Courses

Prof. Van Tran - vtran@gc.cuny.edu
Soc. 72000: Qualifying Paper Seminar I
Mondays, 2:00-4:00pm, 3 credits
This year-long seminar is an opportunity to conduct original research that will result in a journal article (i.e. The Qualifying Paper) that is of publishable quality in a peer-reviewed academic journal. This seminar is required of all PhD students during the second year in the program. Over the course of two semesters, you will formulate a research question, develop a theoretical argument, design a research strategy, collect and analyze your data, interpret the results, and present your argument and findings in a precise and compelling narrative form. At the end of the Fall term, you will hand in a clearly developed research proposal with a research plan. At the end of Spring term, you will hand in a complete research paper that contributes to sociological knowledge and this draft will form the basis for your first single-authored peer-reviewed article for submission. The article can be based on either an empirically-oriented or a theoretically-oriented research project, as long as it is deemed to be of publishable quality. (For second year students only.)

Prof. Ruth Milkman – rmilkman@gc.cuny.edu
Soc. 85913: Labor and Race in the 20th Century U.S.
Mondays, 4:15-6:15pm, 3 credits
The rich history of labor activism among Blacks and other workers of color is well documented.  It is also beyond dispute that many white trade unionists embraced racist ideologies and/or excluded workers of color from their labor organizations, especially before 1935.  Even in that period, however, some unions did manage to build working-class unity across racial lines.  Although such cases were exceptional in the early 20^th century, they began to multiply in the 1930s as the Congress of Industrial Organizations took shape.  By the end of World War II, union exclusion of workers of color was largely eliminated, although racism persisted in other forms within the labor movement.  The rise of public-sector unionism in the 1960s and 1970s introduced new dynamics thanks to the influence of the civil rights movement.

This course will explore the complex interplay of race and class in the 20^th century U.S. labor movement through a series of exemplary historical case studies and selected theoretical texts.  The goal is to address the question:  under what conditions has class solidarity prevailed over white supremacy in the U.S. labor movement? 

Prof. John Mollenkopf/Keena Lipsitz - jmollenkopf@gc.cuny.edu; keena.lipsitz@qc.cuny.edu
Soc. 82800: Representation, and Redistricting: The Case of New York City
Mondays, 4:15-6:15pm, 3 credits
Focusing on the case of New York City, this course investigates how the single-member district, winner-take-all electoral system of the U.S. mediates the relationships between the spatial distribution of different kinds of racial, ethnic, and other communities and their ability to achieve political representation and empowerment.  In particular, it will examine whether the current round of redistricting reflects or dampens the political impact of the tremendous demographic changes that the city has undergone in the last decade, including not only the emergence of new immigrant communities but the movement of young progressives into the corona of blue collar minority neighborhoods around the job centers of Manhattan, the decline of old, white ethnic Catholic and Jewish neighborhoods, and the emergence of new forms of movement activism. At the outset, the course will review theories of political representation, the history of racial exclusion and voting rights legislation, the conflicts over creating “majority minority” districts, and the quality and content of the Census and other data used for redistricting. It then proceeds to a hands-on examination of the forces at play in the current process of redistricting City Council seats. Students will be introduced to the nuts and bolts of redistricting technology, the practical delineation of “communities of interest,” and the proper design city-wide districting plans. In addition to thoroughly digesting and discussing the assigned readings in the first part of the seminar, participants will undertake field research in the latter part of the seminar on how their choice of a social group (whether racial, ethnic, religious, political, national origin, lifestyle, sexual preference, etc.) or set of neighborhoods has organized itself to affect the redistricting process. This may include testimony to the Districting Commission about their findings. The seminar is co-taught by one expert in political communications, campaigns, and elections and another in political demography. Admission is by permission of instructors and reference will be given to applicants with data analysis and mapping and/or community ethnography skills.

Prof. Jeremy Porter- jporter@gc.cuny.edu
Soc. 81900: Quantitative Research Methods
Mondays, 6:30-8:30pm, 3 credits
This course will cover issues pertaining to the applied research process in the collection, management, and analysis of quantitative data. Methods covered are intended to give students experience with a broad array of specific quantitative methods and a directed focus on the perspectives that underlie the application of such methods. The explicit goal of the course is to give students the foundational tools necessary to do high quality quantitative research in applied and academic settings. A sample of topics covered include; the science of science, the politics and ethics of research, developing novel research ideas, item measurement, instrumentation, sampling, understanding statistical inference, and a wide variety of topics associated with the collection, management, and analysis of quantitative data.​

Prof. John Torpey - jtorpey@gc.cuny.edu
Soc. 74400: Meritocracy: Myth and Reality
Tuesdays, 2:00-4:00pm, 3 credits
The Supreme Court has announced that it will hear two cases bearing on affirmative action – and hence on “merit” in higher education, one emanating from Harvard and the other from the University of North Carolina. Meanwhile, Harvard political philosopher Michael Sandel, author of a recent critique of “the tyranny of merit,” advised German Social Democratic chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz to use the campaign theme of “respect” that helped him get elected.  Prominent controversies have arisen over the criteria for admission into several selective public high schools around the country.  What is “meritocracy” and where did it come from?  Is it good or bad as a principle for organizing society?  What does its future look like? We will explore the meaning of “merit” and “meritocracy” comparatively and historically in an effort to answer these questions.

Profs. Juan Battle/Allia Abdullah-Matta - jbattle@gc.cuny.edu; amatta@lagcc.cuny.edu
Soc. 82907: Black America
Tuesdays, 2:00-4:00pm, 3 credits
This course will serve as a broad survey of the Black experience (mainly) within the United States. Because students will be exposed to (and contribute from) a wide variety of perspectives on the subject, this course is appropriate for students in the traditional social sciences (e.g. sociology, anthropology, psychology, urban education, and history) as well as more contemporary ones (e.g. women’s studies, race studies, American studies, cultural studies, lesbian and gay studies).

Prof. Janet Gornick - jgornick@gc.cuny.edu
Soc. 85700: Social Welfare Policy
Tuesdays, 4:15-6:15pm, 3 credits
This course will examine social welfare policy in the United States, in historical and cross‐national perspective. We will begin with an overview of the development of social welfare policy in the United States. We will focus on crucial historical periods – including the Civil War years, the Progressive Era, the New Deal, the Great Society, and the “welfare reform” of the 1990s and early 2000s. Second, we will assess “the big picture” of the American welfare state, through the lens of its underlying institutional framework. Third, we will analyze a set of contemporary challenges that call for active policy responses, such as severe poverty, low‐wage work, homelessness, and the care deficit. Finally, we will survey selected social policy lessons from other high‐income countries, especially in Europe, where social provisions are typically more extensive than they are in the United States.

Students will complete weekly reaction papers, and a semester-long research project which will culminate in a paper.

Prof. Leslie McCall - lmccall@gc.cuny.edu
Soc. 71500: Statistics I
Tuesdays, 4:15-6:15pm, 3 credits
This course provides an overview of introductory statistics as applied to sociological and other social scientific research. Topics covered include single-variable data description (measures of central tendency, measures of variability, and graphing), fundamentals of inferential statistics (probability and the normal curve, samples and populations, hypothesis testing), and associations between two variables (ANOVA, Chi-square, correlation, and bivariate linear regression analysis). The course will also introduce students to the software package R for the analysis of social science data. No prior knowledge of statistics or R is necessary.

Prof. Jayne Mooney - jmooney@jjay.cuny.edu
Soc. 85000: Gender & Violence
Tuesdays, 6:30-8:30pm, 3 credits
This course explores the relationship between gender, crime and the criminal justice system. It focuses on feminist historical, sociological and socio-legal scholarship to examine the ways in which gender affects patterns of offending, victimization, and imprisonment. It critically engages with the intersections between gender, race, class and sexuality and analyzes how these impact on the treatment of women, as victims, survivors and offenders. It provides an overview of the historical neglect of women’s contributions to sociological and criminological theory.

Cultural representations of masculinity and femininity are considered throughout. Debates are explored on the construction of masculinit(ies) in contemporary society, and recent work on transfeminism and non-binary gender identities. Specific topics to be covered include: violence against women, fear of crime, sex work, war, gangs, serial killing, imprisonment, immigration and feminist research methods

Prof. Barbara Katz Rothman - bkatzrothman@gc.cuny.edu 
Soc. 82800: Writing for Publication
Wednesdays, 2:00-4:00pm, 3 credits
This course will have two components: one is a scholarly sociological study of publishing itself: an examination of the worlds and institutions of knowledge-production and dissemination.  We will consider book publishing, following and more recent changes in the world of book publishing.  Similarly, we will explore the contemporary issues in journal publication, including issues of copyright and new technologies, current debates and concerns about journal costs and distribution, and ongoing discussions of ethical concerns in academic publishing in an increasingly commercialized world.

The second component is more pragmatic, in which students take their own work thru the appropriate and necessary steps for publication in a variety of media.  Topics we will cover include how to do book reviews, how to prepare a paper for presentation and then for publication, how to participate in anthology writing, how to prepare a book proposal, and how to construct a book out of a dissertation.  Each student will (at minimum) and with the support of the instructor and class, write and publish two book reviews; submit papers to three academic meetings; prepare one journal article for submission; prepare and submit one article to a non-academic publication such as an op-ed article; and prepare a (draft) book proposal based on dissertation work.

Prof. Saadia Toor - saadia.toor@csi.cuny.edu
Soc. 83300: Global Feminisms
Wednesdays, 2:00-4:00pm, 3 credits
With the rise of authoritarian regimes around the world, what insights do feminist movements and theorizing offer? What are the fault lines between different forms of feminisms? How do liberal feminist ideals and principles intertwine with an imperial agenda? What are the links and divergences between Islamaphobia and racism? Who should be the arbiter of “equality,” “fairness,” and “human rights”? What ethical questions shape the practices of feminism and feminist politics both domestically and internationally? What is the relationship between modes of production, political economy, and gender politics? What are the possibilities and limits of a transnational feminist politics?  What are the material conditions/structural factors which enable and/or undermine transnational feminist solidarity? This course grapples with some of these questions in the wake of rapid world altering changes.

We will explore the gender dynamics of racial, ethnic, and economic relations of power in domestic, international, and transnational settings. We will examine feminist scholarship produced by and about American women of color, women from the global south, and other social and political actors whose experiences and thinking have shaped contemporary ideas about gender, power, and international political economies. We will explore how both self-identified feminists and people who do not consider themselves feminists write about and understand gender, justice, human rights, tolerance, agency, imperialism, and other relevant topics. We will also examine how women and self-identified feminists practice solidarity across and within national boundaries, paying attention to the possibilities and constraints that shape transnational feminist activism. We will look at both empirical and theoretical texts from a range of academic disciplines

Students will have a chance to engage with feminist activists from different parts of the world through guest lectures whenever possible, and will be encouraged to connect with local/transnational feminist groups.

Prof. Robert Smith - robert.smith@baruch.cuny.edu
Soc. 81200: Public Sociology, Ethnography, and Research Design: Fighting Inequality and Injustice
Wednesdays, 2:00-4:00pm, 3 credits
This course focuses on publicly engaged sociology (or public sociology) that seeks to fight inequality and injustice. The course tries to address a key problem in graduate school and sociological careers: most of us go into sociology because it helps illuminate problems in the world, but we are taught much less about how to address those problems and make change with our research. The class will do readings from three types of publicly engaged sociology – Reframing, Debunking, or Alarm Sounding; Institutionally Engaged; and Community Engaged – which differ in their goals and the implications for graduate school and early sociological careers.  A key case study will be the Stories and Numbers Project in Texas (advocating for and protecting transgender children, especially, in Texas). We will do deep dives into both substantive professional sociological work produced publicly engaged sociologists – including analyzing their research design, questions, methods, and final written analysis – and into their publicly oriented products – including websites, expert witness work, public testimonies, and other disseminations. We will discuss cultivating and navigating research relationships with research participants, community-based organizations, institutions, government, or other entities. For class papers, students can use their own fieldwork or other publicly engaged research for their class papers, dissertation proposals, or other work product that helps move their work forward. 

Prof. Frank Heiland - frank.heiland@baruch.cuny.edu
Soc. 81900/DCP 70200: Methods of Demographic Analysis
Wednesdays, 4:15-6:15pm, 3 credits
This course gives students an overview of some of the major demographic methods used in the study of population, and includes the standard procedures for the measurement of fertility, mortality, natural increase, migration, and nuptiality. Students will learn how to construct demographic rates, life tables, and population projections, and how to carry out standardization, decomposition of differences, analysis of fertility and nuptiality patterns, analysis invoking model life tables and stable population theory, and analysis of nonstable populations.

Prof. Howard Lune - hlune@hunter.cuny.edu
Soc. 84600: Social Movements
Wednesdays, 4:15-6:15pm, 3 credits
This class on Social Movements will address power, inequality, and politics. We will consider forms privilege in society, the means by which subdominant groups organize to improve their situations, the ways in which dominant groups organize to stop them, and how others adopt social movement methods to work for change on their own behalf. Topics will include organizing, mobilization, recruitment, collective action, collective identities, strategies, tactics, measuring outcomes, and long term impacts.

Prof. Jack Hammond - jhammond@hunter.cuny.edu
Soc. 84510: Environmental Sociology
Wednesdays, 6:30-8:30pm, 3 credits
This course will cover the relation between human communities and the biophysical environment. We will examine that interaction and its benefits and burdens for human communities and for other species. We will consider the political-economic base of these interactions and the meanings attributed to them in different cultures. Theories in environmental sociology: ecocentrism, ecofeminism, deep ecology, social construction, ecomodernism, ecological Marxism, world systems theory, degrowth. Environmental justice within and between nations. The effect of production processes, energy use, technology, and consumption patterns on the environment. Environmental harm as a byproduct of everyday interaction processes. Methods of ecological analysis.

We will study the environmental crisis, though that will not be the main focus of the course. We will examine recognition and denial of human-made climate change and the reception and rejection of science in politics and in the public. Movements to protect the environment; movements for environmental justice to hold perpetrators accountable and to secure environmental equity for marginalized groups.

Prof. David Halle - dhalle10@gmail.com
Soc. 82301: Computer Mapping for NY, and Global Cities. Geographic Information Systems with Mapinfo: Basic and Advanced Techniques
Wednesdays, 6:30-8:30pm, 3 credits
An introduction to computer mapping (Geographic Information Systems), using the software Mapinfo. We will learn the techniques of computer mapping to analyze the latest developments in New York and Los Angeles, both the cities and regions, and other global cities. We will analyze the most recently available census data, and the decennial census data for 2020, 2010, 2000, 1990, 1980 and 1970 for New York and Los Angeles. We will map such topics as the distribution of income, occupations, racial and ethnic groups, and foreign-born. We will also map crime at the level of the police precinct, political data including Presidential, mayoral and congressional elections, city and county boundaries, world cities, environmental data, the Corona virus, transportation, housing, schools and education data, and zoning matters including historic districts.  We will map, and discuss, such key topics as the decline of the classic “ghetto” and the Latinization of inner city neighborhoods, the movement of ethnic groups to the suburbs, gentrification, the 2007- financial crisis including the housing bubble, the affordable housing crisis, the ecology and “green” movement, flooding including Hurricane Sandy,  attempts to reform the school systems, arts and cultural institutions, restaurants,   de Blasio’s mayoralty, the 2021 NY Mayoral election and Mayor Adams’s impact, police killings and related protests. Students are encouraged to bring to class, and develop during the semester, any ongoing research they are doing.

Prof. Philip Kasinitz - pkasinitz@gc.cuny.edu
Soc. 82800: Migration and Popular Culture
Thursdays, 9:30-11:30am, 3 credits
International migration and the ethnic diversity created in its wake are often studied as matters of demography or economics. However, diversity also has enormous implications for the culture and everyday life experiences of people in both sending and receiving societies. In this experimental course, run jointly with the Migration Studies Master’s Program at the University of Liege Belgium, we will examine the debates over ethnic diversity and national identity and compare how diversity is experienced in Europe and the United States.  We will look specifically at popular culture—music, visual art, drama and sports as well as well as everyday interaction in the public spaces and shopping streets of diverse cities on both sides of the Atlantic. We will then turn to the broader questions of cultural identity (is there a “leading culture” in multi-ethnic societies and what does that mean?), language policy and the politics of cultural production and national identity in various societies.

Prof. Jean Halley - jean.halley@csi.cuny.edu
Soc. 81000: Queer and Feminist Methodologies
Thursdays, 2:00-4:00pm, 3 credits
What does it mean to “know” something? And how do we come to know what we know? This course examines feminist and queer critiques of knowledge, disciplinary boundaries and research methods. We focus on how queer and feminist scholars challenge conventional theories of knowledge, propose feminist and queer theories and employ queer and feminist methodologies in their interdisciplinary research. We ask how feminist and queer theory, politics and social movements shape the kind of research questions queer and feminist scholars ask and the types of evidence they use. This course examines three core categories of research methodology – multivariate/quantitative, historical, and interpretative/qualitative. We consider how queer and feminist scholars use these various methodologies – and politicize them (queer them) – to develop their research and make theoretical claims.

