SOC 1005 · Intro Sociology (FMWA & PMWA)
Introductory sociology course covering core concepts, inequality, race and ethnicity, gender, deviance, and social institutions.
Spring 2026 · Baruch College
This page collects course logistics, weekly materials, assignment reminders, and the questions students ask most often. Check here before emailing.
Introductory sociology course covering core concepts, inequality, race and ethnicity, gender, deviance, and social institutions.
Spring 2026 · Baruch College
SOC 1005 Intro Sociology, Fall 2023 & 2025, Spring 2024 & 2025.
Baruch College
| Component | Description | Weight | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Attendance and Participation | Regular attendance and participation are expected throughout the semester. | 20 points | Each student may miss up to 2 class meetings without penalty. For example, if the class meets 30 times, attendance will be calculated based on 28 meetings. |
| Student-Led Discussion | Students sign up for one discussion slot and help lead class discussion with a short presentation. | 10 points |
Sign-up sheet: 2 points Presentation: 8 points Presentation example |
| SocioCraft Project | A semester-long project that asks students to connect sociological concepts to a creative and collaborative craft-based presentation. | 20 points | Proposal at the beginning of the semester: 5 points Final showcase: 15 points No separate written paper is required for the final showcase. |
| Midterm Exam | In-class midterm exam covering course materials from the first half of the semester. | 25 points | Please review lecture slides and your notes. Some questions might come from your notes or examples I discussed and explained during class. No student-led discussion materials included. |
| Final Exam | Final exam covering course materials assigned ONLY for the second half of the semester. | 25 points | Details will be announced later in the semester. |
| Week & Date | Main Concepts / Class Description | All Required Readings |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 01/26 (M) |
Introduction to this course and syllabus review |
Click to expandAfter class, please spend some time thinking about the SocioCraft project and signing up for the class activities. |
| Week 1 01/28 (W) |
Lecture 1 - Introduction to Sociology |
Click to expand· C. Wright Mills, excerpt from “The Promise,” in The Sociological Imagination · Textbook Chapter 1 |
| Week 2 02/02 (M) |
Lecture 2 - Research Methods and Ethics |
Click to expand· Textbook Chapter 2 · Get to know the Stanford Prison Experiment; think about why it is not ethical. Bring questions to class. |
| Week 2 02/04 (W) |
Research Ethics (continued) and Craft Project Kickoff Students will work in teams, with the help of peers and the instructor, to finish a SocioCraft on their own. |
Click to expand· Research Ethics: review · SocioCraft handouts to be distributed |
| Week 2 02/08 (Sun.) |
Sign up for class-leading discussions and class activities, due at midnight | — |
| SECTION 1: Power and Authority & Culture, Norms, Socialization, and Social Interaction | ||
| Week 3 02/09 (M) |
Lecture 3 - Introduction to Power |
Click to expand· Textbook Chapter 17.1 · Massey, Articles 24 and 32 · Foucault, Michel. “Panopticism,” from Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison |
| Week 3 02/11 (W) |
Lecture 4 - Power in Action: Shaping Culture and Social Interaction |
Click to expand· Textbook Chapters 3.1 & 3.2 · Massey, Article 10 · Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Introduction (pp. 1–9) · Pierre Bourdieu, “The Forms of Capital” |
| Week 4 02/16 (M) |
NO CLASS - COLLEGE CLOSED | NO CLASS |
| Week 4 02/18 (W) |
Class Activity 1 - Student-Led Discussion of Section 1 |
Click to expand· Materials to be distributed · Students who signed up for this activity must take responsibility for the role play and prepare questions for their classmates. Students in the audience must engage in the activity by responding to the role play and decisions made based on our lectures and discussions. |
| Week 4 02/22 (Sun.) |
SocioCraft Progress Submission (instructions to be distributed), due at midnight | — |
