Eastern State Penitentiary

(photo by author)

courses

Soc 260: Criminal Justice

Introductory course designed to familiarize students with the various stages and working conditions of the American criminal justice system, including police, courts, corrections, general systems theory, and justice post-9/11; Key themes of course: 1) Civil liberties vs. public safety/security; 2) discretion among professional actors; 3) open system features.

 

Soc 366: Punishment and Society

Upper level seminar for criminology majors which centers upon the sociology of punishment.  Course requirements include a thorough engagement with theories of punishment and their application to imprisonment, capital punishment, new penology, restorative justice, and transnational post-9/11 penal trends. 

 

Soc 406A : Crime, Risk, and Governance/Risk and Society

Upper-level undergraduate seminar and senior capstone course designed to survey an emergent area of inquiry, the sociology of risk, in its multiple and varied forms, including “risk society,” actuarialism, governmentality, and edgework. 

 

Soc 406: Drugs and Society

Upper-level undergraduate seminar and senior capstone course designed to assess how in the American context, the use and abuse of chemical substances have perpetually appeared at the heart of cultural practice and social response through a survey of theoretical models, socio-legal contexts, and constructions of drug use.

 

Soc 413/513: Media and Society

In this upper-level undergraduate and graduate seminar, we lay out the problem of what it means to pursue a sociology of media, exploring key issues of social representation in political, economic, ideological, and cultural contexts.  This strategy includes discussions of identity politics centered upon race, class and gender as well as questions of how media ownership, access, and globalization impact social configurations of structure and agency. Also offered as graduate seminar (Soc 605: Media and Society, Winter 2005).

 

P469/569: Inside Out Prison Exchange Program

Advanced undergraduate and graduate seminar conducted in a prison setting with an equal number of outside (university) and inside (incarcerated) students; dedicated to an in-depth examination of core issues in crime and justice with an emphasis upon: processes and possibilities of restorative justice, the development of a collaborative group research project to be presented publicly, and the inside out certification process (part of a national curriculum)