Bachelor of Arts in Sociology Online

What is Introduction to Sociology?

Introduction to Sociology is the foundational course of the B.A. program, developing the sociological imagination that allows you to see the connection between individual experience and the broader social forces that shape it.

The B.A. in Sociology online at the University of Mount Saint Vincent is built around two specializations: Criminology and Justice, and Social Service and Social Work. Both draw on the analytical foundation this course establishes. You will begin developing the ability to apply sociological theory to understand cultural differences, social inequality, and group dynamics, one of the program's core graduate outcomes. Graduates go on to careers including Social Worker, Human Resource Coordinator, Community Health Worker, Market Research Analyst, Paralegal, and Diversity Manager.

Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:

• Situate the human being in its interpersonal, social, and cultural context (e.g. family, work, social framework)

• Discern the basic elements of the sociological approach: culture and structure and how they complement each other

• Be familiar with the processes of institutionalization, socialization, and stratification

• Have a basic understanding of the sociological analysis of gender, ethnicity, religion, family, class, deviance, etc.

What is Survey Research?

Survey Research develops the empirical research skills that allow professionals to generate original, credible evidence about social phenomena and evaluate the quality of research produced by others.

Evidence-based practice and policy depend on the ability to design rigorous research, collect valid data, and draw defensible conclusions, competencies that are valued across social work, public policy, organizational consulting, healthcare administration, and market research. This course develops hands-on fluency in the full survey research process: from sampling design and questionnaire construction through data collection, analysis, and interpretation. The methodological skills developed here are directly applicable in any professional role that involves generating, evaluating, or acting on empirical evidence about human behavior and social conditions.

Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:

• Understand basic elements and principles of quantitative data sets (primary and secondary)

• Apply analytical techniques commonly used for quantitative data in sociology and public policy

• Understand the role of research in science and ethical conduct of inquiry

What is Qualitative Research Methods?

Qualitative Research Methods develops the fieldwork and interpretive skills that allow sociologists to investigate the dimensions of social life that surveys and statistics cannot capture.

Conducting and interpreting social research is a graduate outcome of the B.A. in Sociology, and this course develops the qualitative dimension of that capacity. You will design and conduct original fieldwork, building skills in interviewing, observation, and thematic analysis that are directly applicable across both program specializations. Social Workers conducting needs assessments, Community Health Workers evaluating program effectiveness, and Market Research Analysts interpreting behavioral data all draw on qualitative inquiry skills of the kind developed in this course.

Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:

• Possess the knowledge of a wide range of qualitative research methods: interview, focus group, observation, and content analysis

• Apply concepts to research projects

• Understand the skills required to initiate, conduct, write up, and present a small project

• Apply qualitative research methods to a diverse array of interdisciplinary and extra-institutional projects

• Conduct the pre-fieldwork exploratory research and literature reviews required for project proposals

• Articulate ideas and concepts learned from other researchers and their research

• Learn about ethics in research

• Apply ethical guidelines from the Anthropological Association and consent forms from the IRB committee

What is Sociological Theories?

Sociological Theories is the theory course of the B.A. program, developing your ability to use the discipline's most powerful explanatory frameworks to analyze social phenomena rather than simply describe them.

Applying sociological theory to understand cultural differences, social inequality, and group dynamics is a core graduate outcome of the B.A. in Sociology. This course develops that theoretical capacity in its fullest form, moving from classical foundations through contemporary frameworks. Graduates in both specialization tracks draw on theoretical fluency in their professional work: Social Workers and Community Health Workers use it to analyze the structural conditions affecting their clients, while Diversity Managers and Human Resource Coordinators apply it to organizational culture and equity challenges.

Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:

• Conduct close and comprehensive reading of major sociological theories

• Apply the work of a social theorist to the analysis of a film

• Put the analyses of major theorists in your own clearly written and well-organized words

What is Seminar in Sociology?

The Seminar in Sociology is the capstone of the B.A. program, where original research, theoretical depth, and scholarly communication converge in a formal presentation that demonstrates the full scope of what your degree has built.

