As you know, our Study Abroad in London for 2020 was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  But hope springs eternal!  I’m planning to teach this course (SOC203: Sociology through Rock ‘n Roll) in London in July 2021.  For more information on the summer program in London you can contact the NCSU Study Abroad office.

SOC203 is an introduction to the science of sociology.  It is usually taught with a textbook going through the usual topics in an introductory sociology course such as families, crime and deviance, inequality, gender, social organizations, population, and so forth.

But this course is different.  I’m going to use rock ‘n roll — its music, artists, fans, and the industry itself — to illustrate basic sociological concepts.  That’s why the course is titled “Sociology through Rock ‘n Roll” rather than “Sociology of  Rock ‘n Roll”.  This is not a course about rock ‘n roll; that would be a music course, or maybe a history course.  This is a course about sociology using rock ‘n roll to illustrate key concepts.

We’ll spend most of our time out and about in London visiting the iconic sights of British rock ‘n roll: Abbey Road, the Royal Albert Hall, Jimi Hendrix’s apartment, the original Hard Rock Cafe, the site of the Beatles’ Rooftop Concert, and many more.

This blog will take you through the activities — classroom work, site visits, and so forth — that we will be doing in July 2021.  Enjoy!