HS 307 – Sociology (2021)

Course offered in:

Autumn 2021

Instructors:

Prof. Ahonaa Roy

Prerequisites:

None

Difficulty:

2.5/5

Course Content:

Works of philosophers and sociologists such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Saint Simon etc. were covered in detail. It was followed by thoughts and ideas during Renaissance and theories of Marx and Weber.

Feedback on Lectures:

Need to essentially attend lectures, as the slides just contained topic headings. The content was on the heavy side, as everything was just spoken of without a lot of references. The class often got monotonous due to long hours of speaking. The professor kept classes on two days only instead of three, but increased the durations to match the time requirement. Attendance was mandatory, and had marks. The classes were made interactive with random people asked to answer questions/give their thoughts on a topic.

Feedback on Evaluations:

The mid-semester examination was somewhat related to the course, but the paper was released a week before and all the questions were discussed. The answers were supposed to be typed on a document and submitted – in a closed book manner. Scripts were checked for plaigirism, and marks were heavily deducted if content was plaigirised. 

The end-semester examination was independent of the course content and was a book review conducted in groups. A piece of literature (usually 400-500 pages) was given to a group and a presentation (15 minutes) & summary (3000+ words) was expected. 

All answers were checked by the professor, and there was not much feedback given on the answers.

This might change, since the course was offered online when I had taken it.

Study Material and References:

For majority of the course, Sociological Theory by Bert Adams was followed.

Follow-up Courses:

–

Final Takeaways:

The course didn’t require much time commitment, but did need writing and interpretation skills. The end-semester examination was on the heavier side due to the book review, but the mid-semester was simpler as every question was discussed before hand.

Review by – Eeshaan Jain