Splash Biography

This course will explore ways to develop methodological approaches to understanding race and other markers of difference that blend empirical methods with critical theoretical traditions, e.g. critical race theory, feminist theory, disability theory, queer theory, etc. Emphasis will be placed on understanding the practical implications of the tension between humanist theory, anti-humanist thought, and research methods in the health and housing sciences.

What's an institution? Can culture be studied scientifically? How do emotions shape the world? In this brief introduction to sociological methodology, you will find answers to these questions and more!

Will racism never end? What does it mean to 'act' white? What hope ought People of Color have in law? Learn the basics of how Critical Race Theory functions as a framework by which to empirically study cultural power, social personality, and political change.

What is law on the books? What is law in action? Why is there a difference between the two? Learn how scholars have studied the gap between our social aspirations and our empirical realities in this introduction to the sociology of law.

Learn what slavery, segregation, and abortion all have in common during this mini-lesson about the ongoing history of one of the Supreme Court's most famous decisions on the very same campus the author of the unanimous opinion studied political science and law. Field trip to Berkeley Law included!