Bachelor in Sociology and Anthropology
University of Redlands
Key Information
Campus location
Redlands, USA
Languages
English
Study format
On-Campus
Duration
4 years
Pace
Full time
Tuition fees
USD 53,716 *
Application deadline
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Earliest start date
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* Fall, Spring, and May terms
Scholarships
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Introduction
The Sociology and Anthropology Department offers an array of courses on various aspects of social life worldwide. We strive to understand humanity in all its social and cultural diversity. Our courses explore the relationship between individual experience and its broader cultural and historical contexts.
We regard our disciplines as liberatory enterprises: we seek to reveal the social structures, power relationships, and prejudices that keep people from directing their own lives. As such, ours are value-laden disciplines. We emphasize the possibility of change in human society, rooted in the understanding that social conditions are constructed through human action.
At the same time, we believe that liberation is impossible without a clear, empirically grounded analysis of the social structures, institutions, and processes that reproduce relations of power and inequality.
Our program thus combines passion and dispassion into a whole that we believe gives our students a well-rounded liberal arts education. We contribute to the University's mission by challenging stereotypes, promoting pluralistic values, and promoting a reflective understanding of the social and cultural world. In doing so, we encourage students to make enlightened choices and engage in responsible citizenship.
The Major
Students in the department earn a bachelor of arts degree in sociology and anthropology. A minimum12 of courses (46-48 credits) are required to complete the major. At least seven of the major courses must be at the 300-400 level. A maximum of one 100-level course and four 200 level courses may be counted toward the major. No more than four of the major courses may be taken at other schools. To transfer courses from other
schools or study abroad programs, permission must be obtained from an academic advisor.
All students majoring in Sociology and Anthropology must complete the following requirements:
Soan Principles Courses
Students are required to take two of the following three courses:
- SOAN 200 Principles of Sociology
- SOAN 202 Principles of Cultural Anthropology
- SOAN 204 Principles of Archaeology
Spirit of Inquiry (Two courses total, one method, and one theory)
The following is the current list of courses that satisfy the methods requirement:
- SOAN 300 Research Methods & Design
- SOAN 301 Fieldwork & Ethnographic Methods
- SOAN 303 World Ethnographies
- SOAN 305 Mapping People, Mapping Place
- SOAN 306 Research Methods: Interviewing
- The following is the current list of courses that satisfy the theory requirement:
- SOAN 390 Classical Theory
- SOAN 391 Contemporary Social Theory
- SOAN 393 Anthropological Theories
Border Crossing (One course)
The following is the current list of courses that satisfy this requirement:
- SOAN 205 Social Issues
- SOAN 226 Refugees: history, policy, voices
- SOAN 256 Japan: Society and Culture in Transition
- SOAN 259 The Middle East
- SOAN 281 Middle Eastern Women Speak
- SOAN 326 Charity and Helping Others
- SOAN 331 Consuming Paris
- SOAN 340 Sustainable Alternatives to Capitalism
- SOAN 342 Gender and Sexuality
- SOAN 345 American Gun Culture
- SOAN 349 Living in/with Democracy
- SOAN 350 Archeological Field School
- SOAN 405 Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Individual, Culture, and Society (One course)
The following is the current list of courses that satisfy this requirement:
- SOAN 206 Popular Culture
- SOAN 221 Rethinking Politics
- SOAN 230 Bodies and Society
- SOAN 310 American Gun Culture
- SOAN 314 World Dance
- SOAN 320 Self and Society
- SOAN 327 Food for Thought
- SOAN 329 Anthropology of Mothering
- SOAN 336 Consumers and Consumption
- SOAN 337 Ethnicity, Nation, and Identity
- SOAN 338 Children and Youth
- SOAN 345 Interrogating Masculinity
- SOAN 352 Who Owns the Past?
- SOAN 354 Jewish Identity
- SOAN 405 Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
- SOAN 418 Death and Dying
Electives
Students must take at least five courses in addition to the above-designated requirements to bring the total number of courses completed to 12, for a total of 46-48 units. At least seven of the major courses must be at the 300-400 level. A maximum of one 100-level course and four 200-level courses may be counted towards the major. Elective courses should be selected in consultation with the major advisor. Courses taken with departmental faculty through interdisciplinary programs such as the Johnston Center may be counted toward these requirements with the permission of that faculty member or the department chair. Classes cross-listed with SOAN are also applied toward these requirements.
