Sociology

Sample First-Year Course

Empires & Citizenship: Post-Coloniality and Puerto Rican Communities

Drawing from a wide array of disciplinary perspectives, including sociology, history, political science, cultural studies and literature, this seminar will analyze Puerto Rico and its Diaspora in a global context. Starting with the Spanish conquest, moving through the U.S. invasion and the mass migration of Puerto Ricans after World War II into the U.S., we will examine how the scattered Puerto Rican nation developed in relation to European and U.S. expansion. We will begin with the emergence of the transoceanic movement of peoples and commodities to examine how ordinary Puerto Ricans became involved in the global economy and how their social and historical experiences overlapped with other racialized/colonized communities during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We will also consider how local and global processes shaped social movements, anti-colonial struggles, transnational initiatives, Diaspora narratives, and cultural/aesthetic agency.

Sample Courses at Hampshire

• The Biology and Sociology of Sports
• Children and their Cultural Worlds
• Civil Society and the State
• The Crafted City: Art, Urban Regeneration and the New Cultural Economy
• Creating Families
• Empires and Citizenship: Post-Coloniality& Puerto Rican Communities
• Ethnic Conflict: History and Memoryin Post-Soviet Eurasia
• Family, Gender, Power
• Gender, Race, and Class
• Identity Beyond Identity Politics
• Making Community: Meanings and Methods
• Music and Ritual
• Producing Youth Culture
• The Rise of Secular Jewish Culture
• The Strange Career of Race in the U.S.
• Theorizing Religion

Through the Consortium

• Class & Society (SC)
• Corporate Crime (UMass)
• Crime & Deviance (MHC)
• Evaluating Behavior (SC)
• The Family (UMass)
• Human Diversity (AC)
• Social Problems (UMass)
• Sociological Theory (AC)
• Sociology of Family (MHC)
• Sociology of Love (UMass)