Undergraduate courses

SOCI 100A - Into. to Sociology: Understanding Social Life

Summer 2026: May 11 - June 26

Instructor: Ashley Berard

Schedule: Tuesdays and Thursdays 2:00pm - 4:20pm

Delivery: Online

Course description

Sociology 100A will provide students with an introduction to the discipline of sociology and a consideration of why this discipline matters, especially in our contemporary context. In this course, we will explore the fundamental sociological theories, research methods, culture, socialization, and social interactions.

The course will challenge you to look beyond the norms within your social world to better understand the social forces which shape our reality.

Topics will include

Socialization, social theories, research methods, culture, media and globalization.

SOCI 202 - Constructing Social Problems

Summer 2026: May 11 - June 26

Instructor: Sean Hier

Schedule: Asynchronous

Delivery: Online

Course description

SOCI 202 focuses on how social problems are socially constructed. The social construction of social problems is not about people making problems up. It’s not even about subjective interpretations of otherwise objective problems.

The social construction of social problems is about the ways in which human beings identify and come to think about certain issues as social problems at particular times, in specific places, and with different levels of intensity. It’s also about how we avoid thinking about otherwise problematic social issues by denying, rationalizing, justifying, or downplaying their significance.

In the summer term, we will examine the social construction of the following social problems: popular hazards, terrorism and torture, the fight against breast cancer, asylum seekers, serial killing, Halloween sadism, poor single mothers, infectious diseases (Ebola and COVID-19), surveillance and public shaming.

We will also consider different kinds of media messaging and how perceived problems that at some points in time occupy a considerable amount of attention and debate habitually decline in importance (only to be replaced by new issues and concerns).

Course delivery

SOCI 202 will be presented online in an asynchronous format. Course instruction will consist of pre-recorded lectures, instructional video links and assigned weekly readings.

Evaluation

5 Online Quizzes     50%

Students will have the chance to complete 5 online weekly quizzes. Quizzes will be completed most Fridays between 5:00am and 8:00pm. Quizzes will consist of multiple choice and true/false questions.

Photovoice Assignment     15%

Students will complete a final course assignment using the photovoice methodology. The photovoice methodology is a visual methodology that provides participants/students/observers with a voice in the interpretation of everyday life through photography (i.e., photovoice).

Online Final Examination     35%

Students will complete a cumulative final exam online consisting of multiple choice and true/false questions. The final will open at 9:00am and close at 12:00pm on Friday June 26.

Evaluation Dates

Quiz 1                 Friday May 22                

Quiz 2                 Friday May 29                

Quiz 3                 Friday June 5 

Quiz 4                 Friday June 12

Quiz 5                 Friday June19

Final Exam        Friday June 26

Assignment      No later than July 2

SOCI 205 - Sociological Perspectives on Family Relationships

Summer 2026: July 6 - August 21

Instructor: Finn Deschner

Schedule: Wednesdays 2:00pm - 4:20pm

Delivery: Online

Course description

The family is one of the most fundamental social institutions in a society, with diverse and evolving forms within Canadian contexts and globally. This course aims to provide students with an introduction to the sociological study of families and family relationships, specifically exploring the role of ‘family’ as a social institution, with an emphasis on the structure, functions, problems, and trajectories of the institution. 

Topics may include

A wide variety of themes for exploration will include the history of families and evolving diversity of family forms, intimacy, commitment and family formations, parenting, paid and unpaid labour, intimate partner violence, poverty, disabilities, as well as immigrant families, Indigenous families, and colonization, as well as a range of theoretical approaches to understanding families and family relationships.

SOCI 307 - Moral Panics

Instructor: Sean Hier

Delivery: Online, asynchronous

Course description

It really happened: In 1907, the City of Chicago passed the first municipal censorship ordinance in America, empowering police to censor and ban movies that they thought posed a threat to public safety. Shakespeare’s Macbeth was the first to go.

It really happened: In 1937, the City of New York dumped more than one thousand slot and pinball machines into the Long Island Sound to discourage young men from congregating in arcades. Pinball was banned in the city from 1942 to 1976.

It really happened: In 1983, daycare workers in California were falsely accused of practicing Satanism and ritualistically abusing children. Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, reports of satanic child abductions, ritual torture, and cannibalism proliferated across the US and Canada.

It really happened: In March 2020, North American retailers limited the number of toilet paper packages customers were permitted to buy to discourage ‘panic buying’ as the novel coronavirus made its way across the continent.

Each of these examples are commonly understood as moral panics. This course investigates moral panics by exploring historical and contemporary social reactions to perceived threats.

Topics might include social reactions to drug use, youth conflict, rave dance parties, school shootings, muggings, clothing styles, child murderers, racially motivated police violence, Satanism, climate change, and reconciliation politics.

The course will be presented in 3 modules or units:

1. Conventional (or traditional/classical) moral panic studies (1960s-1980s).
2. Efforts to rethink moral panic studies (in light of changing media and politics in the 1990s and early 2000s).
3. The expansion of moral panic studies after 2008 (to new and unconventional areas of research like ‘good’ or progressive moral panics).

Readings

There is no textbook for this course. There are several academic papers assigned for weekly reading.  All papers are available online (through Brightspace).

Evaluation

Students will write three non-cumulative module exams and complete one course assignment.

Exams will be written online between 9:00am and 12:00pm on July 24, August 7, and August 21 (likely mixed format). Exams will take no more than 90 minutes to complete unless students have formal accommodations through the university.

Students will also complete a course application assignment that applies course content to some social issue or event.

Important Dates

Module Exam 1             Friday July 24 (written between 9:00am-12:00pm)              

Module Exam 2             Friday August 7 (written between 9:00am-12:00pm)                          

Module Exam 3             Friday August 21 (written between 9:00am-12:00pm)       

Assignment                     Monday August 24     

SOCI 316 - Social Movements

Summer 2026: May 11 - June 26

Instructor: Iman Fadaei

Schedule: Wednesdays 6:00pm - 8:20pm

Delivery: Online

Course description

TBA

SOCI 345 - Sociology of Mental Health

Summer 2026: May 11- June 26

Instructor: Ashley Berard

Schedule: Tuesdays 6:00pm - 8:30pm

Delivery: Online, 50% asynchronous

Course description

This course will provide a sociological overview of the construction of mental health and illness. Topics will include; the theoretical foundations of the sociology of mental health, the social conditions that influence mental well-being, the experiences and social meanings of mental illness and its treatment, institutionalization and deinstitutionalization, and the social construction of mental conditions. The course will also cover the intersections of mental health and social media, as well as mental health and colonization.

This course will be fully online. Live Zoom lectures will occur Mondays from 2:30 - 4:45pm and will be recorded. Instead of a lecture on Wednesday, students will be required to complete a weekly asynchronous component, which will occur on Brightspace.

Course outcomes/objectives

The learning objectives are: (1) to become familiar with key sociological concepts and debates concerning the nature of mental illness; (2) to gain a broad understanding of the relationship between mental illness and mental health in relation to various aspects of social structure; (3) to develop insights into the lived experience of mental illness; and (4) to become aware of alternate paradigms for mitigating the impact of mental illness and improving mental health.

SOCI 357 A01 and A02: Global and Transnational Sociology in Germany

Summer 2026: Session 1 (A01): June 22 - July 3.  Session 2 (A02): July 6 - July 17. 

