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Overview

Learning MethodsMajor FocusThe AC DifferenceCareer Outlook

Learning Methods

In addition to traditional lectures and class readings, sociology students will complete hands-on individual and group assignments and have the opportunity to meet guest speakers in class, complete a mini-research project, or attend a field trip. Students can expect to use up-to-date technology and interactive online and in-class learning tools that engage students and promote critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Major Focus

C. Wright Mills’ “sociological imagination” is our ability to see the connection between our personal troubles and social structure. Sociology studies the interactions between individuals and the societies in which they live. If you are interested in how and why social constructs such as gender, race, class, ethnicity and religion influence our individual choices and social circumstances, consider an academic career in sociological study.
The Associate of Arts Degree (Sociology) is a 2-year, 60 credit, multidisciplinary program that includes arts courses with a focus on sociology (minimum 18 credits).

The AC Difference

AC students gain from small class sizes and access to instructors with varied expertise in sociology that guarantees AC offers students a wide range of transferable sociology courses. All students have free access to private tutoring for assignments and readings through our Writing and Learning Centre.

Career Outlook

Sociology graduates develop the critical thinking, communication, and research skills needed for future careers in social work, labour relations, human resources, market research, law, public relations, social policy research, education, health administration, and counselling.

Course Descriptions

Select a course below to see full descriptions. (#) Indicates amount of credits per course

SOCI 100 Introduction to Sociology (3)

This course introduces the sociological perspective, which interprets social behaviour and group relations through study of the intersection between social phenomena and personal life. The course examines the basic themes, concepts, and theories that frame the sociological approach to understanding the world, asking how social circumstances influence the way we know ourselves, how sociologists gather data and evidence to portray an accurate picture of social reality, and how sociological thinking helps to remedy social problems. The course provides a broad foundation for further study and research in this area.

Prerequisite(s):

ENGL 098

Transfers to:

UBC SOCI 1st (3); ALEX SOCI 100 (3) & ALEX SOCI 103 (3) = UBC SOCI 100 (6)
SFU SA 150 (3), B-Soc
UVIC SOCI 100A (1.5)
UNBC SOSC 1XX (3)
TRU SOCI 1110 (3)

SOCI 103 Canadian Society (3)

The study of Canada as a developed, ethnically diverse, and multicultural society, with special attention to the adaptation experiences of its Asian immigrant groups and their descendants (Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, South Asian) and to the struggles of Indigenous peoples in Canada. The course will examine what it means to be Canadian and the contradictions that sometimes entails. Although highlighting a uniquely Canadian perspective, the course provides a foundation for further sociological study and research.

Prerequisite(s):

ENGL 098

Transfers to:

UBC SOCI 1st (3); ALEX SOCI 100 (3) & ALEX SOCI 103 (3) = UBC SOCI 100 (6)
SFU SA 1XX (3), B-Soc
UVIC SOCI 103 (1.5)
UNBC SOSC 1XX (3)
TRU SOCI 1210 (3)

SOCI 200 Research Methods in the Social Sciences (3)

How do social scientists know what they know? How do we know this information is reliable? This course offers an introduction to the design and practice of social research that provides the skills to ask and answer questions about the everyday and changing social world. Various concepts, research strategies, and techniques are surveyed that enable exploration of the pressing issues of social life. A broad range of qualitative and quantitative methods are presented that include survey research, interviewing, descriptive and inferential statistics, participant observation and ethnography. Students will consider the ethical questions that arise in doing social research, as well as the political implications of its results

Prerequisite(s):

ENGL 099, SOCI 100 or SOCI 103

Transfers to:

UBC SOC 217 (3)
SFU SOCI 255 (3), Q
UVIC SOCI 211 (1.5)
UNBC SOSC 2XX (3)
TRU SOCI 2720 (3)

SOCI 210 Crime and Society (3)

An introduction to the study of crime, criminality and corrections in the context of contemporary Canadian society. The course aims to explain the shifting causes and consequences of crime, including the changing profile of its victims and perpetrators, and to promote critical thinking about official responses to crime.

