SOAN 453B: SENIOR SEMINAR:
 Senior Seminar:  Issues in Contemporary Sociology:
 Social Problems in Global-Historical Perspective
 WED 2:45-5:15 AL 432
 Colgate University
 Fall 2004 Professor Thomas Hall
 Office:  408 Alumni, x7083, email:  tdhall@mail.colgate.edu
 OFFICE HOURS:  Tu 2:45-4; W 1:30-2:30 & 5:20-6, Th 12-1, & by appt
Syllabus
Last Updated 9-1-04

What is senior seminar?
Senior seminar is a CAPSTONE course. That is, it is intended to help you pull your sociological learning, and the faculty hopes, all your other learning together in a meaningful way. The seminar requires that you DO SOCIOLOGY, not study sociology. That is, you need to do some sort of research project, a THESIS. A THESIS is a paper which makes an assertion and backs that assertion with evidence. Since we are operating in a scientific discipline (or at least part of it aspires to be) the evidence must be empirical. For now think in terms of a long term paper (40 to 50 pages) focused on a specific issue with considerable empirical evidence. See What is a Thesis for more information. I will discuss these more later.

The "doing sociology" is circumscribed in many ways. Obviously you must be done this semester, (for deadlines see  Course Schedule). This limits the resources with which you can work. The areas of sociology from which the thesis may come are quite broad: some sort of social problem. The one main restriction--which will be explained below--is that the problem must be analyzed in a global-historical perspective. Finally, this is a seminar, which means that in addition to individual requirements (the thesis) there are COLLECTIVE requirements. A seminar is a regular meeting in which people interested in a topic come to discuss that topic in an informed, intellectual manner. This means coming prepared--having done the reading, and even more important having done some thinking. To come in UNprepared is to insult your classmates, the instructor, and the entire idea of senior seminar.

Seminar Policies & Attendance
I do not want to sound too harsh, but you must treat seminar as your most important class in all four years at DePauw. Every other class waits for it [not with respect to attendance, but with respect to which assignment you complete first, if you do not have time for all of them]. Among other things, because this class uses and helps you to use all the other classes you have taken. If everyone does come prepared seminar will be quite a bit of fun, and you will be able to "do" much of the work as part of class.  A successful seminar will help you cement together your entire major so it will stick with you and so you can use this knowledge throughout your life. The usual expectations for students also apply. See Professor Hall's Expectations for Students and himself.

Now, that should not be too bad. We will have "covered" most of the collective material in the first few weeks before midterms and papers are due in other classes. After that you will be working on your own project. You will schedule meetings with me as needed. Then, in April we will resume meeting ALL together to start hearing results, critiquing, advising, clarifying, and finish with final presentations.

Attendance
Given both this structure, and that we meet only once a week. Attendance at all seminars is mandatory. This also means you must schedule other activities, such as job interviews, rush, social meetings, etc. around the seminar. There are NO excused absences (other than for "official university business" or bona fide religious observations,  when I am notified in advance IN WRITING OR BY EMAIL).  Keep in mind that missing one seminar is the same as missing an entire week of another class. During the presentations of theses we may run past 4 pm a bit [although I will try to avoid this] so plan on that now. 

Social Problems in Global-Historical Perspective
You have already received a preliminary description of the seminar. In order for a seminar to function as a seminar, it needs a topic. Why this is so will become very clear in the first few weeks. In terms of many of the capstone goals, what the topic is does not matter: as long as there is one, and that it is sociological!

I picked Social Problems in a Global-Historical Perspective for a variety of reasons:

• most important, this topic is sufficiently broad that it can accommodate each of you individual interests with sociology;
• "globalization" is on everyone's lips, now that the media and others have noticed a trend that has been going on for some time.  Underlying this, however, is a change in speed where the world IS becoming more interconnected.  In your lives, no matter what you do or where you live, knowing how to analyze problems globally will be a major asset for you throughout your life;
• many social problems are rooted in the social changes that have occurred in the last few centuries, and without historical depth, they cannot be properly understood -- to understand what something is changing INTO, you need to know something about what it is changing FROM;
• these are the reasons that I approach almost all sociology at a macro or global levels.   Because of this, I can best lead the seminar around these issues;
• students in past seminars consistently report they like this approach because it gives them leeway to pick a topic they are deeply concerned about;
• I have a "hidden agenda" (unmasked below!).