Both sessions: June 22 - July 17

Instructor: Steve Garlick

Delivery: Exchange program: in Germany

Course description

Please note this course takes place abroad in Germany.  Please contact our International Adviser, Steve Garlick (sgarlick@uvic.ca), if you are interested in this opportunity. 

SOCI 384: Colonialism, Postcoloniality and Indigenous Resurgence

Summer 2026: July 6 - August 21

Instructor: Peyman Vahabzadeh

Schedule: Tuesdays and Thursdays 6:00pm - 8:20pm

Delivery: In Person

Course description

This course offers an in-depth engagement with the issues of colonialism and postcoloniality, both as a historic phenomenon and epistemological issue, as well as approaches to Aboriginal resurgence with a focus on Canada. We begin with a glance at the original and violent colonial conditions in the “New World,” to set the stage for our explorations into the various responses to colonization: anti-colonial war of liberation, racialization, orientalism, postcolonialism, subalternity, end of postcoloniality, and the First Nations responses to settler colonialism in Canada. The focus is on the epistemological grounds of colonialism and responses to it, but here epistemology involves action and resistance. The works we study are primarily theoretical in nature, but they dwell in historical, geographical, and cultural conditions of the multiplicity experiences of colonization and subalternity. Students are advised that I use the method of “critical pedagogy” in this course, which entails direct and explicit engagement with colonialism and its issues such as violence and racism.

Course outcomes/objectives

The course provides some key readings in the (post-)colonial theoretical literature, theories of subalternity and Orientalism, as well as African and indigenous theory. By the end of this course, the students should have a solid footing in “non-European” theoretical contributions with the common denominator of various experiences of colonialism. We will find how the “West” as the self-acclaimed epistemological centre of universe, has been permeated by multiplicity of voices and epistemological subversions.

Topics may include

Colonization, wars of liberation, racialization, postcoloniality, orientalism, settler colonialism, indigenous resurgence, epistemologies of the boundaries.

Required resources may include

The assigned readings include 4 books and a number of journal articles. The average weekly reading is about 3 article-length texts for 12 weeks.

Content alert

This course is mainly theoretical and epistemological in its approach, but it also uses readings and films that may offer graphic depictions of colonial violence and racialization in candid language. Student discretion is advised.

Important note

This is fully an in-person class. Attendance is mandatory and evaluated. Classes mix lectures and seminars. No visuals (Power Point) are provided.

SOCI 390 A01: Sociology of Extremism

Summer 2026: May 11 - June 26

Instructor: Edwin Hodge

Schedule: asynchronous

Delivery: online

Course description

TBA

SOCI 390 A02: Sociology of Cinema

Summer 2026: July 6 - August 21 

Instructor: Peyman Vahabzadeh

Schedule: asynchronous

Delivery: online

Course description

Since its inception as an industry of popular culture in the early 20th century, cinema has dramatically changed human approach to storytelling and imagination. Visual representation, which is at heart of cinematic expression, has not only influenced our cultural learning, it has produced a global language shared across cultural and worldview differences. This course uses cinematic expression as way of understanding social issues and approaches to our societal dilemmas. The seven feature-length movies selected for this course speak to selected social issues and topics, and we will read some of the key writings in social theory for the purpose of our sociological analyses pertaining to the films we watch.

Please note that, as with any artistic expression, these films may entail violence, sexuality, nudity, course language, discriminatory slur, or expressions contrary to one’s beliefs. I trust that as adults, each one of us can judge for ourselves whether this course is appropriate to take.

Course outcomes/objectives

The course will provide content analysis, visual literacy and theoretical analysis. The readings are important in this course. We will learn about the way fiction is reality and reality is fictional. The expectation is that the assignments reflect how the story told in a film is sociologically significant through analysis and discussion. While this is a “fun” course, it pursues its objectives with rigour and is demanding.

Topics may include

Memory, hegemony, violence, exploitation, decolonization, loss, racialization, gender, education.

Mode of Delivery

This a fully asynchronous and on-line course offered through UVic Brightspace. While a self-pace course, there will be deadlines for submitting forums and assignments.

SOCI 390 A03: Sociology of Sport

Summer 2026: July 6 - August 21 

Instructor: Jason Miller

Schedule: asynchronous

Delivery: online

Course description

Professional and recreational sports play a pervasive role in our cultures, economies, and collective imaginaries today. Within these ritualized spaces of competition, cooperation, and play, social issues are expressed and negotiated, individual and group identities are formed, and better worlds are sometimes fought for. This online course will challenge students to take the power of sport seriously, centring questions like, why are sports so influential today? What functions do they serve for established systems of power? How do they shape human relations, identities, and bodies? And how can their influence be leveraged for the collective good? Taking a critical approach, the course will feature sociological perspectives for understanding sport in its contemporary context - i.e. in societies that are media saturated, crisis ridden, and closely tied to the developments of advanced capitalism and global imperialism.   

Course objectives

By the end of this course, students will gain:

• theoretical and conceptual tools for understanding and communicating the social significance of sports in contemporary society
• insights into their own relationship with sports and those of others
• analytical skills for exploring connections between cultural phenomena like sporting events and discourse and the socio-historical structures or patterns they intersect with

The course is also designed to improve students’ writing skills, foster academic community, and cultivate capacities for honest, perceptive, and respectful discussion.

Topics may include

Sports and: digital media, nationalism, social movements, social change/reproduction, ideology and hegemony, gambling, globalization, war, escapism and parasocial culture, spectacle, crisis, inequality, polarization, the climate crisis, corporate power and advertising

Mode of delivery

This a fully asynchronous online course offered through UVic Brightspace. While there will be no synchronous or “live” classes for students to attend, meeting staggered deadlines for assignments and activities will require staying engaged and productive throughout the short summer term.   

SOCI 100A - Intro. to Sociology: Understanding Social Life

Instructor: Bruce Ravelli

Schedule: Tuesday/Wednesday/Friday 10:30 - 11:20am

Please note: students registered in 100A A01 must register into a tutorial section, selected from T01-T12

Delivery: In Person

Course description

Introduction to the discipline and why it matters. Sociology challenges black and white thinking by exposing students to the shades of grey. Topics may include social theory, socialization, culture, norms, social interactions, self, and identity.

Course outcomes/objectives

• Demonstrate a broad understanding of what Sociology is.
• Describe several classical and contemporary theoretical perspectives and apply various theoretical perspectives to contemporary issues.
• Demonstrate basic understanding of how culture, socialization, social situations, social structure, and individual agency shape personal behaviour, ideas, choices and social opportunities and barriers.
• Articulate a general understanding of social stratification and be able to explain the role of social relations like gender, class, racialization, and ethnicity in society.
• Examine the impacts of colonialism in Canada.
• Describe how Indigenous ways of knowing differ from Western scientific traditions.
• Define reconciliation and describe different ways it has been proposed to be achieved in Canadian society.

Topics may include

Socialization, social theories, culture, media and globalization.

SOCI 100A - Intro. to Sociology: Understanding Social Life

Instructor: Bruce Ravelli

Schedule: Tuesday/Wednesday/Friday 1:30 - 2:20pm

Please note: students registered in 100A A02 must register into a tutorial section, selected from T13-T20

Delivery: In Person

Course description

Introduction to the discipline and why it matters. Sociology challenges black and white thinking by exposing students to the shades of grey. Topics may include social theory, socialization, culture, norms, social interactions, self, and identity.

