and well-developed in the social sciences, especially in anthropology, economics, sociology, and education. Unfortunately, some forms of inequality, such as the economic inequalities of income and wealth, have been persistently rising in the US over recent decades (☹) but declining between countries (?). Other forms, such as those that manifest along the dimensions of race and gender, have substantially declined in many areas. In this course, we seek to understand how inequality becomes institutionalized, how it effects life and life chances, its functions and dysfunctions, forms and manifestations, and where social inequality is likely going in the future.