Readings include those assigned from texts or other sources, as well as those from the online lecture material (this page has a list of all the online lecture pages).

• Week 1 (September 22 – ) What are social problems, and how to think about them?
• Week 2 (September 29 – ) News, media and framing social problems
• Week 3 (October 6 – ) News coverage of politics (small group work that week)
• Week 4 (October 13 – ) Will humans survive on a warmer planet?
• Week 5 (October 20 – ) Can warming be slowed, if not stopped?
• Week 6 (October 27 – ) McDonaldization: Not just a restaurant chain?
• Week 7 (November 3 – ) McDonaldization: Supersize that cage for you?
• Week 8 (November 10 – ) McDonaldization, social control, and Orwell’s 1984
• Week 9 (November 17 – ) 1984 + Framing of war and terrorism
• Thanksgiving week (November 24 – 28): No class
• Week 10 (December 1 – ) Course wrap-up, final exam prep
• Week 11 (December 8 – ) course eval, makeups

• See calendar of important dates