Instructor

Sarmistha Pattanaik

Section

S1

Semester

Autumn ‘21

Course Difficulty

Easy

Time Commitment Required

Not a lot of time commitment is required to score well but if you want to get interested then a little of your own commitment and curiosity is required

Grading Policy and Statistics

The grading stats are quite chill, however, the scores we received for the essays we wrote (both assignments and endsem) were a little random.

Attendance Policy

The professor started with an attendance policy but never followed through on it

Pre-requisites

None

Evaluation Scheme

Quiz (x1) - 10%
Essay Assignment (x1) - 20%
Group Project + Recorded Presentation - 25 + 15%
Endsem - 30%

Topics Covered in the Course

Sociology is the study of societies and human behaviour. This course is divided into 5 modules
1.) What is Sociology? - The different perspectives and definitions in sociology
2.) Sociological Concepts - The various terms and definitions that are relevant around Sociology like Culture, Society, Social Institutions, etc.
3.) Sociological Thinkers - thinkers and founders like Auguste Comte, Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim
4.) Social Change and Modernization - how sociology is relevant in the current day and age and Secularisation in India
5.)Risk and Disaster Management, Impact of Climate change on Society and Vice Versa (This Module wasn’t tested in the endsem or any of the quizzes/assignments)

Teaching Style

The professor is very interested in sociology and you can see her interest in the course. However, her teaching lacked a lot of structure and the slides were extremely difficult to follow along. Discussions in class are fun if you respond to ma’am and she tries her level best to get people responding but very few people do.

Tutorials/Assignments/Projects

The assignment questions were really interesting from a sociological point of view and they were very enjoyable, however, the scores we received for the assignments were unpredictable.

Feedback on Exams

The exams were quite straightforward, quite easy if you pay attention in class. Studying last minute will be difficult because the slides and recordings are not at all structured well, and are very difficult to study from.

Course Highlights

The Project was definitely interesting as we received the freedom to persue any topic we find interesting that can be fit into sociological perspectives

Course Importance

While this course isn’t as important in the technical point of view, it is a very important course in order to understand human relations and this course helps think about society from an outside perspective which is vital to make any executive decisions.

References Used

The professor keeps sending papers and reference materials throughout the class for relevant details if you are interested in the topic to read. My recommendation would be to follow the course content online through interesting youtube videos (“crash course sociology” is a very good playlist available online that I followed) and case studies

Interesting relevant links

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylXVn-wh9eQ&list=PL8dPuuaLjXtMJ-AfB_7J1538YKWkZAnGA

Review By: Vidyut Balaji