| SECTION 2: Social Structures and Inequality: Race, Gender, Relationships, Family | ||
| Week 5 02/23 (M) |
Lecture 5 - Race, Ethnicity, Current Situation of Different Racial Groups, I |
Click to expand· Textbook Chapters 11.1, 11.3 · A short video about W.E.B. Du Bois: The Power of Double Consciousness · Massey, Articles 22 and 25 |
| Week 5 02/25 (W) |
Lecture 6 - Race, Ethnicity, Current Situation of Different Racial Groups, II |
Click to expand· Tran, V. C. (2024). “Asian American Diversity and Growth.” Annual Review of Sociology, 50. · Erik Love, “Second-Generation Muslim American Advocates and Strategic Racial Identity,” in Mehdi Bozorgmehr and Philip Kasinitz (eds.), Growing up Muslim in Europe and the United States (2018) · Chapter 2, “Intergenerational Bequeathal of Dis/Advantage and the Immigrant Bargain,” from Robert Smith’s Dreams Achieved and Denied |
| Week 6 03/02 (M) |
Lecture 7 - Gender, Sex, Sexuality, Intersectionality |
Click to expand· Textbook Chapters 12.1 and 12.2 · Introduction: “Woman as Other” in The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir · Crenshaw, K. W. (2013). “Mapping the Margins,” in The Public Nature of Private Violence |
| Week 6 03/04 (W) |
Lecture 8 - Relationships and Family |
Click to expand· Textbook Chapter 14 · Massey, Articles 40 and 42 · Vidales, Guadalupe T. “Arrested Justice: The Multifaceted Plight of Immigrant Latinas Who Faced Domestic Violence.” Journal of Family Violence 25 (2010): 533–544. |
| Week 7 03/09 (M) |
Class Activity 2 - Student-Led Discussion of Section 2 |
Click to expand· Materials to be distributed · Students who signed up for this activity must take responsibility for reading the additional materials for class discussion. Students in the audience must engage in the activity by responding to the paper and answering presenters’ questions. |
| SECTION 3: Social Control and Resistance: Deviance, Social Control, and Social Movements | ||
| Week 7 03/11 (W) |
Lecture 9 - Deviance, Social Control, and Power Elites |
Click to expand· Textbook Chapters 7.1 and 7.2 · Chapter 3, “Rules for the Distinction of the Normal from the Pathological,” from The Rules of Sociological Method by Emile Durkheim · The Power Elite by C. Wright Mills (1956) |
| Week 8 03/16 (M) |
MIDTERM EXAM | — |
| Week 8 03/18 (W) |
Lecture 10 - Social Control and Policing, and Race |
Click to expand· Du Bois, W. E. B. (2013). “The Spawn of Slavery: The Convict-Lease System in the South.” In Race, Crime, and Justice · Wacquant, L. (2017). “From Slavery to Mass Incarceration: Rethinking the ‘Race Question’ in the US.” In Race, Law and Society |
| Week 9 03/23 (M) |
Lecture 11 - Social Movements and Social Change |
Click to expand· Textbook Chapter 21 · “Social Movements as Politics,” from Social Movements, 1768–2004 by Charles Tilly · Introduction: “The Art of Presence,” from Life as Politics by Asef Bayat |
| Week 9 03/25 (W) |
Class Activity 3 - Student-Led Discussion of Section 3 |
Click to expand· Materials to be distributed · Students who signed up for this activity must take responsibility for reading the additional materials for class discussion. Students in the audience must engage in the activity by responding to the paper and answering presenters’ questions. |
| Week 10 03/30 (M) |
Midterm Review and SocioCraft Project Workshop |
Click to expand· Midterm Review and in-class creation/presentation and peer feedback. No readings assigned. |
| Week 10 04/01 (W) |
SPRING RECESS - NO CLASS | NO CLASS |
| SECTION 4: Social Inequality and Stratification: Social Stratification, Poverty, and Inequality | ||
| Week 11 04/06 (M) |
SPRING RECESS - NO CLASS | NO CLASS |
| Week 11 04/08 (W) |
SPRING RECESS - NO CLASS | NO CLASS |
| Week 12 04/13 (M) |
Lecture 12 - Social Stratification |
Click to expand· Textbook Chapter 9 · Davis, K., & Moore, W. E. (2017). “Some Principles of Stratification.” In Kingsley Davis |
| Week 12 04/15 (W) |
Lecture 13 - Poverty, Inequality in the U.S. and at the Global Level |
Click to expand· Textbook Chapter 10 · Massey, Articles 15 and 30 |
| Week 13 04/20 (M) |
Lecture 14 - Poverty, Race, and Gender |
