Master of Arts in Social Sciences
Hybrid
Courses
Common Core
SOC506Institutional Sociology
3 credits
This course focuses on the central role of institutions, in order to: a) understand social, economic, political, cultural and religious phenomena; b) define regularities in the behavior of individuals; c) reduce uncertainty; and d) render the aforementioned phenomena more predictable. It is articulated around three components: a) analysis of institutions through their various forms and functions; b) comprehension of the operational framework of institutions, such as frames of action, socialization forums, social hierarchy factors, etc.; and c) analysis of fitness levels that institutions exert on the individual and collective behavior in an evaluative perspective of the mutations and crises faced by some large contemporary institutions.
TIS605Management and group facilitation
MTR681Quantitative Methods in Humanities
2 credits
This course introduces students to the multiple uses of statistics and contexts from which data is drawn. It allows them to acquire mastery of statistical concepts used in their research and be able to conduct proper investigations. This course provides the Master’s students with the basic knowledge that enables them to act with autonomy in surveys and data processing. It enables them to systematize the stages of an investigation through data collection, data organization, analysis and interpretation of data. Students also learn to use statistical tools for compiling the data and analysis of results.
MTR575Research Methodology in Humanities
3 credits
The course aims to introduce a working method, in order to conduct scientific research. It is mainly about conducting research required at the level of Master’s thesis and implementing the different stages of scientific research, ranging from the position of the problem until the drafting and final presentation of the research. Furthermore, regarding a research topic, the course looks at how to select a problematic and devise relevant hypotheses, choose an appropriate technique and then apply it. Students will learn how to communicate the results of research in the form of a clear, rigorous and scientific text. The purpose of this course is to master the design, drafting and submission of the dissertation.
SOC639Sociology of culture and leisure
3 credits
The course is designed to explore culture and leisure, in terms of theories, relevant sociological approaches, and in terms of cultural practices and interculturalism. This course is built around the following axes: a) Problematization of culture and leisure concepts based on an analytical presentation of the main theoretical currents in sociology and the relationship between the cultural, economic and political spheres ; b) Analysis of relationships leisure society culture through the main features of leisure and its relationship with family fields: political, educational, sociocultural, etc.; c) Proposition of analysis tools and cultural practices through individual dimensions, institutional and political; d) Putting in perspective the links between culture, recreation and sustainable development in theoretical and practical terms; d) Analysis of contemporary approaches of interculturalism and intercultural dialogue; e) Reflection on mass culture, its place and its impact in contemporary societies.
EDU502Training Ethics
1 credits
The course firstly introduces the students to the basic concepts of philosophical ethics (the righteous, the good, moral conscience, fundamentalism, coherence, relativism), and the main contemporary doctrines. Secondly, the course analyzes the major ethical problems posed by educational practice and the educational institution, such as social justice, education facing moral pluralism, education for citizenship, respect for others, human rights, ethics of education practitioners, training and professional integration. Upon completion of the course the students will be able to analyze the ethical issues related to educational practice and design of educational systems and develop a normative argument on these issues.
Specialization
SOC513Ethnology
3 credits
This course highlights the major themes of ethnology. Thus, it deals in the form of reading, with a historical analysis of various research in Arabic ethnology; particularly Middle Eastern ethnology. The course offers some topics for study about the familial, cultural, political, social and economic plan, such as beliefs, the concept of democracy, development and underdevelopment, etc. The main focus of the course covers the pluralistic identity of the Middle East where the various components have been rather supportive for thousands of years, despite the differences that distinguish and characterize the widely diverse social fabric.
SOC596Project/Internship in Social Sciences
3 credits
The first part is preproject design in TIS (1cr). This is a seminar which leads to a pre-project in terms of methodological approach (preparatory phase, implementation phase, evaluation phase). It enables the students to choose a subject in social sciences, identify tools and ideas leading to concrete results. The knowledge required, with reference to the application of research, also will be developed. Upon completion of the seminar, the students are required to prepare a typescript draft of twenty pages. The second part is the internship (2cr). The two credits assigned to the course propose putting into practice, in terms of action, the topic chosen by students in social sciences. In this phase, students develop their internship in accordance with their subject and methodological bases specific to the design and evaluation of the pre-project in SCO acquired in the internship seminar. A prospective director appointed by the department will be responsible for supervising the students in the guidance of theoretical and practical foundations and in the conceptualization and evaluation of the corresponding response.
