Undergraduate Course Descriptions

The LSU General Catalog serves as both the official undergraduate and the graduate catalog of LSU and should be consulted for course decisions. Below you can see a list of undergraduate courses offered by the Department of Sociology.

SOCL 2001: Introductory Sociology (3)
This is an Integrative Learning Core (ILC) course that awards general education credit. Credit will not be given for this course and SOCL 2002. Major subject areas and principles of sociology.

SOCL 2002 HONORS: Introductory Sociology (3)
This is an Integrative Learning Core (ILC) course that awards general education credit. Same as SOCL 2001 with a special honors emphasis for qualified students. Credit will not be given for this course and SOCL 2001.

SOCL 2010: Louisiana in a Global Context (3)
This is an Integrative Learning Core (ILC) course that awards general education credit. Introduces students to the history, people and culture of Louisiana through academic learning and hands on experience.

SOCL 2201: Introduction to Statistical Analysis (4)
Prereq.:MATH 1029 or MATH 1021 or equivalent. Open to sociology majors; open to others with permission of instructor. 3 hrs. lecture; 2 hrs. lab Descriptive statistics; inferential statistical methods including confidence interval estimation and hypothesis testing for one and two population means and proportions; one-way analysis of variance; simple linear regression and correlation; analysis of categorical data.

SOCL 2211: Methods of Sociological Research (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 and SOCL 2201 or equivalent. Open to sociology majors; open to others with permission of instructor. Scientific methods and their application in sociological research, including problem selection, research design, measurement, data sources and evaluation of data.

SOCL 2255: Sociology of Sport (3)
Application of sociological principles, theories, and methods to the understanding of sport.

SOCL 2301: Introduction to Crime Studies (3)
This is an Integrative Learning Core (ILC) course that awards general education credit.Fundamentals of the causes, correlates, consequences, and controls of crime in society, including definitional and methodological issues.

SOCL 2371: Aspects of Federal, State, & Local Law Enforcement (3) Survey of federal, state & local law enforcement agencies origins, powers, and career expectations.

SOCL 2411: Industrial Sociology (3)
Social organization in industry; relation of industry to community and society.

SOCL 2501: Current Social Problems (3)
This is an Integrative Learning Core (ILC) course that awards general education credit.
Sociological analysis of major social problems in contemporary society; focus on both the institutional and personal causes and consequences.

SOCL 2505: Marriage and Family (3)
This is an Integrative Learning Core (ILC) course that awards general education credit. Current issues and trends regarding marriage and family.

SOCL 2511: Race Relations (3)
This is an Integrative Learning Core (ILC) course that awards general education credit.
Also offered as AAAS 2511. Examines relations among persons of different racial groups in an interdisciplinary setting that includes sociological, psychological, political, anthropological and historical viewpoints.

SOCL 3101: Sociological Theory (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. Open to sociology majors; open to others with permission of instructor. Dominant theorists and schools of thought in sociology.

SOCL 3371: Sociology of the Criminal Justice System (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. The criminal justice system and its organizational components.

SOCL 3401: Sociology of Culture (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. Current theoretical perspectives, methodological issues and empirical work in the sociological study of culture.

SOCL 3501: Sociology of Deviance (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. Sociological theories of deviant behavior; sup-porting research on mental illness, crime, sexual deviance, drug abuse and suicide.

SOCL 3505: Poverty in the United States (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or SOCL 2501 or equivalent. Definition of poverty, its meaning, measurement, causes, correlates and consequences; strategies for its amelioration and elimination.

SOCL 3510: Criminal Violence (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. An in-depth study of criminal violence, including its forms, myths and facts regarding victims and offenders, and the causes, consequences and control of violence.

SOCL 3601: Social Interaction (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or PSYC 2000 or equivalent. Human behavior as social interaction.

SOCL 3701 Death and Dying in the US (3)
Understanding death and dying as it relates to individuals and society in the US.

SOCL 3900: Sociology Internship (1-3)
Prereq.: 75 hours of course work completed, 2.50 overall GPA, written consent of department head and supervising faculty member. May be taken for a max. of 3 hrs. of credit. Faculty supervised field study/research with an agency or organization whose mission is considered relevant to the student's curriculum.

SOCL 3901: Directed Reading and Research in Sociology (1-3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. May be taken for a max. of 3 sem. hrs. credit. Student registers with a faculty member before registration to select the area of reading or research. Topic must not substitute for regularly offered courses unless reading goes beyond a standard course's offerings.

