Sociology

Surveys the basic concepts, theories and analytical methods of sociology and introduces students to sociology as a way of thinking. 

This course examines the rise of the North American film industry, its organization and its current cultural influence. It investigates the history of early film, the rise of the studio system, the star as celebrity, the emergence of a number of film aesthetics, and it analyses how film has represented social issues especially those of class, gender and race.

This course provides a broad-based introduction to the interdisciplinary field of the sociology of the media. It explores the political, economic, ideological and organizational settings within which the media operates and charts its growing importance in many aspects of contemporary life.

Examines the changing nature and organization of work within the context of regional, national and international developments. 

Examines the social nature and consequences of health, illness and healing and looks at medicine as a form of social control. Areas to be covered include the delivery of health care, social construction of medical knowledge, social inequality and its impact on health and disease.

Examines the historical preconditions, current processes in and structure of Canadian society. This may include French-English relations, regionalism, native rights, Canadian mosaic and position in the world system. 

An introduction to gender and gender studies from a sociological viewpoint with some consideration of interdisciplinary perspectives. Examines basic concepts, approaches, and methods pertinent to understanding gender relations and divisions in a global and historical context.

An analysis of social movements and revolutions from a sociological perspective. Emphasis is on critical understanding of why they arise, why some fail and why others succeed.

Introduction to historical and sociological understanding of modern and post-modern societies. Particular emphasis will be placed on Canada and Europe.

Surveys the origins of and development of sociological theory. Considers major classical theorists such as Marx, Durkheim, and Weber, and selected modern and contemporary theories.

Explores the relationships between the evolution of economic ideas and the prevailing socio-historical conditions. Also examines broader implications of economic ideas for the formulation of economic and social policy. 

Introduces students to the logic and main stages of quantitative research, covering research design, sampling, measurement, data collection methods, and statistical analysis as well as research ethics. 

Introduces students to the inter-disciplinary emergence of qualitative methods (e.g., feminist, interactionist, textual), with an emphasis on epistemological, philosophical and reflexive concerns as well as practical applications.

A sociological examination of the principal ways communications can be understood. The course examines how Canadian films have addressed issues of regional identity, electronic communications (McLuhan), and national identity.

This course provides a broad-based introduction to the interdisciplinary field of the sociology of film. It investigates the relationship between film and society and focuses its attention on post World War II Hollywood Films, Italian Neo-realist and French New Wave films. 

This course situates cinematic Rome in its cultural, urban, social and political settings. It focuses on films that treat the city of Rome as a protagonist as well as a symbolic cultural space that will be traversed, examined, contested, and reclaimed. The course will further examine how Rome is used in film as a site for the projection of modern romance, Cold War imperial political conflicts, sexual identities, decadence, and cultural anxieties. Course will normally be taught on site in Rome.

Explores the processes through which gender relations and assumptions about gender enter into the design and use of technologies, the extent to which the social relations of technology are implicated in the generation of gender inequalities, and the impacts of technology on the lives of women and men.

Course explores the transition from traditional to modern society. Emphasis is on the structures of everyday life before and after modernization. 

This course examines films shot in New York within the historical and sociological context of the city as well as within the body of work of a number of directors who made New York an important setting for their stories. The course will normally be taught on site in New York. 

This course examines the social construction of knowledge. Explores the social and historical processes by which we have come to accept certain claims to knowledge as valid. Also examines controversies about the progressiveness and rationality of knowledge.

Under the direction of a supervisor, an Honours student develops a proposal which is approved by the Discipline.

Advanced studies in discourse and textual analysis. Topics may vary from year to year, but will typically cover a selection from the following intellectual schools: phenomenology, ethnomethodology, conversation analysis, discourse analysis, cultural studies, post-structuralism, deconstruction, and feminism. 

A comprehensive historical study of the political routes the major countries of the East and the West took to reach modern industrial society. Emphasis is on the interrelations of state power, class, ideology, and industrialization.

This course examines the daily cultural artifacts that surround us, their multitude of meanings, and their use by social actors. This course will provide a historical background for understanding contemporary popular culture, and will investigate current theoretical debates on mass culture, popular culture and postmodernism.

A comparative study of the cultural, political and economic heritage of world civilizations.