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DAVID YAMANE • DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY • WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY | ||||
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My primary teaching interests include introduction to sociology, classical theory, and various aspects of the sociology of religion. I also maintain more than a passing interest in contemporary theory, culture, education, and race/ethnic studies. My contributions to teaching scholarship include publishing in and serving on the editorial board of the professional journal Teaching Sociology (see articles below), and editing the instructor’s manual for the fourth edition of David Newman’s Sociology: Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life (Pine Forge Press). I am proud to have won the Kulynych Family Omicron Delta Kappa Award for Contribution to Student Life in 2007. Writing on Pedagogical Issues
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Course #/Title |
Description | When Offered |
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FYS 100: Sociology of Vocation |
This course is a sociological examination of the concept and practice of vocation. Vocation, understood from a Judeo-Christian perspective, is God’s call and plan for our lives and our response to that call. As Quakers say, vocation involves “letting your life speak.” Although it can be difficult to understand vocation without a religious dimension, we might provisionally say that from a secular perspective vocation is simply our understanding of and answer to the question: “What must I do with my life?” We will combine reflection on the concept of vocation and our sense of personal vocation with sociological analyses of the constraints we face in American society as we attempt to discern and realize our vocations in domains such as education, work, family, and public life. We are fortunate that enrollment in this course is limited so we can treat it as a discussion-based seminar. As such, I will not lecture. This format distributes the burden of learning equally on all members of the class. How much we learn will be directly related to how much effort each and every one of us dedicates to the course work, particularly reading the primary course materials and coming to class prepared to discuss those materials. | Fall 2007 Fall 2006 (Course website moved to Blackboard) |
SOC 151: Principles of Sociology |
Sociologists like to watch people do things with and to one another, and then try to explain how and why they do them. We are the voyeurs of social life. This course invites students to become part of this sociological enterprise of observing and explaining the social world. It presumes no previous exposure to sociology as an academic discipline, though we all bring with us a life's worth of experiences of living in society and we will draw upon those experiences throughout the course. | Spring 2006 Spring/Fall 2005 |
SOC 301: Religion and Society |
This course surveys the major developments in the sociological study of religion, beginning with it roots in Enlightenment thought and the work of Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Emile Durkheim and continuing through to current debates over religious growth and decline, contemporary spiritual transformations, and the reality of secularization. Along the way, we will examine the cultural and social structural factors that have transformed religion in modern society, especially the United States. We will examine these transformations at both the individual and organizational levels, and also explore the ways in which religion enters civil society and public life. As a 300-level seminar, this course is reading and writing intensive, and discussion-based. If you are not willing and able to put in the time and effort to read the course materials before each class, give due attention to the writing assignments, and offer well-considered ideas in class on a regular basis, it will be extremely difficult for you to pass this class. With all due respect, there are easier courses you can take. | Spring 2006 Spring/Fall 2005 |
THS 636: Sociology of Religion |
This course surveys the major developments in the sociological study of religion, beginning with it roots in Enlightenment thought and the work of Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Emile Durkheim and continuing through to current debates over contemporary spirituality and the reality of secularization. Along the way, we will examine the cultural and social structural factors that have transformed religion in modern society, especially the United States. We will examine these transformations at both the individual and organizational levels, and also explore the ways in which religion enters civil society and political life.
Students will be asked to engage these particular developments, but will also have the opportunity to explore, write about, and lead the class in a consideration of their own particular interests. |
Summer 2006 |
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