Requirement: Complete a minimum of two theory courses. At least one course must be numerically graded with a minimum grade of 3.0.
Definition: Theory Courses explain the “why” or the big picture. The Oxford Dictionary defines a theory as “A supposition or a system of ideas intended to explain something, especially one based on general principles independent of the thing to be explained. “
Note: This list is not inclusive. If the course you want to take is not listed, please check with the PhD Assistant Director before enrolling.
ANTH 562 - Clinically Applied Anthropology (3)
Anthropology as it relates to interdisciplinary delivery of culturally relevant healthcare. Cultural variation in illness beliefs and behavior, types of healing practices, illness prevention, social support networks. Prerequisite: graduate standing, permission of instructor. Offered: jointly with NURS 562.
BH 502 - Ethical Theory (5)
Studies the major normative ethical theories, including both teleological and deontological approaches. Emphasizes moral philosophy during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as well as contemporary commentary. Recommended: course in ethics or philosophy. Offered: A.
ETHICS 512 - Justice Matters: An Exploration of Justice as a Social Ideal (5)
Asks what makes social policies and institutions morally acceptable, primarily through a discussion about justice and injustice. Topics include: relativism, the sources of competing conceptions of justice and equality, cost-benefit analysis, distributive justice, and beneficence.
GEOG 575 - Advanced Political Geography (5, max. 10)
Provides resources for theorizing how politics shapes and is shaped by geographical relationships. Examines how politics are situated in complex material and discursive geographies that are partly reproduced through political negotiations. Examines interrelationships of contemporary capitalism with other complex systems of social and political power relations. Offered: jointly with JSIS B 575.
GWSS 502 - Cross Disciplinary Feminist Theory (5)
Raises questions about how feminism becomes theory and what the relation of feminist theory is to conventional disciplines. Readings exemplify current crises in feminism (e.g., the emergence of neo-materialism; critical race theory; citizenship; identity; transnational and migrancy and questions of post-colonialism) to consider disciplinization.
GWSS 564 - Queer Desires (5)
Explores desire and the politics of sexuality as gendered, raced, classed, and transnational processes. Intimacies and globalization, normality and abnormality, and power and relationships as sites of inquiry into the constitution of "queerness." Students interrogate queer and sexuality studies using varied media - films, activist writing, scholarly articles.
GWSS 572 - Transnational Chicana Feminist Theory (5)
Examination of the body of knowledge and scholarship produced under the rubric "Transnational Chicana feminist theory." Analyzes the ways Chicana feminist theory dynamically engages intellectual, poetic, and aesthetic traditions. Considers how Chicana feminist theory functions within and between disciplinary frameworks. Explores transnational roots and routes of Chicana feminist theory.
NURS 590 - Ecology of Human Health (5)
Provides conceptual foundation for the study of human health ecology within nursing science. Frameworks for understanding human health as an outcome of individual, family, and group interactions and transactions with environments are applied. Provides the basis for evaluation and developing therapeutic approaches to improve health.
Pol S 427 - International Political Economy (5)
Examines major theoretical problems, substantive issues, and schools of thought in international political economy (IPE), including issues of trade, production, and finance. Preparation for critical analysis of dilemmas entailed in establishing and maintaining an instrumentally effective and ethically acceptable IPE system.
Pol S 517 - Marxism and Critical Theory (5)
Works of Marx and Engels as well as selected works of twentieth-century Marxist and critical theorists. Themes such as Marx's method, twentieth-century interpretations of Marx, and relationship of twentieth-century theorists to their eighteenth- and nineteenth-century forebears.
POL S 564 - Law and Politics of Social Change
Explores the many ways that law figures into the politics of social struggle and reform activity. Analyzes law in terms of particular state institutions (courts, agencies), professional elites (lawyers, judges), and especially cultural norms ("rights" discourses) that are routinely mobilized by reform-movement activists.
Psych 510 - Core Concepts in Social Psychology (4)
An overview of contemporary theories and research in social psychology, focusing on introducing graduate students to the field as practitioners of social psychological research. Prerequisite: graduate standing in psychology, or permission of instructor.
Psych 580 - Minority Mental Health (3)
Surveys topics on mental health and treatment of racial and ethnic minorities. Theory emphases include: models addressing ethnic identity, cross-cultural differences, models of culturally sensitive intervention. Practice emphases include unique psychotherapy strategies for: African-, Asian-, and Latino-Americans, and American Indians. Prerequisite: graduate clinical major standing in psychology, or permission of instructor.
Soc 513 - Demography and Ecology (3)
Theories and research on human fertility, mortality, mobility, migration, and urbanization in social/economic context. Comparative and historical materials on Europe, the United States, and the Third World. Offered: jointly with CSDE 513
Soc Wl 554 - Analytical Perspectives on Social Welfare Policy (3)
Broad overview of the social welfare policy process, including epistemological issues, content on social problem construction and definition, policy agendas and case study methodology. Introduction to analytical tools and concepts needed to take a proactive role in policy development, advocacy, implementation, and policy research.
Soc Wl 577 - Promoting Well-Being among At-Risk Groups through Prevention Research (3)
Interdisciplinary overview of major concepts and methods in health promotion and prevention research, with emphasis on at-risk populations. Attentive to health disparities, collaboration with diverse communities and biobehavioral advances in addition to application of theory and prevention-science framework. Encourages interdisciplinary participation and supporting students in articulating their research perspectives.
Soc Wl 579 - Interdisciplinary Approaches to Prevention Science: Children and Adolescents (3)
Overview of theory, research, and practice in prevention science. Developmental perspective examining factors that promote or inhibit health development at different stages and during transitions (focus on birth through age
Designed for interdisciplinary dialogue, and includes guest faculty from around the University who are specialists in course topics. Credit/No-credit only.
Soc Wl 591 - The Emodiment of Risk, Health Disparities, and Stress Mechanisms (3)
Interdisciplinary course designed for students who have interest in multi-level (“neurons to neighborhoods”) exposure to and impacts of stress, integrating social determinant and life course developmental perspectives. Provides an overview of theory and research targeting biological and behavioral processes through which lifespan stress and disadvantage contributes to learning, mental and physical health outcomes, with attention to vulnerable populations and inequalities. No biology background needed.