Fall 2023 Sociology and Anthropology Advising Guide

IMPORTANT LINKS

Academic Advisement Information & Tips to prepare for registration

Fall 2023 Course Descriptions

General Sociology Major Overview and Requirements

General Anthropology Major Overview and Requirements

You must also have at least a 3.25 GPA.

SOC 390 Research Course in Sociology

Each semester the department offers at least one mentored research course with a faculty member. Working in small groups, students gain valuable research experience while assisting a faculty member with their ongoing research projects. For Fall 2023, Dr. Borland is recruiting a student research team:

SOC 390 Research Course in Sociology with Dr. Borland

In this faculty-student research seminar emphasizing comparative methods, Dr. Elizabeth Borland and a team of student researchers will explore abortion rights and legal activism. Dr. Borland is writing a book aimed at an undergraduate audience about this topic which compares three cases in South America: Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. Therefore, this seminar will help to review literature on the role of lawyers in social movements, as well as news coverage about court cases in English media, and background information about the three contexts. Because advances for legal abortion and reproductive justice in the region have occurred at the same time that abortion rights are being restricted in the US, the research team will also consider what the US can learn from the Southern Cone. Students will help Dr. Borland revise her work in progress by reading drafts and providing feedback.  Students will develop and strengthen invaluable organizational, analytical, editing and communication skills. Especially important for students planning to go on to law or graduate school, and those with special interest in feminism, activism, reproductive justice and/or Latin America, this course will help students identify their own research interests and strengths. This seminar meets once a week for three hours at a time that will be determined by the research team, and will count for one unit as a 300-level sociology elective.

To apply for consideration for this research course, please complete this google form by April 1:

  https://forms.gle/SQmtAmYDeoMTjnCi8

Questions? Please contact Dr. Borland:   borland@tcnj.edu

The course examines the prehistoric archaeological record to critically examine the technologies made, and used by human ancestors leading to both successful and failed occupations of certain environments and landscapes. We will review literature to reconstruct ancient behavior, culture, and diet, and compare the evidence to modern day lifestyle trends like the “paleodiet”. The course will also draw on the research of archaeologists, paleoanthropologists, primatologists, and survival experts.  Finally, this course will allow us to reflect on modern behavior and how our lifestyle may or may not be in line with our evolutionary programming. This course is crosslisted with HON 270-11 for Honors students.

 Fall 2023 Course Descriptions

ANT 110 / Intro to Cultural Anthropology

A survey of the major concepts of social-cultural anthropology.  Cross-cultural comparison will be a central concern of the course, as will the process of cultural change.

ANT 111 / Intro to Biological Anthropology

What makes us human?  Is it the use of language, the ability to manipulate material culture or the fact that we are bipedal?  This course will focus on evolutionary theory and the theory of natural selection, the behavior and anatomy of non-human primates, and the evolution of modern humans.  Students will also learn how anthropology is directly related to other disciplines including sociology, biology, ecology and geology. (Note:  this course has no lab, and while it satisfies the liberal learning requirement for a natural science course, it does NOT satisfy the requirement for a natural science with lab).

ANT 213 / Language and Culture: An Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology

An introduction to the Anthropological subfield of Linguistic Anthropology, which investigates the relationship between language and culture. Language permeates our lives, and yet most of us take it for granted. This course is intended to clarify your ideas about language as it is used by speakers in various social contexts across a wide range of cultures. By the end of the course you should be familiar with some of the terminology and techniques of linguistic anthropological analysis and be able to apply this knowledge to the description of different languages.

ANT 305 / Human Evolution

The study of human evolutionary past, using various methods, including archaeology and the interpretation of skeletal morphology. Evolutionary principles and processes of change  are used as a theoretical background to examine our non-human primate relatives, the human fossil record, and biological variation in modern human populations. It is recommended, but not required, that students complete ANT111 prior to enrolling in this course.

ANT 315 / Ethnicity, Race, and Nation

This course explores the reasons why people categorize themselves and others into ethnic and racial groups and investigates the effects of these categorizations.  The relationship between ethnicity and the creation and perpetuation of nation-states, the roles of indigenous peoples within nation-states, and the implications of migration upon processes of ethnicity and constructions of race are all important themes.

ANT 370 / Topics in Anthropology: Prehistoric World

The course examines the prehistoric archaeological record to critically examine the technologies made, and used by human ancestors leading to both successful and failed occupations of certain environments and landscapes. We will review literature to reconstruct ancient behavior, culture, and diet, and compare the evidence to modern day lifestyle trends like the “paleodiet”. The course will also draw on the research of archaeologists, paleoanthropologists, primatologists, and survival experts.  Finally, this course will allow us to reflect on modern behavior and how our lifestyle may or may not be in line with our evolutionary programming. This course is crosslisted with HON 270-11 for Honors students.