SOC511Shortterm and Structural Adjustment of Economic policies
3 credits
The analysis of certain economic, cyclical and structural policies, allows examination through a strategic rationale for both the permanence of public and economic intervention and the transformations of its purposes and modalities. On the one hand, state economic intervention is questioned as much for its objectives and legitimacy rather than its effectiveness. On the other hand, the economic intervention of other subnational actors, such as local and supranational authorities within the European Union and international organizations, is advanced to raise the issue of coordination of these policies.
SOC638Sociology of Minorities
3 credits
This course is aimed at the acquisition of theoretical and empirical knowledge regarding issues of the sociology of ethno-cultural minorities and interethnic relations. It enables students to define the minor situation in various societies by appealing to designs, visions and studies of a number of sociologists, in particular the German sociologist Max Weber and French sociologist PierreJean Simon.
SOC521Urban and Rural Sociology
3 credits
This course locates the rural and urban worlds within the general framework of human activities and their changes. It synthesizes teachings on rural social environments and urban ones. It touches upon the main sociological trends that are interested in rural as well as urban sociology. Therefore, this course pays special attention to learning the conceptual tools that characterize a sociological approach applied to the problem of space. In this manner, it analyzes the dynamics of different urban functions (housing, industry, services, travel, and communication) by describing their interaction on the ground (especially urban), the way in which the evolution of these different functions and structures operate and deconstructs the territory in general and the city in particular. It also focuses on the reconstruction of cities.
Capstone
SOC690ADissertation in Social Sciences
SOC691Professional Practice
3 credits
This course gives to the student a space for reflection and practice of deepening of professional practices in social sciences.
In the first part, it summarizes the paradigms, themes, theories and research methods in the social sciences at both national and international levels.
In a third part it builds a platform for critical analysis of concrete situations and different problems, and this, for planning of a research program, databases and monitoring process of the team to implement (in relation with the theme of the chosen project).
SOC692Project in Social Sciences
3 credits
The project is a professional continuous training in Social sciences (SCO). The objective of the project is to make the student in Master degree a reflexive practitioner, able to identify a problem and respond by referring to the appropriate literature to the problem identified, followed by an implementation of an action plan that contributes to a solution or a recommendation. The project is being developed in a research work from 45 to 50 pages as the body text that includes the personal, technical and scientific criteria that motivated the student to undertake the project; the appropriate literature in the research project, field work and a solution perspective, remediation, or new thinking on an issue or a problem, etc., and a conclusion. (bibliography, annexes, are not part of the body of the text).
Mission
The mission of the Master’s Program in social sciences is to form sociologists equipped with moral, human and ethical values, and rich in skills, in terms of research and teaching in the social sciences.
These skills empower students to integrate into the labor market, gain access to Doctoral studies and excel in teaching and research, especially in the field of sociology.
Program Educational Objectives
1. Graduates in social sciences will become strategic research managers in research laboratories, administration, and public as well as in private organizations.
2. Graduates in social sciences will become a teachers, trainers and coordinators for social and economic sciences in communal and ministerial school settings.
3. Graduates in social sciences will become heads of service (position: 3rd category) in public institutions.
4. Graduates will demonstrate all the skills necessary to pursue a Doctoral course and propose an innovative field within the scope of social sciences.
Program Outcomes
a. Students will formulate problems relating to various fields of social sciences.
b. Appropriate a working method which combines the epistemological, ethical, and technological principles and quantitative and qualitative techniques used within the framework of research.
c. Pilot logistical operations of a social science research project.
d. Develop thematic axes for social science training workshops.
e. Prepare teaching sequences of sociology and economics tailored to the curriculum of the Lebanese program.
f. Build specialized didactic tools adapted to the teaching of social sciences.
g. Evaluate the content and teaching methods in social sciences.
h. Propose research topics in social sciences tailored to school settings.
i. Categorize the different types of institutions through their social, socioeconomic and sociocultural functions.
j. Evaluate the contribution of economic policies.
k. Validate the fitness levels that the public institutions exert on individuals.
l. Prepare a research project which leads to the Master's thesis or the project in social sciences.