What is Sociology?
Jenny Freedman
SO 374: Senior Coda in Sociology
September 29, 2022
Sociology is used to help understand the world around us; specifically, how and why interactions ranging from micro to macro levels occur. Sociologists must consider identities, backgrounds, and environments, making the discipline filled with nuance. The complexity of sociology can feel like a burden, but it can also be freeing in a way. Once one recognizes that there is no single right answer, it yields space for experimentation and healthy discussion. To state my positionality within sociology, I am examining the discipline from the perspective of a senior year college student with most of my work being in professional and critical sociology.
I was first introduced to the discipline of sociology in my SO101 course, Sociological Perspectives, with Professor Hernández. Being a gateway course, the focus of this class was to relate sociological concepts to lay-people and increase accessibility to discipline. Due to this factor, Sociological Perspectives utilized public sociology in order to lead into professional sociology. In our assignments involving the critical analysis of media and pop culture articles, I was able to see intersectionality functioning between gender, class, and race. One particular assignment involved assessing the social consequences and functions of a chosen celebrity gossip article, which prompted me to further question and evaluate how sociology operates in the media I consume. We additionally utilized Erving Goffman’s concepts of impression management and conducted an ethnography in a public area on campus (Sociological Perspectives, 2019). Seeing sociological concepts discussed in class enacted in my own life sprouted my interest in taking more courses in the discipline.
I was further acquainted with sociological concepts in my first year Scribner Seminar, Beliefs About Social Identity, with Professor Wilton. I was specifically interested in our discussions about racialized science and the social construction of race and gender (Beliefs About Social Identity, 2019). I found further consideration of those topics within the discipline of sociology. Middle Range theories concerning a specific milieu allowed me to connect sociology to my own life, in terms of questioning traditional ideas about gender and sexuality. Although, sociology typically is not aimed at attacking questions that are attached to the individual psyche and predicting personal outcomes. This fact is part of what drew me to sociology over psychology, as viewing our own dilemmas on a macro scale within a web of others’ identities and conflicting experiences can help us find our own place and embrace complexity.
I was pushed into the theory side of sociology in my second semester of college in Sociological Imaginations with Professor Brueggemann. Discussions on Milgram’s experiments on obedience to authority and Durkheim’s outlined spectrums of integration and regulation in Suicide: A Study in Sociology allowed me to expand my sociological vocabulary and consider what aspects of the discipline I am interested in diving into in particular (Sociological Imaginations, 2020). The next year, I took both Statistics for the Social Sciences with Professor Lindner and Social Research Methods with Professor Mueller. While both courses incorporate the scientific method and positivism, they do so in different ways. Statistics, being based in math and science, was almost strictly focused on quantitative evidence and data. While the aim of Social Research Methods was to “gather, analyze, and apply varied forms of social scientific evidence,” we also considered qualitative methods and the class was more discussion-based (Social Research Methods, 2021).
Certain sociology courses, such as Women in Modern Society and Social Movements and Collective Behavior, focus on subareas within the discipline. These courses include Middle Range theories, such as feminist, critical race, and queer theory, applying theory and data to specific identities and cultural developments. For example, in Women in Modern Society, we assessed the behaviors and treatment of athletes in the 2022 Winter Olympics through the lens of gender and race (Women in Modern Society, 2022). There is an inherent synergy between sociology and other disciplines, as sociology can be found and applied anywhere. It is used in tandem with biology, psychology, Black studies, gender studies, anthropology, and more.
Sociology can most effectively be used in our capitalistic society by serving communities and individuals that have been historically disadvantaged and marginalized. The academic areas of the discipline can often center the white experience and manifest in elitist, racist, and sexist ways. Given the predominance of white, male identities in sociology, leading to gendered language and thinking, epistemological practices of sociology can widely differ in its goals and methods when compared to public and policy sociology. The sociology courses I have taken are bound by cultural norms and expectations of the academic institution of Skidmore College, which sociological theory itself has many explanations for. We must consider the predominant white roots of the institution and overarching system of white supremacy and the patriarchy that American society is built around. It is key to feature a breadth of perspectives in choosing the sociologists we study and uplift. In my own practices of sociology, I value constantly surveying how positionality play a role in our views and experiences and, in turn, how we come to sociological conclusions.
SO 374: Senior Coda in Sociology
September 29, 2022
Sociology is used to help understand the world around us; specifically, how and why interactions ranging from micro to macro levels occur. Sociologists must consider identities, backgrounds, and environments, making the discipline filled with nuance. The complexity of sociology can feel like a burden, but it can also be freeing in a way. Once one recognizes that there is no single right answer, it yields space for experimentation and healthy discussion. To state my positionality within sociology, I am examining the discipline from the perspective of a senior year college student with most of my work being in professional and critical sociology.
