Courses I have taught
The links below are to the websites of courses I have taught recently.  Depending on the course, students may have access to some or all of the following items: the syllabus, descriptions of assignments, a class directory, assigned readings, student or instructor notes from class, and links to additional print, audio, or visual information.  To visit one of these course web sites, click on the name of the course.

Structured Inequality (Soci 6420)

The Logic and Practice of Sociological Research (Soci 3600)

Class, Status, and Power (Soci 2420)

Social Relations in the Workplace  (last taught in 2000 at UNC-Chapel Hill)

Papers about Teaching

Abstract
In his observations about the sociological imagination, C. Wright Mills argued that people have difficulty seeing connections between individual outcomes and social structures.  Inspired by Mills’ observations, we developed a classroom exercise for stratification and organization courses that demonstrates how social structures can constrain individual actions and yet still produce outcomes that students often attribute to individual effort.  Using the simple process of flipping coins, this exercise minimizes the importance of individual differences while producing an aggregate outcome that mirrors the skewed distributions of personal wealth, firm size, and corporate assets in the United States.  Faced with this counterintuitive outcome, we engage students in a discussion that explores how changing the rules of the game or the equivalent social structures could change the overall outcome of the exercise or the distribution of valued goods and services in the U.S.  We demonstrate that our students enjoy the game format, but more importantly, we find that this exercise is an effective way to teach them about the importance of social structure.

The Franklin Fellows Program
The Franklin Fellows Program is an inter-disciplinary, post-doctoral teaching fellowship designed to provide young scholars with special opportunities to develop their teaching skills while continuing to pursue their research agendas.  Teaching Fellows are hired as temporary assistant professors in various departments at the University of Georgia and are expected to share in the responsibilities and activities of their home departments.  They are also expected to participate in regularly scheduled formal and informal sessions with other Fellows that bring together high-caliber teachers from around the campus to discuss teaching from practical, pedagogical, and philosophical perspectives.  I spent my first two years at UGA as a Franklin Fellow.  For a more complete description of the program, see Appendix B of the Dean's Office 1999 Annual Report.