This course focuses on the STUDY OF CULTURE -- what it is; how it operates; and how and why cultures around the world have similarities and differences in their customs, behaviors, beliefs, forms of organization, and artifacts.  The goal of this class is to expand our view of what it means to be "human" to include the full global, international range of customs, behaviors and beliefs of people all around the world that we live in. To do this, we study cultural patterns and processes using comparative examples from different societies around the world.

TEXTBOOK for Dr. LaLone's SOCY 121 classes:

Elements of Culture: An Applied Perspective, by Susan Andreatta & Gary Ferraro, 2012, published by Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, student copy ISBN is 978-1-111-83000-7. 
You will need it the first week of school.

SOCY 121, Understanding Cultures

Classes:

SOCY 486, Engaging the Community: Community-Based Research

This class examines ways to apply social science methods and perspectives for successful projects and careers working with community groups.  The class covers the most effective approaches, methods, and career skills for partnering with community groups to conduct collaborative community development research in areas such as education programs, health care, social services, environmental action, social justice and advocacy issues, cultural heritage preservation, community arts, and more.

SOCY 301, Culture Change & Globalization

This course examines issues of culture change and globalization as they affect cultural communities around the world in both past and present times.  We’ll study processes of change and apply lessons on change from the past toward understanding the challenges of culture change now and in the future.

SOCY 370, Environmental Sociology

Environment and Society - how are they interrelated in a delicately balanced global web?  How does environmental change impact societies and how does social change impact the environment?  Why are environmental impacts unequally distributed?  Why should we care about climate change?  How can we achieve community resilience when hit with devastating disasters like Hurricane Katrina?  We’ll discuss and answer these and other questions.