The self-exploratory essays gathered in this debut issue of Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge, were assignments undertaken by undergraduate students enrolled in various sociology courses recently offered on two State University of New York campuses at Binghamton and Oneonta, New York. The courses ranged from the “Sociology of Global Self-Knowledge” and “Social Change: Sociological Frameworks” (Binghamton University, Spring 2000 and Fall 2001), to two sections each of “Introduction to Sociology” and “Social Policy and the Life Course” (SUNY Oneonta, Fall 2001).

What these courses shared was their common use of the sociology of self-knowledge as a strategy for learning about their respective subject matters. Each course required students to engage throughout the semester in an ongoing self-exploratory sociological research focusing on a specific unresolved issue, problem, or question still facing their everyday lives. They were required to link their self-explorations to the study of society at large through various class and outside readings and films studied in class throughout the semester.