Sociology and Anthropology Courses
Courses
Individual Studies (0-0-1) Supervised individual study. Prerequisite: Department approval.
Department: Sociology
1 Credit Hour
1 Total Contact Hour
0 Lab Hours
0 Lecture Hours
1 Other Hour
Individual Studies (0-0-2) Supervised individual study. Prerequisite: Department approval.
Department: Sociology
2 Credit Hours
2 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
0 Lecture Hours
2 Other Hours
This course is to be taken by students in the Applied Non-Thesis plan. In this course, students will propose to their committee their applied plan of activities, have it approved, and begin those activities. Prerequisites: Departmental approval required. Restricted to level of GR.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
0 Lecture Hours
3 Other Hours
SOCI 5311: Professional Development in Sociology (3-0) This course introduces students to major components of their professional roles as MA students and MA degree graduates. These include: (1) developing a professional CV, surveying the job opportunities for Sociology MAs, and engaging in a professional job search; (2) engaging in professional writing, such as abstracts, peer reviews, job applications, professional papers, and applied documents; (3) developing skills at substantive and constructive criticism, such as peer reviews; (4) applying social sciences in public and private sector settings; (5) developing teaching skills, such as goal setting, syllabus construction, lecture, and discussion strategies, and assessment strategies.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
Seminar in Advanced Measurement and Inference (3-0) Introduction to techniques of multivariate analysis commonly used in sociology including multiple regression, logistic regression, regression diagnostics, and non-parametric techniques.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
Seminar in Research Methods (3-0) Focus on understanding, interpreting, and critically evaluating information obtained from quantitative methods and the sampling procedures these methods employ, including a general overview of relevant social science research methods.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
Seminar in Qualitative Methods (3-0) The field research process from initial proposal to final report, emphasizing participant-observation and in-depth interview methods and the analysis of qualititive materials.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
Major Restrictions:
Restricted to majors of SOCI
Social Theory (3-0) An examination of major social theories from the early modern era to the present. The course has four objectives (1) identifying connections between philosophical traditions and social theory; (2) estabishing the basic assumptions and arguments of major social theories; (3) examining the linkages between social theories, social policies, and social practices.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
Seminar in Demography (3-0) Causes and consequences of trends in fertility, mortality and migration.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
Special Graduate Topics (3-0) A course organized to investigate special topics and current issues of significance to sociologists. May be repeated for credit when content varies.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
Seminar in Criminology (3-0) Social context of criminal law and criminal justice; theories of crime and treatment programs.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
U.S. - Mexico Borderlands in Change (3-0) The study of social, economic and technological change in borderlands. Topics may include human effects of border policies, transnationalization and nationalism, cultural exchange and hybridity, social inequalities, industrialization, urbanization, migration, legal and illegal trade, violence and peace-building.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
In this seminar, we will explore the social experiences of gender and sexuality from a cross-cultural and historical perspective. The first portion of the course is dedicated to developing a theoretical and methodological grounding for understanding gender and sexuality. We will then move into an exploration of a range of topics including reproduction; sexuality and identity; family; marriage and kinship; gendered hierarchies and power; religion; globalization; social movements; and health.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
Classification Restrictions:
Restricted to class of GR
This is an experimental graduate seminar devoted to border research. The goal is for this course to be a mix of in class, social science methodology and border related theoretical readings, combined with fieldwork experience. We will discuss the basic fundamental debates, interpretations, ethical implications and techniques of research for the social sciences as it has typically related to the U.S. Mexico border. We will focus on the nuts of and bolts of participant observation, field notes and interview techniques.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
Classification Restrictions:
Restricted to class of GR
The goals of the course are to (1) understand the nature and geography of specific environmental hazards, such as industrial chemicals, pesticides, hazardous waste, electronic waste, air pollution, and nuclear waste, as well as explore public policy initiatives for managing such hazards and their advance impacts. (2) Explore the racial/ ethnic and socioeconomic dimensions of various environmental issues, as well as the environmental aspects of economic and social justice concerns. (3) Provide a comprehensive and critical overview of the empirical research literature on EJ analysis.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
Classification Restrictions:
Restricted to class of GR
This seminar explores how understandings and experiences of health, illness, healing, and the body are shaped by culture, power, and moral concerns in society. We will also consider how race, gender, class, ethnicity, and sociopolitical status shape the politics of life, illness, healing, and dying. We will approach these questions primarily, but not exclusively, within biomedical contexts.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
Classification Restrictions:
Restricted to class of GR
Seminar in Sociology of Education (3-0) Application of sociological theory and research to American education; present educational problems and possible solutions.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
