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Carthage strives to foster the development of each student’s sociological imagination. Students learn to thoughtfully analyze the roots of social problems and examine potential remedies. Students are taught to think critically about an individual’s role in society as well as complex social institutions.

Please note: The following courses are offered by the Sociology Department. Some sociology majors and minors require courses offered by other departments. Please refer to those areas of study for those course descriptions.

Introduction to Sociology (SOC) (SI)

SOC 1000 / 4 credits
Explores how social structures and social forces shape beliefs, values, and behavior. Applies theoretical frameworks to historical and contemporary social institutions. The course stresses the impact of social class, race, and gender inequalities.
Offered in Fall/Spring

Social Problems (SOC)

SOC 2010 / 4 credits
Studies the social structural bases of current social problems with a particular focus on the inequities of socioeconomic condition, race, and gender. Students develop transnational comparisons concerning such areas of social life as employment, the workplace, health care, energy use, environmental imbalances, and crime. Analyzes policies designed to remedy specific problems.
Offered in Fall/Spring

Family Violence

SOC 2210 / 4 credits 
This course is an overview of family violence. Particular attention will be given to groups that have been disproportionately affected by family violence, namely women, older adults, and children. Emerging knowledge related to violence in gay and lesbian families, minority families, and special populations will be included. 
Offered in Spring 

Juvenile Delinquency

SOC 2270 / 4 credits
Studies causes of unconventional youthful behavior, societal reactions to it, specialized agencies, treatment strategies, policy proposals for prevention of juvenile delinquency, and the juvenile justice system with its competing functions and personnel.
Prerequisite: SOC 1000
Offered in Fall

Sociology of Health and Illness (SI) (WEL)

SOC 2440 / 4 credits
This course surveys a broad range of issues and topics examined by various health-related fields of study, including medical anthropology, epidemiology, health psychology, and health care policy analysis. In general terms, the course deals with the study of social factors affecting health and health care systems.
Prerequisite: SOC 1000, or Allied Health or Nursing major.

Marriage and the Family

SOC 2520 / 4 credits
Traces the development of the modern American family as a social institution. Stresses the values and problems of the modern family in comparative perspective.
Prerequisite: SOC 1000

Race and Racisms (DIV)

SOC 2530 / 4 credits
Examines the sociological, economic, and psychological nature of the relationships between racial and ethnic groups with differential access to political and economic power. Focus is on the United States, with some discussion of racism, cultural discrimination, and sexism in other parts of the world.
Prerequisite: SOC 1000 or CRJ 1000
Offered in Fall/Spring

Sex, Gender, and Sexuality in a Diverse World (SOC) (DIV)

SOC 2770 / 4 credits
This course examines the sociological perspectives of sex, gender, and sexuality, while incorporating interdisciplinary texts when necessary. The course will locate sex, gender, and sexuality within contemporary sociohistorical context; examine practices and relationships of power; and analyze both institutional and interpersonal forms of inequality based on sex, gender, and sexuality.
Prerequisite: SOC 1000 or WMG 1100
Offered in Spring

Sociological Research Methods (SOC)

SOC 3020 / 4 credits
Studies the sociological methods of research, including their relation to social theory. Examines the main types of research designs, research ethics, the writing of reports, and the evaluation of research information.
Prerequisite: SOC 1000
Offered in Fall

Social Problems in the City

SOC 3025 / 4 credits
This course presumes social problems in the city as products of oppression, marginalization, and social control. Students will learn how economic forces and social structures such as race, class, and government policies influence how cities are socially and spatially organized, and how that has changed over time. Students cover topics like the Great Migration, systemic racism, policing, inequality, poverty, segregation, and joblessness. We will also discuss the interrelations between different social issues and the prospects for social change.
Prerequisite: CRJ 1000 or instructor permission

Wrongful Convictions

SOC 3035 / 4 credits
This course is intended to help students understand relevant research on the causes and effects of wrongful convictions. The course draws upon research across several academic disciplines like sociology, psychological sciences, legal studies, and criminology in order to understand wrongful convictions as social processes that occur at different levels of social reality (i.e., individual to systemic), and several points within criminal justice systems (from lawmaking to conviction).
Prerequisite: CRJ 1000 or instructor permission

Social Impacts of Mass Incarceration

SOC 3045 / 4 credits
This course presents the historical patterns of response to crime and modern methods of dealing with criminally defined behavior, including the major reactive models. Also examined are treatment approaches in corrections, corrections personnel, and corrections as an institutional system.
Prerequisite: CRJ 1000
Offered in Fall

Power, Deviance, and Social Control

SOC 3110 / 4 credits
This course examines power, deviance, and social control as interconnected sociological concepts. Students will understand how these concepts have been defined across various social contexts. This course will also examine social reactions to power and deviance. Students will be able to describe power’s role in labeling people deviant and how those labeled deviant have resisted forms of social control. Finally, students will develop the ability to recognize the various forms of power, deviance, and social control surrounding them daily.
Prerequisite: SOC 1000 or CRJ 1000

Crimes of the Powerful

SOC 3120 / 4 credits
This course explores the social and institutional contexts of various forms of corporate and governmental deviance and/or crime. A range of cases that constitute elite deviance and/or criminal activity will be examined (e.g., insider trading, political corruption, corporate harm caused to consumers and the environment). Each case will be discussed within its larger political, social, and historical context.
Prerequisite: SOC 1000 or CRJ 1000

Sociological Inquiry and Practice

SOC 3250 / 4 credits
This course is designed to provide sociology majors and minors with advanced sociology research and analysis skills. Students will read and analyze empirical research articles and original theoretical texts, and examine social issues/problems using a critical sociological lens.
Prerequisite: SOC 1000 or instructor permission

Field Placement in Sociology

SOC 3500 / 2-8 credits
A field placement enables the student to explore a possible career, and to work in an individual, academically-oriented position designed to supplement or complement the student’s academic experience. All field placements require faculty supervision and regular meetings between the student and the instructor.

Senior Seminar in Sociology

SOC 4990 / 4 credits
This course will develop the knowledge and skills necessary for students to complete a significant research project in either criminal justice or sociology. Students will be required to integrate and synthesize knowledge and skills from their previous coursework to answer a research question. Students will be required to effectively summarize research findings, both orally and in writing.