An introduction to the concepts, theories and methods of sociological enquiry, and their application to the analysis of Canadian society.
NOTE Also offered online, consult Arts and Science Online (Learning Hours may vary).
LEARNING HOURS 240 (48L;24G;24O;144P).

This course explores the sociological dimensions affecting the meaning and experience of health and illness in contemporary society. Topics include policy, professionalization, medicalization, mental health, inequalities, bioethics, and globalization.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36L;84P).

Examination of relationship between sociological theory and methods of social research; topics include logic of research, hypothesis formulation, and variables and their operationalization.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (24L;12G;84P).

Introduces descriptive and inferential statistics and data analysis strategies. Topics include probability, correlation/regression, experimental design and analysis of variance. Online learning and weekly laboratories provide practice in computation, interpretation and communication of statistical findings, and large class review sessions and individual drop in assistance ensure mastery. Applications appropriate to different fields of study will be explored.
NOTE Students can also fulfill the statistics requirements of a SOCY plan by taking any one of the courses listed as exclusions below in place of SOCY 211.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36L;84P).

An introduction to recent sociological debates on the emergence of a global economy and society, and its impact on different parts of the world.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36L;84P).

A discussion of the central concepts in sociological theory, for example, agency and structure; rationality, reason, and abstraction; social continuity and social change; subjectivity and selfhood; language and interpretation are normally considered.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (24L;12T;84P).

A discussion of theoretical frameworks for understanding contemporary societies. The course will normally cover capitalism and economy; globalization and post-colonialism; identity, politics, and social movements; science, technology, and environmentalism; consumerism and urban life.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (24L;12T;84P).

Concept and meaning of race, racism, and racialization; ethnicity; processes, policies, and practices of differentiation; the impact of racism and discrimination on various populations; intersections of race, ethnicity, class and gender.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36L;84P)

The social matrix of personality, socialization as a social process, the influence of social structure and culture upon socialization practices, and the patterning of personality through the life cycle.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36L;84P).

This course focuses on the theoretical foundation examining the process by which activities are defined as deviant: such activities as 'sexual deviance', 'mental illness', and 'political deviance'. The major etiological approaches to the study of deviants are also considered.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36L;84P).

This course examines a variety of substantive topics in the sociology of deviance. The choice of topics will illustrate the range of theoretical approaches discussed in SOCY 275. The selection of topics will vary from semester to semester but will typically include violence, corporate crime, sexual deviance, and physical stigma.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36L;84P).

Social context and consequences of information and communication technologies as they relate to work, culture, privacy and education.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36L;84P).

More than 50% of the world¿s population now lives in cities and most of the biggest sociological issues are urban in location and character. Understanding cities is therefore crucial to understanding contemporary societies. This course is an intensive introduction to Urban Sociology with particular emphasis on world cities.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36L;84P)

Explores a range of issues in contemporary sociology. Topics may vary from year to year. See the departmental website for further details.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36L;84P).

Explores a range of contemporary issues in socio-legal studies. Topics may vary from year to year. See the departmental website for further details.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36L;84P).

Explores a range of contemporary issues in feminist sociology. Topics may vary from year to year. See the departmental website for further details.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36L;84P).

Explores a range of contemporary issues in communications and information technology. Topics may vary from year to year. See the departmental website for further details.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36L;84P).

This course examines theories and empirical studies on professions and occupations. This course examines historical change, social structure, market competition, career advancement, workplace interaction and culture, job satisfaction, demographic diversity and social service, from the late nineteenth century to the age of globalization.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36L;84P)

A comprehensive introduction to the major theories and empirical studies of consumer culture with emphasis upon the historical, socioeconomic, and cultural aspects of consumption in sociological context; substantive focus upon diverse topics such as food, tourism, the home, children, and marketing.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36L;84P).

Provides a critical introduction to surveillance and the emerging interdisciplinary field of Surveillance Studies. Offers an historically-grounded, theoretically-informed, and empirically-illustrated survey of the practices, technologies and social relations of surveillance from different perspectives, with an emphasis on the socio-political dimensions.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36L;84P).