The basic idea is to take ANY social problem -- you pick & define the problem and argue why it is a problem -- and place it in global perspective. A key point is defining and arguing why the problem is a social problem. Basically, you will need to research how the problem you pick is shaped, influenced, caused, reflects, or changes international and global forces, events, or processes. Or, rarely, why this is NOT so. How you do this will depend on the problem you pick to study. The readings and our discussions of them during the first part of the seminar will help set up several global perspectives. We will examine such processes as globalization (how things are becoming similar all over the world, or a bigmac is bigmac is a bigmac--no matter where you are), glocalization (how global processes manifest themselves locally, often in different forms), how & if the world-system is changing; how it is different from what came before. The readings will help you get started.

SOME POSSIBLE TOPICS:
Changing family structures
Changing labor force participation
Changing gender roles
Changing roles of indigenous peoples in the world
Changing nature/manifestation or racial and/or ethnic groups
Changing nature of social movements
Changing nature of poverty
Changing employment structures and how they affect race & gender relations
Colonization
Decolonization
Drug Trade
Drug Use
Ethnic Conflicts (in US &/or elsewhere)
Hunger: in the US or Globally
Immigration from the Third World
Migrations
Political Refugees
etc, etc, etc.

In short, you can address any topic you choose and place it in a global-historical context. The idea here, is to pull together everything you have learned about sociology and anthropology in a way that is meaningful to you by studying a problem that YOU argue is important to study.

In brief, there are two "assignments" for the seminar. First, to write a thesis on a social problem which puts that problem in a global-historical perspective, (or in rare cases explains precisely why a particular problem is NOT global, but only local). The second is to determine how to develop a theory of social problems that is global-historical in its scope.

The Readings
Since I picked the topic, I picked some books, listed below to get us started. Some inspired this course. Some I have just read myself, and they have already caused me to rethink some of the issues.  I have also put a few things on reserve.  For texts see the Textsbooks and the Reserves List [NYP].

For more details see Course Schedule.  I will update this schedule weekly, adjusting the schedule to reflect our progress and our shifting interests. Here is rough overview of what and how we will read these:

On the first day, September 1, I will discuss the course and give an overview of the course, the readings, and associated topics. Try to read all these for the next meeting. Read them to get a sense of what the books are about and what in them will be most helpful to you. As we discuss these readings in the first 2 or 3 meetings, and as you begin to narrow your choice of social problem to study, we will design the remainder of the schedule. What I list below is not as much as it seems: introductory essays are easy to read, some of it will be familiar to some of you, some of it will not be. Concentrate on the material that is new, use the rest to refresh yourself on what you have learned in other courses.

Advice from Former Seminar Students
Among many comments made by students in my senior seminar, two are very consistent:
1.  Make sure EVERY student does ALL THE READINGS.   Students note that when they skipped over readings, they had a great deal of trouble organizing their theses and especially pulling in the broader perspective elements.  [See Discussing the Readings & Note Taking for the assignments inspired by these comments].

2.  "Do whatever you must, no matter how mad it makes students, to start early on their thesis."  This is a direct quote from one evaluation, most paraphrase it one way or another.  This is why your topic is due no later then start of class in the second week, and your proposal at the start of seminar in the third week. If you know, you can hand in your topic and proposal early and get rolling on your research and writing.

Some advice from me, the prof [and the one who assigns grades!]:  Given the structure of senior seminar, that most of your grade depends on your thesis, for the other parts of the thesis, proposal, drafts, etc. you are MUCH BETTER OFF handing those in on time or early, and less well done than you would like, rather than being late and "better."  That is why I will grade all preliminary assignments +, check, or - [more on that below].  You will need time for revisions. The more time you have for them the better.  I will look at parts of theses early if you want.   We will talk more about this in class after the first couple of weeks when you all have a sense  what you are doing and what that entails.

Tentative Schedule of Activities
We will take 6 to 8 meetings to go over readings and discuss issues. These will be listed on separate pages, especially the Course Schedule.  This will take us until sometime in March depending on our pace. Each week students will turn in 1 to 2 paragraphs on the relevance of each reading for their thesis topic.  This assignment, by the way, came straight from evaluations from previous seminars!  For instructions on how to comment on the readings see Commenting on Readings.