This course provides students with the opportunity to explore the integration of theoretical knowledge with practical research skills. Ideally, by the end of this course, you will have gained a better sense of how the knowledge you have learned in formal instruction can be applied (and modified) through engagement with research to queer and feminist ends. The most important elements of the course will be class participation, a presentation, one short paper and a final research paper.

Prof. Charles Post - cpost@bmcc.cuny.edu
Soc. 70100: The Development of Sociological Theory I: Classical Theory
Thursdays, 6:30-8:30pm, 3 credits
This course will involve a close reading of the central works of classical sociological theory--Smith, Marx, Weber and Durkheim. The course will focus on how these different sociological theorists understood the origins and specificity of the modern world. Among the themes to be discussed will include social class and work, the dynamics of the modern economy and society, and the construction of the modern state. Readings will be substantial.

Prof. Leslie McCall - lmccall@gc.cuny.edu
Soc. 82800: Intersectionality in the Social Sciences
Wednesdays, 4:15-6:15pm, 3 credits
This course will begin with an overview of key original texts by intersectionality scholars in and connected to the social sciences in the United States, such as texts by Patricia Hill Collins, Kimberle Crenshaw, and Evelyn Nakano Glenn. This will be followed by readings of key later texts that introduced and amplified on the concept within different social science disciplines (e.g., Ange-Marie Hancock in political science; Elizabeth Cole in psychology), and also raised questions over the definition and scope of the term (e.g., Jennifer Nash). For the remainder of the course, we will examine intersectional research on a wide range of topics, including intersectional inequalities in political representation, income, education, family, health, and criminal justice. We will also consider different approaches to the topic across the globe, and I will welcome suggestions for readings on other aspects of intersectionality related to students’ areas of interest and expertise.

Prof. John Torpey - jtorpey@gc.cuny.edu
Soc. 85913: Anti-Racism in Comparative-Historical Perspective
Tuesdays, 2:00-4:00pm, 3 credits
This course addresses the changing meaning of “antiracism” from the founding of the United States to the present day.  We will explore the varying meanings of the idea of antiracism in the context of the times in which they were set.  Readings will range from commentary on the American Constitution to the arguments of today’s “neo-universalists” and may include the writings of Nikole Hannah-Jones, Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. Dubois, Ida Wells, James Baldwin, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, the Report of the Kerner Commission, Bob Blauner, George Fredrickson, Kimberle’ Crenshaw, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Ibram X. Kendi, Robin DiAngelo, Adolph Reed, Toure’ Reed, Randall Kennedy, Rogers Brubaker, John McWhorter, Ian Haney-Lopez, Wesley Yang, Ruy Teixeira, and John Halpin.  Class discussion will be the heart of the course; students will be expected to do all the readings and be prepared to discuss them.

Profs. Greg Smithsimon/Van Tran - gsmithsimon@brooklyn.cuny.edu; vtran@gc.cuny.edu
Soc. 72100: Qualifying Paper Seminar II
Thursdays, 2:00-4:00pm, 3 credits
This year-long seminar is an opportunity to conduct original research that will result in a journal article (i.e. The Qualifying Paper) that is of publishable quality in a peer-reviewed academic journal. This seminar is required of all PhD students during the second year in the program. Over the course of two semesters, you will formulate a research question, develop a theoretical argument, design a research strategy, collect and analyze your data, interpret the results, and present your argument and findings in a precise and compelling narrative form. At the end of the Fall term, you will hand in a clearly developed research proposal with a research plan. At the end of Spring term, you will hand in a complete research paper that contributes to sociological knowledge and this draft will form the basis for your first single-authored peer-reviewed article for submission. The article can be based on either an empirically-oriented or a theoretically-oriented research project, as long as it is deemed to be of publishable quality. (For second year students only.)

Prof. Jeremy Porter - jporter@gc.cuny.edu
Soc. 81900: Spatial Data Analysis
Mondays, 6:30-8:30pm, 3 credits
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) has emerged as an essential tool for public health researchers and practitioners. The GIS for Public Health course will offer students an opportunity to gain skills in using GIS software to apply spatial analysis techniques to public health research questions. The laboratory section of the course will give students the opportunity for hands-on learning in how to use GIS systems to analyze data and produce maps and reports. These laboratory exercises will be designed to increasingly challenge the students to incorporate the analytic skills and techniques they have learned in other courses with the geospatial and spatial statistics techniques commonly used in GIS.​

Prof. Barbara Katz Rothman - bkatzrothman@gc.cuny.edu
Soc. 83100: Sociology of Health and Illness
Wednesdays, 2:00-4:00pm, 3 credits
This course offers an introduction to the field classically known as medical sociology, with an emphasis on newer qualitative, critical and theoretical work. Key themes in Medical Sociology have included the social construction of illness and its ongoing expansion into more areas of life; the medical gaze and the processes of medicalization; how the medicalized body is framed; representations of the body in medicine; cultural images, ethnographies and narratives of disease and illness; and cultural understandings of medical subjects. When we take seriously the call to do a truly global sociology, we can see Biomedicine operating at a level and in a way in which national boundaries are but minor obstacles in organizing access – access of providers of services to their customers or to their research material, and access of customers to services. In that sense, the ‘social construction’ idea is too passive, and too limited in boundaries. Illnesses are being constructed not only ‘socially,’ in each society according to its own ideas about the body, but in the pursuit of industrial profit. While Foucault spoke of the state uses of bio power,  we will also consider how biopower, as it is institutionalized in the Biomedical Empire, uses states.

Prof. David Halle 
Soc. 86800: Sociology of Culture
Wednesdays, 6:30-8:30pm, 3 credits
We will study the main theoretical approaches (classical and contemporary) to understanding the cultural dimension of social life, and will do so by seeing how far they can illuminate a range of case studies of cultural areas. The theoretical perspectives include: Veblen and status theory, Marxism, the Frankfurt school, Durkheim, the mass culture school, “creative culture” approaches; consumption theorists, the British school of cultural studies (e.g. Raymond Williams, Stuart Hall), Modernism and post-Modernism, the “popular culture” versus “high culture” debate, cultural capital theory, the sociology of boundaries and cultural identity theory, Richard Florida and “creative class”/creative production approaches, Internet and Social Media theorists, debates over public policy towards the arts including theories of cultural controversy, and students will be encouraged to develop new theories. We will see how far these theories can illuminate a range of case studies of cultural areas that include film/movies; music; political views/attitudes;  museums/concert halls/theme parks; theater/Broadway; fashion; art; religion; sports; night life, clubs, bars-restaurants;  architecture; the internet/online entertainment/social media; television; literature, food; the Coronavirus.

Prof. John Mollenkopf
Soc. 81100: Data Analysis for Urban Politics and Public Policy
Mondays, 4:15-6:15pm, 3 credits
This course will take students through all of the key data sources relevant to the study of urban politics and introduce the analytic techniques used to combine and interpret them. Census data sources will include the American Community Survey (both the geographic files and the microdata), the decennial Census (block level data used for redistricting), and the Current Population Survey voting and civic engagement supplements. Administrative electoral data sources will include the voter registration file, the voter history file, and augmented sources such as L2 and VAN. Survey data sources linked with geographic identifiers will include the CUNY Civic and Electoral Engagement surveys, the Cooperative Congressional Election Study, the American National Election Study, and related large scale surveys of minority and immigrant voting behavior and political attitudes. Analytic techniques will include basic descriptive statistics, cluster analysis and taxonomy, multiple regression, HLM, ecological inference, and spatial statistics (with GIS). The goals of the course include achieving facility with these data sources and working towards defining the political-electoral ecology of New York City (or other places of particular interest to seminar participants). Competence in at least one statistical software program, such as SPSS, STATA, or R, is required. Introductory familiarity with a GIS program would also be valuable preparation, but is not required.

Prof. Janet Gornick
Soc. 84700: Women, Work, and Public Policy
Tuesdays, 4:15-6:15pm, 3 credits
This course provides an overview of key issues affecting women in the workplace in the United States and in other high-income countries. We will begin with an overview of basic economic principles of labor markets, specifically as they concern gender inequality. We will examine both theory and empirical research, taking a multidimensional approach to understanding gender inequality at work – covering gender gaps in employment rates, in working time, in occupation, and in earnings. We then turn to a series of book-length studies of women’s experiences in paid work, both historically and in the contemporary United States. Throughout this section, we will take an intersectional approach – considering how women’s employment experiences have been shaped by race, class, nativity, sexuality, and place. In the final section of the course, we will turn our attention to policies and institutions that shape women’s experiences in paid work, and gender inequality in the labor market more generally. We will assess the institutional landscape in the United States and compare that to policy configurations operating in other affluent countries. Students will complete weekly reaction papers, and a semester-long research project which will culminate in a paper. 
*All Master's students must obtain permission from Professor Gornick before registering

Prof. Lynn Chancer/Lucia Trimbur
Soc. 70200: Contemporary Theory
Mondays, 2:00-4:00pm, 3 credits
This graduate seminar is the second course in a two-course series examining important social theorists and their contributions to the development of American sociology. We focus on the projects that most contribute to an analysis of the contemporary world, especially Marxism, critical race theory, psychoanalysis, post-structuralism, feminist theory, queer theory, and postcolonial theory. Our overarching goal is to understand how theoretical arguments are made: their logics, underlying assumptions, contradictions, and use of evidence. To do this, we will (1) look closely at contemporary theorists’ ideas, (2) historically situate the authors of these ideas, and (3) consider how their ideas relate to past and current social circumstances. We also spend time connecting contemporary theories to those we studied in Classical Social Theory.

Prof. Frank Heiland
Soc. 81900/DCP 70200: Methods of Demographic Analysis 
Wednesdays, 4:15-6:15pm, 3 credits
This course gives students an overview of some of the major demographic methods used in the study of population, and includes the standard procedures for the measurement of fertility, mortality, natural increase, migration, and nuptiality. Students will learn how to construct demographic rates, life tables, and population projections, and how to carry out standardization, decomposition of differences, analysis of fertility and nuptiality patterns, analysis invoking model life tables and stable population theory, and analysis of nonstable populations.

Prof. David Brotherton
Soc. 81500: Deportation & Ethnographic Immigration
Wednesdays, 6:30-8:30pm, 3 credits
This course is an overview of the fields of sociology and criminology that link deportation to processes of migration, social control, state formation, global political economy and social processes of inclusion and exclusion. The deportation of non-citizens has become a major issue in the United States as well as internationally. Literally millions of legal and "illegal" non-citizens have been removed from the U.S. during the past two decades in what is the largest and most enduring process of human expulsion from a Western country since the holocaust. A dramatic hardening of the U.S. immigration laws was enacted in 1996 and since then policies governing citizenship and residency have become increasingly punitive, tied to the moral crusades on drugs, terrorism, gangs and the immigrant and the economic paradigms of neo-liberalism. The erection of borders, both internal and external, symbolic and substantive, has been a key characteristic of these processes. Paradoxically, the United States has been "traditionally" viewed as a nation of immigrants, albeit a colonial settler one in which the indigenous populations were violently and systematically expelled from their ancestral lands only to be subsequently reincorporated and 'assimilated" as "minority" subpopulations. In this course we take a critical-ethnographic lens to the dynamics, practices and sociological contexts of the deportation regimes in the U.S. and beyond, focusing on both epistemological and methodological issues that are highlighted in the research literature. Students are also encouraged to experience the terrain of deportation first-hand with guidance from the instructor.

Prof. Charles Post
Soc 82901: The "New Capitalism"
Tuesdays, 6:30 - 8:30 pm, 3 credits
Over the past forty years, capitalist societies in the global North have experienced profound changes. In what is often referred to as the era of neo-liberalism, many analysts have argued that the most profound structural and institutional features of capitalism have been permanently altered. These attempts to analyze the “new capitalism” focus on three transformations: 1) “de-industrialization”—the decline of manufacturing employment in the global North; 2) “precarity”—the growth of part-time, temporary and unstable employment; and 3) “financialization”—the financial sectors’ displacement of industry as the driving force of the modern economy. This course will seek to critically interrogate these three trends, both conceptually and empirically. Has manufacturing actually disappeared in the global North? How do we account for the declining percentage of manufacturing workers in the total labor forces? What is the actual extent of “precarious” employment? Does the distribution of stable and precarious employment vary from sector to sector? To what extent has financial profitability become independent of profitability in the ‘real economy’? What is the relationship between the growth of finance and the radical reorganization of productive activity over the past forty years? Readings will be substantial, varied and historical in perspective.

Prof. Philips Kasinitz
Soc 82800: Global Immigrant Cities
Tuesdays, 4:15-6:15pm, 3 credits
This course asks the question of how various migrant-receiving global cities experience, respond to, and are transformed by the changing composition of their ethnic populations. Looking at several European, North American, Latin American, and Asian cities, it will explore their histories of ethnic and racial difference; the ways in which their ideologies about diversity, pluralism, and multiculturalism have evolved and changed over time; the extent to which they incorporate (or do not incorporate) their migrants; and the different economic, cultural, and political impacts that migration has had on these global immigrant cities. The main focus will be on international comparison, and students will be trained in the use of comparative perspectives to illustrate similarities and differences between cities. Global immigrant cities are crucial research sites for exploring the possibility of going “beyond” the nation-state-society focus of most mainstream American research. Also, while opening the door to a crucial dimension of globalization, the comparative study of migration opens up a fresh comparative and international perspective on the urban experience. Taking advantage of our location and extensive local knowledge, the course will use New York as the basis of comparison with other major global cities, such as Los Angeles, Paris, London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Toronto, Shanghai, and Buenos Aires.

Prof. Jeremy Porter
Soc. 71600: Sociological Statistics II
Thursdays, 6:30-8:30pm, 3 credits
The broad focus of this course will be on applications of multivariate analysis in social science research, including Multiple Regression, Multivariate Analysis of Variance/Covariance, Factor Analysis, Categorical Data Analysis, among other relevant topics. The goals of this course are to provide students with an understanding of the principles underlying commonly used multivariate analysis approaches within the field of Sociology. Specifically, students will 1) acquire an understanding of some fundamental concepts in multivariate statistics, 2) become proficient in the performance of corresponding statistical procedures, and 3) be able to appropriately communicate these statistical concepts and skills to academic and lay audiences.

Prof. Amy Adamczyk
Soc. 82800: Publishing
Thursdays, 4:15-6:15pm, 3 credits
This course focuses on publishing. Students who take this course will improve their writing skills, practice critiquing academic research, and learn about the publication process, strategies for improving the impact of their work, and the importance of publishing for obtaining grants and advancing their careers. A major goal for the course is to develop an academic article for submission to a peer reviewed journal. Students should come to class with a completed study (possibly one that they wrote in another class or for other purposes) that they can spend time developing into a submission for a peer reviewed journal article.  Students will develop multiple drafts of their manuscript for submission, review and edit peers' papers, and review papers submitted to academic journals. The course will cover different types of publishing, for both academic and non-academic audiences, including refereed journals, books and monographs, textbooks, edited volumes, and in non-academic outlets such as blogs, opinion pieces, and social media.

Prof. Carla Shedd
Soc. 81000: Methods and Methodologies
Mondays, 4:15-6:15pm, 3 credits
This course broadly considers ‘methods and methodologies’ to include developing research ideas and data into more advanced stages of analysis, supplementary data collection, writing, conceptualization, publication, dissemination, and application. In terms of topic areas, this course will focus on race, place, inequality, and social institutions, again broadly interpreted. Students who have initiated research on these topics are especially encouraged to register.

Prof. Yung-Yi Diana Pan - ypan@brooklyn.cuny.edu
Soc. 74100: Diversity in Professions 
Mondays, 4:15-6:15, 3 credits
The professions is often considered an elite space, and once one secures entry, there are few concerns. This course will interrogate those notions by exploring how diversity – gender, race, immigrant background, class – is understood and practiced within the professions. We will engage with both classical and contemporary work on sociology of the professions, from Rosabeth Moss Kanter’s Men and Women of the Corporation(1977), to CUNY’s own Margaret Chin’s STUCK: Why Asian Americans Don’t Reach the Top of the Corporate Ladder(2020). We will consider the processes of professional socialization, the cultural structures of professions, and whether diversity is a part of professional agenda. 
Students are required to critically engage with readings and actively participate in seminar discussions.

Prof. Liza G. Steele - lsteele@jjay.cuny.edu
Soc. 74400: Global Social Stratification 
Mondays, 11:45-1:45, 3 credits
This course explores economic inequality and social stratification in global perspective. Students analyze economic and social inclusion and exclusion, with a particular focus on cases from the Global South. Sample topics include human rights, development, race in Brazil and South Africa, gender and Islam, the welfare state, and basic income.

