Department of Social and Cultural Analysis Course Offerings
Concepts in Social and Cultural Analysis
V18.0001
This course is a gateway to all majors offered by the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis (SCA). It focuses on the core concepts that intersect the constituent programs of SCA: Africana Studies, American Studies, A/P/A, Gender and Sexuality, Latino Studies, and Metropolitan Studies. The course surveys basic approaches to a range of significant analytical concepts (e.g., property, work, technology, nature, popular culture, consumption, knowledge), each one considered within a two-week unit. Because the course is team-taught and the instructors for it vary from semester to semester, there are sometimes slight alterations in the concepts covered in different terms.
Strategies for Social and Cultural Analysis
V18.0020
Explores various research methodologies that scholars and practitioners employ to answer both historical and contemporary questions. Throughout the semester seminar participants are introduced to four broad categories of strategies for social and cultural analysis: historical analysis, particularly archival research; literary analysis, which deals primarily with critical analysis of texts; social science methods, focusing on the collection and interpretation of data and quantitative methods; and ethnography, along with other forms of fieldwork.
In each of the four sections of the course, students grapple with both the theory and the application of the methodology being considered, and are encouraged to think carefully about which strategy or strategies are most appropriate for his or her own research projects.
Internship Program
The internship complements and enhances the formal course work of the SCA majors. Students intern at agencies dealing with a range of issues pertaining to their major and take a co-requisite seminar that enables them to focus the work experience in meaningful academic terms. The goals of the internship are threefold: (1) to allow students to apply the theory they have gained through course work, (2) to provide students with the analytical tools, and (3) to assist students in exploring professional career paths.
Internship Fieldwork
V18.0040
Corequisite: V18.0042. 2 or 4 points. Ten hours of fieldwork are required for 2 points, fifteen for 4 points.
Internship Seminar
V18.0042
Corequisite: V18.0040. Prerequisites: majors must have taken one course in the introductory sequence and one elective. There are no prerequisites for nonmajors except that they be in their junior or senior year. Interview and permission of the director of internships required. Brown. 4 points.
Section 1: General Internship. Nonprofit and government agencies.
Section 2: Legal Aid Internship. Students work directly with the criminal justice division of the Legal Aid Society.
Senior Research Seminar
V18.0090
Prerequisites: V18.0001, V18.0020, and one of the following introductory courses: V18.0101, V18.0201, V18.0301, V18.0401, V18.0502 or V18.0601.
This is an advanced research course in Social and Cultural Analysis, which culminates in each student completing an extended research paper that makes use of various methodology skills. Students work individually and collaboratively on part of a class research project pertaining to the major in Social and Cultural Analysis or the program in Africana Studies, American Studies, Asian/Pacific/American Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Latino Studies or Metropolitan Studies. Majors must enroll in fall of their senior year.
ELECTIVE COURSES WITHIN SCA PROGRAMS
Approaches to Africana Studies
V18.0101
See description under Africana Studies.
Approaches to American Studies
V18.0201
See description under American Studies.
Approaches to Asian/Pacific/American Studies
V18.0301
See description under Asian/Pacific/American Studies.
History of Asians in the United States
V18.0302
See description under Asian/Pacific/American Studies.
Approaches to Gender and Sexuality Studies
V18.0401
See description under Gender and Sexuality Studies.
Approaches to Latino Studies
V18.0502
See description under Latino Studies.
Approaches to Metropolitan Studies
V18.0601
See description under Metropolitan Studies.
Cities in a Global Context
V18.0602
See description under Metropolitan Studies.
World Cultures: Contemporary Latino Cultures
V55.0529
For description, see MAP course.
Interdisciplinary Perspectives Metropolitan Studies
V55.0631
Identical to summer course, Approaches to Metropolitan Studies, V18.0601. For description, see Metropolitan Studies.
