TY - JOUR AU - Yavuz, Devrim PY - 2020/06/12 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Edited Book Project in Classical Sociological Theory JF - TRAILS: Teaching Resources and Innovations Library for Sociology JA - TRAILS VL - IS - SE - DO - UR - https://trails.asanet.org/article/view/edited-book-project-in-classical-sociological-theory SP - AB - The "edited sociological book" project was developed as part of an effort to reimagine the required classical theory course at Lehman College (CUNY) to make its instruction less top-down and more focused on the skills students need in the practice of their sociological profession. The assignment calls on students to become editors of a sociological volume on a topic of their choice (within set parameters) by finding four journal articles written from different sociological traditions* covered during the semester to constitute its chapters. Students then write the book’s "introduction" in which they discuss each "chapter’s" contribution to advancing our understanding of the topic and the field of sociology. The instructional goal of the assignment is threefold. First, it draws on the literature that takes writing as a useful tool to engage concepts and ideas in order to help students tackle complex sociological theories and readings. Second, by compelling students to identify articles written from specific traditions, it seeks to enhance their knowledge of different sociological currents and also makes searching academic databases more proactive by touching on some of the skill sets researchers develop in the practice of their profession. Finally, the project seeks to identify an audience and aims for a more professional form of writing, which makes the endeavor more clearly defined and which affords a final product that students can take ownership of when compared to standard review assignments intended solely for the instructor. Overall, the fact that it touches on several skill sets, has helped make the theory class a more integral part of achieving the department’s learning outcomes by reinforcing certain skills such as information literacy and knowledge of sociological concepts and debates. The assignment can be adapted to other sociology courses by calling on students to edit a book specific to that field. *Durkheim, Marx, Weber, and Adam Smith ER -