A lecture-format course devoted to the sociological understanding of visual culture in contemporary society. The course integrates the critical development of key social theories of visuality from Descartes to Baudrillard and beyond. It addresses the sociological significance of visual culture in terms of ideology, hegemony and visual discourse.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36L;84P)

Evaluation and use of quantitative/qualitative research methodologies as a means of exploring the validity of sociological theories.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36L;84P).

The course examines the meaning of work and the changes taking place in the work world, with special attention devoted to new technology, gender, unionism and globalization.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36L;84P).

Critical study of Canada's socio-economic structures and processes: topics include dynamics of capitalist development, global restructuring, labour force transformations.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36L;84P).

This course introduces students to the sociology of family diversity. Topics normally considered include diversity of family forms; social constructions of motherhood and fatherhood; contested understandings of families; and how contemporary debates about gender differences, sexualities, and racialization may inform the understanding of intimate and familial relations.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36L;84P).

Comparative study of Canadian education system and processes in light of current sociological theory and research.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36L;84P).

This course focuses on contemporary sociological perspectives of culture. It includes a survey of various theoretical positions vis à vis culture and society such as the high and low culture distinction, the rise of mass culture; cultural hegemony; populism and social resistance. Canadian culture is the predominant object of analysis.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36L;84P).

Critical examination of science in modern society; particular reference to historical development, transmission of scientific knowledge, conduct of enquiry, and interdependence with other institutions.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36L;84P).

Critical study of historical development of scientific and medical establishments with specific focus upon women; legal, ethical, and economic issues related to new reproductive technologies examined.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36L;84P).

Critical study of conceptual, empirical, and theoretical bases to sociological approaches to crime and delinquency; Canadian research emphasized.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36L;84P).

Comparative examination of criminal justice system and its major institutions; Canadian research emphasized.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36L;84P).

Investigation of gender differences in offending, victimization and criminal justice processing; Canadian research emphasized.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36L;84P).

Critical treatment of contemporary theories; emphasis upon logic of social inquiry.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36S;84P)

A critical assessment of contemporary issues and theories pertaining to intimate relationships and family relations. Contemporary research and debates are critically discussed. An overall objective of the course is to 'rethink the family' and consider and evaluate ideological assumptions and persistent myths about 'the family'.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36S;84P).

This seminar aims at advanced students interested in exploring the body as a site for the production of social and cultural meaning and social inequality. Theoretical approaches may include critical race theory, queer theory, feminist theory, postcolonial theory, and sociological theories of the body. Topics covered may include the ways that representations of the body are linked to practices of racism, sexism, moral regulation, colonialism and nation-building.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36S;84P).

Course examines the causes and effects of corporate crime, and the challenges of controlling, policing, and sanctioning it. The role of the regulatory agency, the impact of globalization, the rise of transnational corporations, and associated issues of development and power are considered.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36S;84P).

This is an experiential learning course based
on the Walls to Bridges program model,
which brings together students from
Queen's University ('outside students') with
students from a local federal prison ('inside
students') to learn and share knowledge
based on their lived experience and critical
analysis of academic scholarship. Topics
may vary.
NOTE This course will take place off
campus at a local federal prison, as
part of the Walls to Bridges prison
education program -
http://wallstobridges

This is an experiential learning course based
on the Walls to Bridges program model,
which brings together students from
Queen¿s University (`outside students¿) with
students in a local federal prison (`inside
students¿) to learn and share knowledge
based on their lived experience and critical
analysis of academic scholarship. Topics may vary.
NOTE This course will take place off
campus at a local federal prison, as
part of the Walls to Bridges prison
education program -
http://wallstobridges.ca/

This course focuses on program evaluation as applied sociology, including program theory, and will provide a practical understanding of how social research methods are used to assess social intervention programs.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36S;84P).

