Courses

Advanced Theory: Stratification and Inequality

The course expands and deepens the understanding of various traditions regarding stratification and inequality. It focuses on contemporary theories for explaining inequality.

Ethnicity and Gender in the Labor Market

The students would be introduced to theories of social stratification and inequality and to empirical studies that examine unequal distributions of social and economic rewards in the labor market of contemporary societies. Special focus will be given to understanding social mechanisms underlying ethnic and gender inequality in Israeli labor and within a comparative perspective. Students will be required to conduct research based on analysis of empirical data.

Immigration in Global Markets

The seminar focuses on theoretical models and empirical research of labor migration and on incorporation of immigrants in the labor market of the host society. A special emphasize is given to the impact of globalization on patterns of immigration and on the distinction among various types of immigrants and migrants. Students are required to conduct empirical research using data sets. The research can be cast either within the context of Israeli society or within a cross-national comparative framework.

Senior Research Experience

The primary objective of the course is to provide students with basic knowledge, skills and research tools needed to conduct cross-national comparative research in the social sciences. There are numerous reasons that comparative research occupies a very important place in the toolbox of the social scientist: it widens our sociological imagination, it helps us build on a global perspective of our world, and it helps us to scientifically place social differences and similarities in a broader context (among others that we will explore in class). The course will focus on the application of quantitative-statistical methods to the analysis of large data sets. Students are expected to gain familiarity and experience with quantitative approaches to cross-national data analysis.

Social Stratification and Inequality

The students will be introduced to theoretical models of stratification and inequality and to empirical studies that examine the unequal distribution of social and economic resources and rewards contemporary societies. Special focus will be given to understanding the social mechanisms underlying social organization of labor markets, theoretical models of economic discrimination and structural sources of socioeconomic inequality. Emphasize will be given to inequality on the basis of class, social status, ethnic, racial, gender and nativity status and to the study of global migration. Students will be required to review theoretical models and to evaluate them on basis of empirical research (either in the context of American society or from a cross-national comparative perspective).