ANT 398 / 499 Senior Capstone Experience in Anthropology (crosslisted with SOC 398/499) – see description below. Enrollment with department consent

SOC 101 / Intro to Sociology

Sociology explores the intersection of biography and history.  Students learn the basic foundations of sociology, including its development as a field of inquiry, early sociological theory, and methodology.  The course also analyzes social organization, addressing culture, structure, socialization, and social control. Students investigate how culture, class, race, sex, family, medicine, business, religion, education, and government affect our lives.  Special attention is paid to the impact of society on self.

SOC 301 / Development of Socio-Cultural Theory

SOC 101 or ANT 110 is a pre-requisite (with a B- or better required of Sociology majors/minor)

The response of social theorists to the consequences of the industrial revolution and the issues of capitalism, secularism, modern consciousness, and the socio-critical enterprise, as seen through the work of such theorists as Marx, Durkheim, and Weber.  Contemporary development of these theories will also be discussed.

SOC 302 / Quantitative Research Methods

SOC 101 (B- or better), & STA 115 (B- or better) or STA 215 (C+ or better) are prerequisites. SOC302 and a required 80-minute lab class are co-requisites.

The course is designed to familiarize students with quantitative research methodology, methods of quantitative data collection, and analysis of quantitative data used in sociology.  In addition, students will learn one of the most widely used statistical software packages in the social sciences (SPSS) and conduct independent research using one of the most widely used sources of quantitative social data, the General Social Survey (GSS).  One additional 80-minute lab session is required as a co-component to this course.

SOC 303 / Gender and Activism in Global Perspective

Social movements about gender issues and identities are significant sources of social change in societies around the world. This course explores the cultural constructions and implications of gender in different global contexts by analyzing the political demands and experiences of gender-based movements.

SOC 333 / Body Image, Culture, and Society

This course is intended to engage students in critical thinking about social responses to the idealized images of women and men around them, as well as the individual decisions they make affecting their own bodies. It is, simultaneously, a case study in the dynamics of social power.

SOC 335 / Courtship, Marriage, and Family

Comparative analysis of familial institutions. Historical development of the Western family; sex/gender roles, intrafamilial interaction; child-rearing patterns.

SOC 365 / Poverty and Welfare in the US

History, nature, extent, levels, causes of poverty. Effect of industrialization, urbanization, and technology. Impact upon major institutions. Ethnic and racial group problems and reactions. Governmental and private organizational programs.

SOC 370 / Topics in Sociology: Using Social Media to Understand Modern Culture

Tweets, memes, posts, TicToks, and discussion threads follow unique norms and conventions, but they all share one thing in common: they digitize text. One of the many consequences of digitization is that we can analyze these cultural constructs, giving us a view into modern languages and cultures. In this course, we will examine these different forms of digitization and how organizations create rules and structures that constrain the production of meaning. Students will conduct basic computational text analyses, including web scraping, term frequency and dictionary methods, sentiment analysis, topic modeling, and more. Special emphasis is placed on whether and to what extent computational methods are practical tools for understanding historically underrepresented cultural meanings and perspectives.The course assumes minimal statistical background and no coding experience.

SOC 390 / Research Course in Sociology

A small group of students work closely with a faculty member on his/her ongoing research.  Students will learn to use the data collection and analysis methods used for the project and be offered opportunities to present the findings on campus or at a regional sociology meeting. [See above for Fall 2023 opportunity with Dr. Elizabeth Borland]

SOC 397 / Learning Assistantship in Sociology

Learning Assistants learn about the teaching of Sociology.  Students gain a deeper understanding of the particular course content area, gain insight into curriculum goals and methods of achieving them, and develop instructional skills in the areas of: providing written feedback, creating and/or delivering learning activities, and constructing learning tools.  Specific duties for the Learning Assistant are detailed in a contract that is developed and signed by both the student and faculty sponsor. [See above for Fall 2023 opportunity with Dr. Rebecca Li]

SOC 398 / Sociology Capstone Internship

Capstone internship constituting a culminating experience for sociology majors. Course draws on skills and knowledge of sociology courses as well as knowledge gained from the liberal arts broadly construed to be applied to reflect deeply and examine experiences and the social world at the internship site. Must be taken as a bundle with SOC 499 Senior Seminar in Sociology (of the same section number) to fulfill the capstone requirements of the sociology major.  (0.5 course unit; Corequisite: SOC 499; Prerequisites: SOC 301 and 302)

SOC 499 / Senior Capstone Seminar

SOC 301 and SOC 302 are prerequisites with a grade of C or better.

Senior seminar constituting a culminating experience for sociology majors. Course draws on skills and knowledge of sociology courses as well as knowledge gained from the liberal arts broadly construed. Must be taken as a bundle with SOC 398 Sociology Capstone Internship (of the same section number) to fulfill the capstone requirements of the sociology major. (0.5 course unit; Prerequisites: SOC 301 and 302; Corequisite: SOC 398)