Instruction and practice in building and testing multiple regression and logistic regression models with sociological data. Potential utility of alternative models considered.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36S;84P).

Examination of social implications of communication and information technology in the context of sociological theory.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36S;84P).

This course provides a comprehensive and critical assessment of contemporary issues on social aging. This course focuses on how society and its major institutions have reacted to the aging of society as well as how they have shaped it. The social-psychological, social structural (gender, race and social class) and cultural factors that influence a person's experience of aging are examined.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36S;84P).

Consult the Department for possible offerings in any given year.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36S;84P).

Consult the Department for possible offerings in any given year.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36S;84P).

Consult the Department for possible offerings in any given year.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36S;84P).

Consult the Department for possible offerings in any given year.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36S;84P).

Consult the Department for possible offerings in any given year.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36S;84P).

A critical engagement with theories of consumer culture with emphasis upon the material, symbolic and practice-orientated aspects of consumption in sociological context; substantive focus upon shopping, taste, brands, tourism, services, digital commodities.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36S;84P).

Advanced study of gender relations from postcolonial and anti-racist theoretical perspectives. Historical and sociological analysis of femininity, masculinity, race and sexuality, particularly in the context of nation-building and colonialism.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36S;84P)

This course will introduce students to the major theoretical approaches and ongoing debates within organization theory.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36S;84P).

Sociological perspectives of the relationship of law to social structure, the role of law in social action, law's role in social change, and discrimination and social inequality through law; emphasis is on contemporary systems in comparative and historical perspective.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36S;84P).

Relationship between law and ideology with particular reference to current controversies; legal reasoning in substantive areas of law, and the place of law with reference to social control, power, social conflict, and dispute resolution; law's interconnections to state ordering and economic relations emphasized.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36S;84P).

Examination of the relevance of sociological theories for a cross-cultural understanding of development.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36S;84P).

Critical study of theories and practices of social control in Canada and comparable societies insofar as they are implemented by law or regulation and rely on coercion; main agencies of social control and assumptions of their operation emphasized.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36S;84P).

Advanced study of surveillance engaging with sociological, political, cultural and geographic perspectives. The focus is on core topics in Surveillance Studies including: the relationship between surveillance, power and social control; the concept of privacy, its history, utility and future; surveillance, pleasure and consumption; and surveillance in popular culture.
LEARNING HOURS 120 (36S;84P).

Students will arrange their reading in consultation with members of the Department. They will be expected to write reports on their readings and to discuss them throughout the term in seminars.
LEARNING HOURS 126 (36S;90P).

Students will arrange their reading in consultation with members of the Department. They will be expected to write reports on their readings and to discuss them throughout the term in seminars.
LEARNING HOURS 126 (36S;90P).

Students will arrange their reading in consultation with members of the Department. They will be expected to write reports on their readings and to discuss them throughout the term in seminars.

An intensive study of a particular topic or question, usually consisting of a number of sections or chapters which form a single coherent work. The topic is chosen by the student in consultation with an academic adviser, and the work covers both terms.
NOTE A brief giving details of the requirements is available in the Department; students should read this before the end of their third year. A meeting between staff and students is normally held in the Fall Term to discuss questions about the thesis.
LEARNING HOURS 240 (24I;216P).

Required in Program ii.

Required in Program i.

This course is designed to acquaint doctoral students with some aspects of the teaching and research responsibilities of a sociologist and faculty member. It has both theoretical and practical components, and will cover course planning, presentation and preparation as well as planning, organizing, funding and publishing research. Grading is on a Pass/Fail basis. Course is compulsory for doctoral students and is offered every other year.   Three term-hours.  Offered in 2010-2011.

Core Course: All M.A. and Ph.D. students will normally be required to take this course. Ph.D. students who have already taken the course shall choose an appropriate replacement in consultation with the Graduate Coordinator. This course critically examines the main tenets of contemporary sociological theory. Key sociological concepts are studied in a variety of contexts spanning from the micro to macro levels of social action. Although heavily reliant on the main historical developments in sociology (Marx, Weber and Durkheim), emphasis is place on post Second World War II developments in sociological theory.

