Qualitative research is foundational to the discipline of sociology. From ethnographers who immerse themselves in a particular social universe to scholars who explore cultural understandings and meaning-making through in-depth interviews, qualitative research is ideal for understanding nuanced social phenomena, explaining complex social processes, and developing and refining social theory. Much instruction in qualitative methods fails to include hands-on training with contemporary digital data analysis tools. In some ways, these tools have transformed the way that scholars analyze data. But they also present different practical, theoretical, and ethical issues in the process. This seminar fills this important gap by providing graduate-level training on both epistemological foundations of qualitative data analysis and hands-on instruction on how to code, analyze, and present qualitative research. In this class, students will become familiar with some classic and contemporary works of qualitative sociological research. Using these texts, we will consider the theoretical and epistemological issues involved in working with qualitative data and discuss narrative strategies in writing and argument formation. Students will also learn about contemporary best practices for coding and analysis using qualitative data analysis (QDA) software. We will follow a workshop-style approach to collaborative learning that is characteristic of qualitative methods training programs and labs.

This seminar is part of a sequence of qualitative methods courses offered in the Sociology Department at the University of North Texas. Students are encouraged to take both courses, but the order is flexible.

Syllabus:

• Spring 2021

Work is a fundamental part of everyday life. Work not only ensures our collective survival, but also helps us define who we are as individuals and societies. Understanding the organization and effects of work is central to the study of sociology, from foundational theories to contemporary examinations of labor market transformation, social inequality, and social change. While not exhaustive, this course will introduce students to central debates in the sociology of work, including those that address alienation and deskilling, precarity and polarization, culture and change, the production and reduction of social inequality, and unemployment and technology. We will ask: What counts as work? What are the effects of work under capitalism? And how work has changed over time?

Throughout the course, we will read classic and more recent ethnographic studies to understand how work has been theorized, to consider how these theories have been applied in social science research, and to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses. The course is intended for graduate students and assumes a graduate-level understanding of sociological theory and methods.

• Fall 2019: Syllabus

The purpose of this course is to teach students what gender is and how it structures major social institutions, especially the work, family, religion, politics, education, and the media. We will explore the ways that gender is socially constructed and survey major themes in the sociological study of gender over time. The course will conclude by encouraging students to consider the possibilities of degendering institutions and proposals to support gender equity in society.

After the successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Understand the concept of gender as it differs from sex.
• Analyze how gender affects our interactions, organizations, and institutions.
• Critically examine how we learn about and understand gender in society.
• Explain how gender is used to justify inequalities between men and women.
• Consider the possibilities of a more gender egalitarian future.

This course is an introduction to sociological theories of gender. It presents foundational debates in the study of gender to explore how hegemonic femininity and masculinity are not only reproduced in identity, discourse, interactions, organizations, and institutions, but also how they resisted and reconfigured at the individual and collective levels. Although we will adopt gender as our primary analytic lens, this course takes an intersectional approach by examining gender in the context of multiple forms of inequality and domination.

Our semester will be divided into two parts. The first half of the course provides an overview of feminist theories of gender inequality. It is designed to assist students who are preparing for comprehensive examination in the sociology of gender or who want a broad understanding of the sub-field. Students will become familiar with the main paradigms that have guided the sociological study of gender, understand how they have been applied in social science research, and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses. In the second half of the course, we will read contemporary works analyzing gender inequality, many of which have been recognized as exemplars in the field. My goal is for students to understand their theoretical and methodological innovations and then use them to inspire their own empirical and theoretical projects.

The course is intended for graduate students in sociology and assumes a graduate-level understanding of sociological theory and methods.

Syllabi:

• Fall 2020
• Fall 2018

This course provides an introduction to the study of society. It begins by introducing major paradigms of social thought and the methods that are used to conduct social scientific research. Although not comprehensive, it then introduces some of the major topics that sociologists study, including culture, inequality, gender, race and ethnicity, work, organizations, and social change. The overarching goal of the course is for students to develop a sociological imagination so that they can connect their individual experiences to the larger factors that shape social life and develop the tools to critically analyze the world around them.

Upon the successful completion of this course, the students will be able to:

• Understand people’s behavior from a sociological perspective.
• Identify and define main sociological concepts.
• Explain the primary methodological approaches used by sociologists.
• Be familiar with the relationship between social structure and individual agency.
• Understand social inequality and its consequences.

How is work changing in the 21st century? Sensationalist accounts of the future of work abound in the popular media. Headlines predict a “jobless future” and the “end of work” as we know it. Indeed, social, economic and technological trends like crowdsourcing, on-demand work and automation are transforming work and workplaces around the globe. This course takes a first step at understanding how work and the workplace have evolved to the present. In the context of rapid social and technological change, students in this class will develop an understanding of not only how work was done in the past and how it is done today, but also what the future may hold as they prepare to enter the labor market.