This course introduces students to the important ideas and frameworks used to analyze culture, identity, power, and inequality in modern societies. Through the work of twelve leading theorists — from Goffman and Bourdieu on how culture and identity are performed and reproduced, to Mills, Butler, and Said on how power, gender, and representation structure social life — students develop the analytical tools to examine both Japanese society and the wider world critically and comparatively.
In each class meeting, lectures and discussions will move from theory to practice, providing opportunities to connect key concepts to real-life examples and developing skills to analyze, evaluate and construct original sociological arguments.
- Teacher: Cherry Amor Dugtong Yap