If you can show me how I can cling to that which is real to me,
while teaching me a way into the larger society, then I will not
only drop my defenses and my hostility, but I will sing your praises
and help you to make the desert bear fruit.
								
	Ralph Ellison	

If sociology can’t help give us a better understanding of the world
and our own place within it, then there’s just not much point.  In
this class we’ll be trying to make connections between the things
that are real to you and the larger society in which we all live.
Bring your imagination, your burning curiosity about the world and
the people in it, and a good work ethic.  In order to learn about
sociology and the topics sociologists study (like gender, race and
ethnicity, deviance, religion, popular culture) we’re going to have
to do some actual down and dirty, nitty-gritty sociology.  In the
end, you should expect to come away with a firm grasp of what
sociology as a discipline involves, what kinds of things
sociologists study (which is just about everything), how they study
those things, and why any of this should matter to you at all.