This course is an introduction to the concepts and techniques of thematic cartography and the visualization of digital geographic data. Students are expected to develop skills necessary for creating and designing maps and evaluating cartographic representations of information. It has two major objectives: (a) to provide a general introduction to the principles and techniques of computer cartography with a specific emphasis on thematic map design; and (b) to provide hands-on, map-making experience using geographic information systems software.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
5 Total Contact Hours
3 Lab Hours
2 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
Individual Studies (0-0-3) Prerequisite: Department approval.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
0 Lecture Hours
3 Other Hours
This course is to be taken by students in the Applied Non-Thesis Plan. In this course, students will propose to their committee their applied plan of activities, have it approved, and begin those activities. Prerequisite: Department approval required. Restricted to major: SOCI; Restricted to level: GR.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
0 Lecture Hours
3 Other Hours
Major Restrictions:
Restricted to majors of SOCI
This course is to be taken by students in the Applied Non-Thesis Plan. In this course, students will complete their applied activities, write a report on those activities as an application of sociology, and have the report accepted by their committee. Enrollment in this course is required at the time of submission and approval of the project; the course may be repeated through the date of completion. Prerequisite: Department approval. Restricted to major: SOCI; Restricted to level: GR.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
0 Lecture Hours
3 Other Hours
Major Restrictions:
Restricted to majors of SOCI
Thesis I.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
0 Lecture Hours
3 Other Hours
Thesis I
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
0 Lecture Hours
3 Other Hours
Prerequisite(s): (SOCI 5398 w/P or better)
This professionalization course serves as preparation for the job market in academia and the applied realm. It includes a focus on finding potential jobs, preparing application materials, interviewing, and giving a job talk.
Department: Sociology
1 Credit Hour
1 Total Contact Hour
0 Lab Hours
1 Lecture Hour
0 Other Hours
A course concerned with energy production and use, the built and material environment. and their interrelationships with the natural enviro and social environment broadly defined.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
This course is concerned with globalization, migration, borderlands, cultural hybridization, and socio-cultural change in the modern world. The course will take a comparative case study approach-attending to transnational social relations, cultural flows, and the mobility of people, goods, capital, and information- and will examine theories of transnationalism that inform such case studies.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
Changes in planetary climatic and resource systems linked to industrialization and globalization are having differential effects across the world. This course will consider how social and environmental contexts interwind to shape experiences of global environmental change.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
This course considers how social contexts contribute to health inequities within and across populations. There is a focus on how race, ethnicity, social class, gender, sexuality, disability, and immigration status generate health vulnerabilities.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
The rise of urbanization has led to rising pressures on local and global ecosystems across the world. This course will consider how increasing concentrations of human populations, utilization of energy resources, and loss of wild spaces is reshaping the U.S. and the world and its consequences for our social futures.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
This course will analyze disability through sociological lenses, exploring the ways ability and disability experiences are socially constructed. It will explore cultural meanings of ability, disability, and citizenship, examining how these values have been contested and reshaped in various time periods throughout U.S. history. We will also analyze how institutional practices have shaped disabled people's experiences of inclusion and exclusion.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
An overview of sociological research on disasters. While popular myths portray disasters as uncontrollable forces emanating from nature, sociologists have long understood disasters as social phenomena. By examining research on specific disasters, such as hurricanes Katrina and Harvey, students will gain an understanding of how public policies often turn weather-related hazards into disasters. Students will also gain a deep understanding of how disasters both reveal and magnify inequities by race, class, gender, and ability.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
Who is healthy in American Society and who is not? How is our health care system organized? Why is it different from most other industrialized nations? How does the organization of medical care affect the quality and cost of that care? Our goal will be to gain a deeper understanding of the organization, policy issues, and delivery of health care in the U.S. We will examine debates within the field, the individual's experience of health and illness, how people use the system, including cross-border health utilization, and possibilities for reform.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
This course provides: (1) an introduction to the principles and techniques of cartography, with a specific focus on mapping socio-demographic; and (2) hands-on experience with thematic map design and production using GIS software.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
Major components of professional roles as Ph.D students and degree graduates. These include: (1) engaging in professional writing, such as abstracts, peer reviews, professional papers, and applied documents; (2) identifying, applying to, and presenting papers at professional meetings; (3) developing skills at substantive and constructive criticism, such as peer reviews; (4) applying social sciences in public and private sector settings; (5) developing teaching skills, such as goal setting, syllabus construction, lecture, and discussion strategies, and assessment strategies.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
This course introduces students to major components of their professional roles as MA students and MA degree graduates. These include: (1) developing a professional CV, surveying the job opportunities for Sociology MAs, and engaging in a professional job search; (2) engaging in professional writing, such as abstracts, peer reviews, job applications, professional papers, and applied documents; (3) developing skills at substantive and constructive criticism, such as peer reviews; (4) applying social sciences in public and private sector settings; (5) developing teaching skills, such as goal setting, syllabus construction, lecture, and discussion strategies, and assessment strategies.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
