Susan Pitchford



Instructor: Susan Pitchford

Office: Condon 310
Email: pitch@u.washington.edu
Phone: 685-4223

Office hours: Thursdays 11-12:00, & by appointment

TAs (see syllabus for email addresses):

Brittin Wagner (Lead TA)
April Fernandes
Katrina Leupp
Adam Lind
Raphael Mondesir

Section I: Education


Section II:
Global Inequalities


Section III: Conflict & Conflict Resolution


Want to know more?



Soc 110
Introduction to Sociology
Autumn 2007

Smiling Ghanaian girls...

...and their village

COURSE DESCRIPTION

If sociology has a “punch line,” it is this: Our everyday lives – our thoughts, ideas and actions – are the product of a complicated interplay between our personal traits and large-scale social forces outside ourselves. We can’t understand either the individual “self” or the larger “society” if we don’t understand them both, and how they work together. This understanding is known as the “sociological imagination,” and this course is designed to help you cultivate the ability to see this intersection between self and society. To do this we will be looking at three different social institutions or forces, and asking a key question for each:

• Education: "Does our system of education promote or inhibit equality of opportunity?"
• Globalization: "How do decisions made in the developed countries of the North affect the lives of those in the developing countries of the South?"
• Conflict/Conflict Resolution: “What forms does conflict take in divided societies, and what are the best ways to build peace?”

These topics will also give us the opportunity to examine a number of issues central to the discipline of sociology itself, such as how sociologists use theories and data to answer these kinds of questions, the relationship between the individual and society, how social change occurs, and so on. What I hope you will take away from this course is a new ability to analyze the society in which you live, its influence on you, and your ability to influence it in turn.


My work

Franciscan Spirituality
Following Francis: The Franciscan Way for Everyone
Reflections on Franciscan spirituality and the Franciscan Third Order
Identity Tourism
Identity Tourism: Imaging and Imagining the Nation -- Winter 2008
This book examines how museums and other attractions can be used to tell a people's story, and build a sense of national identity.
Selected social science articles
Selected articles
A selection of articles on the creation and projection of group images and identities in tourist attractions, and on methods for the study of new religious movements.
Work in Progress: Spirituality
God in the Dark: Suffering and Desire in the Spiritual Life
A look at the two faces of passion: suffering and desire.
Work in Progress: Tourism
Guilt Trip: Telling Atrocity Stories Through Tourism
Examines how museums tell the stories that are hardest to hear.



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