SOC 371 - Military and Society

What is the relationship between the military, military service, and society? How does the military as a coercive and ideological state institution shape practices of nationalism, security, and citizenship? This course will address national security, war, military occupation, and overseas bases to examine the ways in which the military shapes and is shaped by local contexts. It will emphasize the relationship between the military and social formations such as race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. Students will read work from military sociology that examines the relationship between the military as an organization in society, as well as interdisciplinary work from critical military studies, gender studies, and ethnic studies that engages with questions about the impacts of military-based power on marginalized communities. Through the course, students will examine how the military shapes everyday lives as well as broader social relations, structures, and communities.

Unit(s): 1
Group Distribution Requirement(s): Distribution Group II
Prerequisite(s): SOC 211
Instructional Method: Conference
Grading Mode: Letter grading (A-F)
Not offered: 2024-25
Group Distribution Learning Outcome(s):

Evaluate data and/or sources.
Analyze institutions, formations, languages, structures, or processes, whether social, political, religious, economic, cultural, intellectual or other.
Think in sophisticated ways about causation, social and/or historical change, human cognition, or the relationship between individuals and society, or engage with social, political, religious or economic theory in other areas.