Taught By:
Autumn Martin
PhD Candidate
Sociology Department
University of Louisville
Read profile here and
Motivation to Teach Social Action:
I want to be able to further my teaching philosophy and specifically teaching social action. I think with teaching sociology courses social action is an important topic to expand on.
Course Description:
This course focuses on the major threats to social cohesion and order in society and how such social problems affect human behavior. Generally, when individuals have problems, they contextualize them in highly personal terms; their perspective is guided primarily by their immediate situation and personal circumstances. However, there are socially structured contexts out of which individuals emerge and in which social problems are created, sustained, and/or changed–and, thus, impact human behavior. The purpose of the course, then, is to expand the student’s understanding of current social problems related to inequality, social institutions, and modernization using the “sociological imagination,” which distinguishes between personal and social problems and assumes the latter to be shaped by social forces/factors beyond an individual’s control.