Prof. Leslie McCall - lmccall@gc.cuny.edu
Soc. 71500: Sociological Statistic I
Wednesdays, 4:15-6:15, 3 credits
This course provides an overview of introductory statistics as applied to sociological and other social scientific research. Topics covered include single-variable data description (measures of central tendency, measures of variability, and graphing), fundamentals of inferential statistics (probability and the normal curve, samples and populations, hypothesis testing), and associations between two variables (ANOVA, Chi-square, correlation, and bivariate linear regression analysis). The course will also introduce students to the software package R for the analysis of social science data. No prior knowledge of statistics or R is necessary.
 
Prof. Richard Ocejo - rocejo@jjay.cuny.edu
Soc. 72500: Urban Sociology 
Thursdys, 2:00-4:00, 3 credits
This course will introduce students to a variety of sociological theories and approaches for studying cities and urban life. The aim is to cover as much of the canon as possible and expose students to current explanations and debates. We will start with early theorizing and empirical research on the relationship between modernity and urbanism and proceed to discuss some of today’s most important discourses and studies for understanding space, inequality, segregation, and growth in an era of extreme globalization. The course will look at such topics as urban political economy, race and space, racial capitalism, gentrification, cities and climate change, culture and placemaking, housing, and global urban sociology. It will also consider sociology’s contribution to the larger field of urban studies.
Finally, since City & Community, the official journal of the Community and Urban Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association, is now based at the Graduate Center, it will serve as key source for many of our readings and discussions. Students will also gain meaningful insight into the backstage workings of an academic journal, learn how to frame their work as an article, and engage in some journal-related activities.  

Prof. Susan Opotow - sopotow@jjay.cuny.edu
Soc. 85000: Using Archives in Social Justice Research
Tuesdays, 9:30-11:30, 3 credits
Archives offer rich textual and material data that can deepen our understanding of societal issues. They can place individual and collective social justice efforts within particular socio-political and historical contexts. The graduate course is designed to foster students’ knowledge, skills, and strategies for using physical, digital, or hybrid archives to study research questions of interest to them. The course, grounded in the social science and humanities literatures on archival theory and practice, will deepen students’ knowledge of archive as a construct, a societal resource, and a repository vulnerable to politicization. To learn how social science and humanities scholars use archives to advance social justice, we read, for example, about community-based archives; archives documenting oppression and human rights; and archival ethics. Alongside our attention to theory and method, this is also structured as a studio course in its attention to the empirical development of students’ ideas and research. By the course's end, students will have begun and progressed on their own archival projects.

Prof. John Torpey - jtorpey@gc.cuny.edu
Soc. 82200: Comparing Pandemics: A Social and Historical Examination 
Wednesdays, 2:00-4:00, 3 credits
This course examines epidemic diseases and their social consequences across historical time and geographic space.  We will focus primarily on the Black Death of the mid-fourteenth century, smallpox and its role in the conquest of the Americas, the “Spanish” flu pandemic of 1918-1919, and the coronavirus pandemic of 2020-2021(?). We will seek to understand how different societies were affected by these plagues, how they responded to them, and the consequences of these public health and social crises for the societies in question.

Prof. Pyong Gap Min - pyonggap.min@qc.cuny.edu
Soc. 85800: Asian Americans
Thursdays, 6:30-8:30, 3 credits *Online
This course intends to examine several important aspects of Asian American experiences. They include (1) Asians’ immigration to the U.S. and their settlement patterns, (2) their socioeconomic attainments, (3) their family and marital patterns, (4) second-generation Asians’ ethnic identity formation, (4) their religious affiliations and practices, and (5) their transnational linkages to the homeland. Major Asian ethnic groups include Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian, Filipino, and Vietnamese groups. Reading materials will cover these six major Asian groups. Teaching will be conducted virtually in the 2021 fall semester. In a virtual class, students can learn most from reading assigned materials. So, I will put emphasis on students’ reading of assigned materials for each class in evaluating their performances.

Prof. Sharon Zukin - szukin@gc.cuny.edu
Soc. 82800/EES 79903: Urban Research Seminar: Space and Power
Tuesdays, 4:15-6:15, 3 credits *Hybrid
Today’s intertwined crises of economy, public health, and climate change challenge us to develop new research models to interpret and enact multiple forms of diversity, equity, and empowerment.  How are social barriers being reshaped by new discourses, organizations, and geographies?  Will agglomerations like New York City survive in their current form or break apart into disparate communities and metropolitan colonies?
Unpacking the social construction of space and power in distinctive urban forms, this workshop will introduce two New York-based projects—one on rezoning in SoHo and Gowanus and the other on the city’s tech ecosystem—and invite students to collaborate in developing their own research.  We will read a small number of case studies and follow media coverage and social media accounts, make ethnographic observations of meetings (on Zoom or in person, according to public health restrictions), analyze specific questions by constructing large databases, and, if possible, carry out interviews.  The final product will be the write up of an individual case study or a part of a larger research project that can lead to a dissertation, journal article, video, or podcast.
Students who want to ask about a specific research project should email Sharon Zukin (szukin@gc.cuny.edu) in advance.

Prof. Roslyn​ Bologh - roslyn.bologh@csi.cuny.edu
Soc 74600: Capitalism, Culture and Crisis 
Tuesdays, 6:30-8:30, 3 credits *Online
This course will focus on the relationship between capitalism, culture and crisis.  We will examine the current historical moment -- focusing on political economy, ideology and other aspects of social life and culture. How are different individuals, groups and  communities as well as nation states and regions affected and how are they reacting; what kinds of changes are occurring; what kinds of developments are taking place?  How can we understand these changes?  What are the current debates and theories?  How are they related to capitalism, culture and crisis?  How can a background in critical theory and political economy provide a basis for critically addressing the issues of today? 

Profs. Gregory Smithsimon and Van Tran - gsmithsimon@brooklyn.cuny.edu; vtran@gc.cuny.edu
Soc. 72100: Qualifying Paper Seminar I
Mondays, 2:00-4:00pm, 3 credits
This year-long seminar is an opportunity to conduct original research that will result in a journal article (i.e. The Qualifying Paper) that is of publishable quality in a peer-reviewed academic journal. This seminar is required of all PhD students during the second year in the program. Over the course of two semesters, you will formulate a research question, develop a theoretical argument, design a research strategy, collect and analyze your data, interpret the results, and present your argument and findings in a precise and compelling narrative form. At the end of the Fall term, you will hand in a clearly developed research proposal with a research plan. At the end of Spring term, you will hand in a complete research paper that contributes to sociological knowledge and this draft will form the basis for your first single-authored peer-reviewed article for submission. The article can be based on either an empirically-oriented or a theoretically-oriented research project, as long as it is deemed to be of publishable quality. (For second year students only.)

Prof. David Halle - dhalle10@gmail.com
Soc. 82301:Computer Mapping for LA & NY, and Global Cities GIS with Mapinfo: Basic and Advanced Techniques
Wednesdays, 6:30-8:30, 3 credits
An introduction to computer mapping (Geographic Information Systems), using the software Mapinfo. We will learn the techniques of computer mapping to analyze the latest developments in New York and Los Angeles, both the cities and regions, and other global cities. We will analyze the most recently available census data, and the decennial census data for 2020, 2010, 2000, 1990, 1980 and 1970 for New York and Los Angeles. We will map such topics as the distribution of income, occupations, racial and ethnic groups, and foreign-born. We will also map crime at the level of the police precinct, political data including Presidential, mayoral and congressional elections, city and county boundaries, world cities, environmental data, the Corona virus, transportation, housing, schools and education data, restaurants, and zoning matters including historic districts. We will map, and discuss, such key topics as ethnic and demographic changes in the inner city, various waves of suburbanization including the latest Covid related, gentrification, the 2007- financial crisis including the housing bubble, the affordable housing crisis, the ecology and “green” movement, flooding including Hurricane Sandy, attempts to reform the school systems, arts and cultural institutions, protest movements including Black Lives Matter, and de Blasio’s impact and policies. Students are encouraged to bring to class, and develop during the semester, any ongoing research they are doing. 

Prof. Jeremy Porter- jporter@gc.cuny.edu
Soc. 81900: Quantitative Research Methods 
Mondays, 6:30-8:30pm, 3 credits
This course will cover issues pertaining to the applied research process in the collection, management, and analysis of quantitative data. Methods covered are intended to give students experience with a broad array of specific quantitative methods and a directed focus on the perspectives that underlie the application of such methods. The explicit goal of the course is to give students the foundational tools necessary to do high quality quantitative research in applied and academic settings. A sample of topics covered include; the science of science, the politics and ethics of research, developing novel research ideas, item measurement, instrumentation, sampling, understanding statistical inference, and a wide variety of topics associated with the collection, management, and analysis of quantitative data.​

Prof. Jack Hammond - jhammond@hunter.cuny.edu
Soc. 84510: Environmental sociology
Wednesdays, 4:15-6:15pm, 3 credits
This course will cover the relation between human communities and the biophysical environment. We will examine that interaction and its benefits and burdens for human communities and for other species.  We will consider the political-economic base of these interactions and the meanings attributed to them in different cultures. Theories in environmental sociology: ecocentrism, political economy, ecomodernism, degrowth. Environmental justice within and between nations. The effect of production processes, energy use, technology, and consumption patterns on the environment. Environmental harm as a byproduct of everyday interaction processes. Methods of ecological analysis.
We will study the environmental crisis, though that will not be the main focus of the course. We will examine recognition and denial of human-made climate change and the reception and rejection of science in politics and in the public. Movements to protect the environment; movements for environmental justice to hold perpetrators accountable and to secure environmental equity for marginalized groups.

Prof. Branko Milanovic - bmilanovic@gc.cuny.edu
Soc. 84600: Global inequality: Measurement, analysis and political implications
Wednesdays, 6:30-8:30, 3 credits
The focus of the class is on global inequality which is defined as inequality between citizens of the world (as if they were members of a same nation). We will review the evolution of global inequality from the Industrial Revolution until today, and see how the changing composition and magnitude of global inequality affects politics, economics, and migration. Two types of inequalities, within-national (inequality among individuals within a single nation) and cross-national (inequality in mean incomes across nations) combine to determine global inequality. We shall thus also review the changes in within- and between-national inequalities. The class ends with an overview of positions of various political philosophers (e.g., Rawls, Pogge, Sen, Nagel) regarding global inequality and migration.
The course will be fairly empirical but does not require any prior specific knowledge of the issues nor techniques. It is recommended for students of economics, political science, and sociology. This class is a follow-up of the one on “The theories of income distribution: from Pareto to Piketty” but can be taken independently.  

Prof. Lucia Trimbur - ltrimbur@jjay.cuny.edu
Soc. 70100: Development of Sociological Theory (Theory I)
Tuesdays, 2:00-4:00, 3 credits
This graduate seminar is an introduction to the work of Marx, Weber, Durkheim, DuBois, and Freud, five major historical figures in the development of US sociology. Its overarching goal is to understand how theoretical arguments are made: their logics, underlying assumptions, contradictions, and use of evidence. To do this, we will (1) look closely at these classical theorists’ ideas, (2) examine how ideas emerge from various historical moments, and (3) consider how these ideas relate to current social circumstances and other theorists’ views. As these texts constitute common knowledge within our field, they will help you learn to theorize.

Prof. Philip Kasinitz - pkasinitz@gc.cuny.edu
Soc. 82800: International Migration 
Tuesdays, 4:15-6:15, 3 credits
This course offers an overview of the key current topics and issues in the burgeoning field of international migration. The course will aspire to incorporate the experiences of major immigrant-receiving countries around the world, but the main comparative focus will be on Europe and North America, where the major theories and key concepts are most fully developed. The course emphasis is on exploring both the theoretical debates in the field and the empirical data and case studies on which these debates hinge. Attention will be paid to detailed discussions of “classic” issues of immigration, such as assimilation, incorporation/integration, the labor market, race and ethnic relations, gender and the family, transnationalism, the second generation, and nativism/host hostility. Throughout, the course will take into account the way in which migrant-receiving cities, as contexts of reception, affect the immigrant experience, and in turn, are transformed by immigrants.

Profs. Lynn ​Chancer and Michael Jacobson - lchancer@gc.cuny.edu; Michael.Jacobson@islg.cuny.edu
Soc. 85000: Criminology and Critical Criminology in Theory and Practice
Thursdays, 4:15-6:15, 3 credits
In the first half of this doctoral seminar, we provide an overview of theories of criminology as they have unfolded through the present including recent developments in critical criminology and cultural criminology; we will read about and discuss developments in older as well as newer theorizations.  In the second half of the course, we turn to applied issues in criminal justice practice spanning a range of topics from domestic violence policy through gun control policies, police and bail reform through efforts to reduce mass incarceration.  An emphasis will be replaced on how theories and practices interrelate and can inform each other.


Prof. Janet Gornick - jgornick@gc.cuny.edu
SOC 85902: Social Policy and Socio-Economic Outcomes in Industrialized Countries
Tuesdays, 4:15pm–6:15pm, 3 credits

This course provides an introduction to cross-national comparative research, with a focus on socio-economic outcomes and on the policies and institutions that shape those outcomes. The course is organized around two databases available through LIS, a data archive located in Luxembourg, with a satellite office here at the Graduate Center.

LIS contains two main micro-databases. The Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) Database includes 300+ micro-datasets from over 50 high- and middle-income countries. These datasets contain comprehensive measures of income, employment, and household characteristics. A smaller, companion dataset – the Luxembourg Wealth Study (LWS) Database – provides microdata on assets and debt. Since the mid-1980s, the LIS data have been used by more than 8000 researchers – mostly sociologists, economists, and political scientists – to analyze cross-country and over-time variation in diverse outcomes such as poverty, income inequality, employment status, wage patterns, gender inequality and family structure.

Many researchers have combined LIS’ microdata with various macro-datasets to study, for example, the effects of national social or labor market policies on socio-economic outcomes, or to link socio-economic variation to national-level outcomes such as child well-being, health status, political attitudes and voting behavior. (The LIS and LWS data are accessed through an internet-based “remote-execution system”. All students are permitted to use the LIS microdata at no cost and without limit.)

The course has two main components:
1) Students will read and assess a selection of published studies based on the data.
2) Students will carry out an original piece of empirical research using the LIS or LWS microdata. That work will culminate in a term paper.

While there are no formal prerequisites, students must have a working knowledge of basic statistics, and beginner-to-intermediate capacity in one of these programming languages: SAS, SPSS, Stata, or R.
Neither statistics nor programming will be part of the course's curriculum. Extensive documentation about the data, self-teaching materials, and instructional videos are available on the LIS website.

Note:  All MA students must receive clearance from the professor before registering.

Prof. Jessi Daniels - jdaniels@hunter.cuny.edu
Soc. 82800, writing for publication
Tuesdays 2:00 - 4:00pm, 3 credits, *Hybrid
This course will have two components: one is a scholarly sociological study of publishing itself: an examination of the worlds and institutions of knowledge-production and dissemination.  We will consider book publishing, following and more recent changes in the world of book publishing.  Similarly, we will explore the contemporary issues in journal publication, including issues of copyright and new technologies, current debates and concerns about journal costs and distribution, and ongoing discussions of ethical concerns in academic publishing in an increasingly commercialized world.

The second component is more pragmatic, in which students take their own work thru the appropriate and necessary steps for publication in a variety of media.  Topics we will cover include how to do book reviews, how to prepare a paper for presentation and then for publication, how to participate in anthology writing, how to prepare a book proposal, and how to construct a book out of a dissertation.  Each student will (at minimum) and with the support of the instructor and class, write and publish two book reviews; submit papers to three academic meetings; prepare one journal article for submission; prepare and submit one article to a non-academic publication such as an op-ed article; and prepare a (draft) book proposal based on dissertation work.

Soc. 80000: Producing sociological theory:  The Role of Gendered Colonialism, Culture and Revolution in Bourdieu’s theory

Prof. Marnia Lazreg
Mondays 4:15-6:15pm, 3 credits

In recent years scholars have called for a “decolonization” of knowledge or advocated a “decolonial” approach to academic disciplines. They argue for greater awareness of the imperial context within which the social sciences emerged, and attempt to identify the conscious and unconscious ways in which this context shaped theoretical concepts. 

Pierre Bourdieu’s reflexive sociology provides an opportunity to assess these claims conceptually as well as empirically.  Bourdieu formulated his key sociological concepts (such as symbolic violence, habitus, or masculine domination) and developed a “scientific” method during his fieldwork in villages in Eastern Algeria.  His formative years as a sociologist were spent in colonial Algeria during the war of decolonization as a draftee as well as a researcher, and references to his fieldwork recur in many of his books until the end of his life.  Besides, there were times when he perceived himself as a surrogate native.

This course examines Bourdieu’s struggles with colonialism as a political and cultural system of domination, and traces the process through which colonial fieldwork becomes productive of concepts applicable to a non-colonial (but colonizing) society.  Relatedly, the course explores Bourdieu’s conceptualization of revolution in light of his misgivings about Frantz Fanon’s theory.  Of special interest will be the differences between two empirical observers, a trained sociologist and a trained psychiatrist turned revolutionary.  Finally, the course will probe Bourdieu’s construction of culture in a non-Western milieu in view of his attempt to bridge the gap between anthropology and sociology.  Throughout, discussions will be guided by a concern for the complex relationship between Bourdieu’s interest in a scientific method, his recurring references to his biography, and his unresolved attitude toward the colonial situation.

