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Public Sociology (Socy 691) Online PUBLIC SOCIOLOGY (SOCY 691) ONLINE Dr. Meredith Katz ([email protected]) (Please put SOCY 691 in subject line) Office Hours: Tuesdays 2:00-4:00 pm or by appointment| 231 Founders Hall (827 W. Franklin) (I know many of you taking this course are on campus, so please feel free to stop by) _____________________________________________________________________________________ Public Sociology Inspiration "If we aren't doing public sociology, we're just talking to each other. To claim to study society and to say that you needn't bother to make your work relevant or accessible to social members--well, that seems to me just plain insane."--Sharon Hays, Streisand Professor of Contemporary Gender Studies, University of Southern California “A public sociologist is a public intellectual who applies sociological ideas and findings to social issues about which sociology has something to say.”—Herbert Gans "Once we acknowledge the sharp divisions in our society, we have to decide which publics we want to work with. I propose … that we strive to address the public and political problems of people at the lower end of the many hierarchies that define our society."—Frances Fox Piven, past president of the American Sociological Association Course Description In this course, you will have an opportunity to reflect on public sociology, as well as to produce public sociological work. Some of the major questions we will address in this class include: what/who is the sociological audience? What is the relationship between academia and public intellectual life? How does the internet influence the availability of publics? How does our style of writing determine our relationship to different publics? As an online course, we will collaborate as a community of learners on course webpage to teach one another, and also to share our reflections and thoughts about what we’re learning. This course will involve five major components: weekly blogs and reflections on readings; creation of a digital meta- resource of public sociologists (nothing of this nature exists…yet!); the creation of a virtual timeline tracing the history of public sociology; the creation of individual ePortfolios, the creation of your “public face” and finally, an applied sociological theoretical paper of a practicing public sociologist. Course Objectives 1. To develop an understanding of the value and historical contribution of public sociology 2. To investigate and problematize the distinction between sociology and public sociology 3. To create open-access online archives about public sociology/sociologists 4. To develop skills to be able to translate sociological knowledge outside academia Texts Clawson, Dan, Robert Zussman, Joya Misra, Naomi Gerstel, Randall Stokes, and Douglas Anderton. 2007. Public Sociology: Fifteen Eminent Sociologists Debate Politics and the Profession in the Twenty-First Century. Berkeley: University of California Press. Additional readings are linked off this syllabus. Assignments There are five main assignments for this class. Detailed instructions and guidelines will be posted for each of these assignments on the course webpage. 1. 8 total blogs (due weekly by Wednesday at noon, and responses by Friday at midnight) 2. Timeline of public sociology (due April 11) 3. Creation of meta-resource of public sociologists (due April 4) 4. Individual ePortfolios (due Friday April 29th) 5. Organizational assessment or public sociologist paper (due Friday May 1st) Please note that detailed instructions for each assignment can be found on the course website: www.rampages.us/katz/ Note about Online Assignments: In this course, there is a fair amount of creation of material online. I recognize that we all come to the table with differing degrees of knowledge and skills regarding online proficiencies. In the course RamPages site, there will be a section for trouble-shooting, in which I hope you all will pose questions (and help each other answer them) about the assignments. Additionally, if you are on campus, please note that The ALT Lab at VCU has open office hours every Wednesday and Thursday 12-2 pm for any questions you may have. They are located on the 4th floor of the Academic Learning Commons, and can also be contacted via email (Tom Woodward is the best contact at the ALT Lab for our course purposes). Online Preparation to do ASAP: Create a RamPages Site: Go to rampages.us and select create an account (you should login using your VCU eID but you can use a different password). If you are having difficulty, please consult the troubleshooting page. Please use your name as a name for the site—that will be an easy way for us all to see one another and for you to use this webpage as the foundation for your ePortfolio (NOTE: after you name your site, you cannot change it!). Also, please remember to keep the default privacy setting open so we can see