INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY
This course introduces students to the sociological imagination: the ability to see connections between individual lives and larger social forces such as capitalism, inequality, and globalization. What makes us who we are? What forces sustain the historical continuities in human society – such as how we work, who we marry, who and how we punish? Students will learn about historical and contemporary sociological perspectives on labour, inequality, deviance, gender, racialization, the market, and the state. We will explore how various sociological theories have analyzed social, political, and economic structures and the forces that drive and/or hinder change.
SOCIAL CONTROL
University of Toronto St. George
Summer 2021, 2022
This course will examine how Western society has gone about controlling people and practices considered ‘deviant’ throughout history. Engaging with foundational theoretical texts, ethnographical and archival work, literature, and film, we will study processes of criminalization and punishment as colonial, race-making, and gendered historical projects – from settler colonialism, the Atlantic Slave trade, early 20th-century urbanization, and the Cold War, to contemporary policies of mass incarceration, policing, and the War on Drugs. We will also uncover how people across time have not been passive victims of state control, but instead have actively resisted criminalization and created possibilities for survival and joy beyond the margins of the law.
SELECTED STUDENT FEEDBACK
INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY (IN PERSON)
“I just wanted to let you know that although sociology is not a field I plan on going into, I have throughly enjoyed taking your class, and I believe a big part of that has been because you are a great professor. I love listening to you lecture, and I feel that the way you explain things makes them very easy to understand. Your voice is very nice to listen to! I also appreciate your effort to help everyone achieve good grades in the class, as the tests are hard and even I haven’t had the best grade. The extra credit
meme idea is so funny and Im really excited to see the memes everyone makes. Overall its nice because your students can tell you really care about the subject you teach, as well as your students. If im remembering right, I feel like you’ve mentioned this being your first year at the U, which is impressive.
Keep doing what you’re doing, and thank you for being my favorite professor I've had this semester!!”
INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY (IN PERSON)
“Although it is my first year at the University of Minnesota, you have been the best teacher/professor that I have ever had. You teaching style is very engaging, I have not ever gotten bored of what you are presenting to me. You made me fall in love with Sociology and are making me consider majoring in it. I am gonna take your class next semester too!!”
SOCIAL CONTROL - SUMMER 2023 (ONLINE)
Probably one of the best professors I have ever had in my past three years at U of T. Prof Otto does a fantastic job delivering extremely interesting and stimulating course material with the outline she created out of academic passion. Additionally, she is incredibly respectful and understanding of all her students every week. Genuinely a pleasure to take a course from her.
SOCIAL CONTROL - SUMMER 2023 (ONLINE)
SUPER AMAZING. Professor Otto made use a multiple methods of teaching to help us learn and retain our knowledge. Weekly recorded lecturettes to watch on our own time, live discussion sessions with review of week's materials (lecturettes and readings), she always posted the slides for us to take notes on and the post–lecture slides for us to review, she also incorporated weekly participation portfolio based on the weekly readings, and the assignments included 2 creative media analysis group projects (with the option to complete solo or in partners/trios) was super fun and helped us engage deeply with the concepts we learned in class, as well as 2 written essay analyses of a documentary and of a film. Prof Otto gave us the chance to participate if we'd like in class, first through a weekly check–in, how is everyone feeling, what did we think of the readings and lecturettes, and if we have any questions or concerns and most importantly she made the classroom a safe environment for us to be honest with her about where we are at with our assignments, whether we are behind with watching the lecturettes or readings. And she gives us positive encouragement and her understanding. And motivates us to get caught up with more exciting interesting content! Love her!! Amazing amazing prof and course format. She's super passionate about her teaching, her content, her research, her students and their learning!
SOCIAL CONTROL - SUMMER (ONLINE)
Professor Otto did an excellent job designing this course and I really enjoyed it. I admire her casual and conversational pedagogical approach. She's very knowledgeable, humourous, and a really engaging and charismatic prof overall. It's clear that she carefully selected the readings in the syllabus, and although they're quite dense, she does a great job of summarizing the texts and sociological theories which is helpful as some of them are written in a level of language that is less accessible/more difficult to understand (e.g. Foucault). I think she really drills in the foundational concepts by reverting back to them and drawing connections to them throughout the course repeatedly. Her way of teaching is very narrative, thorough, well–structured, and well–argued. The content she chose for us to analyze was also very interesting, such as the newspaper articles and the Moonlight film. I only have positive things to say about this class and I wish I had taken it when it was delivered in person. However, I must say that Professor Otto has really fine tuned it well as a online–summer term course and things ran smoothly from start to finish despite the various unexpected things that came up.
SOCIAL CONTROL - SUMMER (ONLINE)
"SOC313 is by far one of the best courses I've ever taken at UofT. The material was incredibly interesting. Natalia Otto is a fantastic lecturer, and probably the best I have had in my four years at UofT. Though some of the material we studied was sometimes heavy, she managed to contextualize it in an eloquent, seamless and concise way. Her lectures were very well constructed, with consistent opportunities to go over previous material and time for questions. The assignments we were given were probably some of the most interesting I've ever had to do. They were extremely engaging, and improved my understanding of key concepts."
SOCIAL CONTROL - FALL 2021 (IN PERSON)
"Professor Otto is the sweetest and most engaging professor ever. She genuinely cares about the well being and mental health of her students and this really motivates the class to learn and engage deeply in the course content. She is very passionate and this reflects in how she inspires all the students."
SOCIAL CONTROL - FALL 2021 (IN PERSON)
"SOC313 is by far one of the best courses I've ever taken at UofT. The material was incredibly interesting. Natalia Otto is a fantastic lecturer, and probably the best I have had in my four years at UofT. Though some of the material we studied was sometimes heavy, she managed to contextualize it in an eloquent, seamless and concise way. Her lectures were very well constructed, with consistent opportunities to go over previous material and time for questions. The assignments we were given were probably some of the most interesting I've ever had to do. They were extremely engaging, and improved my understanding of key concepts."