The course will be run as a seminar open to the unfettered exploration of significant facets of Bourdieu’s work.

Readings will include, in addition to sections of Outline of a Theory of Practice, Pascalian Meditations, The Bachelors’ Ball, In Other Words, Sociology in Question, Sketch of Self-Analysis, and a selection of secondary literature.

Requirements: Active class participation and a substantive term paper.

Open to all students

Soc. 81004: Sociology Meets History

Prof. John Torpey
Tuesdays 2-4pm, 3 credits

This course examines the historical roots of contemporary patterns of social inequality at a variety of spatial levels -- global, national, and regional. It seeks to make sense of the historical origins of patterns of inequality in state-building, slavery, colonialism, and capitalism. The course will explore diverse times and places in order to understand the background to contemporary patterns of inequality as well as efforts to overcome historical injustices.

Soc. 84700: Questioning Power and Reimagining Societies: Conducting Research on Organizations, Markets, and the State

Prof. Katherine Chen
Wednesday 11:45 - 1:45 pm, 3 credits

Various institutions, including universities, think tanks, corporations, and governments, collect data on certain kinds of phenomena and disseminate knowledge for particular ends.  However, much of the produced knowledge – in part due to how data is collected and interpreted and what phenomena and sites are deemed worthy of study – homogenizes our sense of possibilities and reproduces the status quo.  This is particularly evident in conventional research which focuses on individual persons as the unit of analysis.  Even when research is conducted on organizations, markets, and the state, such research offers critique, but few recommendations of possible paths to take.  How can researchers and intellectual communities increase substantive opportunities for reimagining societies?

With this overarching question in mind, this course tackles research phenomena that can be studied regarding organizations, markets, and the state.  For example, what happens when we question taken-for-granted research practices and more closely examine institutions and their associated practices, such as tech firms that gather big data on individual persons?  How can we reconceptualize how to conduct research, in ways that incorporate more interests, including underrepresented individuals?   This course draws on multi-disciplinary perspectives, including critical race theory, feminist studies, and information science, to expand possibilities for conducting and disseminating research.  Course readings and topics will incorporate students’ areas of interest. 

Soc. 81005: Applied Qualitative Research

Prof. Juan Battle
Thursdays 6:30-8:30, 3 credits

This course is part of a larger research project collecting and examining the life histories of mature (around 50 years old and older) Black and Latinx LGBTQ+ changemakers from throughout the United States. In addition to learning about a variety of interviewing techniques, students will actually conduct some interviews for the project as well as begin to ask questions of the data. Because students will be exposed to (and contribute from) a wide variety of perspectives on the subject, this course is appropriate for students in the traditional social sciences (e.g. sociology, anthropology, psychology, urban education, and history) as well as more contemporary ones (e.g. women’s studies, race studies, American studies, cultural studies, lesbian and gay studies).

Soc. 86800: Culture and Politics: Subjects, Identities, and Characters

Prof James M. Jasper
Thursdays 11:45-1:45, 3 credits

This course will examine meaning in the construction of political subjects, actions, and institutions, taking culture (including morality, emotions, and cognition) as an aspect of all social life. Its purpose is to encourage publishable research, and for that reason it focuses more narrowly on the construction of subjects, stigma, reputations, and public characters.

Soc. 82301: Sociology of New York City

Prof. David Halle
Mondays, 6:30-8:30pm, 3 credits

We will explore key social, economic, political and cultural issues in the country’s largest city, including the inter-relationships between these issues. Topics include: the Corona crisis and its impact; urban economic development especially the new Hudson Yards Project; the development of a high tech corridor in Manhattan stretching from Google’s East Coast headquarters on 15-16st and 8^th-9^th Avenues to the new Cornell-Technion engineering school on Roosevelt Island; attempts to “Green” New York including how to protect against future Hurricane Sandys; suburbanization including the latest wave; education--the successes and failures of the  gigantic N.Y. Public school system; immigration; housing, including affordable housing and the homeless crisis; urban politics including NYC’s "strong mayor" political structure; historic preservation and debates between a liberal wing that wishes to save only distinguished buildings and a fundamentalist wing that wants to freeze almost everything; crime, police departments and police misbehavior, urban terrorism and cyber security; urban protests and riots, including Black Lives Matter; culture; museums; private-public partnerships that support and promote the arts; the growth of Chelsea as  the largest Contemporary Art gallery district in the world; the world of newspapers, television journalism, and publishing; the structure of the film industry in New York; Broadway and contemporary theater; food and restaurants; fashion; and the architectural industry.

Soc. 83100: Intersectionality in the Social Sciences

Prof. Leslie McCall
Wednesdays, 4:15-6:15, 3 credits

This course will begin with an overview of key original texts by intersectionality scholars in and connected to the social sciences in the United States, such as texts by Patricia Hill Collins, Kimberle Crenshaw, and Evelyn Nakano Glenn. This will be followed by readings of key later texts that introduced and amplified on the concept within different social science disciplines (e.g., Ange-Marie Hancock in political science; Elizabeth Cole in psychology), and also raised questions over the definition and scope of the term (e.g., Jennifer Nash). For the remainder of the course, we will examine intersectional research on a wide range of topics, including intersectional inequalities in political representation, income, education, family, health, and criminal justice. We will also consider different approaches to the topic across the globe, and I will welcome suggestions for readings on other aspects of intersectionality related to students’ areas of interest and expertise.

Soc.83300: Birth and Parenting

Prof. Barbara Katz Rothman- BKatzRothman@gc.cuny.edu, www.BarbaraKatzRothman.com
Wednesdays, 6:30-8:30, 3 credits

Birth marks the transitional moment in the universal human relationship: every person begins life embodied within the maternal body; and up until the last few decades, that relationship defined the placement, or the citizenship, of the new being. New technologies, but even more, new marketing, calls the obviousness of parenthood and specifically motherhood into question, as relationships are fragmented and commodified. This course will offer a sociological and feminist analysis of birth and parenting, with a focus will be on the United States and its particular racial, class and gender politics and eugenic history.

Sociology 85800: Race and Ethnicity

Prof. Philip Kasinitz- pkasinitz@gc.cuny.edu
Mondays, 4:15-6:15, 3 credits

In 1903 Dubois predicted that the problem of the Twentieth Century would be “the problem of the color-line.” It now appears that race may be the problem of the 21st century as well. Race and ethnicity they remain among the most persistent and virulent forms of structured social inequality in the US and around the globe. Yet, ironically, race and ethnicity do not figure prominently in much of classical social theory. Focusing on the United States, but with reference to other multi-ethnic societies, we will examine the evolution of the concept of “race” and its relationship to racism; the heritage of slavery and segregation and their impacts contemporary life; the origins of modern racism and anti-Semitism, why and how the salience of ethnic identity increases and decreases at particular historical moments and the relationship of race and ethnicity to migration, nationalism, colonialism and class. We will look at how racial boundaries change and how “racialized” minorities are (or are not) incorporated into different societies. Readings will include works by W.E.B. Dubois, George Fredrickson, Michelle Alexander, Ibram V. Kendi, Patricia Hill Collins, Douglas Massey, William Julius Wilson, Franz Fanon, Jean Paul Sartre, Min Zhou, Eddie Telles, Isabel Wilkerson, Alejandro Portes and Richard Alba.

Soc. 81500 – Deportation & Ethnographic Immigration

Prof. David Brotherton – davebro54@icloud.com
Wednesdays, 6:30-8:30pm, 3 credits

This course is an overview of the fields of sociology and criminology that link deportation to processes of migration, social control, state formation, global political economy and social processes of inclusion and exclusion. The deportation of non-citizens has become a major issue in the United States as well as internationally. Literally millions of legal and "illegal" non-citizens have been removed from the U.S. during the past two decades in what is the largest and most enduring process of human expulsion from a Western country since the holocaust. A dramatic hardening of the U.S. immigration laws was enacted in 1996 and since then policies governing citizenship and residency have become increasingly punitive, tied to the moral crusades on drugs, terrorism, gangs and the immigrant and the economic paradigms of neo-liberalism. The erection of borders, both internal and external, symbolic and substantive, has been a key characteristic of these processes. Paradoxically, the United States has been "traditionally" viewed as a nation of immigrants, albeit a colonial settler one in which the indigenous populations were violently and systematically expelled from their ancestral lands only to be subsequently reincorporated and 'assimilated" as "minority" subpopulations. In this course we take a critical-ethnographic lens to the dynamics, practices and sociological contexts of the deportation regimes in the U.S. and beyond, focusing on both epistemological and methodological issues that are highlighted in the research literature. Students are also encouraged to experience the terrain of deportation first-hand with guidance from the instructor.

Soc. 72100: Qualifying Paper Seminar II

Profs. Lynn Chancer/Van Tran--lchancer@gc.cuny.edu; vtran@gc.cuny.edu
Thursdays, 2:00-4:00pm, 3 credits

This year-long seminar is an opportunity to conduct original research that will result in a journal article (i.e. The Qualifying Paper) that is of publishable quality in a peer-reviewed academic journal. This seminar is required of all PhD students during the second year in the program. Over the course of two semesters, you will formulate a research question, develop a theoretical argument, design a research strategy, collect and analyze your data, interpret the results, and present your argument and findings in a precise and compelling narrative form. At the end of the Fall term, you will hand in a clearly developed research proposal with a research plan. At the end of Spring term, you will hand in a complete research paper that contributes to sociological knowledge and this draft will form the basis for your first single-authored peer-reviewed article for submission. The article can be based on either an empirically-oriented or a theoretically-oriented research project, as long as it is deemed to be of publishable quality. (For second year students only.)

Soc. 81900: Applied Spatial Econometrics

Prof. Jeremy Porter
Thursdays, 6:30-8:30pm, 3 credits

This course builds upon foundational GIS and spatial analysis concepts and skills built in introductory GIS courses through the application of advanced spatial statistical modeling procedures. Students in the course will learn how it integrate GIS with statistical programming tools as a way to extend the utility of the GIS beyond a tool for mapping. Topics covered include 1) Graphical and quantitative description of spatial data, 2) Kriging, block kriging and cokriging, 3) Common variogram models, 4) Spatial autoregressive models, estimation and testing, 5) Spatial non-stationarity and associated modeling procedures and 6) Spatial sampling procedures. Students will complete a series of in-class labs and develop a final research project from these labs or an independent project. (Pre-requisite: Introduction to GIS)

Soc. 70200: Contemporary Theory

Prof. Lucia Trimbur
Mondays, 2:00-4:00pm, 3 credits

This graduate seminar is the second course in a two-course series examining important social theorists and their contributions to the development of American sociology. We focus on the projects that most contribute to an analysis of the contemporary world, especially Marxism, critical race theory, psychoanalysis, post-structuralism, feminist theory, queer theory, and postcolonial theory. Our overarching goal is to understand how theoretical arguments are made: their logics, underlying assumptions, contradictions, and use of evidence. To do this, we will (1) look closely at contemporary theorists’ ideas, (2) historically situate the authors of these ideas, and (3) consider how their ideas relate to past and current social circumstances. We also spend time connecting contemporary theories to those we studied in Classical Social Theory.

Soc. 74100: Sociology of Work and Inequality

Prof. Ruth Milkman
Mondays, 4:15-6:15, 3 credits

Designed as an introduction to sociological debates on work and inequality, this seminar engages recent sociological texts on that topic. The readings focus on the changing landscape of work, with an emphasis on the situation of non-college educated workers. They include studies of how workers are hired and paid; to case studies of the changing structure of particular industries — from trucking to health care to firefighting to home care; to the growth of the gig economy and the broader social consequences of economic restructuring.   We will explore the causes and consequences of growing precarity and labor market polarization since the mid-1970s, and the accompanying widening of inequalities by class, race and gender. 

This is a reading course with a seminar format.  Requirements include: faithful class attendance and active participation in discussion; weekly written reactions to the assigned texts; an oral presentation; and a final research paper.

Soc. 85700:  Social Welfare Policy 

(Crosslist: PSC 73101  & WSCP 81000)
Prof. Janet Gornick
Tuesdays 4:15pm–6:15pm, 3 credits

This course will examine social welfare policy in the United States, in historical and cross‐national perspective. We will begin with an overview of the development of social welfare policy in the United States. We will focus on crucial historical periods – including the Civil War years, the Progressive Era, the New Deal, the Great Society, and the “welfare reform” of the 1990s and early 2000s. Second, we will assess “the big picture” of the American welfare state, through the lens of its underlying institutional framework. Third, we will analyze a set of contemporary challenges that call for active policy responses, such as severe poverty, low‐wage work, homelessness, and the care deficit. Finally, we will survey selected social policy lessons from other high‐income countries, especially in Europe, where social provisions are typically more extensive than they are in the United States.

Soc. 84600 – Within-National Inequalities: From Pareto to Piketty

Prof. Branko Milanovic – bmilanovic@gc.cuny.edu
Wednesdays, 6:30-8:30pm, 3 credits

The objective of the course is be to review, analyze, and allow students to develop a much better understanding of the theories and empirics of personal income distribution within a single policy-making unit (that is, normally within a nation-state). The first such theory was developed by Vilfredo Pareto more than 100 years ago. Pareto believes that income distribution does not change regardless of a social system and level of development. Simon Kuznets, in the 1950s, posited, on the contrary, a theory where income inequality evolves as societies get richer. Jan Tinbergen, in the 1970s, argued that the level of inequality is determined by the two opposing forces of education (increasing the supply of highly skilled workers) and technological change (increasing the demand for them). Most recently, Thomas Piketty argues that low growth combined with high returns to capital predisposes advanced economies to high levels of inequality. These theories will be considered on the real-world examples of movements of inequality in Brazil, China, “transition countries” and the United States and other advanced economies.  We shall focus especially on the recent evolution of income and wealth inequality in the United States and Piketty’s analytical contributions. The class will be fairly empirical but does not require any prior specific knowledge of the issues nor techniques. It is recommended for students of economics, political science, and sociology.

Soc. 81900/ DCP 70200: Methods of Demographic Analysis 

Prof. Frank Heiland
Wednesdays, 4:15-6:15pm, 3 Credits

This course gives students an overview of some of the major demographic methods used in the study of population, and includes the standard procedures for the measurement of fertility, mortality, natural increase, migration, and nuptiality. Students will learn how to construct demographic rates, life tables, and population projections, and how to carry out standardization, decomposition of differences, analysis of fertility and nuptiality patterns, analysis invoking model life tables and stable population theory, and analysis of nonstable populations.

Soc. 72200 / DCP 80300: Population Dynamics and Climate Change

Prof. Deborah Balk
Mondays, 4:15-6:15pm, 3 credits

This course will examine two hallmark characteristics of the 21^st century: demographic change and climate change. We will examine demographic behavior and population dynamics (urbanization, migration, fertility, mortality, age and aging, and household size and formation) in the context of climate change. Further, we will explore the role that population dynamics play in climate models and scenarios, as well as in climate adaptation and mitigation strategies. We will consider policies and programs that address these issues. The course will be global in nature, although many examples will be drawn from a developing-country context as well as from the United States. Students will learn to examine theory and evidence (data and methods) at the local, national, and international levels to understand populations at risk in the short and long run, internal and international migration flows, city growth and urban dynamism, and fertility and mortality responses tin the context of short- and long-term climate change and related hazards (e.g., increased storms and associated flooding, sea-level rise, drought, and changes in disease vectors). Prerequisites: None.

Soc. 85600: Social Movements in Latin America 

Prof. Jack Hammond- jhammond@hunter.cuny.edu
Thursdays, 2:00-4:00pm, 3 credits

This course will examine social movements in Latin America since the wave of democratization following the authoritarian period of the 1970s and 1980s. We will highlight the period of democratization, neoliberalism and austerity and the following period a return to developmental populism the 21st century, emphasizing the Pink Tide, horizontalism, resistance movements, digital organizing, globalization and transnational movements. In studying these movements, we will examine the applicability of North- based theories of social movements and the alternatives which have been proposed or may be needed. 

