COURSES & CURRICULUM
Course Guides
Smith College Catalog
Smith's online course catalog includes course listings (description, instructor and offered terms), department data, information on majors and minors, honors programs and cross-listed and interdepartmental courses. A search function allows you to find courses by course number, department, keywords in the title, term offered, number of credits, fields of knowledge and professor.
Five College Course Guide
The Five College consortium increases your choices. Four liberal arts colleges—Smith, Amherst, Hampshire and Mount Holyoke—along with the University of Massachusetts, offer joint courses of study as well as certificate programs in interdisciplinary fields. Courses are available at no extra cost to Smith students.
Field Courses
The following courses require either field work or field research:
- SOC 202 Methods of Social Research
- SOC 203 Qualitative Methods
- SOC 214 Sociology of Hispanic Caribbean Communities in the United States
- SOC 315 Practicum in Community-Based Research
SOC 214 and SOC 315 include community-based learning and research. Some sections of SOC 101 Introductory Sociology encourages field work or field research. There are also opportunities for group field work in SOC 216 Social Movements.
Special Studies Options in Sociology
Students wishing to pursue individualized study in their junior or senior years on campus may enroll in a Special Studies tutorial (SOC 404 or 408). A student must secure the agreement of a faculty member to supervise a particular project prior to enrolling for a Special Studies. Normally, students should propose a special studies no later than the pre-registration period for the semester in which the special studies will occur. Examples of the kinds of work done in Special Studies tutorials include:
- In-depth reading in an area not covered in another course
- The execution of a research proposal developed in another course (either library research or empirical research)
- Other options, to be negotiated between the student and a particular faculty member