Prerequisite(s):

ENGL 099, SOCI 100 or SOCI 103

Transfers to:

UBC SOCI 250 (3)
SFU SA 1XX (3), SOCI
UVIC SOCI 2XX (1.5)
UNBC SOSC 2XX (3)
TRU SOCI 2500 (3)

SOCI 220 Social Movements and Social Change (3)

Social movements are an important means by which ordinary people in civil society organize to shape public policy and bring about social change. Such movements typically represent attempts by the normally powerless to challenge entrenched institutions and dominant groups that block social transformation. This course will examine some current and historical movements in which people have joined together to struggle for and sometimes conversely against social change. Examples of activist collective behaviour will be drawn from various places and times, focusing largely on contemporary movements within North America.

Prerequisite(s):

ENGL 099, SOCI 100 or SOCI 103

Transfers to:

UBC SOCI 2nd (3)
SFU SA 2XX (3)
UVIC SOCI 316
UNBC SOSC 2XX (3)
TRU SOCI 2XXX (3)

SOCI 230 Sociology of Popular Culture (3)

What are the patterns, meanings, and rituals in popular culture that shape our lives and serve as a mirror of society? This course will show how the study of popular culture is a window into sociological thinking and an ideal topic for sociological analysis. Through the medium of popular culture (art, music, film, fiction, fashion, television, and the mass media) societal actors both reproduce and resist dominant values propagated by the culture industries in society. By thinking deeply about the ostensibly trivial, and by taking our popular pleasures seriously, the sociological imagination can unveil how we routinely maintain and sometimes challenge powerful social forces such as social inequality. In essence, the course will explore the domain of the popular in order to highlight the political and social debates it mobilizes.

Prerequisite(s):

ENGL 099, SOCI 100 or SOCI 103

Transfers to:

UBC SOCI 2nd (3)
SFU SA 2XX (3), SOCI
UVIC SOCI 2XX (1.5)
UNBC SOSC 2XX (3)
TRU SOCI 2170 (3)

SOCI 240 Global Society (3)

“Globalization” — a buzzword that emerged in the 1990s— has made for an increasingly fluid and interdependent world; but the new forms of connectivity have had uneven impacts on different regions and localities. This course offers a critical examination of the economic, social, cultural, technological, and political aspects of globalization as it has evolved in recent decades. Issues of global governance, corporate accountability, and global justice will be among those surveyed in probing the paradoxes of globalization and imagining the changes required for creating a more equitable society and an ecologically sustainable world.

Prerequisite(s):

ENGL 099, SOCI 100 or SOCI 103

Transfers to:

UBC-V SOCI 2nd (3)
SFU SA 2XX (3)
UNBC SOSC 2XX (3)
TRU SOCI 2XXX (3)

SOCI 250 Introduction to Sociological Theory (3)

A study of the seminal ideas of five of the pre-eminent social theorists of the 19th and early 20th centuries (August Comte, Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx, Max Weber, Georg Simmel) and their impact on the formation of the discipline of Sociology. This focus will be supplemented by discussion of some of the latter-day variants of these classical theories that uphold the relevance of fundamental questions regarding social change, power relations, human nature, inequality and social collectivity

Prerequisite(s):

ENGL 099, SOCI 100 or SOCI 103

Transfers to:

UBC SOCI 2nd (3)
SFU SA 250 (3)
UVIC SOCI 210 (1.5)
UNBC SOSC 2XX (3)
TRU SOCI 2XXX (3)

Faculty

Dr. Samantha May (PhD, MA, TESL)

Department Head

Dr. Samantha May (PhD, MA, TESL)

Department Head

Samantha’s research and teaching experience includes sociology and language revitalization as well as English as a Second Language teaching and academic writing.

After graduating from Simon Fraser University, Samantha gained first-hand experience as an international student while on the Japanese government MEXT program in Okinawa, Japan.

She completed her master’s in Linguistics and Communications and doctorate in Comparative Regional Culture and Area Studies at the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa, Japan, and continues her Foundation for Endangered Languages (FEL)-sponsored research on language reclamation in Okinawan cultural arts.