Soc. 82301: Computer Mapping for LA & NY, and Global Cities GIS with Mapinfo: Basic and Advanced Techniques

Prof. David Halle- dhalle@ucla.edu
Wednesdays, 6:30-8:30pm, 3 credits

An introduction to computer mapping (Geographic Information Systems), using the software Mapinfo.  We will learn the techniques of computer mapping to analyze the latest developments in New York and Los Angeles, both the cities and regions, and other global cities. We will analyze the most recently available census data, and the decennial census data for 2020, 2010, 2000, 1990, 1980 and 1970 for New York and Los Angeles. We will map such topics as  the distribution of income, occupations, racial and ethnic groups, and foreign-born. We will also map crime at the level of the police precinct, political data including Presidential, mayoral and congressional elections, city and county boundaries, world cities, environmental data, the Corona virus, transportation, housing, schools and education data, and zoning matters including historic districts.  We will map, and discuss, such key topics as the decline of the classic “ghetto” and the Latinization of inner city neighborhoods, the movement of ethnic groups to the suburbs, gentrification, the 2007- financial crisis including the housing bubble, the affordable housing crisis, the ecology and “green” movement, flooding including Hurricane Sandy,  attempts to reform the school systems, arts and cultural institutions, and de Blasio’s impact and policies.  Students are encouraged to bring to class, and develop during the semester, any ongoing research they are doing.

Soc. 85000: Gender and Crime

Prof. Jayne Mooney- jmooney@jjay.cuny.edu
Mondays, 6:30-8:30pm, 3 credits 

This course explores the relationship between gender, crime and the criminal justice system. It focuses on feminist historical, sociological and socio-legal scholarship to examine the ways in which gender affects patterns of offending, victimization, and imprisonment. It critically engages with the intersections between gender, race, class and sexuality and analyzes how these impact on the treatment of women, as victims, survivors and offenders. It provides an overview of the historical neglect of women’s contributions to sociological and criminological theory.

Cultural representations of masculinity and femininity are considered throughout. Debates are explored on the construction of masculinit(ies) in contemporary society, and recent work on transfeminism and non-binary gender identities. Specific topics to be covered include: violence against women, fear of crime, sex work, war, gangs, serial killing, imprisonment, immigration and feminist research methods.

Soc. 72000: Qualifying Paper Seminar I

Profs. Lynn Chancer/Van Tran--lchancer@gc.cuny.edu; vtran@gc.cuny.edu
Thursdays, 2:00-4:00pm, 3 credits

This year-long seminar is an opportunity to conduct original research that will result in a journal article (i.e. The Qualifying Paper) that is of publishable quality in a peer-reviewed academic journal. This seminar is required of all PhD students during the second year in the program. Over the course of two semesters, you will formulate a research question, develop a theoretical argument, design a research strategy, collect and analyze your data, interpret the results, and present your argument and findings in a precise and compelling narrative form. At the end of the Fall term, you will hand in a clearly developed research proposal with a research plan. At the end of Spring term, you will hand in a complete research paper that contributes to sociological knowledge and this draft will form the basis for your first single-authored peer-reviewed article for submission. The article can be based on  either an empirically-oriented or a theoretically-oriented research project, as long as it is deemed to be of publishable quality. (For second year students only.)

Soc. 72500: Urban Sociology

Prof. Philip Kasinitz- pkasinitz@gc.cuny.edu
Tuesdays, 4:15-6:15, 3 credits

This course will examine the city, both as a spatial location and a social institution. We will look at both the micro level interactions that create communities in the city, as well as larger structural forces such as racial segregation, migration and public policy which shape how urban communities are created, change and how they are sometimes destroyed. We will discuss the relationship of urbanism and modernity, debates over the role of “community” in urban life, ghettos, ethnic enclaves, gentrification, LGBT communities, the sociology of the built environment, the role of public space, the role of gender in urban life, the importance of culture and consumption in shaping the urban experience and the impact of globalization on contemporary cities. We will conclude by examining how the withdrawal from public space during the Covid 19 crisis, has impacted social life in New York. Readings will include works by Georg Simmel, Walter Benjamin, W.E.B. Dubois, Jane Jacobs, Marshall Berman, Herbert Gans, Richard Sennett, Mike Davis, Loic Wacquant, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Mitchell Duneier, Elijah Anderson, Min Zhou, Alejandro Portes, David Harvey, Suzanne Hall and Sharon Zukin, among others.

Soc. 81900: Quantitative Research Methods 

Prof. Jeremy Porter- jporter@gc.cuny.edu
Mondays, 6:30-8:30pm, 3 credits

This course will cover issues pertaining to the applied research process in the collection, management, and analysis of quantitative data. Methods covered are intended to give students experience with a broad array of specific quantitative methods and a directed focus on the perspectives that underlie the application of such methods. The explicit goal of the course is to give students the foundational tools necessary to do high quality quantitative research in applied and academic settings. A sample of topics covered include; the science of science, the politics and ethics of research, developing novel research ideas, item measurement, instrumentation, sampling, understanding statistical inference, and a wide variety of topics associated with the collection, management, and analysis of quantitative data.

Soc. 84600: Within-National Inequalities: From Pareto to Piketty 

Prof. Branko Milanovic-bmilanovic@gc.cuny.edu
Wednesdays, 6:30-8:30pm, 3 credits

The objective of the course is to review and analyze different theories about the forces that influence inter-personal income distribution within a single policy-making unit (that is, within a nation-state). 

The first such theory was developed by Vilfredo Pareto more than 100 years ago. Pareto believes that income distribution does not change regardless of a social system and level of development. Simon Kuznets, in the 1950s, posited, on the contrary, a theory where income inequality evolves as societies get richer. Jan Tinbergen, in the 1970s, argued that the level of inequality is determined by the two opposing forces of education and technological change. More recently, Thomas Piketty argued that low growth combined with high returns to capital predisposes advanced economies to high levels of inequality. In 2016, Milanovic introduced “Kuznets waves” claiming that structural transformations (from agriculture to manufacturing, and more recently from manufacturing to services) are associated with increases in inter-personal inequality.

These theories will be considered on the real-world examples of inequality changes in the United States and other rich OECD countries, China and  Brazil. The class shall focus especially on the recent evolution of income and wealth inequality in the United States and Piketty’s analytical contributions. 

The class is empirical, and at times mathematical, but does not require any prior specific knowledge of the issues nor techniques. It is recommended for students of economics, political science, and sociology.

Soc. 81100: Comparative Sociological Methods 

Prof. John Torpey- jtorpey@gc.cuny.edu 
Tuesdays, 2:00-4:00pm, 3 credits

This course explores patterns of difference and inequality at the global, national, and regional levels.  It seeks to make sense of the historical roots of these patterns in political, economic, ethnoracial, religious, and demographic systems.  The course will explore diverse times and places in order to make sense of contemporary patterns of inequality in comparative and historical perspective.  The emphasis throughout is on comparison across time and place as a distinctive method in the social sciences.  Students will gain an appreciation for the centrality of comparison to all sociological understanding.

Soc. 82800 - International Migration

Profs. Richard Alba and Nancy Foner - ​ralba@gc.cuny.edu,  nfoner@hunter.cuny.edu
Thursdays, 4:15- 6:15pm, Room TBA,  3 credits 

This course offers a comprehensive overview of key current topics and issues in the field of international migration. While the course will aspire to incorporate the experiences of major immigrant receiving countries around the world, the main focus will be on Europe and North America, where the major theories and key concepts are most fully developed. The emphasis is on examining both the theoretical debates in the field and the empirical data and case studies that address and, in some cases, have stimulated the debates.  Among the issues in migration studies that will be explored:  theories about the causes of international migration;  theories of assimilation;  the construction of ethnic and racial identities and group boundaries; and comparative integration of immigrants and their children in Europe and North America. As the field of international migration is inherently interdisciplinary and methodologically eclectic we will be looking at a wide variety of studies, including those that use various kinds of quantitative data and qualitative techniques as well as some that draw on historical analyses. 

Soc. 74600: Capitalism and Crisis

Prof. Roslyn Bologh-Roslyn.Bologh@csi.cuny.edu 
Tuesdays, 6:30-8:30pm, 3 credits

This course will focus on the relationship between capitalism, culture and crisis.  We will examine the current historical moment -- focusing on political economy, ideology and other aspects of social life and culture.

How does this crisis affect particular communities?  What kinds of changes are we seeing?  Is the crisis merely hastening changes that were already underway?  Will the crisis radically change our world?  How do critical political economic analyses address the contemporary crisis?  What accounts for the different trajectories of the U.S. (F.D.R. and the New Deal) and Germany (Hitler and the Nazis) during the Great Depression? How does that relate to today's crisis?  

These are some of the questions I hope we can address as events unfold.  How is capitalism directly implicated in this health crisis and the responses to it.  Public Health specialists knew what needed to be done to be prepared for a pandemic. How were economic interests related to the failure to be prepared?  What had been happening to our economy before this crisis?  What was causing the huge inequalities within particular societies and within the global economy?  What was causing the socio-cultural changes like the decline of marriage in the U.S. among the middle classes as well as middle aged people returning to live with their parents?  Why were Central Banks foreseeing even before this crisis a global recession that they said Central Banks could not handle. Why are publications like the Wall Street Journal and Forbes publishing articles about the possibility of "populist backlash?" Why do they connect public backlash to the Government providing billions to corporations that had been using their profits for "buybacks?" What are corporate "buy backs?" How is the Federal Reserve implicated in all of this? 

What will be the outcome of this global crisis?  In sum, I hope to provide students with a background in critical theory and political economy in order to address the question: how does the current crisis relate to radical social change?  

Soc. 82800: Capitalism and Crisis

Prof. Pyong Gap Min-pyonggap.min@qc.cuny.edu
Tuesdays, 6:30-8:30pm, 3 credits

The vast majority of post-1965 immigrants have originated from Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, and the Caribbean Islands. Asian and Middle Eastern immigrants have transplanted Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and other “Oriental” religions to the United States.  Latino, Caribbean, and some Asian immigrant groups have brought with them Third World versions of Catholicism that put more stress on syncretic family and small-group rituals combining Catholic beliefs and local folk culture than on worship in a congregation.  Many Caribbean and Asian immigrants have also transplanted new versions of Protestantism.  After more than 50 years of enforcement of the Immigration Act of 1965, many second-generation Americans of post-1965 immigrants have grown up, participating in the labor market and establishing their own families.

This course takes an overview of a growing body of the social science literature on the religious experiences of the new immigrant groups and their children. It will examine not only immigrants’ and children’s participation in religious institutions, but also their practices of religious rituals at home.  As a sociology course, it will pay special attention to the relationships between immigrants’ religious practices and ethnicity, gender, race, class, globalization, and transnationalism. It will also look at the intergenerational transmission of religion to their 1.5- and second-generation adults and the transmission of ethnicity through religion. 

We will discuss 2-3 articles/book chapters for each class. Students need to read in advance the articles, books chapters, and/or a book assigned for each class and to participate in discussions. I will provide lectures whenever necessary to help students better understand particular pieces of assigned reading materials related to concepts, theories and new development in research. Attendance and classroom discussions are very important for this course. Since I give no final test, I put a great weight on attendance and classroom discussion in evaluating students’ performance. Good writing skills are also important for this course, as well as for any other graduate courses. Students need to complete 4 writing assignments and a term paper (that can be sent to me by the end of the year as an e-mail attachment). 

Soc. 82907 - Black America 

Prof. Juan Battle - jbattle@gc.cuny.edu
Mondays, 2:00- 4:00 pm, 3 credits 

“One ever feels his two-ness – an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body.” So wrote WEB Du Bois in 1897. Black history, Du Bois maintained, was the history of this double-consciousness. Black people have always been part of the American nation that they helped to build. But they have also been a nation unto themselves, with their own experiences, culture, and aspirations. Black-American history cannot be understood except in the broader context of American history. Likewise, American history cannot be understood without Black-American history.
--- excerpt from Hines, et al.’s (2014) preface\

This course will serve as a broad, historical survey of the Black experience (mainly) within the United States. Because students will be exposed to (and contribute from) a wide variety of perspectives on the subject, this course is appropriate for students in the traditional social sciences (e.g. sociology, anthropology, psychology, urban education, and history) as well as more contemporary ones (e.g. women’s studies, race studies, American studies, cultural studies, lesbian and gay studies).

Soc.82800 Ethnography of Public Policy

Profs. John Mollenkopf and Robert Smith- jmollenkopf@gc.cuny.edu, robert.smith@baruch.cuny.edu
Mondays, 4:15pm–6:15pm, 3 credits

Most approaches to the study of public policy use statistical analysis to address questions of efficiency and effectiveness and/or institutional analysis to understand how actors form coalitions to advance their policy agendas (or block someone else’s). This course takes a different approach: using the tools of ethnography and qualitative analysis (participant observation, in-depth interviewing) to investigate how the participants in a given policy domain formulate, adopt, and most importantly carry out public policies. This approach begins with a focus on the “front line workers” who actually do the work of delivering public policies through their every-day interactions with clients. We will learn how to apply tools of ethnography to study and understand how front line workers “socially construct” clients in the process of co-producing public services and how the clients react to being processed.

From this focus, we will widen our focus to using these tools to examine how managers, policy decision-makers, and the broader environment try to shape or reshape the public service production process. Actors within this larger environment include agency managers and leaders, mayors and their administration, legislative elected officials, and the broader civic realm of press, policy scholars, advocacy organizations, lawyers, consultants, and the concerned public. We will begin with a close reading of Michael Lipsky’s classic Street Level Bureaucracy, then move through a series of policy case studies. Seminar participants will learn how to design and carry out a policy ethnography by constructing and developing case comparisons, tracing actors and processes, and articulating the empirical, analytical, and policy stories behind their research. If the seminar takes place on line, it will focus on readings and exercises. If personal meetings and field work are possible, they will also be included.

Soc. 71500: Sociological Statistics I

Prof. Paul Attewell- pattewell@gc.cuny.edu
Mondays, 4:15-6:15pm, 3 credits

This is a first course about quantitative methods for social scientists. It presumes no previous coursework, so it is suitable for beginners. However, since most QMSS Masters students do have some background already, the course will move fairly quickly from basic to more advanced topics and go as far into the latter as time and the semester permit. The main focus will be on quantitative methods as tools for interrogating data, rather than on the mathematical or statistical underpinnings. Considerable emphasis will be placed on understanding what statistical tools to use in what contexts, and how to interpret results and how to reconfirm/test findings.

The software we will use is STATA. The class’ format, held in a computer classroom, will be a mix of lecture, demonstrations and student in-class exercises, so that students will have hands-on use of each statistical procedure as well as a theoretical understanding. Students will develop fluency in basic data management as well as in methods of analysis, using STATA.​

Soc. 84600: Women, Work & Public Policy 

Prof. Janet Gornick-jgornick@gc.cuny.edu
Tuesdays 4:15pm–6:15pm

This course will provide an overview of key issues affecting women in the contemporary workplace in the United States and other high-income countries. We will begin with an overview of women’s position in the labor market. Here we will take a multidimensional approach to capturing gender inequality at work, covering gender gaps in employment rates, in working time, in occupation, and in earnings. We will assess growing class inequalities among women, which have led to polarization in the labor market, especially between women with more and less education. We will consider divisions by, e.g., race, ethnicity, nativity, and sexuality. We will analyze the ways in which public policies have addressed these concerns, and evaluate their impacts.

The course also examines the effects on women workers of persistent inequalities in divisions of labor within households. Despite the enormous increase in women’s employment rates during the past half century, women continue to carry out the bulk of unpaid work in their homes. Altering these inequalities has proven even more challenging than transforming the structures that shape paid work. We will consider recent research on the effects of “work-family reconciliation policies”– that is, public policies aimed at supporting women (and men) as they balance the responsibilities of paid work and family care. The key question now under consideration is whether some of these policies – e.g., paid family leave, rights to part-time work, and flexible scheduling – create new forms of gender inequality. Students will complete weekly reaction papers and a semester-long research project.

Soc. 86800 - Writing for Publication 

Prof. Barbara Katz Rothman-bkatzrothman@gc.cuny.edu
Wednesdays 2:00 - 4:00pm, 3 credits

This course will have two components: one is a scholarly sociological study of publishing itself: an examination of the worlds and institutions of knowledge-production and dissemination.  We will consider book publishing, following and more recent changes in the world of book publishing.  Similarly, we will explore the contemporary issues in journal publication, including issues of copyright and new technologies, current debates and concerns about journal costs and distribution, and ongoing discussions of ethical concerns in academic publishing in an increasingly commercialized world.

The second component is more pragmatic, in which students take their own work thru the appropriate and necessary steps for publication in a variety of media.  Topics we will cover include how to do book reviews, how to prepare a paper for presentation and then for publication, how to participate in anthology writing, how to prepare a book proposal, and how to construct a book out of a dissertation.  Each student will (at minimum) and with the support of the instructor and class, write and publish two book reviews; submit papers to three academic meetings; prepare one journal article for submission; prepare and submit one article to a non-academic publication such as an op-ed article; and prepare a (draft) book proposal based on dissertation work.

Soc. 86800 Food, Culture, and Society

Prof. Barbara Katz Rothman– bkatzrothman@gc.cuny.edu
Wednesdays, 6:30 – 8:30pm, 3 credits

This course explores major issues in foodways—food habits from production through consumption—through readings and discussions as well as through primary research in food and society.  The scholarly study of food invokes issues of gender, class, labor, and cultural identities and demands an interdisciplinary approach.  Theoretical frameworks include the food voice (Hauck-Lawson), cultural studies, political economy, and symbolic interactionism.

