You’ll go through several stages of writing that will ultimately
result in a short final paper (~750-800 words) for the class.
You’ll have four assignments to choose from:
A. BREACHING EXPERIMENT
Violate a social norm for 24-48 hours and take field notes
on the responses. Write up an ethnomethodogical report on the
ways the people responded to your norm violation. Did they
ignore it and pretend like nothing was out of the ordinary? Did
they gently correct you? Freak out? There are so many breaches
to choose from: Call NYU by a different name; wear some clothes
inside out; formally introduce yourself to your friends every
time you see them…
B. THE SOCIOLOGY OF THE NEW YORK CITY SUBWAY
Ride a major subway line (i.e., not the 42nd Street
Shuttle), one that is not your regular commute, from one end to
the other, taking ethnographic field notes on the people,
behavior, and environment that you observe. What kinds of riders
do you see? How do they change over the course of the line? Are
there different norms in different parts of the route? Do you
feel different, or are you treated differently over the course
of your trip? Drawing on sociological theories and historical/
demographic information, try to account for your observations.
C. COMMUNITY GROUPS
Visit one public meeting each of two community groups in
the NYC area that you are not yourself involved in. Religious
worship services, social movement meetings or actions, artist/
hobbyist get-togethers or events are all potentially fair game.
Compare and contrast the groups in terms of one or more
sociological categories that you find relevant and useful. For
example: why might the groups have different class/racial/
gender/etc. compositions? Is one group more tightly knit than
the other? Might groups of different sizes have different
dynamics?
D. CRITICAL BOOK REPORT
Find a book (at least 150 pages) written by a sociologist
that interests you. Read it from cover to cover and find at
least three short pieces on the book–reviews, retrospectives,
news articles, etc. Making use of these pieces, write your own
review of the book, arguing for its strengths, weaknesses, and/
or relevance to contemporary social issues.