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Three new spring courses will tap into a theme of connecting students with the world around them — connecting with potential employers, exploring the relationship between humans and animals, and exploring global social change in an interconnected world.

These new courses offered by the Sociology the Anthropology Department in the College of Arts and Sciences fill many general education, college and major requirements and are poised to also fill some of OHIO's Bricks requirements.

SOC 2020: Exploring Professions and Careers in Sociology

Sociology 2020 asks students to take a proactive role in the construction of their "future professional self," said Ted Welser, associate professor of sociology.

This new two-credit course — taught in a seven-week format — helps students explore their professional interests and then shows them how to tap into LinkedIn and other tools to find organizations hiring people with their skillset.

"Sociological training prepares students for a wide variety of career options," Welser said. "Many organizations — corporate, non-profit, and public — rely on social science research methods, analysis and policy development, and these are skills where sociology student excel."

"In SOC 2020, students assess their skills, explore professional interests, forge network contacts, learn about grants and grant writing, and learn how to document and communicate their sociological training and expertise in ways that employers find valuable," Welser, who teaches the course, added. "We use hands-on exercises to perform goal setting, career imagining, skill recognition, and job fit comparisons."

Students will also develop their own digital profile through both LinkedIn and multiple resumes that describe both their current skills and the capacities they aspire to cultivate.

"We will make extensive use of LinkedIn, and when applicable LinkedIn premium for job search insights, fit with particular jobs, as well as access to the deep library of instructional resources on LinkedIn Learning," Welser noted. "I will try to strike a balance between helping students recognize and present their current professional self and recognizing how to best invest their time in cultivating their cultural and social capital to work towards their ideal future professional self."

There are two seven-week sections of this two-credit hour course, the first runs Jan. 17 to March 3, and the second section is March 6 to April 29. Enrollment in each is limited to 15 students per section.

ANTH 2210:  Animals and Human Society

Anthropology 2210 explores relationships between humans and animals, including the future of the animal-human relationship in the context of a changing climate.

"How do the meanings we attach to animals shape interactions? How do these meanings perpetuate hierarchical human relationships?" asks Nancy Tatarek, associate professor of anthropology. "In this course we examine moral, philosophical, and scientific debates regarding the animal-human relationship."

This course fills an anthropology major requirement and Tier 2 general education.

SOC 2380X: Global Social Change

Sociology 2380X provides the perfect tools to explore the complex ways that contemporary politics, economics, culture, technology, and protest movements are transforming an increasingly interconnected world.

"What is driving global social change?" asks Jieli Li, professor of sociology. "We will consider a wide range of social issues and urgent social problems, including the effects of neoliberalism, the politicization of COVID-19 and other epidemics, the interplay between religion and law, how social media is transforming civic engagement, and movements for gender recognition and equality."

The course concludes by considering new forms of social movements that call for innovative solutions to the challenges of a changing global world.

This course fills a sociology major requirement.