Face-to-face , first term, 30 hours of theory.

First term
Thursday from 10:45 to 12:45 at Ommegang Om10

French only.

The course is an in-depth introduction to sociology. Rather than surveying the field, it explores some of the field's classics and key-authors. In so doing, it aims at raising the students' awareness about the stakes at play in each sociological undertaking. These stakes are theoretical, practical, but also political and even existential. Debates and divergences amongst sociologists will thus be emphasized. More generally, the course aims at giving students the necessary reference points and overall understanding of sociology for their future orientation in the social and human sciences.

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The course is divided into two parts. The first part is the introduction to the field taught by the lecturer throughout the Fall Term. The second part is a series of five more applied sessions where the assistant confronts the theoretical contents with current affairs.
During the introduction, the lecturer presents the founders of the discipline i.e. those that are referred to today (Emile Durkheim, Max Weber and the Chicago School). Next, she presents more recent theoretical endeavors that shape the field: critical sociology (Pierre Bourdieu, Loïc Wacquant, and others), symbolic interactionism (Howard Becker, Goffman, and others) and actor-network-theory (Antoine Hennion, Bruno Latour, and others). Each time, the lecturer points at the paradigmatic as well as the conceptual choices made by the authors that are being discussed.
During the applied sessions, a documentary will be shown as well as actively commented so as to reveal the connections that exists between recent documentary investigations and the overall know-how and knowledge developed in social sciences. Students will also bring into the debate their own reading of a book that is also part of the curriculum (see bibliography below). Overall, an effort is made to open up the discussion to recent events and debates so as to show the relevance of all theories, investigations and authors involved.

Lectures during which students must take note & extra developments made by the lecturer in order to tackle issues and questions raised by the students & the in-depth reading of one book & back-and-forth movement between theory and classics on the one hand and news and documentaries on the other hand.

Written closed-book exam. The exam assesses the student's capacity to render the course's material with nuance and attention for detail, as well as an understanding of the contents of the documentary, the required reading and the comments thereupon.

The screening concerns the following documentary:
Daniel Cattier, Juan Gélas et Fanny Glissant, 2018, Sur les routes de l'esclavage, ARTE Productions, 2018.
Students must purchase the résumé of the course as well as one of the following books (which can also be ordered at the Reprography) :
Virginie Despentes, King Kong Théorie, Paris, Grasset, 2006 (de nombreuses ré-éditions existent).
Mona Chollet, Beauté fatale: les nouveaux visages d'une aliénation féminine, Paris, Zones, 2012.
Françoise Vergès, Un féminisme décolonial, Paris, Fabrique éditions, 2019.