The key focus in the course is going to be the application of theory and methods from the disciplines represented by students, faculty and invited guests in the course, to Food Studies.

Rather than a standard paper, each student will, in consultation with the professor and the other students, develop a project that best fits in with her/his own work –for example,  a food-focused dissertation chapter, an internship, a series of published book reviews, or a paper presentation at a professional conference in the student’s home discipline.

Soc. 81900: Spatial Analysis of Social Data

Prof. Jeremy Porter- jporter@gc.cuny.edu
Thursdays, 6:30-8:30pm, 3 credits

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) has emerged as an essential tool for public health researchers and practitioners. The GIS for Public Health course will offer students an opportunity to gain skills in using GIS software to apply spatial analysis techniques to public health research questions. The laboratory section of the course will give students the opportunity for hands-on learning in how to use GIS systems to analyze data and produce maps and reports. These laboratory exercises will be designed to increasingly challenge the students to incorporate the analytic skills and techniques they have learned in other courses with the geospatial and spatial statistics techniques commonly used in GIS.​

Soc.82800: Refugees & Forced Migration

Prof. Juan Battle - jbattle@gc.cuny.edu
Mondays, 4:15-6:15 pm, Room TBA, 3 credits

Over the past decade, the global population of forcibly displaced people – as a result of persecution, conflict, violence, or human rights violations – grew substantially from 43.3 million in 2009 to 70.8 million in 2018, reaching a record high. This course is designed to give students an understanding of the major causes of contemporary migration and population displacement. Global, regional, and national processes contributing to and driving refugee and migration flows will be examined. Students will consider a range of critical issues and factors contributing to displacement, particularly under conditions of poverty, uneven development, competition for resources, political instability, weak governance, violence, environmental degradation, and natural disasters. International challenges including human rights, human trafficking, citizenship, and statelessness will be addressed as well.

Soc. 84700: Organizations, Markets, & the State

Prof. Katherine K. Chen – kchen@ccny.cuny.edu
Wednesday 11:45-1:45, Room TBA, 3 credits

How can people coordinate action across growing groups in creative versus conventional ways?
How can people organize in ways that widen versus reduce power differentials among members?  
How do people and organizations hoard advantages for a select few versus ensuring more equal access to all?
How do organizations fend off versus embrace market ideology, and how do organizations encourage members to adopt these perspectives?

Organizations are crucial actors in contemporary society, and they are also sites where many of us expend significant efforts connecting with or coordinating collective action. Despite their central role in shaping our experiences from education to the workplace to governance, organizations are often overlooked or taken-for-granted among researchers and laypersons. When researchers do study organizations, they typically pay little critical attention to power dynamics and organizing possibilities.

Building upon more critical perspectives, participants will learn why organizations form, how they develop, and how they can exacerbate or alleviate inequalities. We will also discuss organizations’ relations with the state and markets, and how these relations affect action. We will cover a variety of organizational forms, from conventional bureaucracies to networked firms to democratic organizations, with a focus on participants’ organizational fields of interest. Theories studied incorporate the classics, as well as cutting edge synthetic work like Strategic Action Fields (SAFs), racialized organizations, and relational inequality theory (RIT)'s inequality-generating mechanisms. Methodological approaches covered include ethnography, interviews, and other qualitative methods, and quantitative analyses.

This course supports deepening participants’ substantive knowledge, including preparing for comprehensives, extending cross-over expertise in a substantive area (i.e. social movements, urban sociology, stratification, education, cultural sociology, etc.), and designing and carrying out research.  In addition, this course aims to both promote professional development and forming a community of supportive scholars for emerging research.

Soc. 83300: The Ties that Bind: Family Demography in a Global Context

Prof. Jessica Halliday Hardie- jh1389@hunter.cuny.edu
Monday, 2:00-4:00pm, Room TBA, 3 credits

Family demographers study the composition of families and patterns of movement into and out of family structures, as well as what drives these patterns. We seek to understand how and why families change over time in response to economic, social, and cultural forces. This seminar offers the opportunity to learn about prevailing theories of family change, trends in family behavior, and analytic techniques common in family demography. Throughout the semester, we will seek to explain the role of family in individuals’ lives, the precursors and consequences of family change, and how the family intersects with other social institutions both in the United States and abroad. The course materials draw on a variety of theoretical, historical, cultural, and methodological perspectives to examine topics such as romantic relationship formation and dissolution, family relationships, childbearing and fertility, intergenerational exchanges, and family health.

Soc. 82301:  Sociology of New York City

Prof. William Helmreich- helmreichwilliam@gmail.com
Thursdays, 4:15- 6:15pm, Room TBA, 3 credits

This is an ethnographic fieldwork course on the neighborhoods of New York, for it is here that the intricate and crucial features of social and cultural life are played out. Capturing this reality requires an understanding of the social, racial, ethnic, religious, and other groups in the city, its spatial and geographical characteristics, and their architectural attributes. We will also be examining issues like gentrification, community life, immigration, homelessness, etc.  A neighborhood’s social life cannot be fully grasped and appreciated through readings and photographs. Thus, there will be five full-day walking/riding trips on mutually-agreed upon days through each of the five boroughs with a strong focus on its unknown aspects, followed by a free dinner at an ethnic restaurant. For more info about whether or not this course is what you’re looking for, please contact me at helmreichw@gmail.com. The course is limited to 8 students.

Soc. 85403:  Japanese Military Sexual Slavery and the Global Responses to the Redress Movement for the Victims

Prof. Pyong Gap Min – (347)287-5961, pyonggap.min@qc.cuny.edu
Monday, 2:00- 4:00pm, Room TBA, 3 credits

Approximately 50,000-200,000 Asian women suffered sexual slavery at Japanese military brothels during the Asian-Pacific War (1931-1945). The majority of them died or were killed, unable to endure the ordeal.  Those survivors who came back home after the end of the war kept silent in their home country due to strong stigma attached to sexual victims.  However, Korean women’s leaders started the redress movement for these victims in the late 1980s.  The emergence of many victims in South Korea and other Asian countries for testimonies and the discovery of Japanese historical documents demonstrating the Japanese military government’s involvement in establishing and managing comfort stations in the early 1990s accelerated the redress movement. The redress movement has received positive responses not only from Asian countries, but also, and more importantly from the UN human rights bodies, international human rights organizations, and the United States.  However, the Japanese government has not acknowledged the crime (military sexual slavery) committed by its predecessor yet, made no sincere apology and compensation to the victims, and has not taken other necessary measures to bring justice and honor to the victims.

This course focuses on the comfort women issue and the global redress movement for the victims of Japanese military sexual slavery, using lectures, readings and documentary films/movies. It covers not only Japanese military sexual slavery, but also other forms of sexual violence in military camps and at war, such as prostitutions in European and U.S. military camps, the rape of Nanjing, ethnic cleansings in Bosnia, and rapes in the Pakistani-Bangladeshi War.  It will also cover important historical issues, such as Japan’s colonization and occupation of Asian countries during the Asian-Pacific War, the 1945-1948 Tokyo War Crimes Trial, and the 2000 Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal on Japanese military Sexual Slavery.  It will also cover the redress movement for the victims of Japanese military sexual slavery in South Korea, Japan, and the U.S. in detail, which used the strategies of comfort women’s testimonies, getting resolutions, urging the Japanese government to take responsible actions, passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and state and city legislative branches, and building comfort women memorials.

Students’ three take-home essays based on reading assignments (30%), a term paper (30%), and attendance/class discussions (40%) will determine their grades.   If any students have questions about this course, they can call Professor Pyong Gap Min at 347/287-5961.

Soc. 85200: Transnational Social Movements

Prof. Carolina Bank Muñoz - cbmunoz@brooklyn.cuny.edu
Thursdays, 2:00- 4:00pm, Room TBA, 3 credits

In this course, we will explore the global response to the rise of neoliberalism and austerity politics. While social movements in the U.S. are significantly weaker than they were in the 1960s and 1970s, there has been an explosion in global and transnational movements.  We will largely focus on labor, human rights, climate change and anti-globalization movements.  In analyzing transnational social movements, we will consider such questions as: How did these movements arise?  Are transnational social movements effective responses to globalization and neoliberalism? What are the limitations of transnational social movements? How do transnational social movements negotiate race, class and gender ?And how have the rise of South-South movements challenged the power imbalances in transnational organizing?

Soc. 82800: Capitalism, Race and Class

Prof. Charles Post- cpost@bmcc.cuny.edu
Mondays, 6:30-8:30 pm, Room TBA, 3 credits

The dominant “common sense” in the United States holds that this country, unique among all industrialized capitalist countries, has no fixed and permanent social classes and affords equal opportunity for social advancement to all its citizens. However, the reality is quite different. Social class divisions and racial inequality have marked US society from its birth in the 17th century, and these divisions grow sharper today. The problem of the relationship between these two fundamental forms of social inequality and power in the US has long been the subject of theoretical and historical controversy. In this seminar, we will assess some of the extensive literature on race and class in the US. Among the questions we will grapple with over the course of the year will be: What is the theoretical status of “race”? How do different sociologists understand social class? How were the racial categories “black” and “white” socially constructed alongside plantation slavery during the 17th and 18th centuries? How were these racial categories preserved and transformed as slavery was abolished, new immigrants arrived in the US and new forms of class inequality evolved over the course of the 19th century? How have racial categories been transformed as African-Americans have become an overwhelmingly urban people who compete as legal equals for jobs, education and housing with European-Americans? What is the current relationship of race and class in the US? Readings will be substantial, varied and historical in perspective.

Soc.8000: Foucault, Bourdieu and Baudrillard:  Culture, Power, and Sexuality in the Global Era

Prof. Marnia Lazreg
Mondays, 4:15-6:15 pm, Room TBA, 3 credits

Bourdieu as well as Baudrillard expressed reticent admiration for, and skepticism about Foucault’s critical theoretical insights.  They both struggled with the same issues that are central to Foucault’s work: power, changing cultural practices as well as sexuality.    By the same token, they sought to distinguish themselves from Foucault’s approach.  Have they, as sociologists, transformed or extended Foucault’s analyses in grappling with the global contemporary challenges of culturalism, identity politics, social and racial strife, and sexual diversity?

Using methods borrowed from the history of ideas as well as the sociology of knowledge, this course examines Bourdieu’s and Baudrillard’s efforts to build a critical sociology with practical applications for social change as they struggled with Foucault’s conceptual innovations. Special attention will be given to the meanings and articulations of key concepts and issues, including structure and event/history; language, rules and discourse; power and subjectivation; body, sex/sexuality and gender; biopolitics and racial supremacy; (non-Western) revolutions and political spirituality; security/war and self-defense.  The course will further examine the degree to which the concrete socio-political activities in which each author engaged informed his theoretical commitment.

The class will be conducted as a seminar that encourages an in-depth exploration of the multifaceted relationship between culture, power, and sexuality in various settings.  It will emphasize reading primary sources as much as possible, and thinking critically and boldly.  Students are expected to immerse themselves in the works of these authors, and write a paper focusing on two critical issues with which one of them engaged. Selecting current socio-political events or issues as testing ground for the three theorists’ ideas is strongly encouraged. The paper will be elaborated in stages to be discussed in class until its completion.

Main Texts:  

• Foucault, excerpts from a selection of Lectures at the College de France, “Security, Territory and Population,” (1977-78); Birth of Biopolitics (1978-79); “On the Government of the Living” (1979- 1980);  History of Sexuality, II and II; Herculine Barbin.
• Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice; Masculine Domination; Acts of Resistance; The Bachelors’ Ball; excerpts from On the State: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1989-1992.
• Baudrillard, Seduction; Symbolic Exchange and Death; Simulacra and Simulation.

Soc. 72200: Immigration and Health

Prof. Anahi Viladrich - anahi.viladrich@qc.cuny.edu
Wednesday, 4:15- 6:15pm, Room TBA, 3 credits

This course offers a comprehensive overview of the intertwining fields of immigration and global health with a particular focus on the United States. During the semester, we will discuss theoretical concepts of sociological significance to be applied to health-based case studies involving immigrants and refugees in contemporary societies. We will also critically examine the epidemiological literature on immigrants’ health risk factors by addressing the root causes of disease, health disparities and the social determinants of health. Health outcomes will be explored along the intersections of class, race/ethnicity, legal status, region and country of origin, age, and gender, among other key dimensions. The course will also analyze health policy issues and programs by studying the impact of U.S. federal and state law on immigrants’ health coverage, health interventions targeting vulnerable populations (including refugees and their children) and community organizing around work-related injuries. For their final projects, students will choose a conceptual issue of empirical significance, such as the impact of structural violence on post-traumatic stress among border crossers; social determinants of chronic disease (e.g., the obesity epidemic) among second-generation immigrant children; or cultural explanatory models of immigrants’ folk healing practices.

Course Structure: The course will primarily be conducted as a seminar. The instructor’s presentations will be followed by students’ questions and group discussion. For each class, students will read journal articles, evaluations of public health interventions and other research pieces based on sociological theory and methods that critically examine public health issues.

Assessment: Students’ understanding of the course material will be evaluated through class participation, group work, short reflection papers, and a term paper. This paper (a draft and a final version) will be based on case studies on a specific health issue involving a particular immigrant or refugee population.

Soc. 81100: Comparative Sociological Methods 

Prof. John Torpey - jtorpey@gc.cuny.edu
Tuesday, 2:00- 4:00pm, Room TBA, 3 credits

This course explores comparative methods in sociology by analyzing patterns of difference and inequality at the global, national, and regional levels.  It will seek to make sense of the historical roots of these patterns in political, economic, ethnoracial, religious, and demographic arrangements.  The course will explore diverse times and places in order to understand contemporary patterns of difference and inequality in comparative and historical perspective.

Soc. 82800: Immigrant Communities & Politics in New York City

Prof. John Mollenkopf
Mondays, 4:15- 6:15 pm, Room TBA, 3 credits

The vast flow of immigrants into New York City (and the surrounding metro area) since 1965 has reshaped the composition of its population and potential electorate, altered neighborhood dynamics, and created new ethnic political constituencies over the last several decades.  Caribbean, Latin American, East and South Asian, European, and African immigrants and their native-born children are making our already cosmopolitan mix of racial and ethnic groups even more varied, posing new challenges for inter-group relations and the fair and vigorous political representation of all groups.  The emerging new immigrant communities are now contending for power not just against older native-born white political elites, but also against native-born minority groups.  They are redefining what it means to be a New Yorker, and, ultimately, to be American.  Such a profound transformation raises many major research questions for social scientists.

This seminar uses New York City as a laboratory to analyze the political changes brought about by the new immigration.  It will cover the existing theoretical and empirical literatures on racial and immigrant ethnic political incorporation and will enable you to do a “hands on” research project for the immigrant-origin constituency of your choice.

Students will use quantitative data provided by the instructor (Census data, election results), secondary sources (such as the immigrant and neighborhood press), and their own interviews to describe and analyze the civic and political engagement of an immigrant ethnic group in the process, students will study the patterns of political activism within the group (in terms of developing political goals and strategies and tactics to realize them) and how they interact with other racial/ethnic groups in their environment (with attention to patterns of conflict and/or cooperation.

The goal of this research is to understand how leadership is developing within your study group, how those leaders seek to promote group identity and activism, and how they become elected or appointed office holders as the larger civic and political culture gradually integrates them.

Class members will pursue these goals by: 1) reviewing key studies on the overall process of immigrant political incorporation in New York and other cities, 2) reading studies about political participation within the major immigrant groups, 3) analyzing Census data, election results, and voter history, and available public opinion polls regarding the political engagement and leanings of your chosen group, and 4) undertaking interviews of political elites from your group, focused on the coming 2020 and 2021 state and local elections.  (We will hold a workshop for students who lack basic quantitative skills and may also substitute further qualitative work for the quantitative analysis).

Soc. 84001: Social Policy and Socio-Economic Outcomes in Industrialized Countries

Prof. Janet Gornick
Tuesdays, 4:15- 6:15 pm, Room TBA, 3 credits

This course provides an introduction to cross-national comparative research, with a focus on socio-economic outcomes and on the policies and institutions that shape those outcomes. The course will draw heavily on research based on data available through LIS, a data archive located in Luxembourg, with a satellite office here at the Graduate Center. (See https://www.lisdatacenter.org for details).
LIS contains two main micro-databases. The Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) Database includes 300+ micro-datasets from over 50 high- and middle-income countries. These datasets contain comprehensive measures of income, employment, and household characteristics. A smaller, companion dataset – the Luxembourg Wealth Study (LWS) Database – provides microdata on assets and debt. Since the mid-1980s, the LIS data have been used by more than 5000 researchers – mostly sociologists, economists, and political scientists – to analyze cross-country and over-time variation in diverse outcomes such as poverty, income inequality, employment status, wage patterns, gender inequality and family structure. Many researchers have combined LIS’ microdata with various macro-datasets to study, for example, the effects of national social or labor market policies on socio-economic outcomes, or to link socio-economic variation to national-level outcomes such as immigration, child well-being, health status, political attitudes and voting behavior.