SOCL 3905 HONORS: Senior Thesis Research (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 3901. Open to seniors who are candidates for a bachelor's degree with honors in sociology. Supervised research and preparation of a senior thesis.

SOCL 3911: Research Practicum in Sociology (1-3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2211 and SOCL 3101. May be taken for a max. of 3 sem. hrs. credit. Student registers with a faculty member and, in consultation, selects a research problem. Supervised research experience in sociology, including design, execution and reporting.

SOCL 4091: Topics in Sociology (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. May be taken for a max. of 9 sem. hrs. of credit when topics vary. Recent topics have included:

Corrections
Environmental Sociology
Racial Inequality
Social Construction of Whiteness
Sociology of Disaster
Sociology of Mental Health

SOCL 4321: The Community (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. Classical and contemporary perspectives on the community; theoretical and methodological issues associated with community studies.

SOCL 4331: Social Stratification (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. Class and rank structure in society; determinants of social class, mobility, and changes in class position of both individuals and groups; attitudinal and behavioral consequences of class position.

SOCL 4401: The Family (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. The family as a social institution.

SOCL 4402: Modeling Communication Within Marital and Family Relationships (3)
See CMST 4118.

SOCL 4421: Political Sociology (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. Social structure and politics.

SOCL 4431: Sociology of Education (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. Theoretical approaches to understanding the roles of the institution of education, socialization processes, the linkages between education and stratification and educational change.

SOCL 4441: Sociology of Religion (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. Nature of religion; societal and cultural factors in religion; role of religion in social change and in contemporary society.

SOCL 4451: Sociology of Medicine (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. Sociological analysis of the structure and function of health agencies and occupations; social and cultural factors in the cause and treatment of illness.

SOCL 4452: Sociology of Mental Health (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent.This course will provide a broad overview of the sociology of mental health.

SOCL 4461: Criminology (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. Crime, the criminal justice system and penology.

SOCL 4462: Sociology of Youth and Crime (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. The sociological study of adolescent deviance and crime; the socio-demographic correlates and social psychological causes of youthful offending and the juvenile justice system.

SOCL 4463: Gender and Crime (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. Examination of gender as a socially, culturally and historically situated accomplishment and its relationship to criminal offending and victimization.

SOCL 4464: Rural Crime (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. Focuses on the nature, extent, causes, consequences and control of crime in rural America; topics include violence, property crime, fear of crime and agricultural and wildlife crime.

SOCL 4465: Drugs and Society (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. An exploration of the net of social relations in which drugs, drug users, drug dealers and drug laws are embedded; involves critical analysis of popular claims about drugs and the development of a sociological understanding of substance use and abuse in the modern U.S.

SOCL 4466: Crime Mapping (3)
Also offered as GEOG 3043. Fundamentals of crime mapping and crime analysis with spatial data using Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

SOCL 4467: Crime GIS (3)
See GEOG 4043.

SOCL 4468: Sociology of Gangs (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2301 or equivalent. The sociological study of gangs in modern society.

SOCL 4469: Policing and Race in the US (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2301 or equivalent. Explores the relationship between policing and race in the United States.

SOCL 4471: Sociology of Law (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. Law and social change; evolution of legal institutions; group conflict and law; influence of legal controls and sanctions on human behavior.

SOCL 4521: Sociology of Gender (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. Gender differences in families, education, the workplace and the state; understanding the social, economic and cultural factors that shape the lives of men and women; theoretical analysis of how different women and men experience the social world.

SOCL 4522 Sexuality and Society (3)
Sociological examination of theoretical and methodological approaches to studying sexuality and related topics.

SOCL 4531: The Aged in Contemporary Society (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. Social, demographic, psychological, cultural and health factors related to the aging process in contemporary society.

SOCL 4551: Global Society (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. Presents central concepts and major perspectives on international development, globalization and world poverty and income inequality.

SOCL 4561: Magic and Technology (3)
Analysis of the knowledge, practices and social interactions of humans and non-humans, including animals, spirits, cyborgs, and robots.

SOCL 4571 Racial Inequality (3)
Explores racial and ethnic inequality in the US.

SOCL 4621: Small Groups (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. Analysis of groups, their structure and functions.

SOCL 4701: Population (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. Processes that influence size and composition of human populations; determinants and consequences of demographic trends.