Course outcomes/objectives

• Demonstrate a broad understanding of what Sociology is.
• Describe several classical and contemporary theoretical perspectives and apply various theoretical perspectives to contemporary issues.
• Demonstrate basic understanding of how culture, socialization, social situations, social structure, and individual agency shape personal behaviour, ideas, choices and social opportunities and barriers.
• Articulate a general understanding of social stratification and be able to explain the role of social relations like gender, class, racialization, and ethnicity in society.
• Examine the impacts of colonialism in Canada.
• Describe how Indigenous ways of knowing differ from Western scientific traditions.
• Define reconciliation and describe different ways it has been proposed to be achieved in Canadian society.

Topics may include

Socialization, social theories, culture, media and globalization.

SOCI 100B - Intro. to Sociology: Understanding Contemporary Society

Instructor: Ashley Berard

Schedule: Tuesday/Wednesday/Friday 9:30 - 10:20am

Please note: students registered in 100B A01 must register into a tutorial section, selected from T01-T05

Delivery: In Person

Course description

Introduction to the study of contemporary society through the sociological lens. This course will be delivered face to face, with lecture slides posted to Brightspace at the beginning of each week.

Course outcomes/objectives

• ability to explain and describe (using students’ own examples) the meaning and relevance of the sociological imagination
• ability to define and articulate how the individual is influenced by the social
• ability to discuss some of the primary areas of sociological interest as reviewed by the lecture, text and tutorial materials

Topics may include

• gender
• families
• religion
• ethnicity
• education
• social media
• social determinants of health
• environmental sociology

SOCI 206 A01 - Crime and Deviance

Instructor: Mike Ma

Schedule: Tuesday / Wednesday / Friday 10:30 - 11:20am

Delivery: In Person

Course description

TBA

SOCI 207 A01 - Ecology, Society and Global Change

Instructor: Finn Deschner

Schedule: Tuesday / Wednesday / Friday  from 12:30 - 1:20pm

Delivery: In Person

Course description

TBA

SOCI 210 A01 - Classical Social Theorizing

Instructor: Iman Fadaei

Schedule: Tuesday / Friday  from 2:30 - 3:50pm

Delivery: In Person

Course description

TBA

SOCI 211 A01 - Introduction to Sociological Research

Instructor: Athena Madan

Schedule: Mondays and Thursdays from 11:30 - 12:50pm

Delivery: In Person

Course description

Sociological research helps us understand not just the world, but also how power, knowledge, and positionality shape the questions we ask, the stories we tell, and the audiences we reach. This course introduces students to foundational approaches in sociological research, with a focus on how methods can support more just, equitable, and community-driven knowledge creation. In this course, we explore processes of knowledge construction, research design, ethics, and meaning-making, as well as challenges of social sciences research in a globalised world embedded in geopolitics. Topics include:

1. How we have come to know what we think we know (epistemology)
2. Framing what we want to know (methodologies and methods)
3. Conceptual, empirical, and relational research
4. Research ethics (historical and contemporary)
5. How to formulate research questions and design meaningful research
6. Designing applications of research for social impact
7. Arts-based, anti-racist, Indigenous, and decolonial methodologies

We will centre relational, anti-oppressive, and decolonial approaches to research, asking not only what we know, but how we come to know; who gets to be a knower; and the privileges and responsibilities that come with the acts of seeking and holding knowledge.

This course provides a foundation for advanced research courses (e.g., SOCI 374, SOCI 376); and prepares students to engage critically and reflexively with contemporary global research issues and apply frameworks of social justice and equity.

Course outcomes

By the end of the course, students will be able to:
1. Understand key processes of knowledge construction in the social sciences.
2. Apply qualitative and quantitative data collection methods.
3. Recognise and apply non-Western and Indigenous methodologies.
4. Evaluate ethical and political dimensions of social research in the 21st century.
5. Demonstrate analytical skills in assessing research design and practice.
6. Formulate their own research questions and designs.
7. Communicate theoretical underpinnings of their chosen approach.
8. Apply a reflexive lens to their role as a researcher, including their own positionality / research assumptions and relationships.
9. Use library and electronic resources to locate appropriate research materials.
10. Write up research reports for various (scholarly and non-scholarly) audiences.

Course pre-requisites

SOCI100A – Introduction to Sociology: Understanding Social Life (1.5 credits)
SOCI100B – introduction to Sociology: Understanding Contemporary Society (1.5 credits)

Scope and topics of discussion

We will discuss such issues as:
- Methodologies and methods
- Conceptual, empirical, and relational research
- Research ethics and justice
- Arts-based, participatory, anti-racist, Indigenous, and decolonial approaches
- Power, positionality, and researcher responsibility
- Research design and question formulation
- Applications of diverse methodological approaches

In sum, we will explore how research can be done with, rather than on (or even about), people, society, and community.

Course format

This course is delivered through two weekly face-to-face class sessions, complemented by (i) short, pre-recorded videos to introduce each unit, (ii) a summary of key learning points at the end of each unit, and (iii) weekly practice quizzes. The videos provide foundational context and assignment guidance to support in-class learning; quizzes are to familiarise yourself with course content (and graded quiz wording / question style); and the summaries are to support continued reflection and review.

Monday classes will be largely lecture-based, with case examples and class discussion to illustrate key learning points. Thursday classes are structured to blend discussion, applied learning, and collaborative group time to develop the final group research papers.

Relational learning and peer support are also foundational to this course. Much of course learning will also require you to engage with others. Students are encouraged to share their learning and take up class discussion time as ways to learn core concepts together. Students are also welcome to schedule one-on-one check-ins (whether ZOOM or in-person) for additional support.

Grading/Assessment

Students should be prepared for contributions to their grades around every 3 weeks (for 4 times throughout the semester). Assessment will include:

Research Learning Constellations (individual; 2 prompts) - 20%
One Quiz (individual; top score out of 2) - 20%
Midterm Exam (individual; open-book, take-home) - 20%
Final Sociological Research Proposal (group; iterative) - 25%
One Knowledge Mobilisation Thing (individual; as linked to final research proposal) - 15%

Key resources

I use (and supplement) the following texts for this course:

 - Seale, C. (2017). Researching society and culture (5th edition). Sage.
- Smith, L. T. (2012). Smith, L. T. (2019). Decolonizing research: Indigenous storywork as methodology. Bloomsbury Publishing.
- hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom.  Routledge.

SOCI 222 - Sociology of Religion

Instructor: Edwin Hodge

Schedule: Tuesdays/Wednesdays/Fridays from 11:30 - 12:20pm

Delivery: In Person

Course description

What is religion? How is religion understood, according to sociologists, and how should religion be understood? These questions will serve as foundations for an inquiry into religion as a social institution. In this course, we will analyze the history of religious movements, organizations, and experiences in Western societies. We will examine the social origins of religious institutions and strive to understand the impact that religion has had – and continues to have – on Canadian and other Western societies. Course topics will also include violence and extremism, counter-religious movements and new religious debates, socio-political dimensions of religious practices, and intersections of race, gender, class and religious experience.

Required resources may include

There will be a textbook (title to be determined), as well as academic articles, YouTube videos, and other materials that will be assigned throughout the semester.

Course assessments will include written exams and a research paper.

