Advanced Special Topics in Sociology

*Approved Topics Only

Topics Approved for Spring 2026

• SOCIOL 290.01 Power and Society: Exploration of power as people's or groups' ability to impose their will on others, even against resistance. Interrogates the basis, forms, and relations of power through a sociological lens.  Analyzes interconnections between power and social, economic, and political inequalities.  Critically explores how power operates in states, corporations, and other institutions at the national and international levels. Considers options and obstacles to challenging power.
• SOCIOL 290.02 Managing Disruption: From vaccines to AI, breakthroughs shape daily life and sometimes disrupt it. Drawing on research in sociology and management, students explore how ideas become industries, how organizations take off or fall flat, and why some innovations spark revolutions while others fade. Case studies range from medical advances to tech startups, offering insights into the strategies, movements, and institutions that give power to new ideas and catalyze cultural change. We study disruption not as a buzzword, but as a social process.
• SOCIOL 290.04 Labor Market Stratification: Studies how disparities in education, family, gender, race, networks, culture, and algorithms shape access to jobs, career mobility, and wages.  Investigates labor market mechanisms re(producing) these inequalities. Uses theories of stratification and discrimination to unpack case studies of how inequality operates in hiring, promotion, and workplace practices across industries. Considers how institutions and policies shape opportunities and how labor markets intersect with broader systems of inequality.