Sociology | Race and Ethnic Relations
S335 | 9558 | Stewart

1:00PM-2:15PM	MW	WH 004

For years we have understood that race is, biologically speaking, an
exceedingly complex matter and that preconceived biases much more
than biology govern the way people think about race.  In this
course, we will discuss both the biological myth and social reality
of race.   In particular, we will focus on the social significance
of race by examining the reality of racial stratification, the
reality of the experience of race, and the rationality of those who
study racial dynamics and processes.  During this course you will
learn the origins of the concept race, the historical science and
statistics used to justify racial thinking, and review several
empirical works on race in Sociology.  The first portion of the
course is aimed at disentangling the social construction of race.
The readings and lectures for this part of the course are largely
based on historical figures and events that played a role in the
social genesis of the racial construct.  We will critically discuss
the reality of race prior to the 16th century, the early science
that validated the racial construct and the associated social
hierarchy, the eugenics movement, and the current scientific
perspective on the relationship between race and intelligence.  In
the second portion of the course, we will review a number of
theoretical and empirical readings on the Sociology of race. Taken
together, these readings are intended to be an introduction to the
theories and empirical research on race in Sociology.  The end
product of the course is an in-depth understanding of the origins of
race, the structure of racial hierarchy in the United States, and a
fundamental understanding of many sociological theories of race and
racial stratification in America.