SOCI 235 A01 - Racialization and Ethnicity

Instructor: Seb Bonet

Schedule: Tuesdays/Wednesdays/Fridays from 1:30 - 2:20pm

Delivery: In Person

Course description

In June of 2019, the image of Oscar Martinez and his two-year-old daughter, Valeria, who both drowned attempting to cross the Rio Grande into the United States, raced around the world. It prompted widespread mobilizations condemning border practices and denunciations of the dehumanizing implications of the image itself. Meanwhile, caravans of migrants continued to defy the web of bordering controls developed by Fortress North America.

On May 25th of 2020, amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, Black people in America rose up in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd, while the same happened in Canada following the death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet. In the Canadian context, Black activist and political commentator Desmond Cole called for the police to be disarmed and defunded, even as he questioned the Canadian tendency to fixate on America to the exclusion of our own history of white supremacy, settler colonialism, and antiBlack racism.

And in 2021, the remains of 215 Indigenous children were discovered on the grounds of a former residential school in Kamloops. This horrifying re-confirmation of the genocidal foundations of Canadian settler colonialism comes even as Indigenous land defenders continue to be arrested and surveilled defending their territories from resource extraction.

This course takes these tragic images and events as its point of departure. We will ask, and attempt to respond to, questions like:

• Why is the global crisis of displacement and migration happening and intensifying?
• How are anti-Black racism and the afterlives of slavery continuing to shape Black life in North America?
• How is settler colonialism evolving into a discourse of reconciliation even as its structural imperative to maintain access to Indigenous territory continues?
• And how are systems like capitalism, white supremacy and settler colonialism entwined?

As we attempt to understand these systems of racialized domination, we will also try and ground ourselves in the experiences and practices of the people resisting them. What visions of liberation and flourishing are being offered amidst resistance?

We will seek to learn from land reclamation and unbordering efforts in movements for migrant justice; from the politics of abolition and transformative justice being practiced as part of Black liberation; and, from the struggles for LandBack and beyond that we see in Indigenous Resurgence movements.

Course objectives

This course aims to provide students with a wide and deep enough theoretical framework to make sense of contemporary forms of racialization and the movements that attempt to sustain and create mutualistic alternatives to domination.

The course also aims to connect theory to practice. The course will invite students to think of themselves in relation to the questions we grapple with, and will attempt to bring to life the movements that racialized empire attempts to control.

SOCI 271 - Introduction to Social Statistics

Instructor: Min Zhou

Schedule: Mondays and Thursdays from 10:00 - 11:20pm

Lab: Thursdays from 1:30 - 2:30pm or Fridays from 11:30 - 12:30pm

Delivery: In Person

Course description

This course introduces statistical methods for describing and analyzing quantitative data in sociology. Broadly speaking, it covers three major components:

(1) graphical approaches to displaying data,
(2) descriptive statistics for summarizing data, and
(3) inferential statistics for generalizing beyond data to make predictions.

In terms of the number of variables involved in the analysis, this course mainly examines univariate analysis (e.g., the distribution and description of a single variable) and bivariate analysis (e.g., the relationship between a pair of variables).

As a mandatory part of this course, the lab will teach you how to use a software package to conduct data analysis. More information will be provided by lab instructor Ruth Kampen.

Course objectives

The main focus of this course is on statistical methods commonly used in the analysis of social science data. It will not go into technical details about statistical theory.

The goal of this course is twofold: it (1) helps you better understand academic work that uses quantitative evidence, and (2) prepares you to conduct elementary statistical analysis in your own research and future employment.

SOCI 281 - Sociology of Genders

Instructor: Kelsey Block

Schedule: Mondays/Thursdays from 2:30 - 3:45pm

Delivery: In Person

Course description

This course offers an introduction to the social construction of sex and genders, particularly in relation to other structures of inequality such as race, class, ethnicity, and sexualities. In this course, you will learn to sociologically examine the gendering of everyday social interactions, the role of gender in major social institutions, and we will look critically at the idea that sex and gender are fixed biological realities. The course will focus on a sociological approach to genders, and readings will draw on empirical research that utilizes these sociological theories and concepts. We may cover topics like family, health, education, work, sport, masculinities, feminist movements, postcolonial feminism and the politics of representation, gender and culture, sexualities, transgender and intersex topics, embodiment, and gendered violence.

Course objectives

The overall objectives of this course are to provide a space to discuss the major theoretical approaches and debates in the sociology of genders, to explore research in the fields of gender and feminist studies, and to evaluate and apply course readings in your discussions, written work, and everyday life (locally and globally).

The learning objectives are: (1) to become familiar with key concepts and debates within the sociology of genders; (2) to gain a broad understanding of the relationships between gender and various aspects of social structure; and (3) to develop insights into the lived experiences of genders in Canada and beyond.

Course prerequisites

Recommended prior to SOCI 382, SOCI 389, and SOCI 435.

Topics may include

Theoretical foundations of the sociology of sexuality, sexual identities and social inequality, medicalization and criminalization, sex in popular culture, the relation of gender to sexuality, activism, sex education, sex and the family, sexuality and religion.

Required resources may include

There is no textbook purchase required for this course. All required readings will be available via Brightspace.

SOCI 309 - Contemporary Social Theorizing

Instructor: Edwin Hodge

Schedule: Tuesdays / Wednesdays / Fridays 9:30 - 10:20

Delivery: In Person

Course description

TBA

SOCI 312 - White Collar Crime

Instructor: Garry Gray

Schedule: Mondays 6:30 - 9:20pm 

Delivery: In Person

Course description

What is white collar crime? Why is it important to study the crimes of the powerful? This course will explore an often neglected but critically important area of criminology.

Students will be presented with different theories and explanations of white collar crime, as well as a wide range of closely related fields such as corporate crime, elite deviance, green (environmental) crime, and institutional corruption.

The course will also cover a wide range of topics, including financial fraud, market manipulation, health and safety crimes, and the corruption of scientific knowledge. The sessions will be divided between lectures, class discussion and videos on current events.

Course outcomes/objectives

Students will learn how to think and respond as a criminologist when confronted with different types of white collar crime and elite deviance.

The course will also provide students with the theoretical skills to evaluate policies on white collar crime, as well as guidance on how to communicate research on white collar crime to the general public.

SOCI 326 - Social Networks

Instructor: Min Zhou

Schedule: Mondays and Thursdays 2:30 - 3:45pm

Delivery: In Person

Course description

From the perspective of social networks, the world around us is not made up of isolated individuals but is full of connections and networks. These connections generate friendship, support, trust, sense of community, and social cohesion. They are also the foundation of social capital and status, and give rise to inequality, hierarchy and power. Thanks to its great utility, the perspective of social networks has been developing rapidly and has been applied to substantive fields such as social interaction and friendship, community and neighborhood, social stratification, organizational studies, diffusion of ideas and technologies, social epidemiology, online social networking sites, and international relations, among others. It is a powerful approach to understand how society works at many different levels and domains.

This course introduces the social network approach from three aspects—theoretical foundations (theory), methodological tools (methodology), and substantive studies (application). (1) The theoretical component of this course will cover major concepts and general principles in social networks. You will learn interesting concepts such as ties, balance, transitivity, diffusion, cohesion, centrality, clusters, small worlds, homophily, hierarchy, structural equivalence, roles, structural holes, brokerage, and the world system, among others. (2) A set of methods for social networks (“social network analysis”) has been developed over the recent years. The methodological component of this course will introduce elementary techniques without getting into abstruse technicalities. (3) The perspective of social networks has generated numerous substantive studies in many fields. We will sample social network studies with diverse substantive concerns and interesting findings. These empirical studies lend support to the ubiquity of social networks in our daily life and give you a sense of the potential offered by the social network approach.

