200-level

SOCI201
Social Theory for Contemporary Life
Description
This course engages with a range of classical and contemporary social theories dealing with the complexity of the social and everyday life. Even though social theories aim to provide a general interpretation of the social forces that have shaped the modern, contemporary world; we use them every day in informal ways. This course focuses on how social theorists have set out to make sense of the world. Students will be introduced to a selection of theorists and perspectives in an approachable manner and use material that is relevant to our contemporary social world. This course is compulsory for the Sociology major.
Occurrences
Semester One 2026
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level from ANTH or SOCI, or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
SOCI301, SOCI393 (2013).
SOCI202
Constructing Bodies
Description
This course focuses on the ways in which the body is shaped in culturally/historically specific contexts, which include the lived body as a site of knowledge and experience. It explores a range of body practices, representations and technologies such as non-mainstream body modification, sexuality education, trans medico-surgical practices and the sexualization of culture.
Occurrences
Semester One 2026
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level from ANTH, CULT, or SOCI, or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
GEND102, FMST102, GEND112, AMST113, CULT112, AMST142, GEND201, CULT207
SOCI220
Environment and Society
Description
The growing recognition of the reality and consequences of global environmental change poses a fundamental challenge to the ways we interact with the environment and each other, and places new demands on sociological thinking. This course introduces conceptual tools for approaching environmental issues from the local to global level. International, national, and local studies of human interaction with different aspects of the environment will explore contemporary issues, such as environmental justice movements and biodiversity conservation efforts. Students will have the chance to apply concepts and critical thinking skills through undertaking a social action project.
Occurrences
Semester Two 2026
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level from ANTH or SOCI, or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
SOCI230 (2005), SOCI320, SOCI330 (2005)
SOCI222
Whakataka Nga Here: Colonisation and the Criminal Justice System
Description
This course will examine one of the most pressing issues facing Aotearoa New Zealand. Students will explore historical and contemporary determinants of Maori over-representation in the criminal justice system. The course also engages with contemporary responses to the challenges we will examine, and identify future solutions.
Occurrences
Semester Two 2026
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level in SOCI, ANTH, CRJU, or LAWS, or Any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
CRJU222
SOCI243
Sociology of Health and Wellbeing
Description
This course explores the social aspects of health and wellbeing, examining the connection between social structures and health outcomes. Focusing on health institutions, people’s experiences within the health system, and different ways of constructing health and illness, we will look at inequalities and health, culture and health, mental health, doctor-patient relationships, and health advocacy, amongst other topics. Students gain a broad understanding of the Aotearoa New Zealand health scene. Students will also have an opportunity to think about health and wellbeing in relation to their own lives and, through community service learning, to apply classroom learning about health and wellbeing issues to real-time situations.
Occurrences
Semester One 2026
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level from ANTH or SOCI, or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
SOCI343
SOCI263
Everyday Life and Society
Description
This course introduces students to a range of issues associated with the sociology of the everyday world. It examines how the elements of everyday life - shopping, credit cards, leisure, the meaning of home, food, relationships with companion animals, and other student selected topics reveal our entanglement with wider social processes. Everyday worlds will also be examined as a nexus for our engagement with contemporary issues ranging from environmental awareness to social justice.
Occurrences
Summer Nov 2025
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level from ANTH or SOCI, or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
SOCI278
Religion and Society: Why God Won't Die
Description
This course is an introduction to the sociology of religion focused on thinking and rethinking religion & society.Central to the discussion is why god and religion has not dissapeared as was predicted in much modern social theory. In considering this question, the course provides a critical discussion of the ways religion, god and religious practices have been thought, dismissed and applied over the past 150 years within the Sociology of Religion.
Occurrences
Semester Two 2026
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level from ANTH or SOCI, or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
ANTH298, SOCI292, SOCI392 in 2012
SOCI293
The History of Gangs in New Zealand
Description
An introduction to the sociology of gangs, focusing on the historical development of gangs in New Zealand and the methods which have been taken to control them.
Occurrences
Semester Two 2026
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level in SOCI, ANTH, CRJU, or LAWS, or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.