Dr. Craig Meadows (PhD, MA, BA)

Instructor

Dr. Craig Meadows (PhD, MA, BA)

Instructor

Craig received his PhD in Social and Political Thought from York University in Toronto. His dissertation research was on arrhythmic experiences of sleep, naturalized cultural and scientific logics of sleep, modalities of gendered interventions into sleep, and the racialized appropriations of sleeplessness in white supremacist ideology.

He has a broad teaching background in the social sciences, including courses taught in gender relations & feminist theory, classical and contemporary theory, social inequality, criminology, globalization, citizenship, consumer society, environmental sociology, urban studies, and visual culture. He has been teaching at Alexander College since 2019, and also teaches in criminology at Kwantlen Polytechnic University and sociology at University of British Columbia.

He has received student nominated awards for teaching excellence at Alexander College and for accessibility at University of British Columbia.

Joe Munsterman (MA, BA)

Instructor

Joe Munsterman (MA, BA)

Instructor

Joe is a graduate of the University of Washington and UBC where he studied both sociology and education.

He has diverse teaching experience in Sociology (Alexander College, UBC, Langara College, Canadian College) as well as being an award-winning instructor (student voted) in the UBC Department of Geography.

He has also helped teach graduate level courses in the Sauder School of Business and currently works in the UBC Faculty of Medicine.

Dr. Jillian Deri (PhD, MA, BA, Certificate in Ecology)

Instructor

Dr. Jillian Deri (PhD, MA, BA, Certificate in Ecology)

Instructor

Dr. Jillian Deri is the author of Love’s Refraction; Jealousy and Compersion in Queer Women’s Polyamorous Relationships.

She earned her PhD in Sociology from SFU, holds a Masters in Women’s Studies, a BA in Geography, a Certificate from the Institute of Social Ecology and a Certificate in Teaching English as a Second Language (ILAC) and has been instructing Sociology and Women’s Studies for over 10 years.

She has taught at Douglas College, Simon Fraser University, University of British Columbia Okanagan and Kwantlen Polytechnic University. At Alexander College, she instructs the following courses: Introduction to Sociology, Canadian Society, Crime and Society, Social Theory, Popular Culture, and Social Movements & Social Change. Outside of academic, Jillian enjoys fashion design, yoga, dance and hiking.

Dr. Jing Zhao (PhD)

Instructor

Dr. Jing Zhao (PhD)

Instructor

Jing received her PhD in sociology from the University of British Columbia. Her research and teaching interests include sociological theories, immigration, mobility, life course, reproduction, education, and culture. She also shares academic life with the public through settlement workshops, bilingual reading groups, and immigration forums.

Lindsay Simpson (MA, BA)

Instructor

Lindsay Simpson (MA, BA)

Instructor

Lindsay holds a M.A in Anthropology from Simon Fraser University.

Her thesis, Studenthood: An ethnography of post-secondary student life, explores the distinct subjectivity of students through a variety of participant action research methods with a focus on the notion of student fragility. Using life course theory and the related concepts of tacking and vital conjunctures, Lindsay explores student navigational strategies and rethinks this demarcated period in the life course which has been traditionally perceived as a period of adolescent indecisiveness encapsulated as liminality. Lindsay’s future research aims to better understand how higher education marketing fosters an environment of student fragility that necessitates numerous institutionally sanctioned stress-relief practices.

Lindsay is currently working with Simon Fraser University and The University of Toronto on a national workforce intergration social enterprise (WISE) longitudinal evaluation project (SSHRC Insight Grant, 2017-2022). This study follows youth graduates of social enterprise-based training programs to see to what extent they can integrate into the workforce. Lindsay’s previous experience includes working with SFU’s Urban Studies Department on an employer transit subsidy study (ETSS). This project involved conducting experimental research on a worker transit subsidy program for downtown Vancouver hotel workers and included an examination of transit ridership levels, commuting patterns, and workplace performance.

Resources

The Canadian Sociological Association (CSA)

The American Sociological Association

The International Sociological Association (ISA)

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