each other’s sites (this means your site is accessible to anyone who has the url, so please keep your comments and visuals professional). If you already have a RamPages site from another graduate course, you can continue to use it for this course, though please note this course will require specific components, including an ePortfolio. COURSE SCHEDULE: The course readings are organized by weeks of the semester. You are responsible for reading everything posted here and/or that is from your texts. By Wednesday at noon of each week, you should post a blog response to the weekly course readings. In total, you must post 8 blogs and respond to two classmates blogs four times. Those comments must be completed by Friday at midnight of the same week. Think of this as an online conversation you’re having with one another. Your blogs should be approximately 750 words (3 typed pages) and should not merely be a summary of the course readings. I want you to critically reflect on the readings—do you agree? Have you seen research to the contrary of the reading? How would you use this reading to implement or advance public sociology? These by no means are an exhaustive list of questions, but should get you started. I’ve provided specific blog prompts per week, as well. Note: This course schedule is subject to change based on course progress/student interest. Additionally, there may be videos posted that you should watch in addition to the readings. WEEK OF JANUARY 18: Introduction to Public Sociology What is Public Sociology? Why and How it Should be Made Stronger, Ragnvald Kallenberg For Public Sociology, 2004 American Sociological Association Presidential Address, Michael Burawoy ASSIGNMENT: Post on Blackboard discussion board anything you know about Public Sociology, your expectations for the course, and/or any questions you may have. Additionally, I want everyone to identify an area of public sociology you are interested in pursuing (this could be your line of research, etc. We will gear this course towards the application of that topic in a public realm). Due by Friday, January 22. WEEK OF JANUARY 25: Introduction Continued Public Sociology; Introduction by Robert Zussman and Joya Misra (pp. 3-22) Breaking Down the Otherness of Applied Sociology, Zuleyka Zevallos The Promise and Perils of Public Sociology, Karen Sternheimer ASSIGNMENT: Blog post regarding the first two weeks’ readings. You may opt (although this is not required) to concentrate on how public sociology is being defined, as well as the need for it within the discipline. Do you agree? Make sure to reference specific readings in your argument. WEEK OF FEBRUARY 1 : Professionalization of Sociology Discipline and Punish—Public Sociology in an Age of Professionalization, Arlene Stein Truth Telling and Intellectual Activism, Patricia Hill Collins How Academics Can Become Relevant, Nathan Jurgenson ASSIGNMENT: Blog post regarding this weeks’ readings. You may opt (although this is not required) to discuss this controversy of academic relevance—are academics relevant? Are sociologists relevant? In addition, you should search the internet for who you consider to be 3 prominent public sociologists (could be current and/or in the past). You should note what you think distinguishes them as “public” sociologists, and post this in a separate post on your blog as well. Your descriptions should each be at least a paragraph long and accessible to other students. Once someone is taken, you can’t reuse them, so get the posts done early! WEEK OF FEBRUARY 8: Institutionalizing Public Sociology Public Sociology; Public Sociology and the End of Society by Alain Touraine (pp. 67-78) ; Stalled at the Altar? by Sharon Hays (pp. 79-90); If I were the Goddess of Sociological Things by Judith Stacey (pp. 91- 100); and Going Public by Patricia Hill Collins (pp. 101-113) ASSIGNMENT: For this weeks’ blog post, I’d like for you to take a position either agreeing or disagreeing with the authors of this weeks’ readings regarding the critique of Burawoy’s notion of public sociology (reading from the first week). So this week’s posting is not topically optional. Use the readings to support your argument. WEEK OF FEBRUARY 15: Digital Revolution in the Academy So You Want to Blog: Academic Edition, Liana Silva The (Coming) Social Media Revolution in the Academy, Joe Feagin and Jesse Daniels Should Every Sociologist Blog?, Philip Cohen So You Want to Start an Academic Blog? 4 Tips Before You Start ASSIGNMENT: For this weeks’ blog post, implement some of the how-to’s mentioned in the above articles. This will also be useful as you develop your ePortfolio and your public online presence. What are your thoughts on this—should all sociologists blog? Do we all need to have an online presence? If so, do we leave anyone out of the conversation? Again, use the readings (and/or any of the prior readings) to support your argument.
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