Department of
Sociology
Graduate Program
Race and Ethnicity in a US and
Global Context:
Graduate courses
Health Disparities (SYA 7933, Barbara Zsembik)
The National
Center
on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NCMHD, http://ncmhd.nih.gov/),
"envisions an
America
in
which all populations will have an equal opportunity to live long,
healthy and
productive lives." Accomplishing
this vision entails development of a cross-disciplinary national
research
agenda that addresses the health needs of vulnerable ethnoracial
populations
and promotes research ranging from biomedical to sociocultural
determinants,
dimensions and consequences of health.
Through reading assignments, class discussions, and
presentations, we
will examine the empirical evidence and conceptual models of health
disparities
in the United States. Our primary orientation will be social and
behavioral perspectives and determinants, but we will also consider
biomedical
and biobehavioral approaches.
Issues
and Perspectives in Latin American Studies (Charles Wood)
The
seminar reviews
the issues
and perspectives that define the field of Latin American Studies. The
readings
and discussions are designed to (1) analyze the antecedents and
consequences of
key historical events, from the Colonial period to the present, and (2)
identify the factors that led to the rise (and demise) of theoretical
perspectives that have informed analyses of social change and
development in
Latin America.
The
theoretical
survey
encompasses evolutionary theory, Classical Liberalism, and orthodox
Marxism in
the late 19th Century; the CEPAL thesis, marginality theory, and
modernization
paradigm typical of the immediate post-WWII period; neo-Marxism,
Dependency and
World Systems theory during the 1970s through the early 1990s, and,
more
recently, neo-Liberalism, postmodernism, as well as the current
emphasis on the
new social movements, social exclusion, and social capital theory.
The
assigned readings
are
comparative (giving particular attention to Mexico,
Brazil
and Argentina)
and global (stressing the changing historical relationships between Latin
America and the world system).
Race Perspectives in Women Studies (WST
6936/SYA 7933, Milagros Peña)
This course will explore
the contributions of
African
American, Native American, Chicana /Latina,
and Asian American feminists to women’s studies and feminism. We will
address
issues such as racism in the women’s movement and feminism and sexism
in
communities of color. Framed by
critiques of “universal sisterhood” launched by women of color and
Third World
feminists, this course aims to dismantle the conventional Western story
of
feminism as something that began here and then spread elsewhere. We
will
consider the issues taken up by feminists of color; differences in
experience
across ethnicities, and similarities which emerge out of living in a
racially
marked body in the US.
We will consider questions such as: About what do feminists of color
theorize?
What have feminists of color contributed to feminism? How does making
race and
ethnicity explicit change feminism? In
analyzing the intersections of race/ethnicity, class, gender and
sexuality we
will focus on two basic questions as we explore other issues: How are
feminist
movements culturally and historically situated; and, How
do representations of women shape knowledge, as well as agency?
Sociology of Latinos/as in the U.S.
(SYA 7933, Milagros Peña)
This course focuses on the historical
and structural forces which have
shaped
Latinos’ and Latinas’ status in the U.S. The course focuses primarily
on
analyses of these groups’ relationship to important U.S.
societal institutions and social processes such as their roles in the
economy
(labor/employment), political participation, education, civil rights,
etc. The
class covers these groups’ history and current status in each of these
areas,
and the Latina/o dramatic growth in population. As we round the corner
into the
twenty-first century, this growth continues to transform the “Latino/a”
or
so-called “Hispanic” community into one of the fastest growing
population
groups in this country and is fast becoming the U.S.’s
largest racial/ethnic minority. The course also explores historical and
contemporary constructions of Latina/o identities and experiences in
the United States.
Particular emphasis will be placed
on their transcultural social contexts, racial formations, and
intersections
with other identities including class, and gender.
Core Graduate Seminar in Theories of
Race and Ethnicity (different
faculty)