Seminar in Advanced Measurement and Inference (3-0) Introduction to techniques of multivariate analysis commonly used in sociology including multiple regression, logistic regression, regression diagnostics, and non-parametric techniques.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
An analysis of selected aspects of the culture, society, politics, government, environment, and economy of the U.S.-Mexico border region. An interdisciplinary academic experience will be conducted through reading and an exploration of data sets available on the region. Students will become familiarized with interaction patterns between Northern Mexico and the U.S. Southwest.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
This seminar on transnational migration of people examines the processes by which immigrants leave their communities, the barriers to migration and mobility, the social networks that link together migrant countries/communities of origin and their country/community of settlement. Structural factors that compel people to cross international boundaries, integration and settlement, cross-border social networks, and responses to such migratory patterns will be evaluated. As such, special focus is placed on laws and policies, economic patterns, gender, and new directions in immigration research.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
A seminar focused introducing the field of border studies including principal concepts and theories, seminal texts and studies, and cutting edge issues.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
Seminar in Research Methods (3-0) Focus on understanding, interpreting, and critically evaluating information obtained from quantitative methods and the sampling procedures these methods employ, including a general overview of relevant social science research methods.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
The field research process from initial proposal to final report, emphasizing participant-observation and in-depth interview methods and the analysis of qualitative materials.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
Major Restrictions:
Restricted to majors of SOCI
This course will cover classical theories and figures in sociology.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
This course covers recent perspectives and approaches in sociological theory.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
Causes and consequences of trends in fertility, mortality and migration.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
A course organized to investigate special topics and current issues of significance to sociologists. May be repeated for credit when content varies.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
Major Restrictions:
Restricted to majors of SOCI
The study of social, economic and technological change in borderlands. Topics may include human effects of border policies, transnationalization and nationalism, cultural exchange and hybridity, social inequalities, industrialization, urbanization, migration, legal and illegal trade, violence and peace-building.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
In this seminar, we will explore the social experiences of gender and sexuality from a cross-cultural and historical perspective. The first portion of the course is dedicated to developing a theoretical and methodological grounding for understanding gender and sexuality. We will then move into an exploration of a range of topics including reproduction; sexuality and identity; family; marriage and kinship; gendered hierarchies and power; religion; globalization; social movements; and health.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
Classification Restrictions:
Restricted to class of GR
This is an experimental graduate seminar devoted to border research. The goal is for this course to be a mix of in class, social science methodology and border related theoretical readings, combined with fieldwork experience. We will discuss the basic fundamental debates, interpretations, ethical implications and techniques of research for the social sciences as it has typically related to the U.S. Mexico border. We will focus on the nuts of and bolts of participant observation, field notes and interview techniques.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
Classification Restrictions:
Restricted to class of GR
The goals of the course are to (1) understand the nature and geography of specific environmental hazards, such as industrial chemicals, pesticides, hazardous waste, electronic waste, air pollution, and nuclear waste, as well as explore public policy initiatives for managing such hazards and their advance impacts. (2) Explore the racial/ ethnic and socioeconomic dimensions of various environmental issues, as well as the environmental aspects of economic and social justice concerns. (3) Provide a comprehensive and critical overview of the empirical research literature on EJ analysis.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
Classification Restrictions:
Restricted to class of GR
This seminar explores how understandings and experiences of health, illness, healing, and the body are shaped by culture, power, and moral concerns in society. We will also consider how race, gender, class, ethnicity, and sociopolitical status shape the politics of life, illness, healing, and dying. We will approach these questions primarily, but not exclusively, within biomedical contexts.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
3 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
Classification Restrictions:
Restricted to class of GR
This course is an introduction to the concepts and techniques of thematic cartography and the visualization of digital geographic data. Students are expected to develop skills necessary for creating and designing maps and evaluating cartographic representations of information. It has two major objectives: (a) to provide a general introduction to the principles and techniques of computer cartography with a specific emphasis on thematic map design; and (b) to provide hands-on, map-making experience using geographic information systems software.
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
5 Total Contact Hours
3 Lab Hours
2 Lecture Hours
0 Other Hours
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
0 Lecture Hours
3 Other Hours
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
0 Lecture Hours
3 Other Hours
Department: Sociology
3 Credit Hours
3 Total Contact Hours
0 Lab Hours
0 Lecture Hours
3 Other Hours