Family Studies Minor

Contact or visit us

Sociology Department
Heba Khalil, Ph.D.
Interim Department Chair
(402) 465-2487
hkhalil [at] nebrwesleyan.edu (hkhalil[at]nebrwesleyan[dot]edu)

Family Studies Minor

Below is the coursework required to minor in family studies. For an overview of this program, see Sociology and Anthropology Degrees.

COMM 2500 Family Communication (3 hours)

Family Communication is designed as an introduction to communication phenomena in the context of the family. The overall goal of the course is to help students understand how, through communication, we develop, maintain, enhance, or disturb family relationships. Students will learn theories focusing on the communication patterns and practices that shape family life.

ENG 2200 World Literature: Sexualities (4 hours)

Each course in the Topics in World Literature group will study a selection of literary works that engage the chosen topic--texts of different genres, from historical eras, and from different cultural traditions. The selected readings will present both abstract principles involved in the topic and its immediate, lived realities.
Cross listed with GEND 2200.
Prerequisite(s): Any First Year Writing course.
(Normally offered every fall and spring semester.)

Archway Curriculum: Essential Connections: Writing Instructive
Archway Curriculum: Foundational Literacies: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion – Global
Archway Curriculum: Integrative Core: Gender and Sexuality Thread
HIST 3550 THE WILD WEST?: GENDER IN THE US WEST (4 hours)

See HIST 4550 Gender & The Wild West.

Archway Curriculum: Essential Connections: Writing Instructive
Archway Curriculum: Essential Connections: Speaking Instructive
Archway Curriculum: Foundational Literacies: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion – U.S.
Archway Curriculum: Integrative Core: Gender and Sexuality Thread
HIST 4550 Gender & The Wild West (4 hours)

Women of the American West to the Wild West? Gender in the American West.
This course highlights the history of the North American West through the lens of gender from precontact to present, and explores topics of myth and stereotypes; gender roles in the home, family, and community; as well as addressing questions of race, class, and ethnicity.  HIST4550 meets with HIST3550.  The requirements of the courses are the same EXCEPT that a research paper is required for students in 4550.
Prerequisite(s): HIST 1010 Topics in United States History to 1877, or permission of the instructor.

Archway Curriculum: Essential Connections: Writing Instructive
Archway Curriculum: Essential Connections: Speaking Instructive
Archway Curriculum: Foundational Literacies: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion – U.S.
Archway Curriculum: Integrative Core: Gender and Sexuality Thread
PSYCH 3360 Child and Adolescent Development (4 hours)

Students will have the opportunity to broaden their perspective of and appreciation for the developmental processes that occur in the early developmental periods of childhood and adolescence. The course will follow bioecological and other systems perspectives with a strong focus on diversity in childhood experiences. Topics will include socialization of children and attitudes about childhood and child-rearing; self and identity processes; family interactions; peer interactions; and educational experiences, all from multiple cultural contexts. Additional attention will be spent on less common childhood circumstances such as living on the street, exposure to war or heavy conflict, and experiences of trauma and violence.

Prerequisite(s): PSYCH 1010/PSYCH 1010FYW Introduction to Psychological Science; PSYCH 2350 Lifespan Development or by permission of instructor.

Archway Curriculum: Foundational Literacies: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion – Global
SOC 1110 Introduction to Sociology (4 hours)

This course is an introduction to using the sociological perspective as a method of social inquiry. Students explore such basic concepts as culture, socialization, social structure, social interaction, and social change. They study and apply the theories and research methodologies used to investigate human social interaction. These concepts are applied to social topics such as race, class, gender, family, crime, population, environment, and others.
(Normally offered each semester.)

Archway Curriculum: Foundational Literacies: Scientific Investigations: Social Science
Archway Curriculum: Justice Thread
SOC 1350 Sociology of the Family (4 hours)

See SOC 2350 Sociology of the Family.

Archway Curriculum: Essential Connections: Discourse Instructive
Archway Curriculum: Integrative Core: Gender and Sexuality Thread
SOC 2350 Sociology of the Family (4 hours)

This course offers an analysis of various interrelationships of men and women with emphasis on love, courtship, marriage, and family. Institutional, social, and policy perspectives are presented in a cross-cultural and historical frame of reference to clarify the dynamic relationship between the family, its members, and broader U.S. society. The requirements of the 2350 course are the same as the 1350 course EXCEPT that students in the higher course number complete a field interview project that involves significant writing and which fulfills the writing instructive designation of Archway.
(Normally offered each semester.)

Archway Curriculum: Essential Connections: Writing Instructive
Archway Curriculum: Essential Connections: Discourse Instructive
Archway Curriculum: Integrative Core: Gender and Sexuality Thread
SOC 2530 Population and Environment (4 hours)

This course examines the demographic and social dynamics of population size, composition, and distribution. It addresses the relationships among population, human health, development and the environment. Strong cross-cultural emphasis. A major focus is the development of a semester research paper contrasting the status of the Millennium and Sustainable Development Goals, environmental status, and health in a more- and less- developed country.

Archway Curriculum: Essential Connections: Writing Instructive
Archway Curriculum: Integrative Core: Humans in the Natural Environment Thread
SOC 3260 Thinking SocioLogically: Gender (2 hours)

This course uses the sociological perspective to explore sex and gender relations as major features of social life. It considers the social construction of gender (including the creation of masculinities and femininities) and examines the impact of gender ideologies on the social positions of gendered individuals. In particular, it emphasizes the way these social positions (such as gender, race, social class, sexualities, etc...) create and perpetuate the inequalities embedded in its social institutions (like the family, economy/work, religion, media, etc...).

Prerequisite(s): SOC 1110 Introduction to Sociology

Archway Curriculum: Integrative Core: Gender and Sexuality Thread
SOCWK 2350 Family Violence Across the Lifespan (3 hours)

This course will expose students to the various types of violence experienced by individuals and families across their lifespan. An introduction to various theories used in working with survivors of abuse will be presented and students will learn about bruises and fractures associated with child abuse. The influence of societal "isms", culture, gender, and sexual orientation related to violence will be incorporated into the material being discussed.
Cross listed with GEND 2350.
(Normally offered each spring semester.)

Archway Curriculum: Integrative Core: Gender and Sexuality Thread
THTRE 2040 Dramatic Literature: Families (3 hours)

This speaking-instructive dramatic literature course examines how definitions and concepts of family have been represented in dramatic literary works. By reading, discussing, reflecting in writing and making oral presentations about a variety of dramatic works drawn from diverse perspectives students will consider how changes in cultural and institutional environments impact definitions of family and how concepts of family are interconnected with other with other social institutions.

Archway Curriculum: Essential Connections: Speaking Instructive