5:45PM-8:15PM	MW	BH 330

Course description: “50% of marriages end in divorce.” “10% of the
population is homosexual.” “A woman over 40 is more likely to be
killed in a terrorist attack than she is to get married.”
Journalists, pundits, politicians, and our longer-winded friends
throw around statistics like these all the time, because numbers can
be very persuasive. However, when you know something about the
production, interpretation, and presentation of statistics, “facts”
like these raise far more questions than they do offer answers.  In
this course we will become critical consumers of social statistics
and their presentation in our daily lives. We will also become
familiar with the field of sociology, the production and
interpretation of social statistics, and the concepts, measures, and
methods that sociologists use to understand our society. In short,
this course is an introduction to "fact-making," behind the scenes.