Sociology

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

The materials in this site have been developed to aid in the preparation and teaching of introductory courses designed particularly for students majoring in math, science, engineering, and computer science students. The rationale behind its development is that students will gravitate to sociological concepts with greater interest and understanding when the illustrations of sociological concepts is in a field with which they are familiar or particularly interested. To this end, teaching ideas and reading material have been developed. They are arranged here according to topic in an outline which includes elements common to many introductory sociology courses (such as Methods, Theoretical Perspectives, Socialization, Inequality). The main topics can be found at the left, some of which are further broken down into subtopics.

Under each topic or subtopic, teaching ideas and reading materials are outlined. In the Teaching Ideas section are some suggestions for applying sociological perspectives to science (including medicine), technology, engineering or math examples. Outlined are issues to discuss, some resources (when the idea comes from a particular source), some examples in shorthand fashion. If an idea attracts you and you’d like to learn more about it, or if you have a teaching idea you’d like to contribute to this list, contact Harriet Hartman (hartman@rowan.edu).

Full citations of the sources and additional resources are listed in the bibliography section. Sources with an * before them are available through Pearson Custom Publishing’s Intersections series (http://www.pearsoncustom.com/database/intersections.html) and were compiled in a customized reader compiled by Harriet Hartman and published by Pearson Custom Publishing, Intersections series (ISBN0536803048).

The intent of the Bibliography in each section is to provide resource material which links sociological concepts to science, technology, engineering and math. Arranged according to the introductory topic to which it is most salient, some of the material is appropriate to assign to students in introductory sociology courses, and other material provides good source material for lectures. It does not purport to be a comprehensive bibliography of the field of sociology of science, but rather to offer reading suggestions for faculty engaged in an introductory level of sociology aimed at students for whom STEM examples and materials might be most salient.
If you would like to suggest additional resources to add to this list, please contact Harriet Hartman, hartman@rowan.edu.