This course introduces students to the discipline of sociology, which offers distinctive concepts and methods to understand human behavior and the societies we all inhabit. How do societies evolve and change? What can be learned from comparing them? How do they make us into the kinds of people we are, and which facts either sustain or shatter everyday life? What do culture, power, bureaucracy, racial discrimination, inequality, sexual and social conflict have in common? In this course, students will learn about themselves by exploring the hidden patterns in the world around them. By the end of the semester, students will have a firm grasp of the sociological imagination and how to use it to understand our increasingly diverse and complex world. Note: Students may only earn credit for one of the following: SOC 1176, 1576, or 1976.

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