Core Course: All M.A. and Ph.D. students will normally be required to take this course. Ph.D. students who have already taken the course shall choose an appropriate replacement in consultation with the Graduate Coordinator. This course deals with the main contemporary methodological approaches to the explanation of social phenomena. It will critically examine the strengths and weaknesses of the major strategies of social research (qualitative, quantitative and historical). The selection of specific problems areas may vary from year to year.

Surveillance is sociologically significant as a central means of governance. Surveillance is both a cultural and technical invention, especially dependent today on digital infrastructures and neo-liberal policy. Personal data are gathered by many means and processed to create categories by which risks and opportunities are assessed, and through which people¿s life-chances and choices are influenced and managed.

The objective of this course is to acquaint students with commonalities and differences in modes of sociological reasoning. Students will be expected to grasp and deploy theories that have contrasting ontologies, epistemologies and conceptual structures. The relationship between the discourses of sociology and those of the natural sciences will be a major feature of the course.

This course enables an advanced engagement with contemporary sociology. It will focus on recent developments in sociological theorizing, directing these toward specific problem areas. The precise topics will vary from year to year in response to instructor expertise, student interest and need.

This course, building on the skills developed in SOCY-910, will focus on the structure of classical sociological theory and its relevance for dealing with specific problem areas.

This course serves as an introduction to a broad range of quantitative methods typically employed in the Social Sciences in a manner suitable for students at the graduate-level. Students will learn to prepare data for analysis, carry out analyses, and interpret research results using a variety of statistical techniques. Students will be acquainted with the assumptions that are made while employing various methods, as well as the problems that arise with the use of such methods.

This course will focus upon a variety of macro, middle and micro level theories in the socio-legal area. The emphasis will be on historical and comparative critical analysis and evaluation using appropriate empirical evidence and studies.

This course will examine issues and controversies in the socio-legal area. Topics will vary, but may include some or all of the following: corporate crime, victimology, crime and the elderly, feminist criminology. Three term-hours; fall. S. Baron.

The evolution of science and technology is neither linear nor cumulative. By drawing upon theories of sociology of science and technology, the course argues through the use of case studies that, like other forms of knowledge, scientific and technical knowledge is socially constructed and is embedded in general social relations. Three term-hours; fall. M. Hird.

Special emphasis is placed on the development of electronic technologies of communication in North America and Europe during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These technologies developed within the framework of particular class relations and justifying ideologies which favoured certain patterns of ownership, social diffusion and modes of usage. The nature of this framework and its social consequences are explored with particular reference to recent socio-historical research on the telegraph and the early telephone. Appropriate comparisons are made with recent technological developments, notably the micro- computer and cellular phone.

The expanding role of systematic knowledge in the social institutions and processes of the advanced societies is examined. The codification of data as information within computerized systems is analysed in terms of its social origins and consequences. The cultural implications of social reliance on science-and-technology and expert systems and the diffusion of information within more popular media are explored, with special reference to the concepts of reflexivity and globalization. Relevant theorists include Jurgen Habermas, Anthony Giddens, Jacques Ellul, Roland Robertson.

This course deals with feminist critiques of sociological theories, how such theories have been revised and appropriated by feminists and the various perspectives that feminists have developed for interrogating and transforming social hierarchies informed inter alia by gender, class, racism, and heterosexism. Three term-hours; winter. A. Burfoot.

This course examines major sociological theories of social change, and selected historical sociological studies of macro and micro social change through the critical perspectives of feminist theories, historiography, and research methods.

This course considers various theoretical approaches to understanding the processes by which gender is socially constructed through law, and by which gender affects legal processes. Both public and private law will be analyzed, as will the role of the state in creating, maintaining and changing distinctions between public and private. While contemporary Canadian legal systems will be the central focus, historical and cross- national contexts will also be considered.