Senior capstone
In their senior year, students will complete a culminating experience by taking any 400-level senior seminar OR pursuing departmental honors.
Senior Seminar Option (One course, SOAN 400-465) Students must have attained senior standing for a 400-level seminar to count as their Senior Capstone. Juniors may take these courses if they choose to but will need to take an additional 400-level course their senior year as a capstone. Prerequisites for 400-level seminars are two principles courses AND three 300-level courses, one of which must be either a theory or methods course, OR by instructor permission.
Honors Thesis Option (SOAN 499) Students are required to have a 3.00 GPA in the major to pursue honors in the department. They begin to plan their projects in consultation with one or more permanent faculty members during their junior year, including developing a research proposal in their methods course. They must submit proposals for their projects to the department chair by the end of September of their senior year. Honors proposals are reviewed by all department faculty. If approved, students may enroll in SOAN 499 Honors Independent Research in both the fall and spring of the senior year, during which they complete a significant independent research project under the guidance of their faculty chair. The research must be substantial and significant and is subject to approval by the department faculty. A major written report is followed by a public presentation and oral examination. These must be performed at an honors level, as determined by the honors committee.
The Minor
Seven courses, each taken for three credits or more totaling a minimum of 21 credits, are required for a minor in sociology and anthropology: two principles classes and five electives, only one of which may be taken at the 100-level.
No more than three of these courses may be taken at other schools. Courses taken with departmental faculty through the Johnston Center may be counted toward these requirements with the permission of that faculty member or the department chair.
Careers in Sociology and Anthropology
Social scientists study all aspects of human society, from the distribution of goods and services to the beliefs of newly formed religious groups to modern mass transportation systems. Their research provides insights that help us understand the different ways in which individuals and groups make decisions, exercise power, or respond to change. Through their studies and analyses, social scientists and urban planners assist educators, government officials, business leaders, and others in solving social, economic, and environmental problems.
Research is a basic activity for many social scientists. They use established or newly discovered methods to assemble facts and theories that contribute to human knowledge. Applied research usually is designed to produce information that will enable people to make better decisions or manage their affairs more effectively. Interviews and surveys are widely used to collect facts, opinions, or other information. Data collection takes many forms, such as living and working among the population being studied, including speaking their native language; field investigations, including the analysis of historical records and documents; experiments with human or animal subjects in a laboratory; the administration of standardized tests and questionnaires; and the preparation and interpretation of maps and computer graphics.
Social sciences are interdisciplinary in nature. Specialists in one field often find that their research overlaps work that is being conducted in another discipline.
The Helen and Vernon Farquhar Anthropology Lab
The department maintains the Helen and Vernon Farquhar Laboratory of Anthropology. The laboratory is used to encourage student research in the cultures and history of the American Southwest.
General Education Requirements
General Education is a broad description of the curriculum that embodies our commitment to a liberal arts education at the University of Redlands. Our general education conveys the range of fields of study, ways of thinking, and practices of scholarship and creativity that enable students to graduate as critical thinkers capable of innovatively and collaboratively adapting to challenges that come their way in the future.
Our general education is comprised of a Liberal Arts Inquiry (LAI) or Liberal Arts Foundation (LAF) curriculum.
- Entering first-year students and transfer students arriving with fewer than 32 credits in Fall 2018 will follow the LAI curriculum.
- All transfer and returning students with 32 credits or more (i.e., sophomores, juniors, and seniors) in Fall 2018 will follow the LAF curriculum.
Program Outcome
Learning outcomes
- Spirit of Inquiry: students will assess the merits of some of the key theories and methods in Sociology and Anthropology, and apply them productively in intellectual and practical puzzle solving.
- Individual, Culture, and Society: Students will critically analyze the complex interplay between individual, culture, and social structure to reach a nuanced understanding of sociocultural processes and inequalities.
- Border Crossing: students will describe and reflect on the experience of being an 'other' in a social setting. They will demonstrate an understanding that worldviews and the actions that worldviews produce are multiple and constructed.
English Language Requirements
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