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• Sociology 24, Section 1: Life Course And The Transition To College (Fall, 2005)
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• This Freshman seminar provides an opportunity to reflect on how the transition from high school to college is shaped by our individual life experiences as well as the historical period in which the transition takes place.
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• The organizing concept is “life course:” the progression of individuals and cohorts through the biological life span, linked with the socio-cultural context and historical events through which the progression occurs. Along the way, we will learn some things about Sociology, particularly the “sociological imagination:” the ability to see the connection between biography and history, and to move from thinking about personal troubles of milieu to public issues of social structure. Another central idea we will wrestle with is “cultural capital,” a type of resource which at one level can be defined as “knowing what to know in order to succeed.”
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• Sociology 190.2: Chinese Society And Film (Fall, 2005)
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• Chinese society has experienced some very fundamental and revolutionary changes since the beginning of the economic reforms early in 1979. One benefit has been the revival and flourishing of Sociology as a discipline. Although many restrictions remain, Chinese and foreign sociologists have access to a wide spectrum of sources of data to understand many of these changes. One aspect of the changes, and a window on China’s transformation, is the film industry. As with other sectors of the formerly state-owned and planned economy, film production is now highly geared toward the market, both at home and abroad. Foreign films are screened publicly and through (usually pirated) videos and DVDs. Freed in great measure from many of the restrictive and overbearing political controls which reached an extreme during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), Chinese films are now rarely ideological and dogmatic. Rather, they often deal in an honest way with sensitive topics, and experiment with a range of themes and techniques. There is much nuance and the “message” is not always clear. By viewing recent films, we can get a sense of how at least a segment of artists views the changes in their society, and how they choose to present their vision to audiences. We will watch 6 recent Chinese films which address different aspects of society. We will also read sociological studies and journalistic reports of the same phenomena. Our goals, in addition to appreciating Chinese films, are to see how artists and sociologists represent social phenomena, and how we can utilize films as data to understand both those social issues as well as the situation of the culture industry in China, including creative, political and economic aspects.
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• Sociology 183C: Contemporary Chinese Society (Spring, 2003)
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• China fascinates yet divides foreign analysts and observers. Researchers, reporters and commentators in the West continually examine its market potential, its social trends, its political and economic stability, and its intentions as a rising power in Asia. Often they reach contradictory conclusions. This combined course in Journalism and Sociology engages students in a cross-disciplinary investigation of the ideas and approaches that shape what we know about China at a moment of unprecedented change. The course has two primary objectives: to teach substantive information about contemporary Chinese society, and to examine the different ways that scholars and journalists approach the study of China.
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• Sociology 280P: Topics in Chinese Society (FALL, 2006)
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• This graduate seminar has 3 major goals: 1) to familiarize students with the evolution and current state of the academic field of the study of contemporary mainland Chinese society; 2) to master some important substantive topics; 3) to prepare a research proposal on a subject of the student’s choosing. The first goal will involve learning about the creation and evolution of a distinct field of Area Studies drawing on expertise and theories from other disciplines and area studies, particularly Soviet Studies. We will also learn about the particular set of challenges facing scholars of society on the Chinese mainland, and how and why these have changed and shaped the topics, methods, and theories adopted by scholars. We will also note the assumptions, presuppositions, and values of the researchers. The second goal will involve reading some recent scholarly works on different topics, with the objective not only of gaining control over the subject areas, but also critically examining the research strategies, types of data and methods of analysis, theoretical underpinnings, relation to social science disciplines, and the debates or conversations in social science and/or Chinese Studies in which the authors situate themselves.