Sociology of Emotions

3.00 credits · Undergraduate

Prereq: 6 credits from SOCI at the 2000 level; or permission of the Department This course draws upon contemporary social theory on emotion, subjectivity, and power in order to analyze the emotional terrain of 'social world' and understand how power affects us. This course introduces major works in post-Foucauldian Sociology, including the work of Hochschild, Sedgewick, Ahmed and Illouz and responds to the question of how power works outside of financial or material systems. It examines the role that shame, happiness, desire, and other emotional experiences are shaped and structured by institutions such as the media, religion, and education and how, in turn, emotion comes to drive social life. (Format: Lecture 3 Hours)