Course outcomes/objectives

• By the end of this course, hopefully you will (1) have a good understanding of the existing literature on social networks, (2) understand major theoretical ideas and concepts underlying network studies, and (3) be able to view many social phenomena from a social network perspective.

SOCI 331 - International Perspectives on Politics and Society

Instructor: Eugene Dim

Schedule: Mondays and Thursdays 1:00 - 2:15pm

Delivery: In Person

Course description

There are different realities that reflect the intersections between the state, society and citizens. This course introduces the different international perspectives on the linkage between the political realm and civil society. This course will provide students with the opportunity to understand not only the socio-political dynamics of the global South but a comparative analysis of these dynamics between the global North and South.

Topics may include

Some of the topics we will cover for this course include civil society and democracy, party politics in the global South, nationalism, corruption, political agency, the dynamics of political repression, the capacity of the state to employ violence against its citizens, social movements, and police brutality.

Format of classes

This course will be delivered in person. Several short- and long-essay assignments will be undertaken as the assessment criteria for this course.

Required resources

There are no official textbooks you need to buy. Scanned chapters from various textbooks and copies of required journal articles will be uploaded to Brightspace.

SOCI 345 - Sociology of Mental Health

Instructor: Ashley Berard

Schedule: Tuesdays / Wednesdays / Fridays from 12:30 - 1:20pm

Delivery: In Person

Course description

TBA

Course description

This course provides an introduction to the fields of International Crimes and Social Justice from a sociological and criminological perspective. International crimes include genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes of aggression, committed by states or armed groups. These continue to rage around the world as modern atrocities, from Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan to postcolonial Guatemala, Cambodia, Rwanda, or Iraq. By coupling the legal and sociological readings, this course unpacks the historical formations of international crimes through the lens of race/ethnicity, gender, and class, examines the key socio-legal concepts, and analyse case studies by situating them in political, economic, and social dynamics, such as colonialism, capitalism, and patriarchy. To address the systematic offenses and the outcomes of massive human rights abuses shaped by the international crimes, we will also explore the contemporary measures developed in international criminal justice systems, such as the International Criminal Court and Truth and Reconciliation Commission, particularly focusing on the practices of transitional justice. Transitional justice is rooted in accountability and redress for victims, including criminal prosecutions, ‘truth-seeking’, reparation, and reform of laws, police, and military institutions. The course will draw on various case studies abroad as well as Canada’s Indian residential school system and the internment of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War.

Course objectives

By the end of the course, you will understand the historical origins, operations, and outcomes of international crimes and identify the objectives and obstacles of the international criminal justice systems. You will obtain a sociological and criminological perspective of modern atrocities, from which you can develop in-depth analysis of the human rights abuses led by states, police or military, against the backdrops of political, economic, and social systems, and further comprehend how the inequalities in race/ethnicity, gender, and class have contributed to war crimes and crimes against humanity. By tackling one of the most pressing, but often silenced, and difficult issues in the global communities, you will also improve your skills to untangle social issues and to find approaches to solve the problems. This course is also aimed to decolonize our knowledge on modernity and open the eyes to what we can do to overcome the past injustice and facilitate future reconciliation and social equalities.

Topics may include

International justice for the Second World War in Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal on Japanese Military Sexual Slavery “Comfort Women”, the incarceration/internment of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War, the experiences of Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombing and Canada’s involvement, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the apartheid and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in South Africa, settler colonialism and apartheid in Israel/Palestine, the Indian Residential School system and TRC in Canada.

Course description

TBA

SOCI 374 - Qualitative Research Methods

Instructor: Angeline Letourneau

Schedule: Mondays / Thursdays 10:00 - 11:20pm

Delivery: In person

Course description

TBA

SOCI 376 - Quantitative Research Methods

Instructor: Eugene Dim

Schedule: Mondays / Thursdays 4:30 - 5:45pm

Delivery: In person

Course description

Research is integral to sociology, and it is vital to how we understand social reality. This course provides an examination of quantitative techniques and principles in sociological research. In this course, students will understand the approaches used in quantitative research, with a specific focus on survey methods applied to study social phenomena.

Course outcomes/objectives

Through this course, you will gain a better and deeper understanding of the quantitative research process and how theory, methods, and statistical analysis are linked together to investigate social phenomena.

Through this course, you will be given an opportunity to design a research project, analyze existing survey data, and develop tangible skills to critically assess the quality of research findings. You will be engaged in a research project over the course of the term that employs population-level Canadian survey data.

Topics may include

Some of the topics we will cover for this course include:

• selecting a topic for quantitative research
• research questions and literature review
• research design
• conceptualization, operationalization and measurement of variables
• questionnaire construction
• sampling methods
• data collection
• bivariate data analysis
• multivariate data analysis

SOCI 430A - Issues in Racialization, Ethnicity and Decolonization

Instructor: Mike Ma

Schedule: Tuesdays 2:30 - 5:20pm

Delivery: In Person

Course description

In this course we will examine the way race and racialization has been carried out in a historical and institutionalized fashion.

We look at how race and racism are activities, which are man-made, artificial and created, but appear to us as if they are natural categories and real material things.

The course is premised on the assumption that “race” is a verb, not a noun. Race is not a thing. it is a practice. We racialize ourselves and we racialize other people. This is what we study in this course. But of course, we are not studying ourselves, specifically, but rather the society into which we are born.

Course outcomes/objectives

• to consider how we are socially constructed (as raced subjects)
• to understand the socio-historical production of racial difference
• to articulate arguments in writing and presentation forms

Topics may include

• whiteness
• anti-Black racism in Canada
• racial profiling
• crime and systemic racism in the USA
• economic measurements of race
• gaslighting
• technology and racial bias

SOCI 437 - Issues in Environmental Sociology and Climate Change

Instructor: Angeline Letourneau

Schedule: Mondays and Thursdays 1:00 - 2:20pm

Delivery: In Person

Course description

How does feminist scholarship help us understand our current planetary polycrisis? In an era defined by ecological collapse, why are the burdens of environmental degradation so often carried by those at the intersections of gender, race, and class? How can feminist and sociological attention to social justice help us imagine and build truly equitable futures?

While scientists and policymakers increasingly use the "Anthropocene" to describe the outsized influence of humans on the planet, this course explores the concept not merely as a geological epoch, but as a profound political and social phenomenon. Using the primary lenses of classical and contemporary feminist and ecofeminist texts, we will investigate how patriarchy, capitalism, and colonialism have shaped relationships with the natural world. We will move beyond mainstream, technocratic "fixes" to the climate crisis, instead centering the voices of those leading social struggles for gender, racial, and sexual freedoms. By bridging the gap between theory and activism, this course challenges you to apply feminist political economy to the most pressing environmental justice struggles of our time.

Course objectives

• Develop a familiarity with the diverse range of perspectives within feminist and intersectional environmentalism.
• Contextualize 21st-century environmental justice and feminist movements within broader histories of economic globalization and social change.
• Recognize and assess the complex linkages between economic development, ecological health, and social struggles across various scales.
• Critically problematize mainstream, top-down, technocratic approaches to defining and solving the environmental polycrisis.
• Apply feminist and political-economic theories to analyze specific, real-world environmental problems and current justice movements of your choice.

