Program Description

Do you want to create a better world? Are you fascinated by such topics as race, social class, gender, globalization, the environment, education, social work, or social change? These subjects and others that deal with social relationships, culture, and the nature of society comprise the discipline of sociology. As a broad and eclectic field of inquiry, sociology uses many different approaches, ranging from cultural and historical studies to survey research.

The sociology major at Purchase College is designed to give students maximum exposure to the breadth of the field. Optional concentrations —Globalization, Communities, Social Change; Social and Health Advocacy; and Education and Society— allow students to focus on a particular area of interest.

What can you do with a degree in sociology? Opportunities exist in both the private and public sectors in the fields of social advocacy, social work, human service, education, business, law, criminal justice, social science research, and community relations. (For more detailed information about career opportunities, visit the American Sociological Association.)

Program Faculty

Requirements for the Major

All students majoring in sociology take the following courses, plus an additional four to five courses in the student’s chosen concentration:

• Introduction to Sociology
• Proseminar in Sociology
• Research Methods
• Sociological Theory
• One internship, study-abroad opportunity, or community-action independent study, chosen in consultation with the faculty advisor
• Sociology Junior Seminar
• Senior Project in Sociology

Concentration 1: Sociology (general major)
At least four sociology electives, chosen from specified courses in the following three groups: Sociological Perspectives on Individual Behavior, Social Institutions, and Inequality and Change

Concentration 2: Globalization, Communities, Social Change

• Three electives chosen from a specified list, including at least one upper-level course
• Plus one of the following courses:
  Race and Ethnicity
  Sociology of Gender
  Class, Power, Privilege

Concentration 3: Social and Health Advocacy

• Three electives chosen from a specified list, including at least one upper-level course
• Plus two of the following courses:
  Human Sexuality
  Race and Ethnicity
  Sociology of Gender
  Class, Power, Privilege
  Conflict Management and Mediation

Concentration 4: Education and Society

• Three electives chosen from a specified list, including at least one upper-level course
• Plus two of the following courses:
  Race and Ethnicity
  Sociology of Gender
  Class, Power, Privilege
  To Enjoy Our Freedom: African American History Since 1865 or
      Race, Ethnicity, and Identity in the U.S.
• An additional writing course is recommended.

Representative Elective Courses

Birth and Death
Communities, Ethnicities, and Exclusion
Community Organizing, Action, Service
Conflict Management and Mediation
Cultural Activism in Latin America
Environment and Society
Families, Communities, Cultures
Globalization, Culture, Social Change: Latin America
Global Social Movements
International Migration Today
Religion, Culture, and Society
Science, Medicine, Culture
Sex, Politics, and Health
Society and Public Policy
Social Entrepreneurship
Social Organizations
Sociology of Education
Sociology of the Body and Embodiment
The Arts for Social Change
Urban Sociology

Representative Alumni

• Carol Dallinga ’80, MSW, Hunter College, City University of New York; licensed clinical social worker; full-time psychotherapy practice in Ardsley, NY
• Stephen Duncombe ’88, PhD, Graduate Center, City University of New York; associate professor, Gallatin School, New York University
• Amy Bromberg Funk ’77, JD, Yale University; founding member of staff, Smart Information Flow Technologies (SIFT); senior counsel, Target Corporation, Minneapolis
• Marci Gurton ’02, director of development, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Newburgh
• Jessica Hentoff ’77, artistic and executive director, Circus Harmony; president, Everydaycircus
• Audrey Hutchinson ’77, program director, Education and Afterschool Initiatives, National League of Cities, Washington, DC
• Mary E. Kane ’73, film producer; credits include King of New York, Bad Lieutenant, The Funeral, and If These Walls Could Talk 2
• Antonio Pagliarulo ’02, author, A Different Kind of Heat and The Celebutantes young adult fiction series (Random House, Inc.)
• Jeffrey K. Salkin ’76, DMin, Princeton University; senior rabbi of The Temple in Atlanta; well-known activist in Reform Judaism and award-winning author

For more information, visit the Sociology site in Academic Programs.

Updated Nov. 22, 2011

 

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