The course has two goals: (1) to review and synthesize 30+ years of research results based on the LIS data; and (2) to enable students with programming skills (in SAS, SPSS, Stata, or R) to carry out and complete an original piece of empirical research. (The LIS and LWS data are accessed through an internet-based “remote-execution system”. All students are permitted to use the LIS microdata at no cost and without limit.)

The course will require a semester-long research project. Students with programming skills (which will not be taught in the course) will be encouraged to complete an empirical analysis, reported in a term paper. Ideally, these term papers will be circulated as LIS/LWS Working Papers – and ultimately in published venues. Students without programming skills will have the option to write a synthetic research paper. A minimum requirement is the capacity to read articles that present quantitative research results.

Soc. 85000: Foundations of Legal Thought: Theory & Practice of Justice

Prof. Leslie Paik
Tuesdays, 4:15- 6:15 pm, Room TBA, 3 credits

This course introduces students to the basic methods of legal and social science analysis/research to study law and the legal system. It focuses on specific substantive topics (e.g., access to justice and reform in the civil, criminal and juvenile justice systems). As part of the course, we will do site visits to justice institutions, policy agencies and innovative programs; we also would have speakers present their work and agencies’ missions during class. The goal of the course is to provide students with the legal knowledge and real-world encounters to support their pursuit of jobs and careers in justice reform, in government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and firms.

Soc. 82800: Global Immigrant Cities

Prof. David Halle-dhalle10@gmail.com
Mondays, 6:30 - 8:30 pm, Room TBA, 3 credits

This course asks the question of how various migrant-receiving global cities experience, respond to, and are transformed by the changing composition of their ethnic populations. Looking at several European, North American, Latin American, and Asian cities, it will explore their histories of ethnic and racial difference; the ways in which their ideologies about diversity, pluralism, and multiculturalism have evolved and changed over time; the extent to which they incorporate (or do not incorporate) their migrants; and the different economic, cultural, and political impacts that migration has had on these global immigrant cities. The main focus will be on international comparison, and students will be trained in the use of comparative perspectives to illustrate similarities and differences between cities. Global immigrant cities are crucial research sites for exploring the possibility of going “beyond” the nation-state-society focus of most mainstream American research. Also, while opening the door to a crucial dimension of globalization, the comparative study of migration opens up a fresh comparative and international perspective on the urban experience. Taking advantage of our location and extensive local knowledge, the course will use New York as the basis of comparison with other major global cities, such as Los Angeles, Paris, London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Toronto, Shanghai, and Buenos Aires.

Soc. 76900: Media and Popular Culture Analysis

Prof. Erica Chito Childs – echitoch@hunter.cuny.edu
Thursdays, 11:45-1:45 pm, Room TBA, 3 credits

This course will explore the myriad of theoretical approaches and methods used to analyze the content, structure, and contexts of media and popular culture in society.  In particular we will explore how cultural meanings convey specific ideologies of gender, race, class, sexuality, nation, and other ideological dimensions.  We will focus on three inter-related dimensions of cultural analysis including the production and political economy of culture, the reading of cultural texts (film, TV, video games, news coverage music, social media, etc.), and the audience reception of those texts (including social media responses).   Students will produce an original research paper employing one of the theoretical frameworks and methodologies of cultural analysis for publication.

Soc. 82901: Urban Poverty and the City

Prof. Van C. Tran – vtran@gc.cuny.edu
Wednesdays, 2:00-4:00pm, Room TBA, 3 credits   

The study of neighborhoods, urban poverty and the city holds a distinctive place in the birth and development of American sociology as a discipline, tracing back to the heyday of the Chicago School of Sociology. This course engages with some of the most central debates within the field. We will focus on both structural and cultural approaches to understanding urban inequality.

The course will proceed in two parts. In the first part, we will look at how sociologists have approached the study of urban communities and neighborhoods. In the second part, we will pay attention to the experiences of living in a highly disadvantaged neighborhood, the consequences of growing up in them, and the social and spatial context that shapes individuals’ life chances.

There are no prerequisites to the course. Preference for enrollment will be given to PhD students in Sociology and related disciplines from the Graduate Center or other doctoral programs within the Interuniversity Doctoral Consortium, followed by students from the IMS or QMSS programs.

Soc. 84511-The Sociology of Labor and Labor Movements

Prof. Ruth Milkman – rmilkman@gc.cuny.edu
Tuesdays, 6:30-8:30 pm, Room TBA, 3 credits

This course offers an overview of key debates about the U.S. labor movement, with an emphasis on historical and comparative perspectives.  It is a reading course with a seminar format, devoted to intensive study and discussion of key texts on the topic.  The primary focus is on the causes and consequences of the rise of union power in the mid-20th century, and of its decline in the neoliberal period that began in the 1970s.  We will also examine labor market transformations and their impact on the labor movement, and the dynamics of the political-economic context in which labor struggles are situated.  Requirements include short weekly papers on the assigned texts and a research paper on a topic related to the course content.

Soc. 84600: Politics of Inequality, Opportunity, and Redistribution: Theory, Empirics, Methods, and Analysis

Prof. Leslie McCall – lmccall@gc.cuny.edu
Wednesdays, 4:15-6:15 pm, Room TBA, 3 credits

This course will cover substantive developments, measurement issues, and analytic approaches in the political study of economic inequality across the social sciences.  The main objective is to become familiar with (1) the multiple levels of analysis involved in the political study of inequality, opportunity, and redistribution, namely, the role of political institutions (i.e., parties, electoral systems, policy regimes, etc.) on the one hand, and behavioral dynamics (e.g., individual and group beliefs, policy preferences, and political participation) on the other hand, in shaping political and economic outcomes, and (2) the strengths and weaknesses of various methodological approaches to analyzing institutional and behavioral processes, such as political economy, public opinion and survey research, experimental research, ethnography, and discourse/textual analysis. Readings will be interdisciplinary and include mostly empirically-based, substantive studies employing quantitative (including experimental) and qualitative data and methods, though the balance will tilt toward quantitative studies. While we will focus substantively on trends in class inequality in the U.S., we will also examine other dimensions of inequality, such as racial/ethnic and gender inequality, as well as inequality outside of the U.S.

Soc. 71600: Sociological Statistics II

Prof. Paul Attewell – pattewell@gc.cuny.edu
Mondays, 4:15-6:15 pm, Room TBA, 3 credits

This course is the second part of a two-semester sequence aimed mainly at QMSS students. It will begin by reviewing earlier lectures on ordinary least squares regression and logistic regression, including the use of margins and margins plots to interpret complex interactions from such models. It will next cover several specialized forms of regression modeling, including negative binomial regression for count data, and methods for predicting rates or fractional dependent variables.

We will then move to several more recent computationally-intensive approaches to predictive modeling (i.e., data mining) including classification and regression trees (CART), neural networks, Kernel regularized least squares (KRLS), clustering methods, partial least squares regression (PLS regression), and latent class regression.

The class will consists of a mix of lectures, demonstrations of software, and in-class computer exercises. The main software will be Stata and JMP Pro. These are installed on lab PCs and other machines at GC. The goal of the course is to familiarize students with some of the more recent quantitative methods, when they should be used, and how to interpret their output. The emphasis is on developing hands-on skills.

Soc. 73200: Sociology of Gender

Prof. Hester Eisenstein- hester1@prodigy.net
Tuesdays, 2-4pm, Room TBA, 3Credits    

In this course we look a range of issues in the sociology of gender.  To define this field briefly, the sociology of gender looks at the beliefs, interests and structures that tend to preserve the traditional relations between the sexes, and those which contest them.  Among other areas, the field considers the process of socialization into masculine and feminine roles in childhood, through education, and into the public worlds of work and politics.

In recent years sociological inquiry has moved beyond the original concept of “sex roles” to look at gendered structures in institutions, the significance of gender in politics, economics, and social movements, nationally and internationally, and the complex relationships among gender, race, and class.  What was seen as a “natural” and biologically based dichotomy of male/female has been questioned through the study of gender as performance, and the critical challenge to traditional femininity and masculinity from “queer” and transgendered folk.

My own research has focused on what we can term the political economy of gender, in relation to the changes within capitalism with the rise of neoliberalism over the past few decades. The topics covered in this course are a selection reflecting my interests, and should by no means be considered comprehensive. Therefore I include a list of alternative topics in this syllabus that students can pursue on their own, for their final research papers, and for future study.

The framework of this course is influenced by what I see as the political history of gender studies. The establishment of the category of sex and gender in the official canon of the profession of sociology is the outcome of a renewed wave of feminist activism that swept society, and therefore the academy. In the 1960s and 1970s, massive social movements for Black civil rights, women’s rights, ending the war in Vietnam, lesbian and gay rights, and environmentalism in the United States and internationally shook the economic and social status quo.  Today we are witnessing another wave of social movements across the globe, from the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt to Occupy Wall Street, and from Turkey to Brazil.

The passion and breadth of social movements can become ossified and de-politicized, as the ideas and issues are translated into formal academic inquiry.  I hope therefore in this course to convey the connections to politics and activism behind these topics, so as to keep the links between academic research and social change fresh and vibrant. Students are encouraged to pursue their own interests in the class, and to develop their own frameworks for research and activism.

Soc. 85800: Race and Ethnicity

Prof. Philip Kasinitz- Pkasinitz@GC.CUNY.EDU
Tuesday, 4:15-6:15

Race and ethnicity are constantly changing and evolving, yet they remain among the most persistent and pernicious forms of structured social inequality. Focusing on the United States, but with reference to other multi-ethnic and multi-racial societies, we will examine the evolution of the concept of “race” and its relationship to racism; the heritage of slavery and segregation and their impacts contemporary life; the origins of modern racism and anti-Semitism, “scientific racism, ” why and how the salience of ethnic identity increases and decreases at particular historical moments, the relationship of race and ethnicity to migration, colonialism and class and the growth of the  Latino and Asian American populations and  what  that  means for American notions of race. In addition we will take an in depth look at how racial boundaries change, competition and cooperation between ethnic groups in contemporary America and how “racialized” minorities are (and are not) incorporated into different societies. Readings will include works by W.E.B. Dubois; Jean Paul Sartre, George Fredrickson; William Julius Wilson, Michele Alexander, Ibram Kendi, Richard Alba, Alejandro Portes, Douglas Massey and Mary Waters.

Soc. 83100: Social Construction of Health and Illness

Prof. Barbara Katz Rothman – bkatzrothman@gc.cuny.edu
Wednesdays, 2:00-4:00pm, Room TBA, 3 credits

This course offers an introduction to the field classically known as medical sociology, with an emphasis on newer qualitative, critical and theoretical work.

Key themes in Medical Sociology have included the social construction of illness and its ongoing expansion into more areas of life; the medical gaze and the processes of medicalization; how the medicalized body is framed; representations of the body in medicine; cultural images, ethnographies and narratives of disease and illness; and cultural understandings of medical subjects.

When we take seriously the call to do a truly global sociology, we can see Biomedicine operating at a level and in a way in which national boundaries are but minor obstacles in organizing access – access of providers of services to their customers or to their research material, and access of customers to services.  In that sense, the ‘social construction’ idea is too passive, and too limited in boundaries.  Illnesses are being constructed not only ‘socially,’ in each society according to its own ideas about the body, but in the pursuit of industrial profit.  While Foucault spoke of the state uses of  bio power,  we will also consider how biopower, as it is institutionalized in the Biomedical Empire, uses states.

Soc. 84600: Within-National Inequalities: From Pareto to Piketty

Prof. Branko Milanovic – bmilanovic@gc.cuny.edu
Wednesdays, 6:30-8:30pm, Room TBA, 3 credits

The objective of the course is be to review, analyze, and allow students to develop a much better understanding of the theories and empirics of personal income distribution within a single policy-making unit (that is, normally within a nation-state). The first such theory was developed by Vilfredo Pareto more than 100 years ago. Pareto believes that income distribution does not change regardless of a social system and level of development. Simon Kuznets, in the 1950s, posited, on the contrary, a theory where income inequality evolves as societies get richer. Jan Tinbergen, in the 1970s, argued that the level of inequality is determined by the two opposing forces of education (increasing the supply of highly skilled workers) and technological change (increasing the demand for them). Most recently, Thomas Piketty argues that low growth combined with high returns to capital predisposes advanced economies to high levels of inequality. These theories will be considered on the real-world examples of movements of inequality in Brazil, China, “transition countries” and the United States and other advanced economies.  We shall focus especially on the recent evolution of income and wealth inequality in the United States and Piketty’s analytical contributions. The class will be fairly empirical but does not require any prior specific knowledge of the issues nor techniques. It is recommended for students of economics, political science, and sociology.

Soc. 81500: Deportation & Ethnographic Immigration

Prof. David Brotherton – davebro54@icloud.com
Tuesdays, 6:30-8:30pm, Room TBA, 3 credits

This course is an overview of the fields of sociology and criminology that link deportation to processes of migration, social control, state formation, global political economy and social processes of inclusion and exclusion. The deportation of non-citizens has become a major issue in the United States as well as internationally. Literally millions of legal and "illegal" non-citizens have been removed from the U.S. during the past two decades in what is the largest and most enduring process of human expulsion from a Western country since the holocaust. A dramatic hardening of the U.S. immigration laws was enacted in 1996 and since then policies governing citizenship and residency have become increasingly punitive, tied to the moral crusades on drugs, terrorism, gangs and the immigrant and the economic paradigms of neo-liberalism. The erection of borders, both internal and external, symbolic and substantive, has been a key characteristic of these processes. Paradoxically, the United States has been "traditionally" viewed as a nation of immigrants, albeit a colonial settler one in which the indigenous populations were violently and systematically expelled from their ancestral lands only to be subsequently reincorporated and 'assimilated" as "minority" subpopulations. In this course we take a critical-ethnographic lens to the dynamics, practices and sociological contexts of the deportation regimes in the U.S. and beyond, focusing on both epistemological and methodological issues that are highlighted in the research literature. Students are also encouraged to experience the terrain of deportation first-hand with guidance from the instructor.

Soc. 85700: Migration Policy

Prof. Jamie Longazel– jlongazel@jjay.cuny.edu
Thursdays, 4:15-6:15pm, Room TBA, 3 credits

This class will study key issues surrounding migration policy from a critical, interdisciplinary perspective. While our primary focus will be on theoretical issues concerning contemporary policy patterns in the United States, we’ll also make it a point to consider practical issues, historical policy patterns, and international trends. We will explore the social forces that shape migration policy (e.g., race, political economy), the policy tools states use to control migrants (e.g., detention, deportation, devolution), and the ways in which migrants respond to and are affected by such policies.

Soc. 81900 Spatial Demography

Prof. Deborah Balk - deborah_balk@baruch.cuny.edu
Wednesdays, 4:15 p.m.- 6:15 p.m. 3 credits     

This course provides an overview of spatial themes and techniques in demography. Examples will be drawn from many substantive areas (e.g., mortality, fertility, urbanization, migration, poverty and others in allied disciplines). Students will learn about the spatial construction of place, basic mapping skills and spatial data creation as well as statistical methods to explore and model spatially-referenced data to answer demographic (and allied) questions. In the most advanced topics, students examine the special difficulties that spatial data may create for standard regression approaches, and learn models and approaches for undertaking multivariate regression analysis in the presence of spatial heterogeneity and/or spatial dependence. Emphasis in the course is evenly split between learning how to make maps and spatial analysis. Pre-requisite: Introductory statistics including multiple linear regression, or permission of instructor.

Soc. 81200. Ethnography, Related Methods and Research Design

Prof. Rob Smith – robertsmith@baruch.cuny.edu 
Thursdays, 6:30-8:30pm, Room TBA, 3 credits 

This course offers and overview of ethnography and related methods, analysis, and research design. First, the course offers students the chance to learn about ethnographic research, including combining techniques such as ethnographic observation, various types of interviews, and case triangulation. Second, the course reviews how to design and do ethnographic, case-oriented, research that is fundable, publishable, and usable in several applied contexts. Third, the course offers students a chance to do their own pilot ethnographic studies and discuss them in class. 

Soc. 80201. Social Consequences of Digitalization

Prof. John Tropey – jtorpey@gc.cuny.edu
Tuesdays, 2:00- 4:00pm. Room TBA, 3 credits

This course examines the social consequences of the digitalization of modern life.  We will explore the nature and extent to which digitalization constitutes a social transformation and the character of that transformation.  Areas to be addressed include changes in the nature of social ties, the political consequences of social media, bias in artificial intelligence, the future of work, universal basic income, changes in warfare, the remaking of philanthropy, utopian possibilities and dystopian nightmares of new technologies, and the like.  Readings will be drawn from such authors as Blauner, Castells, Fischer, Berlin, Asaro, Scharre, Turkle, Vaidyanathan, Markoff, Zuboff, Ghiridharadas, Webb, Reich, et al.

