Cards Against Sociology
Sociology may be seen as the “Debbie Downer” of the social sciences, but we promise we know how to have a little fun, too—particularly if it comes at our own expense. Jamie K. McCallum, in the sociology and anthropology department at Middlebury College, wrote to share a version of the super popular and always provocative game “Cards Against Humanity” that his students created in 2012 for Dr. Laurie Essig‘s class “Developments in Sociological Theory.” The assignment was to create a non-narrative response to the theory students were reading in class. Now graduates, Kristina Hillarydotter, Alice Oshima, and Alexandra Weinstein created the original draft of “Cards against Sociology” that McCallum and his research assistant Molly Stuart and other students have honed over the years. He adds that he finds it’s a relief to take a moment for sociological silliness, imagination, and even subversion in a world already full of social problems, and that the generally outrageous game can be adapted to specific classes and campuses.
The rules for the original “Cards Against Humanity” game can be found here, and the downloadable packs of white and black cards are below. If printed six-to-a-page, they’re easy to cut out and play. Please subtract and add your own cards as you see fit! We welcome your feedback, additions, and even pedagogical uses and hope you have fun over the winter break, making sure that the “jokes and jabs come almost always at the expense of the more powerful/hegemonic/privileged groups” (as McCallum put it).
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