The online B.A. in Sociology culminates in this research seminar, where students demonstrate the full range of graduate outcomes the program has been building: conducting and interpreting social research, applying sociological theory, engaging critical thinking on social problems, and communicating findings professionally. The topic you choose will reflect your specialization, whether that is Criminology and Justice or Social Service and Social Work, and the completed paper and presentation will give you a scholarly credential relevant both to graduate study and to employers in research-oriented roles.

Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:

• Practice analytic skills such as statistical analysis of data and/or exegesis of ethnographic data; linking theoretical problems to data

• Acquire framework for engaging normative and ethical questions and collaborating with peers to facilitate project completion

• Apply knowledge and skills toward completion of their 25-page analysis

What is Criminology?

Criminology is the analytical core of the Criminology and Justice specialization, examining crime not just as a legal category but as a social phenomenon shaped by structural, economic, and institutional forces.

The Criminology and Justice specialization in the B.A. in Sociology is described as focusing on crime, justice systems, and policy, and exploring how social structures shape law, inequality, and reform. This course is the analytical core of that specialization. Understanding crime causation, how it is measured, and how institutions respond to it gives graduates the theoretical grounding for careers as Paralegals, Community Health Workers, and Social Workers, as well as for further study in criminal justice, law, and social policy.

Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:

• Develop skills to identify issues, understand alternative views, interpret and draw inferences from data sources, and apply an integrative approach in writing and oral sharing of understanding for real-life application

• Be able to evaluate and properly cite reliable sources of information to support ideas and opinions about issues

• Develop awareness of ethical and moral dimensions of crime and victimization

What is Sociology of Deviance?

Sociology of Deviance examines the social construction of rule-breaking and the institutional responses that follow, raising fundamental questions about who defines norms and what consequences those definitions carry.

The Criminology and Justice specialization examines how social structures shape law, inequality, and reform. This course provides deep theoretical grounding in that examination, analyzing how norms are defined and enforced, how labeling processes affect individual trajectories, and how social control institutions respond to rule-breaking. These frameworks are directly applicable to careers as Paralegals, Social Workers, and Community Health Workers working within and around justice system institutions.

Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:

• Read, decode, and critically analyze course texts

• Apply these theories to various texts: documentary film, an ethnography, popular culture representation of deviant behavior

• Craft a detailed research proposal

What is Current Controversies in Crime and Justice?

Current Controversies in Crime and Justice is a seminar-format course that develops your ability to engage substantively with the most contested policy debates in criminal justice, using evidence and structured deliberation rather than opinion.

Engaging with communities through research-informed outreach and understanding the broader social implications of justice policies are graduate outcomes of the B.A. in Sociology. This course develops those capacities in a forum specifically designed for contested contemporary issues. The structured deliberation format prepares graduates for the professional conversations that Paralegals, Social Workers, and Community Health Workers participate in, where evidence, competing values, and complex institutional realities all need to be engaged with rigor and fairness.

Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:

• Analyze evidence and arguments from alternative viewpoints

• Understand basics of conflict resolution

• Understand how to formulate policy recommendations from applied settings

What is Foundations of Justice?

Foundations of Justice provides the institutional literacy that students in the Criminology and Justice specialization need to understand how the justice system actually works, not just how it is designed to work.

The Criminology and Justice specialization focuses on crime, justice systems, and policy, and on how social structures shape law, inequality, and reform. This course provides the institutional literacy that makes that specialization professionally meaningful. Understanding how law enforcement, courts, and corrections are organized and how they interact with the communities they serve is directly relevant to graduates pursuing careers as Paralegals, Social Workers, and Community Health Workers who navigate or work alongside justice system institutions.

Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:

• Critically understand relationships regarding central components of the criminal justice system

• Convey a clear understanding of issues orally and in writing

• Assess data and information pertaining to systemic practice and policy

• Be aware of ethical/moral dimensions of citizen rights and enforcement of laws

What is Law and Society?

Law and Society examines legal systems as social institutions, developing your ability to analyze how law reflects the power structures and historical conflicts of the societies that produce it.

