Spring 2026 Courses offered by the RIGS Department

SOCI 101 Introduction to Sociology (numerous sections taught by Dr. Nazan Bedirhanoglu Balaban, and Dr. Utku Balaban)

Sociology is the study of the society and the social world. We need specific and systematic methods of inquiry to make sense of the social world surrounding us. In this course, we will learn the basic concepts and connections to help us develop our sociological imagination. We will parse how our individual lives are parts of larger social contexts, how our behaviors are shaped by the society and by our interactions with others while how society is shaped by our individual actions. Once we internalize the habit of sociological thinking, new perceptions will be available to us. We will question and understand the building blocks of society, social interaction, and social structures.  

SOCI 170 Comparative Healthcare Systems (taught by Dr. Nazan Bedirhanoglu Balaban)

Comparative Healthcare Systems is a critical overview of healthcare practices and policies across different countries, exploring how social, economic, political, and cultural factors shape the organization and delivery of healthcare. The course introduces a brief history of modern social policy, beginning with the 19th century Bismarckian reforms and the 20th century Beveridge model. This historical background provides the framework for the comparative assessment of contemporary liberal, conservative and social democratic welfare systems as defined by Esping-Andesren, in order to explore how and why we find fundamental differences in healthcare practices and policies in different countries. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to critically analyze healthcare systems and their implications for social justice, public health, and policy reform. 

SOCI 180 Culture and Society (Taught by Dr. Utku Balaban)

Everything you can imagine is a social construction. Politics, economics, religion, gender, social class, race, law, nation and even science are social constructions. In fact, reality is a social construction. Culture is the constantly changing ensemble of these social constructions. Sociology is the discipline that studies culture. Sociology therefore studies the social construction of reality. Social constructions present themselves as “common sense”, the ideas, practices and emotions that we take for granted. We are told to take common sense for granted because there is no alternative. Sociology, informed by history and research, says otherwise: in this course we learn how to deconstruct common sense.

GDST 208/SOCI 365 Introduction to Disability Studies/Contemporary Social Theory (Taught by Dr. Mich Nyawalo)

This course introduces students to the interdisciplinary field of disability studies. The course is divided into eight thematic sections: Disability Normality and Power, Historical Perspectives on Disability, The Politics of Disability, Stigma and Illness, Disability and War, Disability Studies and the Environmental Humanities; Theorizing Disability, as well as Identities and Intersectionalities. Thus, during the semester, students will be engaging the following questions in different segments of the course: What does it mean to look at history from a disability studies perspective? What insights are revealed by such a historical perspective? How do disability activists contend with debates on the topics of abortion or mass incarceration? How do we study war, including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, from a disability studies perspective? How do disability and environmental studies intersect? Why have many disability activists eschewed the medical model of disability studies in favor of the social model? How have scholars attempted to theorize disability beyond the social model? How does the rhetorical shift in deaf studies, one that abandons the paradigm of “hearing loss” in favor of “deaf gain,” offer new ways of thinking about diversity? How does disability intersect and interact with racial, gender, and sexual identities? 

SOCI 362/GDST 314 Technologies of Gender/ Feminist Theory and Criticism (Taught by Dr. ShaDawn Battle)

The famous sixteenth century aphorism “knowledge is power!” should, in fact, state, “knowledge is [their] power!” Let’s face it: those who are not cis, white, wealthy, straight males monopolize the halls of power precisely because they—almost exclusively—are afforded the ability to construct knowledge of the world and social meaning through frameworks upheld by white supremacist-capitalist-patriarchy. That is, those who occupy identities of privilege oftentimes determine how and why we know what we know.  If, for instance, forty years ago, a woman-identified person who had been sexually accosted by a police officer might not have identified the act of violence she experienced under the purview of “police brutality”—it is not merely because of a lack of gender-expansive discourse used to define police brutality. Additionally, this rhetorical misnomer is also because of a paucity of female representation in police review boards, state legislatures, or even senior-level leadership in the institution of policing. Feminist philosopher Miranda Fricker would identify this phenomenon as a form of “epistemic injustice,” or harm committed against a vulnerable person “in their capacity as a knower” (Fricker 2007).

 “Feminist Epistemologies” will, therefore, examine how women—women of color, especially—and other gender-nonconforming folks, are systematically excluded from knowledge production, and the social, political, and economic ramifications of their exclusion. We will tackle questions such as, how are silencing practices routinely employed to prevent womenfolk from constructing knowledge? What is “legitimate” knowledge anyway? And why are women excluded from it? How might we analyze racial politics in the carceral system, policing, etc., as well climate studies, politics, and sports, across history, by centering the voices and experiences of women and gender expansive people?  Is our social analysis of Cardi B’s fourth pregnancy while legally married informed by patriarchal and masculine modes of knowing and ethics?  

In addition to epistemology studies, Black feminist theory will guide our conversations.