Taking to the Air

It’s an Honour.

Ohla! Today’s the first day of school and it’s a 5K module. Titled SC 5201 Concept Formation and Theory Building, it does sound a little daunting. But I was sold right away when my professor Alatas did the sales pitch when I was in school. He cited that it’d draw from works discussed in previous modules like Religion (chiefly conceptual issues like the Problem of Defining Religion) and Interpretive Sociology (Weber’s Protestant Ethic, Mannheim’s Ideology and Utopia). Understanding how concepts come to be formed in Sociology is a very interesting and necessary intellectual exercise. We’d also be tackling marginal concepts (those introduced by marginalized groups like women/gays), Sociology as Sorcery, and the Sociology of Concepts (how the similar concepts could be more different than we think, when they are conceptualized and understood in different societies, time frame and milieu).

Glad to see that there are more people than I thought. 13 is a comfortable. I saw only two persons bidding earlier—not exactly conducive an environment for bouncing ideas off each other. There are familiar students from last year’s Honours class who are now Masters students. I have two other fellow Honours level classmates, as well as a whole host of graduate students from varying backgrounds: working adults, one Danish, one Filipino, a few Chinese nationals. And Monsieur Alatas himself to add to the cosmo mix. Délicieux.

posted by Dennis She @ 12:41 AM