The analytical foundation of the Criminology and Justice specialization includes understanding how law functions as a social institution rather than a neutral rulebook. This course develops exactly that perspective, examining how criminal law reflects and reinforces social and political structures, how it changes over time, and how it operates differently across communities. This framework is professionally relevant to graduates in Paralegal roles, as well as to Social Workers and Community Health Workers who regularly encounter legal system dynamics in their work with clients and communities.

Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:

• Understand basic processes of law from precept to concrete application

• Understand the role of ambiguity in law, based on diversity of human activity as well as social context

• Demonstrate literacy and communicative skills

• Apply the methods of scientific reporting

What is Social Work Practice?

Social Work Practice is the professional foundation course for the Social Service and Social Work specialization, introducing the theories and generalist practice models that define the profession across diverse settings and populations.

The Social Service and Social Work specialization is described as developing skills for community outreach, cultural awareness, and program support that strengthen services and social advocacy. This course connects theory directly to that mission, examining the generalist practice model and the diverse roles that social workers occupy across community, healthcare, and organizational settings. Graduates pursuing careers as Social Workers or Community Health Workers will draw on the professional frameworks developed here as they enter practice.

Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:

• Understand the different client systems and the environmental factors that impact a client's development and potential for growth

• Assess a client's strengths, needs, psychosocial stressors, and current functioning in the context of a biopsychosocial assessment

• Demonstrate a primary understanding of evidence-based treatment interventions including motivational interviewing

• Understand the dynamic role of a social worker across varied professional settings and demonstrate familiarity with social work core competencies

• Understand the stages of assessment in clinical practice including engagement, assessment, problem formulation, intervention, and termination

What is Social Policy?

Social Policy examines the major programs and debates that define how societies respond to inequality, vulnerability, and social need, developing the analytical framework that practitioners across social services, policy, and administration apply in their work.

Social welfare policy shapes the conditions in which communities live and the resources available to the people that social workers, administrators, and policy professionals serve. This course develops your ability to analyze how major policy programs in healthcare, education, housing, income support, and criminal justice are designed, what outcomes they produce, and how competing values and political interests shape their evolution. The evidence-based policy analysis skills developed here are applicable across the professional contexts where understanding the policy environment is essential to effective practice.

Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:

• Apply analytic tools to evaluation of policy process, including critique of socioeconomic forces underlying social policy decision-making and implementation; demonstrate competency in applying this knowledge and these tools to decision-making practice, not simply as a matter of theoretical understanding

• Acquire framework for engaging normative and ethical questions; demonstrate an intermediate ability in articulation and evaluation of normative and ethical ramifications of policy, including equity and justice issues

• Apply understanding and tools in novel circumstances

What is Introduction to Social Work?

Introduction to Social Work establishes the professional identity, ethical commitments, and historical context of social work as a discipline, helping you determine whether this is the right career path and preparing you to pursue it with clarity and purpose.

The Social Service and Social Work specialization of the B.A. in Sociology is built around developing skills for community outreach, cultural awareness, and program support. This course provides the professional and historical foundation for that work, examining social work's evolution as a discipline committed to social justice and community wellbeing. Students considering a career as a Social Worker or Community Health Worker gain a clear-eyed understanding of the profession's values, methods, and scope before committing to field placements or graduate study.

Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:

• Understand the history of social work

• Demonstrate knowledge behind the dynamic role of a social worker across varied professional settings and familiarity with social work core competencies

What is the Internship Program?

The Sociology Internship is the professional field experience of the B.A. program, placing you inside the organizations where sociology graduates actually build careers and applying your analytical training to real institutional contexts.

The internship experience is central to what it means to be Mount Made, and for students in the B.A. in Sociology, it connects classroom learning to the organizations where graduates actually build their careers. Whether you are placed in a social service agency, a legal services organization, a community health setting, or a research bureau, the experience develops the applied skills and professional relationships that employers value. The reflective component of the course asks you to bring the program's analytical frameworks to what you observe in the field.

Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:

• Explain, reflect, and critique elements of the internship experience

• Demonstrate professional skills developed through internship experience

• Understand the role of research in science and ethical conduct of inquiry

What is Race and Ethnicity?

Race and Ethnicity develops the analytical framework and research literacy needed to understand racial inequality as a structural and historical phenomenon rather than an individual one.

Analyzing social policies and institutional practices to understand their impact on communities is one of the graduate outcomes of the B.A. in Sociology. Race and ethnicity are among the most consequential dimensions of that analysis in the American context. This course builds the theoretical and empirical vocabulary that students in both program specializations draw on in their professional work, whether they pursue careers as Community Health Workers, Diversity Managers, Paralegals, or Social Worker.

Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:

• Decode and analyze texts in writing; think historically and critically about socially constructed categories of race and ethnicity and layout the terms of the most relevant intellectual debates

• Write and deliver incisive, historically and theoretically sophisticated analyses

• Write and speak in an engaged, creative, and inquisitive manner

• Research a contemporary case and analyze it through the lens of one or more class concepts

What is Individual in Society?

Individual in Society examines the relationship between social structure and personal identity, developing the analytical tools to understand how the environments people inhabit shape who they become.

The Social Service and Social Work specialization in the B.A. in Sociology develops skills for community outreach, cultural awareness, and program support. Understanding how individuals are shaped by social structure and socialization is foundational to that work. This course builds the analytical perspective that Social Workers, Community Health Workers, Human Resource Coordinators, and Diversity Managers apply in their daily professional practice.

Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:

• Analyze key concepts regarding self and social structure

• Understand how to identify and describe a specific context of interaction between individual and society

• Assess how to potentially address inequities between the individual and society

What is Power and Conflict?

Power and Conflict develops the political sociology framework that allows you to understand how power operates in institutions, organizations, and social movements, not just in formal government structures.

Using critical thinking to evaluate social problems and assess their broader social implications is a graduate outcome of the B.A. in Sociology. Power is at the center of many of the social problems this program prepares graduates to work on, and this course provides the analytical vocabulary for understanding how it operates in institutions, communities, and policy systems. This theoretical grounding is relevant across the program's career outcomes, from Paralegals and Social Workers navigating institutional authority, to Diversity Managers and Market Research Analysts working within organizational power structures.

Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:

• Understand the central sociological theories of power and resistance

• Decode complex texts and write clearly about each one and about several in relation to one another

• Apply theories of power, resistance, and ideology to the case of a social movement in a work of secondary research

What is Sociology of Organizations and Work?

Sociology of Organizations and Work applies sociological analysis to the institutions where most professional careers unfold, developing your ability to understand how structure, culture, and power dynamics actually drive organizational behavior.

The online B.A. in Sociology prepares graduates for careers in a wide range of organizations, from social service agencies and healthcare organizations to corporations and community nonprofits. This course provides the analytical framework for understanding how those organizations function: how structure shapes behavior, how culture develops and resists change, and how work and workers interact across different organizational forms. This perspective is directly relevant to careers as Human Resource Coordinators, Diversity Managers, Market Research Analysts, and Community Health Workers operating within organizational settings.

Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:

• Develop intermediate competency for understanding core topics associated with the study of organizations such as: bureaucracy, power, conflict, rationality, authority, work, and technology

• Explore diverse frameworks for engaging normative and ethical questions

What is the Internship Program?

The advanced Sociology Internship builds on the foundational internship experience to place you in a professional setting where your more fully developed sociological training adds immediate value.

The advanced internship builds on earlier academic and professional development to place students in organizations where they can contribute with greater competency and confidence. Whether your placement is in social services, legal support, community health, or a research organization, you bring a more fully developed set of analytical and interpersonal skills to the experience. The University of Mount Saint Vincent's program structure ensures this is a guided professional transition, connecting field observations back to the sociological frameworks that define your professional identity as a graduate.

Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:

• Explain, reflect, and critique elements of the internship experience

• Demonstrate professional skills developed through internship experience