Introduction to Sociology

Course Overview Link

This course explores the intersection between the social world and the individual life by raising sociological thinking. Sociological thinking allows us to understand how social, economic, and cultural forces exist to shape individual identities, how social inequalities are produced, reproduced, and challenged, and how the social world is constructed and individuals live in it by making meanings, interacting with other individuals, families, communities, and the wider society, whereby shaping the world.

Toward this end, the course focuses on social structures of class, gender, race, ethnicity, disability, that produce differences as social categories. The course will examine not only the social structures of differences but also processes, institutions, and individual behaviors, roles, and relationships that translate differences into social inequality.

Throughout the course, students will develop and apply sociological imagination:

“The sociological imagination enables us to grasp history and biography and the relations between the two within society… [T]hat imagination is the capacity to shift from one perspective to another… It is the capacity to range from the most impersonal and remote transformations to the most intimate features of the human self – and to see the relations between the two” (C. W. Mills).

Students will learn about fundamental sociological concepts, theories, and apply those to analyze the social world, and locate our own self in the world.

All students who successfully complete the course will receive a Certificate of Completion and have the opportunity to request a Syracuse University credit transcript.

Learning Objectives Link

Upon completing the course, students will be able to:

• Explore why and how sociologists study the world and human behaviors by making connections between individual lives and social structures of history, political economy, and cultures.
• Explore why and how sociologists study the world and human behaviors by making connections between individual lives and social structures of history, political economy, and cultures.
• Understand why and how sociological knowledge is important to problematize social issues for social change.
• Engage with major sociological concepts and approaches to understand the academic literature about human behavior.
• Identify specific areas of study in sociology to acquire sociological perspectives on major social issues.
• Analyze sociological research with skills in critical reading and in-class discussions.
• Perform academic writing with critical analyses.

Course Information Link

Course Prefix and Number: SOC 101

Format: On Campus (at Syracuse University)

Eligibility: Students must be of rising high school junior or senior status – or a 2024 high school graduate. 

Credit: 3 credits

Grading: A-F

Cost:

• Residential: $4,695
• Commuter: $3,766

Program rates are subject to change and will be approved by the board of trustees. Discounts and scholarships are also available.

Program Information Link

Summer College – On Campus: Experience what college is really like: take a college-level course, live in a residence hall, have meals with friends in a dining hall, and participate in activities and events on campus.

“Syracuse University Summer College provides an excellent opportunity to prepare for college and experience college-level courses. I took Sociology 101 and loved how the subject matter was presented in an engaging and interesting way. The workload was manageable while also being adequately challenging and complex; the boundaries of my abilities as a student were pushed but never overwhelmed.”

—Sara H., Summer College – Online Sociology Student, 2020