Courses and Teaching
Courses and Teaching
One of the (many) complaints heard 'round the BC/CU community is the lack of transparency with regard to teaching evaluations. There is actually an underground student site which is poorly-conceived attempt learn which professors are good, which are middling, and which stink. In the interests of heading this off (my reviews tend to say quite pedagogically-impressive things like "he's geeky but nice"), I've compiled my reviews that we get from the students, and complied them for quick edification:
| Evaluation Criteria | Masculinities 2004 | Soc of US Econ Life 2004 | Soc of US Econ Life 2005 | Masculinities 2005 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Overall Rating of Instructor | 4.1/5 | 4.6/5 | 4.7/5 | 4.1/5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Overall Rating of Course | 3.8/5 | 4.4/5 | 4.5/5 | 3.9/5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Instructor's Effectiveness | 4.1/5 | 4.3/5 | 4.6/5 | 4.1/5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Course Organization | 4.1/5 | 4.6/5 | 4.4/5 | 4.0/5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Instructor's Interest | 4.8/5 | 4.7/5 | 4.8/5 | 4.8/5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coverage of Topics | 4.6/5 | 4.6/5 | 4.5/5 | 4.1/5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Instructor Availability | 4.1/5 | 4.3/5 | 4.2/5 | 4.0/5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last updated: 3 May 2005 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Markets are perhaps one of the most ubiquitous features of modern-day life. And market economies are held to be the best, most democratic, and most efficient ways to organize and distribute resources. We consider there to be markets in almost anything, from financial markets (stocks, currencies, and commodities) to labor markets to the less savory so-called “black markets” in babies, drugs, guns, even body organs. Do these diverse phenomena share common features? This course takes the perspective that markets, and market economies, are first and foremost social accomplishments; although they may arise “naturally,” there is a great deal of social “work” that sustains them.
We begin the course with some basic economic and sociological definitions of markets, and we trace a bit of the development of the “spirit” of capitalism that anchors our market economy. From there, we decompose the market into some of its constituent parts: trust, risk, commodification, interests. In light of these sociological understandings, we revisit some particular, real-world market phenomena.
We ask questions about the limits of markets and some alternative ways that countries (and the US) might organize the economy. This class requires you to think critically about what is normally taken for granted, and discussion and critical analysis is part of this course.
The syllabus (in .pdf format) is available if you like.
What does it mean to study men and masculinity? It is, after all, only recently that scholars have come to recognize that what had previously been passed off as universal experiences, have often been the experiences of only men. This course focuses on various meanings of “being a man” and the effects these different types of masculinities have on both men and women. We explore some of the variations among men and relationships between men and women. This is a lecture format class, but there is robust discussion throughout the course.
The syllabus (in .pdf format) is available if you like.
Thinking about organizations and institutions clashes with the widely held notion that people’s individual interests and abilities drive everything from individual success to social movements. Sociologists and organizational scholars have instead emphasized the ways that identities, interests, and activities operate at ‘higher’ levels – at the level of organizations and of institutions. Organizations are more than just a collection of individuals, just as institutions are more than just a collection of organizations. Both need to be understood in their own rights, and on their own terms.
This course introduces students to an institutional perspective on organizations. We will take seriously the fact that people make history, but they do so under circumstances not of their own making. Broad political and cultural institutions create and influence social knowledge and cultural rule systems. We will also take seriously the fact that most of the major activities in our lives take place within organizations, whether they be families, churches and synagogues, for-profit businesses, or non-profit organizations.
Practically, this course moves dialectically between theoretical discussion of institutions and organizations and empirical social science research of these topics. Substantively, we will discuss how numbers and quantification have achieved such importance; how different political cultures created varied political economies; how competing groups of bureaucrats and Native Americans contended over the building of a dam in the American Southwest; and how the Civil Rights movement contended with the American political environment.
The syllabus (in .pdf format) is available if you like.
Where the magic really happens