KEENE STATE COLLEGE
Introduction to Sociology - SOC 101
Topics and Schedule of Readings
Kathleen R. Johnson, Ph.D.
 
 
IMPORTANT NOTE:  This is a tentative schedule.  The actual due dates for all readings, quizzes, and reaction papers will be announced in class.

 Introductions (First Week):  Review Syllabus; sociology as science versus common sense; What is the "sociological imagination"? 
Students should prepare questions about course.
               Readings:  Text, ch. 1 (Take "quiz");  (crossword puzzle)

Topic 1  Research Methods and Perspectives
               Readings: Essentials Text, ch. 1 (continued)
                                    “In Disasters Panic is Rare” (on-line from my webpage)
                                     Reader, ch. 1 "Invitation to Sociology"
                                    Also, “The Last Sociologist”(on-line from my webpage)
                                               
Topic 2  Culture
               Readings:  Essentials Text, ch. 2
                                    Reader, ch. 2 "The Fierce People"
                         
Topic 3 Socialization
                Readings:  Essentials Text, ch. 3
                                     Reader, ch. 3 "Anybody's Son Will Do"
 
Topic 4 Social Structure and Social Interaction
               Readings: Essentials Text, ch. 4
                                     Reader, ch. 4 "Secrets of Selling Cars" and ”Want to Try Out for College Sports? Forget It.”  (On-line from my webpage)
                                               
Topic 5 Social Groups and Formal Organizations
              Readings:  Essentials Text, ch. 5
                                      Reader, ch. 5 "Just Another Routine Emergency"
                                                                       
Topic 6  Deviance and Social Control
               Readings:  Essentials Text, ch. 6
                                      Reader ch. 6 "Becoming a Prostitute" and
                                      “Father Steals Best: Crime is an American Family” (on-line from my webpage)
                                                             
Topic 7  Global Stratification
               Readings: Essentials Text, ch. 7
                                      Reader, ch. 7 "One World, Ready or Not" and
                                      “In a Battered Taxi, a Nurse to India’s Poorest” (on-line from my webpage)
 
Topic 8  Social Class in the U.S.
              Readings:  Essentials Text, ch. 8
                                      Reader, ch. 8 "The Uses of Poverty: The Poor Pay All" and
                                      “Census Shows Bigger Houses and Incomes, but Not for All” (on-line from my webpage)
 
Topic 9  Inequalities of Race and Ethnicity
              Readings:  Essentials Text, ch. 9
                                      Reader ch. 9 "Invisible Man" and “The Nation: And Then There was Light…” (on-line from my webpage)
                       
Topic 10 Inequalities of Gender and Age
              Readings:  Essentials Text, ch. 10
                                      Reader, ch. 10 "Sick Societies" and
                                      Reader, ch. 12 "When Work Becomes Home and Home Becomes Work" and
                                      “Mutilation Seen as Risk for the Girls of Immigrants” (on-line from my webpage)
 
Topic 11 Social Change
              Readings:  Essentials Text, ch. 15
                                      Reader, ch. 15 "Social Change and the Amazon Indians" 1