Remember, throughout the seminar, but especially in the opening weeks, it is perfectly reasonable to say that you do not understand something:  the requirements, a reading, a presentation, etc.  Depending on which courses you have had so far, some of the readings will seem "obvious" and repetitive, and others may seems like a crash course on new material.  I cannot go into more depth on something and explain it better, if you do not let me know you need such assistance.

For main texts see Fall 2004 Books.  For other readings see Reserves List [NYP].

By the second meeting [September 8] you need to choose the social problem that you will study. This need be no more than a short note [or email] naming it. By the third meeting [September 15] you will need to turn a typed discussion of your "problem," that is a Thesis Proposal. By the fourth meeting you will need to submit an Annotated Bibliography that week [September 22]. 

The Second & Third weeks we will discuss the Thesis Proposal and the Annotated Bibliography; and/or a library bibliographic session. 

The web pages have more details on these assignments. Do keep in mind, however, that your proposal is a tentative statement.  Some thesis topics evolve and transmute as you dig out more information on them.  Still, the more precisely you can state your problem at this point, the easier it will be to find material on it.  But keep in mind that research is a discovery process, which will lead to rethinking your initial proposal.

Once we finish the readings, we will break to work on individual projects. This will be in March. During this time we will NOT meet as a group. Rather, you will need to schedule individual meetings with me to discuss your thesis and your progress on it. Most of these meetings will be during the time seminar would have met.

We will then resume meeting regularly in week 10, April 7 for presentations on theses. I will have separate pages describing presentations of thesis [NYP].  This will be where and when the seminar truly becomes a seminar.  We will have presentations in November.  If we have any further presentations we will also meet on December 1. If not, that week will be used for individual meetings. 

Week 7, you will need to turn in the first two sections of your thesis -- Introduction  and Discussion of the Problem -- by Thursday, March 17 at seminar].  This must be in acceptable format, including references.  See Draft Introduction to Thesis [NYP].

The Monday before you present your thesis, you need to turn in: 1) any revisions to what you submitted earlier; and 2) as much of the analysis, conclusion, and ameliorations sections as you have done.  These may be in draft format.  See Draft Body of Thesis [NYP].

From this point we have a very rigid schedule because everyone needs to present and receive comments in order to complete her or his thesis by the final.

Once you have presented you have 9 days to turn in a draft of your thesis.  I will read it and give you feed back.  In rare cases where the thesis is sufficiently complete, I will give you a provisional grade. This works out as follows:
PRESENTATION                    DRAFT DUE 
Wednesday                                 Friday
Wednesday                                 Friday
Wednesday                                 Friday
Wednesday                                 Friday

Also, I will comment on drafts of sections at any time.  I will say more about this later.  The dates above are last possible times.

For each presentation, everyone [except, obviously, the presenter] must provide oral discussion of the thesis and written comments due within 24 hours.  I will collect these comments, add my own, and give feedback to the presenter.  Making these comments [NYP] is a vital part of the course. This is how we all, together, help everyone write the best possible thesis.  Failure to make comments in a timely and thoughtful way will have consequences for your grade. See How to present you thesis to the seminar.[NYP]

In the week following your presentation I will collect the comments, add my own, and meet with each of you individually to work on revisions.  

Once presentations are completed I will meet to discuss drafts and revisions plans with each of you.

We will conclude at the last class, Wednesday, December 8, with a brainstorming session that will:

• (a) try to build our collective theory of social problems;
• (b) adjourn to suitable location to celebrate the end of the seminar!

Final drafts of theses are Friday, December 17, at 5pm [the scheduled final time]-- OR SOONER!

I reserve the right to lower the grade on a thesis by a letter or more for being late.

GRADES:
Your grade will be determined as follows:
         Thesis                            70 %
            [this includes proposal, bibliography, and drafts]
         Participation                  15 %
         Comments on Theses     15 %

I will NOT give letter grades to reading reports or comments, but grade as +, check , -.  With a decent job being a a check; + for outstanding, and - for one that is clearly deficient.  I will then look at the overall result of all of these.  If you have several +'s it can raise your course grade above what you receive on the thesis; if you have several -'s it can lower your grade below what you receive on the thesis.

COMMUNICATIONS WITH PROF HALL
The best way to get in touch with me is by email. Assignments and general issues will be posted on this website. 

I will be in my office most afternoons, in addition to office hours, but check with me so you don't come by just after I decided I had to get some coffee, or had to go to a meeting..

Send comments or questions to tdhall@mail.colgate.edu
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