Sociology 235
This semester, I’ve had the opportunity to take Sociology 235, which focuses on Contemporary American Society. We’ve studied a variety of topics, ranging from the economic crisis to parenting in today’s society.
Before coming to Vanderbilt, I had never taken a Sociology course, but the nice thing about AXLE is that it lets you explore a variety of courses. I took Sociology 102 first semester and enjoyed it, so I decided to try another Sociology course to satisfy my U.S. History requirements. Though I’m currently not majoring or minoring in Sociology, it’s been wonderful to try it out here at Vanderbilt.
One of the cool things about this class is that we get to actually talk with some of the authors for the books and articles we read. For instance, we’ve read a few chapters of the book authored by our professor, as well as an article by him. Furthermore, we read a book called How It Works about recovering citizens in post-welfare Philadelphia, and the author, Robert Fairbanks II, came and spoke in one of our classes. We had the opportunity to ask him any questions we wanted about his book and research, which really helped clarify and solidify some of the themes we had been considering in reference to the book.
This is just one example of the awesome classes offered at Vanderbilt—I’m already looking forward to next semester!