Topics may include

• Ecofeminist foundations and critiques
• The Gendered Politics of the Anthropocene
• Intersectional Environmentalism
• Social Reproduction and Care Work in a changing climate
• Queer Ecologies
• Ecomodern masculinity
• Colonialism and Indigenous Feminisms
• Technocracy vs. Grassroots Resistance
• Extractivism and Body-Territory
• The "Green Economy" and its discontents
• Climate Justice and Reproductive Justice
• Feminist Urbanism and Sustainable Cities
• Speculative Futures and Feminist Utopias

SOCI 438 A01 - Issues in Contemporary Sociology "Social Dimensions of Authoritarianism and Fascism"

Instructor: Edwin Hodge

Schedule: Tuesdays 2:30 - 4:20pm and Fridays 2:30 - 3:20pm

Delivery: In Person

SOCI 438 A02 - Issues in Contemporary Sociology "Data Justice, Artificial Intelligence, and Social Inequality"

Instructor: Jacqueline Quinless

Schedule: Mondays 2:30 - 5:20pm

Delivery: In Person

SOCI 438 A03 - Issues in Contemporary Sociology "Internationalisms"

Instructor: Seb Bonet

Schedule: Tuesdays 2:30 - 5:20pm

Delivery: In Person

Course description

In the wake of October 7th, 2023, radicals have renewed commitments to internationalism. As students hold down encampments across Turtle Island, anti-war activists blockade weapons manufacturers, and anti-Zionist Jews engage in countless direct actions, Palestinian resistance to settler colonial occupation has inspired new constellations of solidarity to emerge across all manner of divisions and borders. As these constellations take shape, the practices producing them are posing old and new challenges to theorizations of internationalism.

In this course, we will investigate current and historical practices of internationalism. Historically, we will attempt to glean lessons from Tecumseh and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, Marx and Bakunin’s International Workingmen’s Association, and countless other examples, like the anti-globalization movement, the Third World Women’s Alliance and the struggle against apartheid in South Africa.

In the present, even as we look closely at Palestine, we will also pay attention to internationalism in the context of Oaxaca, the Zapatistas and Haiti. Cumulatively, these practices pose sharp theoretical questions to people engaging in Third and Fourth world internationalist solidarity.

How should organizers respond to the question of armed struggle? What organizational forms produce the webbing that holds immensely diverse coalitions together? How is leadership, strategy and decision-making practiced in internationalist contexts? And, at the intimate scale, how does the stretching demanded by internationalism show up in our relationships, affinity groups and local contexts?

Course outcomes/objectives

A common complaint amongst sociology students is that, by fourth year, you are intimately acquainted with the many social problems that beset us, and relatively much less aware of efforts to resolve them.

This course’s primary objective is to counter this phenomenon by foregrounding many historical and contemporary experiments in creating mutualistic alternatives to colonial and imperial domination. And we will do so even as we continue to practice the rigours of sociology: making careful analytic cuts into the world to better grasp it; apprehending how social logics of oppression are contended with through relations of struggle; and, showing the liberatory role that sociological theory itself can play by helping us make sense of the world that is to be transformed.

SOCI 499 - Honours Seminar and Thesis

Instructor: Ashley Berard

Schedule: Wednesdays 2:30 - 4:20pm (year long)

Delivery: In Person

Please note: you must be accepted in the sociology honours program to enroll in this course. 

SOCI 100A - Intro. to Sociology: Understanding Social Life

Instructor: Ashley Berard

Schedule: Tuesday/Wednesday/Friday 9:30am - 10:20am

Please note: students registered in 100A A01 must register into a tutorial section, selected from T01-T10 

Delivery: In Person

Course description

Introduction to the study of contemporary society through the sociological lens. This course will be delivered face to face, with lecture slides posted to Brightspace at the beginning of each week.

Course outcomes/objectives

• Ability to explain and describe (using students’ own examples) the meaning and relevance of the sociological imagination;
• Ability to define and articulate how the individual is influenced by the social; and,
• Ability to discuss some of the primary areas of sociological interest as reviewed by the lecture, text and tutorial materials.

Topics may include

Race and colonialism, sexuality, research methods and a history of sociology, crime and deviance, globalization and the environment.

SOCI 100B - Intro. to Sociology: Understanding Contemporary Society

Instructor: Bruce Ravelli

Schedule: Tuesday/Wednesday/Friday 10:30am - 11:20am

Please note: students registered in 100B A01 must register into a tutorial section, selected from T01-T06

Delivery: In Person

Course description

Introduction to the study of contemporary society through the sociological lens. Topics may include gender, families, religion, ethnicity, education, social media, social determinants of health and environmental sociology.

Course outcomes/objectives

• Demonstrate a broad understanding of what Sociology is.
• Demonstrate basic understanding of how individual agency shapes personal behaviour, ideas, choices, social opportunities and barriers.
• Articulate a general understanding of social stratification and be able to explain the role of social relations like gender, education and religion in society.
• Examine the impacts of colonialism in Canada.
• Describe how Indigenous ways of knowing differ from Western scientific traditions.
• Define reconciliation and describe different ways it has been proposed to be achieved in Canadian society.

Topics may include

• Gender, education, religion and environmental sociology.

SOCI 100B - Intro. to Sociology: Understanding Contemporary Society

Instructor: Bruce Ravelli

Schedule: Tuesday/Wednesday/Friday 1:30pm - 2:20pm

Please note: students registered in 100B A02 must register into a tutorial section, selected from T13-T21

Delivery: In Person

Course description

Introduction to the study of contemporary society through the sociological lens. Topics may include gender, families, religion, ethnicity, education, social media, social determinants of health and environmental sociology.

Course outcomes/objectives

• Demonstrate a broad understanding of what Sociology is.
• Demonstrate basic understanding of how individual agency shapes personal behaviour, ideas, choices, social opportunities and barriers.
• Articulate a general understanding of social stratification and be able to explain the role of social relations like gender, education and religion in society.
• Examine the impacts of colonialism in Canada.
• Describe how Indigenous ways of knowing differ from Western scientific traditions.
• Define reconciliation and describe different ways it has been proposed to be achieved in Canadian society.

Topics may include

• Gender, education, religion and environmental sociology.

SOCI 103 - Settler Colonialism and Canadian Society

Instructor: Seb Bonet

Schedule: Tuesday/Wednesday/Friday 11:30pm - 12:20pm

Delivery: In Person

Course description

TBA

SOCI 202: Constructing Social Problems

Instructor: Sean Heir

Schedule: asynchronous

Delivery: online

Course description

SOCI 202 is a fully online, asynchronous course. There are no live sessions. All lectures can be viewed on your own time. Quizzes and exams during the term will be completed online and a generous writing window will be provided. The final exam will be scheduled by the university.

SOCI 202 focuses on how social problems are socially constructed. The social construction of social problems is not about people making problems up. It’s not even about subjective interpretations of otherwise objective problems.

The social construction of social problems is about the ways in which human beings identify and come to think about certain issues as social problems at particular times, in specific places, and with different levels of intensity. It’s also about how we avoid thinking about otherwise problematic social issues by denying, rationalizing, justifying, or downplaying their significance.

