In this course, we will encounter and critically engage works by thinkers who were formative in the development of sociology, those whose ideas continue to echo through contemporary scholarship in a continuous conversation. The first half of the course is organized around the four canonical classical theorists – Marx, Durkheim, Weber, and DuBois. Because they set the stage for much of the subsequent developments—raising questions we are still seeking answers to and offering answers we still question—their work remains central to conversations in the social sciences. Reading them carefully will not only socialize you into those conversations (give you the shared language and concepts), but, by following their steps, will also help you learn different modalities of building sociological explanations, of doing social theory. The second half of the course is organized thematically, addressing some of the specific social issues and theoretical debates we encountered in the classical theorists. While we will continue to encounter key contemporary theorists, our discussion focuses on the following: self and meaning-making in social interactions; race and capitalism; patriarchy and capitalism; the sociality of knowledge; and power and hegemony.

Learning outcomes:

We will engage with the texts on three different levels:

1. Understand the theorists and texts: what disciplinary themes, concepts, and methodological orientations do they give us? How are they different from each other?
2. Learning scientific theory building: How do we build explanations of social phenomena based on empirical data?
3. What does the text tell us about an issue or a debate: 
   1. How is society possible? What holds it together and reproduces it (solidarity despite difference and conflict)? How does social change happen?
   2. What is the relationship between the individual and society (agency and structure)? What is social about us, and how do we know ourselves and the world?
   3. What is the relationship between different aspects of society: economy, state, and technology?
   4. Power, conflict, exploitation, and oppression: what are class, race, and gender? What is the relationship between capitalism and racism, and capitalism and patriarchy?