Schedule, Sociology 3945, Fall 2008, UMD
Instructor: Bruce Mork
(Subject to change: check online schedule if you miss class)
This schedule is still being modified, as I update it from the last time I taught it
|
Date
|
Class topics and activities
|
Assignment
|
|
Week One: Sept 3
|
Introduction to the Great Debate.
Video: "NOW, Oct 22, 2004: A Working Class Majority?" |
|
|
Sept 5
|
Conflict theory
|
Sernau, pp. xi-15.
|
|
Week Two: Sept 8
|
Functionalism
|
Sernau, pp. 16-27,
|
|
Sept 10
|
Video: "Made in
Thailand"
|
Sernau, 31-57
|
|
Sept 12
|
Theories of international stratification
|
Sernau, 181-187. Bring to class a list of the countries
in which the clothes and shoes you were wearing yesterday were made.
|
|
Week Three:
Sept 15
|
Class privilege. Video: "The American Dream at Groton" |
Sernau, 59-88 ("In Your Family," p. 88, and
p. 120, is a good way to start thinking about your paper.)
|
|
Sept 17
|
The hidden injuries of class (thanks to Sennett and Cobb
for the phrase)
|
|
|
Sept 19 |
||
|
Week Four:
Sept 22
|
Sernau, 91-119.
|
|
|
Sept 24
|
||
|
Sept 26
|
Race and class.
|
|
|
Week Five: Sept 29
|
Game: Life Happens
|
Sernau, 121-138
|
|
Oct 1
|
Video: "With
Babies and Banners"
|
|
|
Oct 3
|
Gender and class.
|
|
|
Week Six: Oct 6
|
Exam One
|
|
|
Oct 8
|
Video: "People
Like Us," part I
Status, prestige and lifestyle |
Sernau, 141-157
|
|
Oct 10
|
||
|
Week Seven: Oct 13
|
The Power Elite
|
Sernau, 159-178
|
|
Oct 15
|
Video: "Taken
for a Ride"
|
|
|
Oct 17
|
||
|
Week Eight:
Oct 20
|
Social mobility and Social Reproduction
|
Sernau, 189-210
|
|
Oct 22
|
||
|
Oct 24
|
Affirmative Action and Social mobility
|
|
|
Week Nine: Oct 27
|
Inequality and Social Movements
|
Sernau, 251-279
|
| Oct 29 |
Video: "Ain't
Scared of Your Jails"
|
|
| Oct 31 | ||
|
Week Ten: Nov 3
|
Unionized meatpacking jobs
|
UMD
Electronic Reserve, "A Dream of Joe Hill" and "On Strike"
|
| Nov 5 | Video: "American Dream" | UMD Electronic Reserve, "The Breaking Point" and "Back to Work" |
|
Nov 7
|
Video: "American Dream, part II" (I will be
attending the Midwest Sociological Society meetings)
|
|
|
Week Eleven: Nov 10
|
||
|
Nov 12
|
Exam Two
|
|
|
Nov 14
|
Poverty in the United States
|
Sernau, 215-248
|
|
Week Twelve:
Nov 17
|
Low wage work: the inner city
|
|
|
Nov 19
|
Low wage work II
|
UMD Electronic Reserve: "No
Shame in My Game"
|
|
Nov 21
|
||
|
Week Thirteen:
Nov 24
|
Life Happens?
|
|
|
Nov 26
|
Nickel and Dimed
|
Ehrenreich, Getting Ready
|
|
Nov 28
|
Thanksgiving holiday
|
|
|
Week Fourteen: Dec 1
|
Bring 2 discussion questions dealing with the reading assignment
|
Ehrenreich, Serving in Florida
|
|
Dec 3
|
Bring 2 discussion questions
|
Ehrenreich, Scrubbing in Maine
|
|
Dec 5
|
Optional reading: Hidden Cost of Wal-Mart Jobs
|
|
|
Week Fifteen: Dec 8
|
Bring 2 discussion questions
|
Ehrenreich, Selling in Minnesota
|
|
Dec 10
|
Social Mobility Papers due. Groups: Common Themes in Social
Mobility Papers
|
|
|
Dec 12
|
Video: "Inequality Matters"
|
Ehrenreich, Evaluation. Study Guide
3
|
The final exam, which will cover the last third of the course, is scheduled for Friday, Dec. 19, 8.00-9.55