Sociology 4350: Corporate and Governmental Deviance
Spring 2008
Subject to change: check web schedule if you miss class!!

 

Week One:
Topics/Activities
Assignment
Jan 23 Introductions. Video : "The Corporation" (29 minute clip)  
Jan 25 Video: "The Corporation" (14 minutes clip) Review of theories of deviance Theories of Deviance: A Review
Week Two:Jan 28 Corporate and governmental deviance: an overview E&L, 3-49
Jan 30 Video: "Taken for a Ride "  
Feb 1 Scholarly foundations E&L, 53-66
Week Three: Feb 4 Video: "Rollover" E&L, 67-81
Feb 6 Discussion: Rollover. Enron extra credit: "The Smartest Guys in the Room" (library reserve) . Democracy Now excerpt. Walmart Class Action Lawsuit. E&L, 82-94
Feb 8 Sutherland, Clinard and Yeager. Government contracts: The buck stops where? E&L, 146-166. Bring two discussion questions on the reading.
Week Four:Feb 11 The battle over government regulation (NHTSA--Rollover; FDA--"Nicotine Wars") Mills and Lowi on cycles of power E&L, 107-130. Bring two discussion questions on the reading.
Feb 13 Video: "Trade Secrets," part I
"The Chain Never Stops"
Feb 15 Video: "Trade Secrets," part II E&L, 262-276
Week Five: Feb 18 Groups: Whistleblowers. E&L, 229-249. Whistleblowers
Feb 20 Video: "Where Do You Stand?"  
Feb 22 Brainstorming topics for paper/presentation  
Week Six:Feb 25 Searching library data bases E&L, 195-222. Bring two discussion questions, E&L, 195-222
Feb 27 . Government deviance. Video: "The Fog of War" UMD Library Electronic Reserve: Bogira, Courtroom 302, chapter 9 , print 4-23
Feb 29 Discussion. Study Guide 1.

UMD Electronic Reserve, Bogira, chapter ten, print 4-17

UMD Electronic Reserve, Bogira, chapter 17 , print 4-6

 

 

Bring 1 discussion question on each of the two Bogira readings (for Feb 27 and for today)

Week Seven: Mar 3 Exam One

Mar 5 Video: "Unfinished Business"

Bring a prioritzed list of your top 5 ideas for the group presentation/paper

 

Mar 7 State deviance and race/ethnicity: the social construction of difference.

State Violence and Ethnicity: An Introduction by Pierre VandenBerghe
Go to the UMD library search page and under "Browse Search," enter: State Violence and Ethnicity. Follow the links to access the ebook and read the Introduction. Take notes. .

Week Eight: Mar 10 Video: "Out of the Silence: Fighting for Human Rights" Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Mar 12 Groups. Sociology of law.

 

Mar 14 Guatemala: the Ixil As above, this time read ch. 9, The Ixil Triangle. Take notes.
Week Nine: Mar 24 Video: "Father Roy: Inside the School of Assassins" SOA Watch
Evangelicals Against Torture
Marc 26 Groups: Video. Groups: working on presentations  
Mar 28 American Foreign Policy: "the enemies of our enemies" Video: "American Experience: the Nuremberg Trials"  
Week Ten: Mar 31 Groups. E&L, 167-188
April 2 Time in class for presentation groups to meet. Search for resources, on the web and through the UMD library data bases, relating to your presentation topic
April 4 Ethnic Cleansing in Minnesota? Power, chapter 1-3. Bring a discussion question on each chapter.
Week Eleven: April 7   Power, chapters 4-5. Bring a discussion question on each chapter.
April 9 Video: "America and the Holocaust" Power, chapter 7
April 11 No class--snow day  
Week Twelve: April 14 "America and the Holocaust, part II"  
April 16 Senator Proxmire and the campaign for U.S. endorsement of the United Nations Convention on genocide. Time for groups to work on presentations.

Read one of the following chapters: 6,8, 9, 11

April 18   Power, chapter 12
Week Thirteen: April 21 Video: "Ghosts of Rwanda"Study Guide II Power, chapters 13-14
April 23    
April 25

.Exam 2. Draw to determine order of presentations.

 
Week Fourteen: April 28 Class time for final planning of presentations.  
April 30 Presentations: 1. Police Brutality; 2. Medical experiments (Tuskegee) 3. Whisteblower Laws  
May 2 1. Soviet Gulag 2. Darfur Genocide; 3. Armenian Genocide  
Week Fifteen: May 5 1. Enron 2. COINTELPRO; 3. Amnesty International .
May 7 1. Animal Rights 2. Walmart 3. Tobacco  
May 9 1. World War II medical experiments Video: The Corporation .

Final paper due by noon on Wednesday, May 14, in my office (slip it under the door of Cina 203 if I'm not there).