Deviance and Social Control

4 credits

This course explores the social construction of boundaries between the "normal" and the so-called "deviant." It examines the struggle between powerful forms of social control and what these exclude, silence, or marginalize. Of particular concern is the relationship between dominant forms of religious, legal, and medical social control and gendered, racialized, and global economic structures of power. The course provides an in-depth historical analysis of theoretical perspectives used to explain, study and control deviance, as well as an ethical-political inquiry into such matters as religious excess, crime, madness, corporate and governmental wrong-doing, and sexual subcultures that resist dominant social norms. Woods courses designated as Core count towards Woods Core requirements only; they do not count for University Core requirements. Satisfies Core requirement for: Social Science