Soc. 70100. Development of Sociological Theory

Prof. Jack Hammond- jhammond@hunter.cuny.edu 
Wednesdays, 6:30-8:30pm, Room TBA, 3 credits 

The classical sociological theorists -Marx, Weber, and Durkheim -offer the foundations for sociological thinking in the twentieth century and into the present. This course will consist of a close reading of their major works, emphasizing their analyses of the nineteenth-century historical changes, which gave rise to the discipline of sociology.

Soc. 82201. Immigrant New York

Prof. Van Tran - vtran@gc.cuny.edu
Tuesdays, 4:15-6:15pm, Room TBA, 3 credits

Over the course of the twentieth century, New York City has witnessed two major waves of immigration. How has immigration transformed New York City, both in the past and in the present? What are the major ethnic groups in the city? How are immigrants and their U.S.-born children incorporated into the city’s schools, workplaces and neighborhoods? How will their integration reshape patterns of ethnic and racial inequality in the city? This course answers these questions by focusing on New York City as a case study to highlight how immigration has transformed the city’s demographic, political, socioeconomic and spatial landscape. On the one hand, the influx of immigrants has brought about economic revitalization of many neighborhoods from Jackson Heights to Washington Heights, lowering the crime rate and stimulating business growth. On the other hand, immigration and diversity have raised concerns about social cohesion and national security. How can we balance these concerns? One unique feature of this course is the opportunity for students to directly observe and study New York City’s diverse neighborhoods, immigrant communities and immigrant organizations. The course welcomes students from a range of disciplinary background, including sociology, urban studies, social anthropology, political science, and history.   

Soc. 85800. Research/Writing/Publication on Race, Ethnicity, and Migration

Prof. Stephen Steinberg - ssteinberg1@gc.cuny.edu 
Tuesdays, 6:30 – 8:30 pm, Room TBA, 3 credits

This seminar on Research/ Writing/ Publication is targeted for students whose scholarship is centered on race, ethnicity, and migration. 

We will explore a series of related genres that go “beyond the dissertation.”

1. The book review.
2. The conference paper.
3. Converting the conference paper for submission to a journal for publication.
4. Anticipating the eventual transition from dissertation to book. 
5. The book proposal, beginning with the cover letter to an acquisition editor.
6. The book proposal itself.
7. The grant proposal.
8. Publication in a non-academic venue: for example, an op-ed in a newspaper; an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education; a post on a blog, such as Racism Review: scholarship and action toward racial justice.

Soc. 81100 - Social Demography and Geographies of the Disadvantaged

Prof. Jeremy Porter – jporter@brooklyn.cuny.edu 
Wednesdays, 11:45 am-1:45 pm., Room TBA 3 credits 

In this course we will examine the role of “place” as social geographies which relates to containers of populations.  In particular, we are interested in the social geographies of disadvantage.  We will explore theoretical treatments and popular sources of data in the analysis of disadvantaged populations. We will also be introduced to ways that public policies, institutional practices and spatial perceptions become institutionalized and influence local contexts to maintain disadvantage.  Students in the course will work with data from the US Census Bureau, Centers for Disease Control, and other administrative population level data sources.  In addition, students will be introduced to a series of open source software packages commonly used in the application of methods associated with the examination of disadvantaged populations/individuals in localized contexts.  Methodological applications include Multilevel modeling (could be listed as HLM), Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR), Spatial Regression, and an introduction to Spatio-Temporal Analyses. Pre-requisite: Introductory statistics including multiple linear regression.

Soc.73200: Gender and Globalization

Prof. Hester Eisenstein - hester1@prodigy.net 
Mondays, 2:00-4:00 pm, Room TBA, 3 credits

In this course we will examine the relationship between “globalization,” and the changes in gender relations that have taken place since the 1960s.Since the end of the “long boom” (starting after World War II and lasting through the mid-1970s), academic and mainstream feminism have enjoyed enormous success, during a period of economic, social, and political restructuring that has created an intensified polarization between rich and poor, and an ever-growing mass of desperately impoverished people around the globe. This course will examine this paradox. 

We will define globalization, starting from the premise that this is a stage in the development of the international capitalist system, under the economic and military domination of the world’s only remaining superpower. Poor countries have been forced to open their borders to the free flow of capital from the rich countries.”Globalization” involves the intensive use of female labor, from maquiladoras to electronics to textiles. It has also produced an acceleration of “informal” work for women. 

While educated women can now walk through many doors previously closed to them, in the worlds of business, sports, academe and politics, the majority of women in the world are increasingly impoverished, overworked and exploited, and subjected to a wide variety of forms of sexual, military, and economic violence. The majority of the world’s migrants and refugees are now women and children. 

Where does the ideology of globalization come from? How has globalization affected the conditions of women and children in the developed and the developing world? How has contemporary feminism been shaped by the workforce participation of women? What is the role of class and race in the women’s movement, domestically and internationally? Why are issues of gender, sexuality, and race so central to the culture wars being waged at home and abroad by religious fundamentalist leaders? How does the association of “liberated women” with modernity affect the process of globalization? In the revived social movement that has placed the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other international financial institutions at the center of an intensified campaign for social justice, what is the place for organized women’s activism? 

Readings in the course are selected from theoretical writings as well as case studies, and students will be encouraged to develop their own research and activist agendas.

Soc. 82301: Computer Mapping for LA & NY, and Global Cities GIS with Mapinfo: Basic and Advanced Techniques

Prof. David Halle – dhalle10@gmail.com     
Wednesdays, 6:30-8:30, Room TBA, 3 credits 

An introduction to computer mapping (Geographic Information  Systems), using the software Mapinfo.  We will learn the techniques of computer mapping to analyze the latest developments in New York and Los Angeles, both the cities and regions, and other global cities. We will analyze the most recently available census data, and the decennial census data for 2010, 2000, 1990, 1980 and 1970 for New York and Los Angeles. We will map such topics as  the distribution of income, occupations, racial and ethnic groups, and foreign-born. We will also map crime at the level of the police precinct, political data including Presidential, mayoral and congressional elections, city and county boundaries, world cities, environmental data, transportation, housing, schools and education data, and zoning matters including historic districts.  We will map, and discuss, such key topics as the decline of the classic “ghetto” and the Latinization of inner city neighborhoods, the movement of ethnic groups to the suburbs, gentrification, the 2007- financial crisis including the housing bubble, the affordable housing crisis, the ecology and “green” movement, flooding including Hurricane Sandy,  attempts to reform the school systems, arts and cultural institutions, and de Blasio’s impact and policies.  Students are encouraged to bring to class, and develop during the semester, any ongoing research they are doing.

Soc. 81900: Quantitative Research Methods 

Prof. Jeremy Porter- jporter@brooklyn.cuny.edu
Mondays, 6:30-8:30pm, Room TBA, 3 credits   

This course will cover issues pertaining to the applied research process in the collection, management, and analysis of quantitative data. Methods covered are intended to give students experience with a broad array of specific quantitative methods and a directed focus on the perspectives that underlie the application of such methods. The explicit goal of the course is to give students the foundational tools necessary to do high quality quantitative research in applied and academic settings. A sample of topics covered include; the science of science, the politics and ethics of research, developing novel research ideas, item measurement, instrumentation, sampling, understanding statistical inference, and a wide variety of topics associated with the collection, management, and analysis of quantitative data.

Soc. 85700: Social Welfare Policy

Prof. Janet Gornick- jgornick@gc.cuny.edu
Tuesdays, 4:15- 6:15pm, Room TBA, 3 credits 

This course will examine social welfare policy in the United States, in historical and cross‐national perspective.  We will begin with an overview of the development of social welfare policy in the U.S. We will focus on crucial historical periods – including the Civil War years, the Progressive Era, the New Deal, the Great Society, and the “welfare reform” of the 1990s and early 2000s.  Second, we will assess “the big picture” of the American welfare state, through the lens of its underlying institutional framework.  Third, we will analyze a set of contemporary challenges in the U.S. that call for active policy responses, such as inequality, health insurance, low‐wage work, and care.  Finally, we will survey selected social policy lessons from other high‐income countries, especially in Europe, where social provisions are typically more extensive than they are in the U.S.

Soc. 84600: Introduction to Social Movements

Prof. James M. Jasper – jjasper@gc.cuny.edu
Wednesdays, 4:15- 6:15 pm, , Room TBA, 3 credits

This course will review the history and current directions of research and theory about social movements. I hope to show some pitfalls of research guided by grand metaphors, theories of history, or normative agendas, compared to research guided by modest micro-level mechanisms. We begin with theories of revolutions, which show some of the perils of macro-level comparative research. We will pay special attention to how both arenas and players change across time, confounding many theories of action.

Soc. 82907: Black America 

Prof. Juan Battle - jbattle@gc.cuny.edu
Mondays, 4:15- 6:15 pm, Room TBA, 3 credits

“One ever feels his two-ness – an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body.” So wrote WEB Du Bois in 1897. Black history, Du Bois maintained, was the history of this double-consciousness. Black people have always been part of the American nation that they helped to build. But they have also been a nation unto themselves, with their own experiences, culture, and aspirations. Black-American history cannot be understood except in the broader context of American history. Likewise, American history cannot be understood without Black-American history.
--- excerpt from Hines, et al.’s (2014) preface

This course will serve as a broad, historical survey of the Black experience (mainly) within the United States. Because students will be exposed to (and contribute from) a wide variety of perspectives on the subject, this course is appropriate for students in the traditional social sciences (e.g. sociology, anthropology, psychology, urban education, and history) as well as more contemporary ones (e.g. women’s studies, race studies, American studies, cultural studies, lesbian and gay studies).

Soc. 82800: Urban Studies Core Seminar II

Prof. Marta Gutman/John Mollenkof  mgutman@ccny.cuny.edu / jmollenkopf@gc.cuny.edu 
Wednesdays, 4:15- 6:15 pm, Room TBA, 3 credits

The second semester of the Core Seminar in Urban Studies will continue to build on the work of the first semester, which was designed to equip doctoral students in the humanities, social sciences, and urban-oriented sciences with the theoretical perspectives that will help them situate and conceptualize their research questions and also apply them to a case study neighborhood. The second semester will focus on the research methods that students can use to begin to answer their research questions and the ways in which they can inform policy-making. They will apply these methods both to their own long-term research projects and to the Queens waterfront case study, investigating the question of “What is the future of LIC after Amazon?” This site exemplifies the challenges of redeveloping post-industrial urban landscapes, particularly on shorelines. Students will learn how to use field work, in depth interviewing, archival research, visual and auditory inventories, survey research, administrative data analysis, GIS and other methods to explore policy questions about land use, zoning, gentrification, climate change, the development industrial ecologies, neighborhood cohesion, and other pressing topics. We will continue to treat this neighborhood as an ecology of work, consumption, recreation, and residence and ask now these elements both frame and are shaped by politics and policy-making.

Soc. 81500: Doing Visual Research

Prof. Wendy Luttrell - wluttrell@gc.cuny.edu
Tuesdays, 4:15- 6:15pm, Room TBA,  3 credits

In the past two decades, there has been an explosion of participatory visual research projects. This course aims to situate these projects within overlapping disciplinary traditions (education, sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, and psychology) and to consider what makes this research “critical” (i.e. feminist, de-colonial, reflexive, transformative). The course affords students the opportunity to read and review exemplary projects; and to work directly with visual data utilizing different analytic/interpretive strategies. Students will have access to an audio-visual archive of data I have collected based on a longitudinal visual research project with children 10-18 or can utilize an archive of their own interest. We will consider issues of power and ethics in participatory visual research; how working with visual data can (but not necessarily) challenge traditional notions of knowledge production; the role of new technologies in disseminating and reaching new audiences; and how we align our work with the expectations and politics within the communities within which we work.

Soc. 84505: Mothers In Law

Profs. Julie Suk and Sara McDougall - ​jsuk@gc.cuny.edu,  smcdougall@jjay.cuny.edu
Mondays, 11:45- 1:45pm, Room TBA,  3 credits

This course will introduce students to central issues in the history and sociology of law through the study of motherhood. The lens of motherhood will open up broader themes in the study of law and society, including categories such as gender, constitutionalism, and criminal justice. Studying the socio-legal history of motherhood will enable students to learn the skills of legal reasoning, utilize methods of legal-historical research, and pursue experiential learning through field studies, panel discussions open to the public, and the authoring of publicly available teaching materials on select topics. First, we will explore how ideas of women as mothers have been enshrined in law, from the legal definition of the mother in civil law, to the legal treatment of pregnancy. Second, this course will study women as lawmakers, as “founding mothers” of twentieth-century constitutions, and laws more generally. We will explore biographies of women lawyers and lawmakers. Third, we will consider mothers as law-breakers, by engaging the history of mothers in prison, and the current legal issues arising from incarceration of mothers. This component of the course may include field trips to engage the criminal justice system.

Soc. 82800: International Migration

Profs. Richard Alba and Nancy Foner - ​ralba@gc.cuny.edu,  nfoner@hunter.cuny.edu
Thursdays, 4:15- 6:15pm, Room TBA,  3 credits

This course offers a comprehensive overview of key current topics and issues in the field of international migration. While the course will aspire to incorporate the experiences of major immigrant receiving countries around the world, the main focus will be on Europe and North America, where the major theories and key concepts are most fully developed. The emphasis is on exploring both the theoretical debates in the field and the empirical data and case studies that address and, in some cases, have stimulated the debates.  Among the issues in migration studies that will be explored:  theories about the causes of international migration;  theories of assimilation;  the construction of ethnic and racial identities and group boundaries; the nature and impact of transnational ties; and comparative integration of immigrants and their children in Europe and North America. As the field of international migration is inherently interdisciplinary and methodologically eclectic we will be looking at a wide variety of studies, including those that use various kinds of quantitative data and qualitative techniques as well as some that draw on historical analyses.

Soc. 81900: Methods of Demographic Analysis

Prof. Frank Heiland – Frank.Heiland@baruch.cuny.edu
Tuesdays, 4:15 - 6:15 pm, Room TBA, 3 credits

This course gives students an overview of some of the major demographic methods used in the study of population, and includes the standard procedures for the measurement of fertility, mortality, natural increase, migration, and nuptiality. Students will learn how to construct demographic rates, life tables, and population projections, and how to carry out standardization, decomposition of differences, analysis of fertility and nuptiality patterns, analysis invoking model life tables and stable population theory, and analysis of nonstable populations.

Soc. 71500: Sociological Statistics I

Prof. Paul Attewell – pattewell@gc.cuny.edu 
Mondays, 4:15 - 6:15 pm, Room TBA, 3 credits

This course is the first part of a two-course sequence in quantitative research methods, intended primarily for students enrolled in the QMSS degree program. This course assumes no previous background in statistics or data analysis, but will move at a fairly quick pace starting with the basics. The course’s emphasis is on developing “hands on” analysis skills, rather than on the underlying mathematics. Students will learn how to use Stata statistical software to manage and analyze real datasets, and to recognize which techniques are appropriate in which contexts, aware of their strengths and weaknesses. We will consider alternative analytical methods that are available for various tasks, and learn how to interpret and evaluate statistical output. The class’ format will combine lectures and demonstrations with in-class statistical exercises. The class will take place in a computer lab with PCs that have the appropriate software installed. Grades will be based on a student’s in-class exercises.

Topics will include:

1. Levels of measurement and types of variables. Measures of central tendency, variation and dispersion.
2. Data preparation and data cleaning. Recoding data. Strategies for dealing with missing data. Imputation.
3. The Central limit theorem, standard errors, confidence intervals. 
4. Survey design and sampling weights. 
5. The null hypothesis & the logic of significance testing, including its limitations and misuse. Robust standard errors. Bootstrapping and Permutation tests for significance testing, recent advances including cross-validation.
6. Comparing across groups: ANOVA, t-tests, cross-tabulation.
7. Standardization, z-scores, binning. Dealing with non-linearity.
8. Measures of association and correlation, and non-parametric tests.  Building scales.
9. Causal inference, spurious correlation, selection bias, mediation and moderation.
10. Multivariate regression. Dummy variables. Variable transformations. Interaction terms.
11. Regression assumptions and regression diagnostics.
12. The Linear Probability model and Logistic Regression. Marginal Effects.
13. Extensions of regression: fractional regression, censored regression, count data.

Soc. 85000: Criminology and the Law

Prof. R. L’Heureux Lewis-McCoy – rlewismccoy@gmail.com
Thursdays, 6:30 - 8:30 pm, Room TBA, 3 credits
Criminologists rely on various theoretical perspectives to understand and explain criminal behavior. Research has examined the criminal act as contingent on an individual person’s psychology, biological traits, traumatic experiences, immediate environment, wider geographical community, or a combination of these, while others focus on the criminal event itself or trends in aggregate crime rates.  A different but deeply connected inquiry concerns the type and degree of social control imposed on the individual once a crime is committed.  Legal structures grow from communal and political contexts partly informed by criminological knowledge but mostly built on wider social forces.  The interplay between criminological knowledge, social norms, and legal responses is explored in this course.