Sociology 497-Senior Seminar
| Prof. Mark Schneider | Office Hours: Tue: 3-5 |
| 3424 Faner Hall | Wed. 8-10; Th 9-11 |
| Ph. 453-7627 | masch@siu.edu |
Description: The senior seminar offers majors an opportunity to reflect over and integrate the varied elements of their sociological education. There are numerous different ways of designing a course to promote this reflection and integration. I have chosen to divide the course into three distinct segments. The first half of the course will view your schooling through a sociological lens. Students will be expected to compose educational autobiographies that situate their individual experiences in the context of a broader sociological analysis of education. For the latter, we will draw on a standard text.
The second half of the course consists of two segments. The first will expose you to "depth sociology"-a relatively thorough analysis and explanation of highly circumscribed patterns of behavior, an analysis that serves to connect the broadest possible vision of social organization (macrosociology) with the minutest dissection of individual interactions (microsociology). I take the particular example-specific patterns of violence-to illustrate the power of a sociological vision backed by careful research. Students will be asked to use this (or another example of their choosing) to write a lecture communicating the power of sociology to an introductory class.
The second segment of the second half of the semester will be devoted the relation between sociological knowledge and social criticism. We will look at an influential example of the use of research in diagnosing social ills, using it to consider the prospects of social engineering. Can sociology help us not just to understand the world around us, but to materially better it? Or are all social ills simply in the eye of the beholder?
I expect these three foci will provide students with ample opportunity to reflect on what they are doing as sociology majors and why.
Requirements: two papers, one a ten page educational autobiography and the other a ten-fifteen page lecture to an intro class. There will be several exercises requiring your vigorous participation.
Conscientious reading of the course material is absolutely mandatory, and failure to keep up with it will merit whippings.
Grading: 33% for each paper and 33% for class participation and preparation.
Texts:
Steven Brint, Schools and Societies (Pine Forge Press)
Fox Butterfield, All God's Children: The Bosket Family and the American Tradition of Violence (Bard)
Richard Nisbet & Dov Cohen, Culture of Honor: The Psychology of Violence in the South(Westview)
Robert Putman, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (Simon & Schuster)
Reading Schedule:
January 15: Introduction
January 17: Schools and Society, chs. 1 & 2, pp. 1-64
January 22: Schools and Society, ch. 3, pp. 65-99
January 24: Schools and Society, ch. 4, pp. 100-135
January 29: Schools and Society, ch. 5, pp. 136-170
January 31: Schooling and Skills (in-class group work)
February 5: Schooling and Skills 9 (in-class group presentations)
February 7: Highest-order skills: Close reading and critical analysis
(Reading to be assigned)
February 12: Highest order skills, continued
(Reading to be assigned)
February 14: Analyzing and imparting skills (in-class group work)
February 19: Schools and Society, ch. 6, pp. 171-203
February 21: Schools and Society, ch. 7, pp. 204-237
February 26: Schools and Society, ch. 8, pp. 238-273
February 28: Schools and Society, ch. 9, pp. 274-297
March 5: Educational Autobiography presentations
March 7: Educational Autobiography presentations
March 19: All God's Children, Part 1, pp. xiii-67
Culture of Honor, ch. 1, pp. xv-11
March 21: All God's Children, Part 2, pp. 71-128
Culture of Honor, ch. 2, pp. 13-24
March 26: All God's Children, Part 3, pp. 131-227
Culture of Honor, ch. 3, pp. 25-40
March 28: All God's Children, Part 4, pp. 231-280
Culture of Honor, ch. 4, pp. 41-55
April 2: All God's Children, Part 5, pp. 283-324
Culture of Honor, ch. 5, pp. 57-80
April 4: All God's Children, Epilogue, pp. 324-334
Culture of Honor, ch. 6, pp. 81-95
April 9: Critical analysis of Culture of Honor
Bowling Alone, pp. 15-79
April 11: Bowling Alone, pp. 80-180
April 16: Bowling Alone, pp. 183-203
April 18: Bowling Alone, pp. 204-286
April 23: Bowling Alone, pp. 287-318
April 25: Bowling Alone, pp. 319-363
April 30: Bowling Alone, pp. 367-414
May 2: Critical analysis of Bowling Alone and conclusion
Attendance policy: You are allowed two unexcused absences over the semester. Each additional unexcused absence will cause a reduction of 1/3 letter grade. Requests to be excused should be
submitted before the class in question by email, and should contain a thorough explanation of the reason for the absence.
WebCT: We will use the WebCT facility extensively in this class. Some reading assignments will be available only on WebCT, and both your papers will be made available to your fellow students
there. Thus you need to sign up for a WebCT account and then log in to the Senior Seminar facility. When you sign up for your WebCT account, you need to remember the ID and password you
select for yourself. If you don't remember it, you can't get back into the facility and I can't help you with the problem (you'll have to go to IT in the Library). But you only have to log in for the Senior
Seminar once. Thenceforward, you'll have automatic access through your WebCT account.
Here are the steps for establishing an account and logging in to the course:
1. Go to http://mccoy.lib.siu.edu:8900
2. Click on Create myWebCT.
3. Follow the simple steps to create your username and password that allows you to access all your WebCT courses.
3a. Make a note of the username and password you've chosen! You'll always need it to return to WebCT.
Now, to log in to the Senior Seminar:
4. Click Continue at the bottom of the page.
5. Click Add course.
6. Under the left hand column: Categories , click Liberal Arts. Courses will be listed to the right. Go to the second page of courses by clicking on "next page.".
7. Click on SOC497-Senior Seminar on the right hand course listing.
8. Enter as your User Name your first initial and last name all connected in lowercase, e.g. mschneider. For your password, enter your student number. This is the only time you will use this User Name and Password. For all future access you will use the myWebCT ID and Password that you created in step 3. Click Continue.
9. Click on Return to myWebCT.
10. You should now see SOC497-Senior Seminar on the left hand side of your myWebCT page. You can click there to enter the course facility.
Steps for logging on myWebCT in the future:
1. Go to http://mccoy.lib.siu.edu:8900.
2. Click on Log on to myWebCT.
3. Type in your myWebCT Username (not your first initial and last name, unless you set it that way).
4. Type in your myWebCT Password (not your student number, unless you set it that way).
5. On your left-hand side, you will see the SOC497-Senior Seminar. Click on it to enter.
About the Professor: you can find out a lot about me by visiting my website. It's
www.siu.edu/~socio/Mark_A_Schneider.htm. I particularly encourage you scan some of the articles I've written so that you can get a sense of my sociological style.