Note: Students signed up for the class or thinking about doing so may want to know the following:
- All readings will be online. There are NO textbooks to buy.
- Many of the readings from previuos years will be used again, but there will likely be many new readings as well.
- Most classes will be taught face to face. However, some things done online worked very well, and will be incorporated into the class.
- My courses have strict limitations on how AI can be used. If you want to use AI to do a lot of your work for you, you may want to find a different course! Here is my AI policy.
Course summary
Today's society is beset by many serious social problems, for example, conflicts over gay rights, sexual assault, battles over abortion and reproductive rights, poverty & inequality & the decline of the middle class, and racial/ethnic discrimination (which has helped give rise to the Black Lives Matter social movement). How do we think about these problems in ways that lead to helpful solutions? In what ways does one's own social background and role in society affect his/her views of these problems? In this course, students will learn to take a sociological perspective not only in examining the causes, consequences, and solutions to some of society's most troubling social problems, but also in taking a critical look at their own perceptions of the problem.
When possible, we will often try to provide a local angle to problems, e.g. from Notre Dame or South Bend. I encourage you to think of incidents from your own communities that are relevant.Course Canvas Page - Spring 2026. We will use Canvas heavily this semester. I will use it to make announcements and you will use it to hand in all assignments. The most critical course links (including to this web page) can be found there. So, just go to Canvas if you forget or lose anything about the course.
Online Readings Packet with Discussion Questions Links are available by request or on the course Canvas page
These include questions we will be discussing in class. Most of them are covered in the readings but we'll fill in gaps in class as necessary. Keeping these questions in mind as you go through the readings will help you to focus on some of the most critical points. This list will be updated regularly, at least a few days before we cover the material in class. We will break down into small groups to go over many of these questions. Similar questions will often appear on the exams, so being prepared to discuss these as we go along will be very beneficial to you. I have used online readings for several years and they work well and let me do things that I can't do with Canvas modules. Canvas will provide the links you need to easily access the readings.
Online Backup. I have often had students whose computers crashed or who accidentally deleted the most current version of their paper or who have had some other problem. I've even had students who had to rewrite their papers from scratch. I therefore strongly encourage you to set up a Cloud Storeage Account if you do not already have one. OIT says "We highly encourage the use of Google Drive for cloud storage for all users with a Notre Dame account. Box is also an option. Please see https://nd.service-now.com/nd_portal?id=file_storage." Also I personally use Dropbox to store all the files I am currently working on.
