Linus Owens

Society and the Individual
This course examines the ideas and enduring contributions of the giants of modern social theory, including Karl Marx, Max Weber, Emile Durkheim, and Sigmund Freud. Readings will include selections from original works, as well as contemporary essays. Key issues will include the nature of modernity, the direction of social change, and the role of human agency in constructing the "good society." This course serves as a general introduction to sociology. (formerly SOAN 0105) 3 hrs. lect.

Visual Sociology
We live in a visual world. To understand society and culture, we must understand the images we produce and consume. This course provides a sociological lens to study how we use and are used by images. We will study key theories that frame how visual contents (such as photographs, films, and videos) are shared, viewed, and interpreted by various audiences. Using images as our starting point, we will analyze the messages and imagery in visual texts to extract their social meanings. We will engage three sides of visual sociology: images as cultural artifacts, picture making as data collection, and displaying research visually. (Sociology) (Juniors and Seniors by permission only) 3 hrs. lect.

Social Theory
This course provides an overview of major lines of development in 20th century social theory relevant to the field of sociology, focusing on how various theorists have grappled with the basic issues that have dominated 20th century social thought. Particular attention will be given to the questions arising from the conceptual distinctions between structure and action, on the one hand, and identity and culture, on the other. How is social order possible? How autonomous are human agents? How do we explain the persistence of observed patterns of human interaction and social practice? How do we analyze relations between the world of everyday life and the large-scale development of social systems? How does social change take place? (SOCI 0105) (formerly SOAN 0305) 3 hrs. lect.

The Long Civil Rights Movement
The Civil Rights Movement is one of the most significant political forces in American history, but too often we reduce it to its heyday in the 1950s and 60s. In this course we engage a much longer, more varied history of African American freedom struggles, from protests against segregated trains in the late 19th century to today’s #BlackLivesMatter. We use social movement theory to explore these cases, and use the cases to develop new theories of politics and social structure, paying close attention to the roles of organizations, resources, leadership, recruitment, commitment, values, ideology, culture, gender, and counter-movements. (SOCI 0105, or permission) 3 hrs. lect.

The Continuing Significance of Race in the United States
This course will introduce students to theories of race and racism in the United States, how racial categories are formed and maintained in a variety of social arenas, and how race and racism influence social systems. In order to demonstrate the prevalence of race and racism in the U.S., the course will be a “topics” course in that each week, we will explore a different topic (such as education, crime, gender) and examine how they are influenced by race and racism. In addition, the course will compare and contrast the experiences of different racial and ethnic groups in the United States and examine how these different experiences influences the way they are seen, how they see themselves, and how they interact with other groups. Upon completion of the course, students will have a better understanding of the historic and contemporary significance of race and how race influences our everyday interactions in multiple different social arenas. (formerly SOAN 0356) 3 hrs. lect.