This article introduces a sociology role-playing game (RPG) used to demonstrate the broad range of social forces, institutions, and structures in a semester-long series of in-class and homework assignments. RPGs and other simulation games have been frequently suggested as a useful teaching methodology because of their unique ability to allow…

Americans are said to have a love affair with cars. Recent magazine articles have addressed automobiles as objects of status and desire and how particular cars have become American icons. The popularity of "Car Talk" on National Public Radio and television shows like "Monster Garage" and "Overhaulin'" also suggest…

This paper reports on a teaching and learning technique that uses the power of everyday body language and proxemics to illustrate forms of social inequality. More significantly, the active learning exercises assist students to feel the fact that the making and maintaining of power relations is an intimate and visceral matter. In keeping with…

Outlines the components of a teaching model on race that focuses on white privilege, white supremacy, and the ideology that upholds them. Recommends addressing issues of class privilege and power as a way to help white students understand this without alienating them. Discusses classroom preparation and teaching strategies. (MJP)

Maintains that most students learn how sociologists study social stratification in introductory sociology courses. Presents a content analysis of 15 introductory college textbooks to determine whether they use distributional or relational approaches as the basis for their treatment of social class. Finds that depictions of class are…

Describes a simple in-class exercise that reveals some flaws in capitalist, individualistic-oriented ideology by following specific assumptions to their logical conclusion. Poses the question, if drive and ambition are sole determinants of success could society accommodate a population where everyone possessed those qualities? (MJP)

Uses the concept of oppression to teach about gender, race, and class in an introductory social psychology course. Discusses the intersections between them and suggests how issues about oppression can be integrated into the classroom. Directs course toward White, middle-class students who lack a comprehension of societal oppression. (Author/NL)