TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION: Sociology students use their degree to unpick global issues

Description

I teach a first year undergraduate sociology course at the University of Manchester in which students examine social scientific perspectives on major global challenges such as inequality, climate change, migration, radicalisation and corporate power. 

I designed a writing assignment that asked students to communicate important sociological ideas - and they rose to the challenge. They had to address debates they encountered in the news, media or online, but on the basis of the scholarly knowledge they were encountering (often for the first time). They had to write in an accessible and engaging style, that neither hid their passions behind technical language nor lost sight of the need for considered reflection and evidence.