We will examine the social construction of the following social problems: popular hazards, terrorism and torture, the fight against breast cancer, asylum seekers, serial killing, Halloween sadism, poor single mothers, infectious diseases (Ebola and COVID-19), surveillance and public shaming.

We will also consider different kinds of media messaging and how perceived problems that at some points in time occupy a considerable amount of attention and debate habitually decline in importance (only to be replaced by new issues and concerns).

SOCI 204 - Self, Identity and Society

Instructor: Edwin Hodge

Schedule: Tuesday/Wednesday/Friday 11:30pm - 12:20pm

Delivery: In Person

Course description

TBA

SOCI 206 A01 - Crime and Deviance

Instructor: Mike Ma

Schedule: Tuesday/Wednesday/Friday 10:30am - 11:20am

Delivery: In Person

Course description

In this course, we will set out to think seriously about what it means to study criminology
in the current context.

We will explore concepts, trends, theories, institutions and processes associated with defining, explaining, and responding to crime and deviance. We will consider the roots of contemporary ideas about deviance and social control, including our own beliefs and assumptions.

By thinking critically about the status quo, we will develop an understanding of how things came to be--and how they might be changed. This course offers an opportunity to reflect on important social issues and critically consider some taken-for-granted beliefs about crime, law, justice and social control.

Course objectives

• explain how crime is a social phenomenon
• identify, describe and critically analyze the various ways that crime is measured
• analyze the role of social and historical context in crime and criminalization
• apply various interdisciplinary theories to the study of crime and criminalization
• analyze the effects of media representation on criminological issues
• describe how Eurocentric perspectives might influence crime and criminalization
• critically assess opposing points of view on key criminological issues
• analyze the impact of colonization on Indigenous peoples in relation to the Canadian
  criminal justice system

Topics may include

• right and wrong
• fear of harm
• causation
• media
• counting
• consent
• social response
• racism
• inequality
• poverty

SOCI 210 - Classical Social Theorizing

Instructor: Sean Hier

Schedule: Asynchronous - no class times 

Delivery: Online

Course description

SOCI 210 is a fully online, asynchronous course. There are no live sessions. All lectures can be viewed on your own time. Quizzes and exams during the term will be completed online and a generous writing window will be provided. The final exam will be scheduled by the university.

The course examines the emergence of sociology in Europe and America, its founding ideas and some its early theorists.

The main ideas, concepts, and theorists composing the history of European and American sociology are reviewed, as well as the social and historical contexts from which they developed.

The course centers on the canonical theories of Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and Max Weber but also considers the philosophical foundations of classical theorizing and some of the ways that the traditional canon has been expanded.

SOCI 211 - Introduction to Sociological Research

Instructor: Athena Madan

Schedule: Mondays / Thursdays 10:00 - 11:15am

Delivery: In Person

Course description

Sociological research helps us understand not just the world, but also how power, knowledge, and positionality shape the questions we ask, the stories we tell, and the audiences we reach. This course introduces students to foundational approaches in sociological research, with a focus on how methods can support more just, equitable, and community-driven knowledge creation. In this course, we explore processes of knowledge construction, research design, ethics, and meaning-making, as well as challenges of social sciences research in a globalised world embedded in geopolitics. Topics include:

1. How we have come to know what we think we know (epistemology)
2. Framing what we want to know (methodologies and methods)
3. Conceptual, empirical, and relational research
4. Research ethics (historical and contemporary)
5. How to formulate research questions and design meaningful research
6. Designing applications of research for social impact
7. Arts-based, anti-racist, Indigenous, and decolonial methodologies

We will centre relational, anti-oppressive, and decolonial approaches to research, asking not only what we know, but how we come to know; who gets to be a knower; and the privileges and responsibilities that come with the acts of seeking and holding knowledge.

This course provides a foundation for advanced research courses (e.g., SOCI 374, SOCI 376); and prepares students to engage critically and reflexively with contemporary global research issues and apply frameworks of social justice and equity.

Course outcomes

By the end of the course, students will be able to:
1. Understand key processes of knowledge construction in the social sciences.
2. Apply qualitative and quantitative data collection methods.
3. Recognise and apply non-Western and Indigenous methodologies.
4. Evaluate ethical and political dimensions of social research in the 21st century.
5. Demonstrate analytical skills in assessing research design and practice.
6. Formulate their own research questions and designs.
7. Communicate theoretical underpinnings of their chosen approach.
8. Apply a reflexive lens to their role as a researcher, including their own positionality / research assumptions and relationships.
9. Use library and electronic resources to locate appropriate research materials.
10. Write up research reports for various (scholarly and non-scholarly) audiences.

Course pre-requisites

SOCI100A – Introduction to Sociology: Understanding Social Life (1.5 credits)
SOCI100B – introduction to Sociology: Understanding Contemporary Society (1.5 credits)

Scope and topics of discussion

We will discuss such issues as:
- Methodologies and methods
- Conceptual, empirical, and relational research
- Research ethics and justice
- Arts-based, participatory, anti-racist, Indigenous, and decolonial approaches
- Power, positionality, and researcher responsibility
- Research design and question formulation
- Applications of diverse methodological approaches

In sum, we will explore how research can be done with, rather than on (or even about), people, society, and community.

Course format

This course is delivered through two weekly face-to-face class sessions, complemented by (i) short, pre-recorded videos to introduce each unit, (ii) a summary of key learning points at the end of each unit, and (iii) weekly practice quizzes. The videos provide foundational context and assignment guidance to support in-class learning; quizzes are to familiarise yourself with course content (and graded quiz wording / question style); and the summaries are to support continued reflection and review.

Monday classes will be largely lecture-based, with case examples and class discussion to illustrate key learning points. Thursday classes are structured to blend discussion, applied learning, and collaborative group time to develop the final group research papers.

Relational learning and peer support are also foundational to this course. Much of course learning will also require you to engage with others. Students are encouraged to share their learning and take up class discussion time as ways to learn core concepts together. Students are also welcome to schedule one-on-one check-ins (whether ZOOM or in-person) for additional support.

Grading/Assessment

Students should be prepared for contributions to their grades around every 3 weeks (for 4 times throughout the semester). Assessment will include:

Research Learning Constellations (individual; 2 prompts) - 20%
One Quiz (individual; top score out of 2) - 20%
Midterm Exam (individual; open-book, take-home) - 20%
Final Sociological Research Proposal (group; iterative) - 25%
One Knowledge Mobilisation Thing (individual; as linked to final research proposal) - 15%

Key resources

 I use (and supplement) the following texts for this course:

 - Seale, C. (2017). Researching society and culture (5th edition). Sage.
- Smith, L. T. (2012). Smith, L. T. (2019). Decolonizing research: Indigenous storywork as methodology. Bloomsbury Publishing.
- hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom.  Routledge.

SOCI 220 - Media and Contemporary Society

Instructor: Midori Ogasawara

Schedule: Mondays / Thursdays 1:00 - 2:20pm

Delivery: In Person

Course description

TBA

SOCI 271 - Introduction to Social Statistics

Instructor: Eugene Dim

Schedule: Mondays / Thursdays 11:30 - 12:50pm

Lab: Thursdays from 1:30 - 2:20 or Fridays from 11:30 - 12:20

Delivery: In Person

Course description

The main focus of this course is on statistical methods commonly used in the analysis of social science data. It will not go into technical details about statistical theory.