300-level

SOCI303
Sexualities, Gender and Relationalities
Description
This course explores the changing landscape of sexuality and gender categories and identities, as well as new forms and understandings of intimacy and relationality. It considers how various identities, representations and practices disrupt and/or reproduce gendered, sexual and non-sexual intimacies and relationship normativities in a range of sites. These include mediated intimacies, polyamory and other non-consensual non-monogamies, asexualities, incels and PUAs (‘pick up artists’), ‘sexting’ and dating apps.
Occurrences
Semester Two 2026
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level from ANTH or SOCI, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
SOCI433
SOCI345
Critical Disaster Studies
Description
This course focuses on an introduction to the sociological study of disasters and their impact on society. Disasters are triggered by both natural hazards (e.g., earthquakes, floods, wildfires) and human-induced hazards (e.g., oil spills, terrorism, nuclear accidents, COVID-19 pandemic) and cause widespread community disruption, displacement, economic loss, property/infrastructure damage, death and injury, and psychological suffering. There has been a significant increase in the frequency and magnitude of disasters, and the economic costs, damage to the built and natural environments, and human consequences have been increasingly severe. In this course, much of the focus will be on how social, political and economic conditions influence how people and communities experience, manage, prepare for, recover from and mitigate disasters. Through Critical Disaster Studies (CDS) perspectives, case studies of major disasters in Aotearoa New Zealand and the world (including the COVID-19 pandemic) are used to explore topics such as the impact of sex/gender, class, race/ethnicity, colonization, age and social capital on social vulnerability and resilience to disasters.
Occurrences
Semester Two 2026
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level from ANTH or SOCI, OR any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
SOCI363
Investigating Social Worlds
Description
The course provides students with 'hands on' experiential learning in conducting, and participating in, life stories and focus group research. Students will gain skills in one-to-one interviewing, focus group interviews, research ethics, transcript analysis and reflexive research practice.
Occurrences
Semester One 2026
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level from ANTH or SOCI, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
SOCI340, SOCI341
SOCI368
The Politics of Need: Globalisation, Poverty and Welfare Provision
Description
An advanced study of globalisation that examines how our new world of risk (including global financial risk) shapes our experiences of wealth, poverty and belonging. As well as using case studies from around the world, it covers groundbreaking theorisations of globalisation and an interrogation of New Zealand's place in a global world.
Occurrences
Semester One 2026
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
30 points of SOCI including 15 points at 200 level; OR 30 points of SOCI or ANTH at 200 level; OR 60 points in related subjects including 30 points at 200 level with the approval of the Head of Department.
Restrictions
SOCI268, SOCI348 (prior to 2006), HSRV205, SOCI468
SOCI377
Food Systems, Sustainability & Social Change
Description
This course will focus on building understanding of contemporary debates about food, sustainability, and society by exploring contemporary food systems and efforts to transform them. We will examine a range of socio-environmental challenges relating to food's production, distribution, consumption, and waste. How these challenges are framed and analysed will be critically considered using sociological approaches that draw out social, cultural, political, economic, and ethical dimensions. We will then explore social action aimed at improving the sustainability and/or justice of food systems' structuring, governance, and/or practice. Local, national, and international examples will be used to ground our examinations of these efforts. More specific approaches or actions discussed may include regenerative agriculture, corporate concentration, food redistribution, alternative proteins, food sovereignty, application of Maori principles to food systems, among other things. Combining in-class and field experiences, as well as a social action project, the course is designed to foster critical thinking and motivate community engagement for transforming food systems.
Occurrences
Semester Two 2026
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level from ANTH or SOCI, OR any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
SOCI406, ANTH326

