|
|
Sociology of Deviance
|
Why is something or someone labeled as deviant? What does that label mean, and who decides what is “deviant”? How do power, social norms, and contexts shape our understanding of deviance? In this course, we will examine deviance as a socially constructed phenomenon, exploring the ways societies define, manage, and regulate behaviors, beliefs, and characteristics deemed deviant. We will focus on the intersection of deviance with power, inequality, and social control, drawing on sociological theories and empirical studies to understand its causes, consequences, and contested meanings. Key topics will include mental illness, crime, sexuality, violence, stigma, moral panics, and digital-age surveillance.
|
|
|
Gender and Neoliberalism
|
This course explores the complex relationship between gender and neoliberalism, examining how neoliberal ideologies and economic practices impact gender dynamics across diverse global contexts. Through a critical examination of key theoretical frameworks and historical developments, students will explore how neoliberalism reconfigures power relations, labor, identity, citizenship, and social movements, particularly focusing on the differential impacts on marginalized communities.
|
Intermediate Qualitative Methods for Sociologists
|
This course offers an in-depth exploration of qualitative research methods, designed to prepare students for advanced sociological inquiry. Students will delve into the theoretical underpinnings, practical applications, and ethical implications of various qualitative techniques, such as interviewing, ethnography, and content analysis. The course highlights the iterative nature of qualitative research, guiding students through the entire research process—from formulating research questions to data collection and analysis, and ultimately to presenting persuasive findings. Students will learn to critically assess existing qualitative studies while honing their research skills through practical projects and assignments.
|
Social Control
|
This course examines how societies have defined some social groups and actions as deviant throughout history. We will explore how and why these individuals and their actions are labelled as deviant, criminalized, and punished. Although we will mainly study analyses of social control from scholars in the Global North (North America and Western Europe), we will also critically analyze how social control practices have expanded worldwide. We will assess why some types of deviance are less likely to be detected and sanctioned than others. Finally, we will discuss how “deviants” resist social control and build spaces for survival.
|
Criminal Justice and Inequality
|
This course explored how the criminal justice system manages, creates, and perpetuates inequality. We examine the historical role criminal justice institutions have played in criminalizing racialized people and the processes through which the criminal justice system perpetuates inequality.
|
Education and the Criminal Justice System
|
This course explores how the criminal justice system has made its way into classrooms and schools. We examine the historical role of the education system in the disproportionate practices of control and punishment against racialized youth in North American schools and the criminalizing techniques schools employ. We analyze the growing links between schooling, policing, juvenile detention centres, and other criminal justice institutions and discuss resistance to the criminalization of education.
|
Policing and Security
|
The social outcry to defund and abolish the police have questioned the once seemingly accepted fact that police forces and policing are necessary for society to function. This course engages with these calls for defunding and abolition by examining the nature of policing and security in Canada and other countries of the Western hemisphere. The course explores the constitutive role of policing and security in constructing and reproducing the social order.
|