Sociology, which originated during the Industrial Revolution, systematically explores societal transformations and social life changes. As we face a new industrial revolution, sociology is again tasked with deciphering the complex cultural and structural shifts this era brings. This course delves into how the Fourth Industrial Revolution affects personal and societal dimensions, analyzing these impacts through a sociological lens. It brings together the expertise of all tenure-track faculty in the Department of Sociology to provide a comprehensive view of how technological advancements like big data and artificial intelligence intersect with various social issues, including economic organization, social inequality, welfare system, values and morality, demographics, life courses, minority issues, and social movement. Additionally, it introduces first-year students to the breadth and applicability of sociology, offering a glimpse into the discipline's vast scope and relevance to contemporary challenges.
This course introduces two intermediate statistical techniques commonly used in social science research. The first part focuses on panel data analysis, where students will learn how to estimate temporal changes and intra- and inter-individual differences using Fixed, Random, and Mixed Effects Models. The second part covers Latent Class Analysis, equipping students with the skills to identify unobserved subgroups, internally homogeneous and externally heterogeneous, based on response patterns to multiple indicators.
This course introduces sociological and related studies of life courses by examining the basic premises of the life course paradigm and reviewing different approaches. While the life course refers to age-graded sequence of roles, opportunities, constraints, and events that shape the biography from birth to death, careers are broadly understood as the patterned pathways of participation in social institutions that are constitutive elements of the life course. The implications of careers and life courses as imaginative frameworks will be discussed through an examination of studies on age & aging, family & social change, work careers, and inequality.
Now is an opportune moment to revisit globalization: The COVID-19 pandemic and the prolonged war in Ukraine have prompted us to rethink the extent, the vulnerability, and the future of our global interconnectedness. This course invites you to explore the history and multidimensionality of globalization and probe its past and ongoing impacts on economies, governance, cultures, and environments. In doing so, you will gain a better understanding of the complex, evolving, and often contested nature of globalization. Topics covered in this course range from neoliberalism to McDonalds, Netflix, to War and Pandemic.