Date: Thu, 25 Feb 1999 16:16:09 -0800 (PST)
From: ODUL BOZKURT <obozkurt-AT-ucla.edu>
Subject: Sociology-Film


Hi All-

This may be too "lame" a posting for this list, but I
shall proceed anyway.  Please feel free to ignore it if it lacks
(the necessary) sophistication!

Some time ago the idea came up with some sociologist friends (PhD students
in Soc) that one could teach an introductory  sociology class exclusively
through film--and not just so that one could capture the fancy of
undergraduates whose attention span is often indeed as narrow (and hence
precious!!) to be called a "window of opportunity."...

Film "genres"/schools resemble nicely sociological
"frameworks".  The kind of course I have in mind can be
constructed looking at not merely the
substantive content of the film, but also the relationship between this
content and how it is narrated/made sense of from within a particular 
perspective.

Think of this as a "fun" exercise that may one day turn into a real
course: I'd be interested in getting together a list of films that people
 think might be relevant/appropriate for certain sociological
subfields. In other words, this would not entail a sociological study of
FILM and film history per se, but would make use of film as one form of
sociological analysis itself. There are so many excellent films that are
profoundly sociological that in the end maybe I'll have a "syllabus" for
separate subfields even. 

For those of you who are not familiar with the (highly) institutionalized
world of academic sociology in the U.S., I am jotting down some of our
perennial favorites that have been designated as "subfields." Don't ponder
upon where the "boundaries" lie: often they have rather arbitrary origins
and cumulated historical inertias! Correspondingly, do suggest your own
fields and films-what a welcome thing that would be.

But some subfields off the top of my head anyway:

* Sociology of the Family 
* Political Sociology
* Sociology of Class Relations
* Marxist Sociology
* Social Change
* Social Movements
* Race and Ethnicity
* Sociology of Immigration
* Sociology of Work
* Sociology of Gender
* Feminist Sociology
* Sociology of Urbanization
* Sociology of Nationalism
* Sociology of Deviance and Crime
* Sociology of any geographical area in the world: Latin America/Middle
      East/Western Europe/SouthEast Asia...anything you could think of in
      similar terms...
* Sociology of Education
* Sociology of the Military and War 
* Sociology of Countercultures
* Sociology of Tourism
* Sociology of Music and Dance
* Post-modern Sociology

etc.etc.etc.etc.... Well, you get the idea. I would appreciate a short (or
long!) description of the film you're suggesting, and why you think it
would be relevant to a particular subfield. 


In any case, course or no course, I shall be delighted to get
any suggestions, and am counting on you to make my future video rental
selections feel like I am NOT escaping my "real" work as I watch them!

Plentiful thanks, 

Odul Bozkurt
Department of Sociology
U.C.L.A.    




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