UCOR Section Descriptions

  1. Academics
  2. University Core
  3. UCOR Section Descriptions

UCOR 1600-07 Mass Incarceration (SUCCESS)

Course Type:

UCOR 1600 Inquiry Seminar in the Social Sciences

Faculty:

Cate, Sarah

Term:

Fall

Year:

2024

Module:

Module I

Course Description

How did the United States become the world's largest jailer? This course addresses many questions that arise from the phenomenon of mass incarceration (the more than tripling of the incarceration rate in America since the mid-1970s). We compare the U.S. criminal justice system to other countries in the world and explore major topics like police violence, sentencing, white collar crimes, gangs, the War on Drugs, conditions of confinement, and life after prison.

UCOR 1600-08 Politics of the End (SUCCESS)

Course Type:

UCOR 1600 Inquiry Seminar in the Social Sciences

Faculty:

Schoettmer, Patrick

Term:

Fall

Year:

2024

Module:

Module I

Course Description

What happens when things fall apart? What leads some societies to pull together to overcome the challenges that face it, and others to fall apart and fail? This class is focused on trying to answer that question. Looking at both empirical case studies and speculative fiction, we will seek to understand what leads societies to fail, and ask ourselves whether America is on such a path.

UCOR 1600-09 People, Power, and Politics

Course Type:

UCOR 1600 Inquiry Seminar in the Social Sciences

Faculty:

Mann, Thomas

Term:

Fall

Year:

2024

Module:

Module I

Course Description

Citizens and interest groups in the United States have effectuated significant societal change through political participation. Accordingly, this course covers the theoretical nature of citizenship in a democracy, exposes the impediments to democratic citizenship, and fosters an understanding of the various ways in which one can participate in the American political system. It examines examples of citizen engagement that may challenge preconceptions about the forms and forums of democratic participation in order to demonstrate to how political science takes civic engagement seriously.

UCOR 1600-11 Economic Inequality (SUCCESS)

Course Type:

UCOR 1600 Inquiry Seminar in the Social Sciences

Faculty:

Eisenbarth, Alexandria

Term:

Fall

Year:

2024

Module:

Module I

Course Description

The United States is experiencing historically unprecedented levels of income and wealth inequality. This course begins by discussing the measurement of economic inequality, providing students both a historical and global perspective on current levels of inequality in the US. The course then introduces microeconomic explanations for economic inequality, focusing on the labor market. The course examines claims that inequality is detrimental to individual and societal well-being and to the political process. Finally, the course asks what, if anything, can or should be done to address economic inequality.

UCOR 1600-12 Cross-Cultural Perspectives

Course Type:

UCOR 1600 Inquiry Seminar in the Social Sciences

Faculty:

Chaudhuri, Tapoja

Term:

Fall

Year:

2024

Module:

Module I

Course Description

This course is an anthropological introduction to three social issues that have been the focus of much research, policy and popular interest in the United States: environmental sustainability, racial identity, and gender difference and inequality. In our efforts to better understand these issues (and act upon them), anthropological research offers us a wealth of empirical data and analysis drawn from the richness of our cultural and biological variety and the sweep of human history and evolution.

UCOR 1600-13 Nature and Culture (SUCCESS)

Course Type:

UCOR 1600 Inquiry Seminar in the Social Sciences

Faculty:

Efird, Robert

Term:

Fall

Year:

2024

Module:

Module I

Course Description

This course introduces students to the complex ways in which environmental factors and human cultures influence each other across the globe. The course adopts a holistic anthropological approach in understanding humans as biological, social, and intellectual beings engaged with the environment around them.

UCOR 1600-14 Nature and Culture (SUCCESS)

Course Type:

UCOR 1600 Inquiry Seminar in the Social Sciences

Faculty:

Efird, Robert

Term:

Fall

Year:

2024

Module:

Module I

Course Description

This course introduces students to the complex ways in which environmental factors and human cultures influence each other across the globe. The course adopts a holistic anthropological approach in understanding humans as biological, social, and intellectual beings engaged with the environment around them.

UCOR 1600-15 Welcome to the Jungle

Course Type:

UCOR 1600 Inquiry Seminar in the Social Sciences

Faculty:

Conte, Soraya

Term:

Fall

Year:

2024

Module:

Module I

Course Description

How can a city be described as a "social laboratory"? How can people that lived a hundred years ago explain today's social and cultural issues? Beginning with the tum of the 20th Century, students will examine the urban landscape of Chicago, one of the earliest sites of sociological inquiry. Through the lens of Upton Sinclair's historical sociological fiction, The Jungle, we will study the "urban laboratory" that began with confluence of diverse immigrant populations and the extremes of crushing poverty and vast wealth. While many early American sociologists worked with the goal of social reform in mind, these social inequities are still at the heart of sociology today. This course will facilitate a discussion of the both the history of Sociology in terms of research, social thought, and reform and also how the discipline continues to address social injustice albeit in different ways. Students will enter the "social laboratory" that is Seattle and carry out their own service-learning projects in order to ameliorate suffering and also to determine how Sociology has progressed as a discipline.

UCOR 1600-16 Belonging in America

Course Type:

UCOR 1600 Inquiry Seminar in the Social Sciences

Faculty:

Luft, Rachel

Term:

Fall

Year:

2024

Module:

Module I

Course Description

The theme of this course is the cultural politics of belonging or, who gets ahead and why, in the United States. The focus is on systems, myths, and ideals through which social differences (e.g., race, class, gender, age, nationality, religion, and sexuality) are created and result in social hierarchies and inequalities. The course material is based primarily on contemporary and classical readings in sociology, and also includes material from economics, anthropology and women and gender studies.

UCOR 1600-17 Belonging in America

Course Type:

UCOR 1600 Inquiry Seminar in the Social Sciences

Faculty:

Luft, Rachel

Term:

Fall

Year:

2024

Module:

Module I

Course Description

The theme of this course is the cultural politics of belonging or, who gets ahead and why, in the United States. The focus is on systems, myths, and ideals through which social differences (e.g., race, class, gender, age, nationality, religion, and sexuality) are created and result in social hierarchies and inequalities. The course material is based primarily on contemporary and classical readings in sociology, and also includes material from economics, anthropology and women and gender studies.