This course is designed to critically expose graduate students to the main tenets of feminist approaches to scientific knowledge and technological innovation and applications. The course focuses primarily on North American and Western European analyses including post-modernity and scientific rationalism, object-relations theory as applied to the construction of scientific knowledge, theories of science and the state, and technological development as masculine endeavor. Issues for women around science and technology in developing countries will also be examined. Medicine, weaponry, production and cultural production are areas which are examined as sites of science and technological applications with both immediate consequences (as medical consumerism, employment possibilities) and long-term implications for women (as the formation and value of knowledge, the medicalization and pathologization of women's experiences, the cultural representation and reproduction of femininity).

The debate over how technology is implicated in social control is perennial and broad. Relevant twentieth-century theorists include Max Weber, Lewis Mumford, Jacques Ellul, Michel Foucault, Evelyn Fox-Keller, Harold Adams Innis. This course explores the insight and compares the perspectives of selected theorists, and applies them specifically to information and communication technologies. The issue of mass surveillance of populations in the advanced societies, by both government and commercial agencies, is analyzed, both to understand the nature of the social processes involved, and to generate discussion of political and policy implications. While the course is necessarily comparative - globalization is both consequence and cause of technological diffusion - opportunity is given to focus on Canadian examples.

We live in cultures which are increasingly organized around or saturated with digital information or new media. In this advanced course we will engage with some of the major commentators on relationships between new media and culture, working through a series of key ideas and problems focused around intersections of theory and practice. Instead of maintaining a domination/resistance conception of cultural industries and practices, we will explore complex dynamics of innovation and consumption across a variety of arenas. There will be scope to engage with notions of mobility, speed, reflection, reflexivity, information, virtuality, consumption, in the context of different spaces or objects (city; home; archive; gallery; brand, memory, sounds, visions, events, body, etc.) and practices (photography, art, writing, listening, tourism, learning, etc.) which exemplify contemporary debates about new media in cultural sociology. Three term hours; winter. M. Hand.

This course is designed for graduate students interested in questions surrounding the construction and perpetuation of categories of social difference. It explores current theories of concerning social relations of race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, class and other dimensions of difference, and the ways in which these social relations are intersecting and interlocking. The aim of this course is to bring an intersectional analysis to contemporary social concerns, but also to ground that analysis historically. These questions are addressed through a range of theoretical approaches, including critical race theory, transnational feminism, anti-racist feminism, anti-racist theory, postcolonial theory and queer theory. 

Reproductive politics pertain to those who have power over reproduction and its consequences. This includes 1) those who manipulate reproductive choices to advance socio-political agendas and reinforce privilege, and, 2) those who resist such power plays. The focus of this advance course is on the ensuing tension between the two. Students will critically engage with feminist perspectives pertaining to the public and private meanings associated with reproduction and examine how these meanings are contingent on assumptions about gender, sex, class, race, sexuality, culture, physical (dis)ability, marital status, IQ and historical location. We will address such questions as: Is sexual difference necessarily determined by sexual reproduction?  How have maternal bodies been positioned in culture; differentiated; represented; valued as appropriate or inappropriate; constituted in relation to the bodies of fetuses, children, women who are not mothers? What is the relationship between the state and reproduction? How has medicine and science impacted reproductive choices and for whose benefit? How have population policies and globalization shaped reproductive politics? Does genetic engineering hold the promise of reproductive freedom? Importantly, we will examine how power and resistance are at the heart of each of these questions.  Not offered 2010-11.

This course explores a range of special topics in the area of surveillance, critical big data studies, and/or digital media. Topics vary from year to year. See the Departmental Graduate Studies website for details.

This course explores a range of special topics in the area of criminology or socio­legal studies. Topics vary from year to year. See the Departmental Graduate Studies website for details.

This course explores a range of special topics in the area of power, inequality and social justice. Topics vary from year to year. See the Departmental Graduate Studies website for details.