Sociology & Criminology B.A. Program Outcomes
Sociology/Criminology Assessment Plan
MISSION STATEMENT - Spring 2006
The Sociology/Anthropology Department is a diverse, integrated department that includes programs in Anthropology, Criminology, Cultural Studies, and Sociology. The center of the department’s collaborative integration is an interdisciplinary core of social science and humanistic theory and methodology that characterizes these disciplines. By examining human societies and cultures in ways that are empirical, diverse, analytic, comparative-historical, and critical, we serve not only our majors and minors but the larger liberal arts mission of UMD.
Unifying themes include inequality, identity, power, social change and development, and global multiculturalism. The department values community engagement, international study, undergraduate and graduate research, and cross cultural comparison in its curriculum and faculty research to develop these themes.
We recognize that our graduates will inhabit a world of constant, dramatic change. We are therefore committed to foster active learners who are able to take their educations into their own hands. We also recognize and honor the historic commitment of our disciplines to examine social arrangements critically and to promote active citizenship.
Vision Statement - November 2004
The Sociology-Anthropology department maintains a collaborative model, recognizing that a disciplinary, theoretical and methodological core serves each and the entire undergraduate programs in the department (Anthropology, Criminology, Cultural Studies and Sociology). This core can (and should) guide what we do and how we do it. We are committed to (1) identifying and building upon the unifying themes in our programs and (2) considering how our programs support one another and how departmental course offerings relate to one another. Faculty members in each of the programs look for connections that do exist and build upon them. This maximizes integration of departmental programs.
Our new graduate program in criminology’s base assumptions also integrate well with anthropology, cultural studies and sociology. In conducting searches and making hires we will hire to support all our programs. The department’s collaborative model requires that new hires be expected to serve our diverse, integrated department in the way described above.
The center of the department’s integration of its programs is an interdisciplinary core of social science and humanistic theory and methodology that characterizes our undergraduate majors and minors and that will inform our master’s program. The theoretical perspectives emerge from each of the disciplines seeking to understand societies and cultures.
In developing strategies to implement this vision the department will focus on unifying themes – inequality, identity, power, social change and development, and global multiculturalism. The department will use community engagement, international study, undergraduate and graduate research, and cross-cultural comparison in its curriculum and faculty research to develop themes.
Sociology and Criminology Goals and Objectives
KEY
Understand major theoretical perspectives in field such that a student will be able to:
(T1) draw policy implications from theory
(T2) know and reproduce central concepts of specific theories and connect them to research
(T3) communicate underlying assumptions of different theoretical perspectives
(T4) place theories within their social context
Understand the uses and limitations of standard methodological approaches in field such that a student will be able to:
(T5) identify the purpose of sampling
(T6) demonstrate how to interpret basic graphs and bivariate tables
(T7) demonstrate knowledge of the various modes of observation
(T8) compare and contrast basic methodological approaches
(T9) demonstrate knowledge of the various types of information (qual v quant)
Understand the uses and limitations of standard statistical procedures in the field such that a student will be able to:
(T10) interpret basic statistical methods describing quantitative data, including measures of central tendency, dispersion and association
(T11) explain the purpose of sampling
(T12) identify basic sampling procedures
(T13) apply standard inferential procedures (t-tests, chi square, etc.) to make valid generalizations from samples to populations
(T14) identify criteria necessary to establish causation and spuriousness
Understand the internal diversity of U.S. society such that a student will be able to:
(T15) compare and contrast variations by race/ethnicity, gender and class and demonstrate how these social statuses interrelate
(T16) identify the role of institutions and of social movements in fostering or resisting inequalities
(T17) demonstrate how societal and structural factors influence individual and collective identities and behaviors
Understand the diversity of U.S. society and its place in international context such that a student will be able to:
(T18) relate inequalities in the U.S. to global inequalities
Expect graduates will be well prepared for life beyond the university such that they will be able to
(T19) communicate effectively orally
(T20) communicate effectively in writing
**List of courses mapped from current on-line catalog
University of Minnesota Campuses