I was first introduced to the discipline of sociology in my SO101 course, Sociological Perspectives, with Professor Hernández. Being a gateway course, the focus of this class was to relate sociological concepts to lay-people and increase accessibility to discipline. Due to this factor, Sociological Perspectives utilized public sociology in order to lead into professional sociology. In our assignments involving the critical analysis of media and pop culture articles, I was able to see intersectionality functioning between gender, class, and race. One particular assignment involved assessing the social consequences and functions of a chosen celebrity gossip article, which prompted me to further question and evaluate how sociology operates in the media I consume. We additionally utilized Erving Goffman’s concepts of impression management and conducted an ethnography in a public area on campus (Sociological Perspectives, 2019). Seeing sociological concepts discussed in class enacted in my own life sprouted my interest in taking more courses in the discipline.
I was further acquainted with sociological concepts in my first year Scribner Seminar, Beliefs About Social Identity, with Professor Wilton. I was specifically interested in our discussions about racialized science and the social construction of race and gender (Beliefs About Social Identity, 2019). I found further consideration of those topics within the discipline of sociology. Middle Range theories concerning a specific milieu allowed me to connect sociology to my own life, in terms of questioning traditional ideas about gender and sexuality. Although, sociology typically is not aimed at attacking questions that are attached to the individual psyche and predicting personal outcomes. This fact is part of what drew me to sociology over psychology, as viewing our own dilemmas on a macro scale within a web of others’ identities and conflicting experiences can help us find our own place and embrace complexity.
I was pushed into the theory side of sociology in my second semester of college in Sociological Imaginations with Professor Brueggemann. Discussions on Milgram’s experiments on obedience to authority and Durkheim’s outlined spectrums of integration and regulation in Suicide: A Study in Sociology allowed me to expand my sociological vocabulary and consider what aspects of the discipline I am interested in diving into in particular (Sociological Imaginations, 2020). The next year, I took both Statistics for the Social Sciences with Professor Lindner and Social Research Methods with Professor Mueller. While both courses incorporate the scientific method and positivism, they do so in different ways. Statistics, being based in math and science, was almost strictly focused on quantitative evidence and data. While the aim of Social Research Methods was to “gather, analyze, and apply varied forms of social scientific evidence,” we also considered qualitative methods and the class was more discussion-based (Social Research Methods, 2021).
Certain sociology courses, such as Women in Modern Society and Social Movements and Collective Behavior, focus on subareas within the discipline. These courses include Middle Range theories, such as feminist, critical race, and queer theory, applying theory and data to specific identities and cultural developments. For example, in Women in Modern Society, we assessed the behaviors and treatment of athletes in the 2022 Winter Olympics through the lens of gender and race (Women in Modern Society, 2022). There is an inherent synergy between sociology and other disciplines, as sociology can be found and applied anywhere. It is used in tandem with biology, psychology, Black studies, gender studies, anthropology, and more.
Sociology can most effectively be used in our capitalistic society by serving communities and individuals that have been historically disadvantaged and marginalized. The academic areas of the discipline can often center the white experience and manifest in elitist, racist, and sexist ways. Given the predominance of white, male identities in sociology, leading to gendered language and thinking, epistemological practices of sociology can widely differ in its goals and methods when compared to public and policy sociology. The sociology courses I have taken are bound by cultural norms and expectations of the academic institution of Skidmore College, which sociological theory itself has many explanations for. We must consider the predominant white roots of the institution and overarching system of white supremacy and the patriarchy that American society is built around. It is key to feature a breadth of perspectives in choosing the sociologists we study and uplift. In my own practices of sociology, I value constantly surveying how positionality play a role in our views and experiences and, in turn, how we come to sociological conclusions.
Works Cited
Berheide, Catherine. SO316: Women in Modern Society. Spring 2022.
Brueggemann, John. SO211H: Sociological Imaginations. Spring 2020.
Brueggemann, John. SO328R: Social Movements and Collective Behavior. Fall 2020.
Hernández, Ruth. SO101: Sociological Perspectives. Spring 2019.
Lindner, Andrew. SO226: Statistics for the Social Sciences. Spring 2021.
Mueller, Jennifer. SO227R: Social Research Methods. Spring 2021.
Wilton, Leigh. Scribner Seminar: Beliefs About Social Identity. Spring 2019.