Sociologists study what people do, how people think, and why people act and think the way they do. This course is an introduction to the ideas, methods, and theories sociologists use to understand human lives in all their complexity. Students learn how to think like a sociologist, do sociological research, and explore the forces beyond our control that influence our actions, thoughts, and feelings. We look at issues such as socialization, culture, power relations in society, and how inequalities based on class, gender, and race operate and persist. We also discuss how social institutions (e.g. education, family, politics, and media) work, and learn to analyze both our societies and our own lives in their social context. (Group I)