The goal of this course is twofold: it (1) helps you better understand academic work that uses quantitative evidence, and (2) prepares you to conduct elementary statistical analysis in your own research and future employment

Topics may include

The goal of this course is twofold: it (1) helps you better understand academic work that uses quantitative evidence, and (2) prepares you to conduct elementary statistical analysis in your own research and future employment.

This course introduces statistical methods for describing and analyzing quantitative data in sociology. Broadly speaking, it covers three major components:

(1) graphical approaches to displaying data,

(2) descriptive statistics for summarizing data, and

(3) inferential statistics for generalizing beyond data to make predictions.

This course mainly examines univariate analysis (e.g., the distribution and description of a single variable) and bivariate analysis (e.g., the relationship between a pair of variables).

Format of classes

This course will be delivered in person. In addition to the lectures, students will also have required lab sessions that will be built around different aspects of the course.

SOCI 285 - Health Over the Life Course

Instructor: Simon Carroll

Schedule: Tuesdays / Wednesdays / Fridays 12:30 - 1:20pm

Delivery: In Person

Course description

TBA

Course pre-requisites

Recommended prior to SOCI 327, SOCI 385, and SOCI 432

SOCI 309 - Contemporary Social Theorizing

Instructor: Edwin Hodge

Schedule: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays 9:30 - 10:20am

Delivery: In person

Course description

TBA

Course prerequisites

SOCI 210 – Classical Social Theorizing 

SOCI 318 - Social Change

Instructor: Peyman Vahabzadeh

Schedule: Tuesdays 2:30 - 5:20pm 

Delivery: In Person

SOCI 345 - Sociology of Mental Health

Instructor: Ashley Berard

Schedule: Mondays / Thursdays from 11:30 - 12:50pm

Delivery: In Person

Course description

TBA

SOCI 346 - Sociology of Surveillance

Instructor: Midori Ogasawara

Schedule: Mondays / Thursdays, 10:00 - 11:20pm

Delivery: In Person

Course description

TBA

Instructor: Angeline Letourneau

Schedule: Mondays / Thursdays, 1:00 - 2:20pm

Delivery: In Person

Course description

TBA

SOCI 374 - Qualitative Research Methods

Instructor: Edwin Hodge

Schedule: Tuesday / Wednesday / Friday 1:30 - 2:20pm

Delivery: In Person

Course description

TBA

SOCI 376 - Quantitative Research Methods

Instructor: Eugene Dim

Schedule: Mondays and Thursdays, 4:30 - 5:45pm

Delivery: In Person

Course description and objectives

TBA

Course pre/co-requisites

SOCI 211 and SOCI 271 are required as pre-requisites for this course.

Format of classes

While this class is primarily lecture-based, students will also have several required lab sessions--scheduled during class time--that will be built around different phases of their research projects.   We will also have several in-class activities that are designed to introduce you to key pieces of your research project over the term.

Required resources

There is no official textbook.   Scanned chapters from various textbooks will be uploaded to Brightspace and articles will be available online through the University library.

SOCI 382 - Sociology of Sexualities

Instructor: TBA

Schedule: Tuesdays / Wednesdays / Fridays from 12:30 - 1:20pm

Delivery: In person

Course description

TBA

SOCI 390 - Special Topics in Sociology - Social Changes in Contemporary China

Instructor: Min Zhou

Schedule: Mondays and Thursdays, 2:30 -3:45pm

Delivery: In Person

Course description

This course discusses major social changes and issues in contemporary China (particularly in the post-Mao era or from 1978 to present) through a sociological lens, including its economic and political reforms, social institutions and structure, various forms of social inequalities, demographic trends and challenges, urbanization and internal migration, gender and family relations, environmental issues, as well as its global engagement and positioning. This course will provide students with a systematic overview of the literature on contemporary Chinese society and an informed discussion on key social changes (and their impacts on individuals, society, and global communities) in today’s China.

Course outcomes/objectives

Through lectures, readings, and in-class discussions, students are expected to develop general knowledge of major social structure, changes, and problems in today’s China. They are expected to gain a more sophisticated and balanced understanding of Chinese society and its complexity. They are also expected to learn how to apply various sociological theories and perspectives to the study of specific social issues.

SOCI 431 - Issues in Social Theorizing

Instructor: Peyman Vahabzadeh

Schedule: Thursdays 4:30 - 7:20pm

Delivery: In Person

Course description

TBA

SOCI 435 - Issues in Gender, Sexuality and Trans+ Communities

Instructor: Aaron Devor

Schedule: Tuesdays 2:30 - 5:20pm

Delivery: In Person

Course description

This 3-hour seminar will explore Transgender, Nonbinary, Two-Spirit and other gender-diverse (Trans+) people’s lives and social issues.

Topics may include

• experiences of gender-variant people in other times and places
• some of the challenges faced by Trans+ people today in terms of access to health care and legal recognition
• issues related to transition for children, youth and adults
• challenges faced in families of origin and families created
• the treatment of trans people in the media
• challenges faced by Trans+ people in sports
• trans activism

SOCI 436 - Issues in Sociology and Social Justice

Instructor: Mike Ma

Schedule: Thursdays 9:00 - 11:50pm

Delivery: In Person

*Note: permission from the instructor is required for this course

Course description

TBA

SOCI 437 - Issues in Enviromental Sociology and Climate Change

Instructor: Ashley Berard

Schedule: Mondays 2:30 - 5:20pm

Delivery: In Person

Course description

TBA

SOCI 471 - Intermediate Social Statistics

Instructor: Min Zhou

Schedule: Mondays 10:00 - 12:50pm

Delivery: In Person

Course description

The purpose of this course is to introduce useful statistical methods (especially multivariate regression models) for social scientists, including various extensions of linear models, logistic models, and count models. In each class, we will both study the statistical model and its empirical application in substantive fields. For sociology students, the most helpful way to study a statistical model is probably to look at how it can be employed to address sociological questions in practice. The course provides an overview of useful techniques, rather than going into great technical details. We will discuss some pertinent statistical theories in class sessions, but the emphasis will be on applications.

We will do data analysis with the aid of a software package Stata. The computing facilities on campus have Stata on their computers. If you would like to work with Stata on your own computer, you may want to purchase a student copy of the software at https://www.stata.com/order/new/edu/gradplans/student-pricing/.

As an important part of this course, the lab will teach you how to use Stata. Attendance at labs is mandatory. More information will be provided by our lab instructor Ruth Kampen.

Please note that this course is intended to build upon the statistical knowledge students have acquired in Sociology 271. That is, I assume that students have had Sociology 271 or equivalent. For students who completed their undergraduate training elsewhere, this implies one semester course in statistics, covering basic descriptive and inferential statistics.

Course outcomes/objectives

At the end of this course, hopefully you will have sufficient familiarity with regression techniques to (1) understand the literature using advanced regression techniques, and (2) apply these procedures properly in your own research. This course will also lay the foundation for more advanced studies in statistical models. It would be even better if you use the methods learned in this course in your own thesis/dissertation research.

SOCI 499 - Honours Seminar and Thesis

Instructor: Ashley Berard

Schedule: Wednesdays 2:30 - 4:20pm (year long)

Delivery: In Person

Please note: you must be accepted in the sociology honours program to enroll in this course.