What is Sociology Anyway 
What is Sociology,
Anyway?
Introductory Sociology
January 20, 2015
Use right arrow on keyboard to advance slides
People typically do not understand sociology very well. Just ask someone what sociology is and they typically don’t know. Even people that have taken Introductory
Sociology still don’t know what it is.
For example, while evacuated during Hurricane Rita I told someone that I taught sociology and this is what they said:
“I studied sociology in college but really didn’t understand it.”
Steve Unkel, M.D.,
Farmerville, LA,
September 22, 2005
Same result while evacuating for Hurricane Ike:
“Tell me again … what is this sociology all about??”
George Featherstone, Jr.
Gilmer, TX
September, 2008
Or, this is an example that I found in a sociology student’s blog:
“I really don’t understand sociology at all.”
Aimee, Student Blogger,
September, 2005
Another blogger wrote:
I took sociology three years ago, now I’m in an advanced sociology class … and I never understood it the first time around… somebody please help me with this assignment!!! Jon, Student Blogger, September,
2004
More Recently ….
• As I explain this (what sociology is), almost always the conversation follows with a long pause, as if people did not quite understand what I was talking about.
• From Rah’s Multiply, a Sociology Blog,
2012
A distinguished sociologist once noted in a speech he gave to a sociology class:
“My mother (God bless her) still has no idea what I do.”
Gerald O. Windham,
Starkville, MS
August 22, 1974
Is Sociology Left-Wing?
Heard during a sociology lecture at a major university:
About 15 minutes into the lecture Dr. Jones went off on what can only be described as a diatribe. He broke off completely from the subject at hand and told us basically how conservatives are ruining the world.
Among the highlights of this were that liberals embrace the future, and want to bring about a better world, and conservatives want to live in the past, fear change, and if it
Anyway?
Introductory Sociology
January 20, 2015
Use right arrow on keyboard to advance slides
People typically do not understand sociology very well. Just ask someone what sociology is and they typically don’t know. Even people that have taken Introductory
Sociology still don’t know what it is.
For example, while evacuated during Hurricane Rita I told someone that I taught sociology and this is what they said:
“I studied sociology in college but really didn’t understand it.”
Steve Unkel, M.D.,
Farmerville, LA,
September 22, 2005
Same result while evacuating for Hurricane Ike:
“Tell me again … what is this sociology all about??”
George Featherstone, Jr.
Gilmer, TX
September, 2008
Or, this is an example that I found in a sociology student’s blog:
“I really don’t understand sociology at all.”
Aimee, Student Blogger,
September, 2005
Another blogger wrote:
I took sociology three years ago, now I’m in an advanced sociology class … and I never understood it the first time around… somebody please help me with this assignment!!! Jon, Student Blogger, September,
2004
More Recently ….
• As I explain this (what sociology is), almost always the conversation follows with a long pause, as if people did not quite understand what I was talking about.
• From Rah’s Multiply, a Sociology Blog,
2012
A distinguished sociologist once noted in a speech he gave to a sociology class:
“My mother (God bless her) still has no idea what I do.”
Gerald O. Windham,
Starkville, MS
August 22, 1974
Is Sociology Left-Wing?
Heard during a sociology lecture at a major university:
About 15 minutes into the lecture Dr. Jones went off on what can only be described as a diatribe. He broke off completely from the subject at hand and told us basically how conservatives are ruining the world.
Among the highlights of this were that liberals embrace the future, and want to bring about a better world, and conservatives want to live in the past, fear change, and if it