Sociology of the Body

This course examines the body as social construction that is situated within a particular social and historical context. Students will understand how bodies become gendered, raced, classed, and sexualized in ways that create and reinforce social institutions and relations of power. They will analyze the reciprocal processes of structuration: how the body is shaped by social expectations and symbolic exchange, how meanings are attached to bodies and different body parts, and how these interpretations in turn shape social relations. Students will critically evaluate the experience of embodiment and the contribution of sociological theories and data to our understanding of the process. They will write two course papers on the sociology of the body.