philosophy
The goal of any liberal arts education is to produce students who are strong critical thinkers and capable problem-solvers. I believe these goals are best reachable through the discipline of sociology. Using sociological theories, perspectives, and methods, students are best positioned to become civic-minded and engaged citizens, competent workers, and good people. Thus, critical pedagogy is the cornerstone of the kind of teaching I aim to do: more than merely transmitting knowledge, I want to foster epistemological curiosity, critical thinking, and ability to analyze qualitative and quantitative data in my students, empowering them to use sociological tools to reflect on their place in the world.
current courses
SOCIAL RESEARCH METHODS/ DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
This is a 2-semester senior capstone for Sociology and Criminal Justice majors at Illinois College. Students learn the foundations of social research methods in the fall semester while working with community partners to establish a public sociology project serving Illinois College or the broader Jacksonville area. The fall semester culminates in an IRB-approved formal research proposal. During the spring semester, students get hands-on experiences with the core research methods while independently conducting the research project outlined in the fall. The spring semester culminates in the completion of a formal research report presented to the class, research partners, (and for those selected) Illinois College’s prestigious Celebration of Excellence.
The project for the 2024/2025 year is as follows:
The Boy Scouts of America Study (with Jeff Whitten)
Previous projects include the following:
Carceral Environmental Justice and Illinois Prisons (with Dr. Jericho McElroy)
The MacMurray Student Archive Project (with Tiffany Warmowski)
Featured in IC Press Release!
Racial Predictors of Abuse in Illinois Prisons (with David Walter)
The Jacksonville Community Health Needs Assessment (with Lori Hartz)
Featured in IC Press Release!
Housing Insecurity and the Jacksonville Public Library (with Sarah Snyder)
Featured in the Journal-Courier!
Student Assessments of the Campus Writing Center (with Dr. Cindy Cochran)
The Lake Jacksonville Trail Usage Study (with Steve Warmowski)
The Jacksonville Accommodations Project (with Brittany Henry)
If your organization is interested in a student-led project for the 2025/2026 year, please contact me at jaclyn.tabor@ic.edu.
MODERN LOVE: INTIMATE RELATIONSHIPS IN THE 21ST CENTURY
At some point, every one of us embarks on a journey to find love. Yet, the landscape of romance, dating, and marriage has drastically changed from what it was even decades ago. Aided by technological innovations and cultural and political climates widening what is acceptable in the realm of love and marriage, single people today have more romantic options than at any point in human history. What’s the good in all this change? What’s the bad? Integrating social science perspectives (including sociology, history, psychology, and anthropology), this course explores romantic love, sexuality, and intimate relationships in the modern world. Progressing through the semester, class readings, films, and discussions focus on the various ways individuals fall in love, come together, settle down, break apart, and find love again. In doing so, we critically interrogate the evolution of dating and marriage in U.S. history and abroad, along with their impact on contemporary society. We will also consider contemporary issues that impact our current understandings of romance, dating, and marriage – including cohabitation, online dating, the legalization of same-sex marriage, and relationships in the #Metoo era.
AGING AND THE LIFE COURSE
Our society is currently undergoing a demographic transition, whereby an increasing percentage of our culture’s population will be in the later half of life. However, most people and most social systems in the U.S. still function according to mainly negative stereotypes of older individuals that have serious, yet avoidable consequences. During the semester, we will examine the impacts of these stereotypes, not only on older generations, but on younger generations and the culture as a whole. A key goal of this course will be to assess and examine the social construction of aging in U.S. society, make comparisons with other cultures, and explore better models and attitudes that serve to maximize the quality of life for older individuals. The semester culminates in a final paper where students will be asked to apply what they’ve learned toward creating their own “Eldertopia.”
Note: In addition, this course is also designed as a ‘community engagement’ course. Students contribute 20 hours over the course of the semester to The Pointe at Jacksonville, an assisted living facility in Jacksonville, IL. These experiences are integrated with course material through reflection assignments and class discussions.
CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE
What does it mean to be a kid? What is it like to be a kid? By adopting a sociological perspective, we will see that the answers to these questions depend on children’s social contexts: who they are and where they live their lives. Using a variety of reading and discussion materials, we will examine how the meaning of childhood has varied over time and across cultures, and how children’s experiences vary across different social groups. In doing so, we will recognize that children are shaped by their social contexts, but that they also play an active role in making sense of and responding to their social worlds. Finally, we will explore the challenges and inequalities that children face and discuss strategies for leveling the playing field in families, schools, and communities.
FAMILIES AND SOCIETY
We all are part of families, for better and for worse. Families are universally important social institutions, past and present. Although the majority of families around the world have certain things in common—relating people biologically and socially, organizing care and residence, the specifics of how these things are accomplished may vary substantially across time and space. This course focuses on families in the contemporary U.S. It will introduce you to how sociologists study families and along with them, topics that seem very personal, emotional and important to many of us—ideals about love, marriage, gender, parenthood, sex and sexuality—scientifically. We consider both the “public” and “private” dimensions of families over the course of the semester‐‐ families as settings for socially important tasks such as raising children and caring for family members, and a focus for public policy and as the place where we experience much of our private lives. A central theme will be diversity and change, as we consider the many ways families have changed over the last 60 years in particular in the U.S., and the many forms of family diversity that surround us. During the first part of the course, we consider the history of (U.S.) families from the 19th century to today, focusing on the influence of marriage and changes in family organization overtime. We also discuss sociological theories and methods used to study and understand families, including theories of gender and sexualities. In the second part of the course we focus on family experiences. We begin by considering diversity in contemporary families, how variations in families are socially patterned and political aspects of families. We then move on to exploring dimensions of experience in contemporary family life, including relationships between men and women; parents and children; social institutions and family.
FIRST-YEAR SEMINAR: DECONSTRUCTING DISNEY
In this class, the Disney animated films so formative for generations of American children become “cultural texts” subject to sociological analysis. You will learn to recognize America’s contested beliefs and values by unearthing the cultural politics embedded in films such as Bambi, Cinderella, The Lion King, and Frozen. As a class, we will delve beyond these movies’ surface messages to reveal underlying tensions, recurring contradictions, and even counter-hegemonic themes. With respect to the particular intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, and nation, what distinguishes Gen-Z popular culture from animated productions of the early 20th century? What American cultural values have largely stayed the same? Given the corporation’s covert messages on love & sex, individualism & freedom, pleasure & entertainment, violence & conquest—to name just a few—what are the implications of Disney’s increasingly global touch?
INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY
Sociology is the systematic and scientific study of human social life–its structures, patterns, and problems. As a social science, it uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop and refine a body of knowledge about human social activity, often with the goal of applying such knowledge to the pursuit of improving contemporary society. The purpose of this course is to introduce you to the field of sociology and the ways sociologists ask and answer questions about the world in which we live. As a class, we will explore concepts and tools central to sociology as we navigate different aspects of contemporary society, from various forms of social inequality to social institutions like the family, the economy, and the educational system.