Click to expand· Massey, Article 21 · “Work, Family, and Black Women’s Oppression,” from Black Feminist Thought by Patricia Hill Collins · Chapters 2, 3, and 6 from Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond |
| Week 13 04/22 (W) |
Class Activity 4 - “Who Gets What? A Role Play on Wealth and Survival” & Student Leading Discussion of Section 4 |
Click to expand· Materials to be distributed · Students who signed up for this activity must take responsibility for the role play and prepare questions for their classmates. Students in the audience must engage in the activity by responding to the role play and decisions made based on our lectures and discussions. |
| SECTION 5: Global and Environmental Sociology: Migration, Population, Urbanization, Aging, and the Environment | ||
| Week 14 04/27 (M) |
Lecture 15 - Immigration |
Click to expand· Massey, D. S. (1999). “Why Does Immigration Occur?: A Theoretical Synthesis” (pp. 34–52) · De Haas, Myths 7 and 8 · Gonzales, R. G. (2011). “Learning to Be Illegal: Undocumented Youth and Shifting Legal Contexts in the Transition to Adulthood.” American Sociological Review, 76(4), 602–619. |
| Week 14 04/29 (W) |
Lecture 16 - Population and Aging |
Click to expand· Textbook Chapters 13.1 and 20.1 · Lam, D. (2011). “How the World Survived the Population Bomb.” Demography, 48, 1231–1262. · Mason, A., Lee, R., & NTA Network. (2022). “Six Ways Population Change Will Affect the Global Economy.” Population and Development Review, 48(1), 51–73. |
| Week 15 05/04 (M) |
SocioCraft Showcase I: First-round Presentations | — |
| Week 15 05/06 (W) |
Lecture 17 - Urbanization and Environment (ONLINE CLASS) |
Click to expand· Textbook Chapters 20.2 and 20.3 · “Why Harlem Is Not a Ghetto,” from Naked City by Sharon Zukin · “The Right to the City,” from Rebel Cities by David Harvey |
| Week 16 05/11 (M) |
Class Activity 5 - Student Leading Discussion of Section 5 |
Click to expand· Students who signed up for this activity must take responsibility for reading the additional materials for class discussion. Students in the audience must engage in the activity by responding to the paper and answering presenters’ questions. |
| Week 16 05/13 (W) |
SocioCraft Showcase II: Second-round Presentations | — |
| Week 17 05/18 (M) |
CLASS DOES NOT MEET | Final exam date TBD |
| Week 18 05/25 (M) |
FINAL GRADE RELEASED | — |
Please do not email questions already answered in the syllabus, on this page, or in the assignment prompt. Please do not email me on weekends.
Late submissions are accepted only for the SocioCraft proposal. A late proposal may receive a maximum of 80% of the total points (maximum 4 out of 5).
The Student-Led Discussion sign-up must be completed by the posted deadline. Late sign-ups will not receive credit (0 out of 2 points).
Unless otherwise stated, submit files in the exact format required in the instructions.
Yes. Readings provide important background for lectures and discussions. Completing the readings before class will help you better understand the material.
They are all on Brightspace, under Content.
They are on Brightspace, either under Content or under Assignments. Read the whole instruction page before emailing.
They are ALL on Brightspace, under Content. Read the whole instruction page before emailing.
No. Follow the required format exactly unless you have written permission in advance.
Please check the presentation example shown above. You will receive the materials TWO WEEKS before the presentation day. However, for the role play, students should expect they receive the materials 1-2 HOURS before that day's class starts.
Please refer to the Late Work Policy above.
Check the attendance policy first. Then, check the weekly schedule, review the posted materials, and ask a classmate for notes. Email me for any additional requests.
Grades are usually posted within one week after the assignment due date. The midterm may take slightly longer.
Grades in this course are not curved. Your final grade will be based on the total points you earn throughout the semester.
Please focus on completing assignments and preparing for exams rather than relying on a curve.