Not Offered Courses in 2026

200-level

SOCI244
On Death and Dying: Current Controversies in Thanatology
Description
'On Death and Dying' introduces students to this most pervasive yet under-examined aspect of social life. Students will be given the opportunity to explore death, dying and bereavement from a sociological point of view. We will explore the different and complex ways people attend to death through a guided programme that includes a study of the notion of sequestered death, the body in death, the social stratification of death, customary practices past and present including Aotearoa/New Zealand, death and medicine, good death/bad death, near death experiences, ghosts, euthanasia, suicide, the funeral profession, grief and mourning, memento mori, mass death, death and the media/popular culture.
Occurrences
Not offered 2026, offered in 2019 , 2020 , 2022 , 2023 , 2025
For further information see SOCI244 course details
Points
15 points
SOCI255
Sociology of the City
Description
This course is concerned with the city as it is experienced today: as shifting mixes of public and private spaces in which disruptions provoke different points of view, multiple memories and complex associations.
Occurrences
Not offered 2026, offered in 2019 , 2020 , 2021 , 2022 , 2023
For further information see SOCI255 course details
Points
15 points

300-level

SOCI301
Social Theory for Contemporary Life
Description
The course will engage with a range of contemporary social theories dealing with the complexity of everyday life. Topics covered include: networks, flows and globalisation; self-identity, sexuality and gender; governance, bio-politics and digital environments. The course will track the different ways in which theorists in these topic areas focus their concerns on, and provide descriptions of, the ceaseless experimentation characteristic of contemporary forms of communication, time-spaces, culture, and everyday life.
Occurrences
Not offered 2026
For further information see SOCI301 course details
Points
30 points
SOCI344
On Death and Dying: Current Controversies in thanatology
Description
'On Death and Dying' introduces students to this most pervasive yet under-examined aspect of social life. Students will be given the opportunity to explore death, dying and bereavement from a sociological point of view. We will explore the different and complex ways people attend to death through a guided programme that includes a study of the notion of sequestered death, the body in death, the social stratification of death, customary practices past and present including Aotearoa/New Zealand, death and medicine, good death/bad death, near death experiences, ghosts, euthanasia, suicide, the funereal profession, grief and mourning, memento mori, mass death, death and the media/popular culture.
Occurrences
Not offered 2026, offered in 2018 , 2019 , 2020 , 2022 , 2023
For further information see SOCI344 course details
Points
30 points
SOCI346
Sociology of Migration
Description
This undergraduate course focuses on an introduction to the sociological study of migration. Migration is a global phenomenon in developed and developing countries. Before the global pandemic disrupted the flow of global migration, there were an estimated 272 million international migrants. In 2023, Aotearoa New Zealand experienced an annual net gain of over 126,000 permanent and long-term migrants, and (im)migration has played a major role in Aotearoa New Zealand’s history, economy and culture. This course will focus on current trends and approaches to understanding migration both as a complex global phenomenon and with particular attention to Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific Rim region. We will link international migration to a wide range of related sociological issues and concepts including gender, race/ethnicity, economics, nationalism, capitalism, neoliberalism, colonization, culture, crime, and social marginalization and inequality. Specific topics include: migration and development; student and labour migrants; involuntary migration; issues for diasporas; multiculturalism; implications on Te Tiriti o Waitangi and Indigenous peoples; migration policy implications; and researching migrant populations.
Occurrences
Not offered 2026, offered in 2025
For further information see SOCI346 course details
Points
30 points
SOCI355
Sociology of the City
Description
This course is concerned with the city as it is experienced today: as shifting mixes of public and private spaces in which disruptions provoke different points of view, multiple memories and complex associations.
Occurrences
Not offered 2026, offered in 2019 , 2020 , 2021 , 2022 , 2023
For further information see SOCI355 course details
Points
30 points
SOCI361
Social Movements
Description
This course explores diverse social movements, asking how we can make sense of them. How do they bring about social change? The course looks at abortion movements, environmental movements, civil rights movements, and many other movements. Collective identity, internet activism, framing, and various theories of social movements are considered. Students will do a presentation on a social movement of their choice.
Occurrences
Not offered 2026, offered in 2016 , 2017 , 2019 , 2020 , 2021
For further information see SOCI361 course details
Points
30 points