~the-society-pages | Bookmarks (112)

As the housing crisis continues to affect millions of renters around the world, scholars tend to focus on urban areas. But people rent in rural places, too. That’s why a recent study by sociologists Carl Gershenson and Matthew Desmond focuses directly on the ways the rental housing crisis is affecting rural Americans. Published in Rural […]

While most current literature focused on implementing anti-racist pedagogy examines the instructor-undergraduate student dynamic, this article highlights the crucial role of graduate teaching assistants in implementing this pedagogy in the classroom.

Elites often strive to justify their success by invoking the concept of merit. But how do they define merit? According to a new article by Sam Friedman and colleagues, the answer varies across countries. Published in Social Forces, the study draws from 71 interviews with elites in the United Kingdom and Denmark to identify national […]

Patrick M. Krueger, Joshua A. Goode, Paula Fomby, and Jarron M. Saint Onge, “Less Time for Health: Parenting, Work, and Time-Intensive Health Behaviors among Married or Cohabiting Men and Women in the United States,” Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 2023 Two parents sitting watching their child play in a box. Image by cottonbrostudio under […]

See Cambrice’s piece on the need to bring attention to sociology programs and foster community among sociology students at HBCUs, particularly in a post Floyd-era.

New & Noteworthy Shania Kuo and Eleanor Nickel’s latest ‘There’s Research on That’ explores the “model minority” myth and its role in perpetuating the discrimination Asian Americans face in the workplace. While Asian Americans are overrepresented in professional fields like tech, law, and business, they remain underrepresented in leadership due to stereotypes that cast them […]

We are thrilled to welcome Musa al-Gharbi to the Contexts blog to celebrate the publication of his new book, We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite. In this post, blog editor Elena van Stee chats with Musa to explore the emergence of a new “woke” elite and the hidden ways they actively benefit from […]

Michelle Janning has been writing about the intersections of family life and spatial and material culture for more than two decades. She has published numerous books and articles about the sociology of homes, social research methods in architecture and design, love letters as family story memory objects, and material and spatial dimensions of family relationships and life stage transitions. Janning is […]

Arlie Russell Hochschild (Professor Emerita of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley) was interviewed in Salon, discussing how former president Donald Trump appeals to white, working class voters. “I think we live in both a material economy and a pride economy,” Hochshild explained. While Trump’s polic...

From protesting against genocide in Palestine to demanding political responses on climate change, we are witnessing a surge of student activism across campuses. Yet at the same time, many students feel disengaged from politics and apathetic toward the political processes and institutions in the United States. During our Engaging Elections: The Politics of Teaching as […]

Looking for a way to address barriers to statistical literacy and help students reach their statistical potential? This piece offers a psychosocial approach to teaching statistics to promote deeper learning.

An empty corporate office meeting room, with the empty, white chairs surrounding a table. Photo by Mikhail Nilov from Pexels under Pexels license. The image of Asian Americans as “model minorities” seems to be ingrained in American culture. Asian Americans are painted as high-achieving minorities who have overcome racial discrimination to reach the same heights […]

New & Noteworthy Eleanor Nickel’s latest Discovery features research by Megan C. Kurlychek, Matthew C. Kijowski, and Alysha M. Gagnon, which investigates the long-term impacts of placing youth in adult criminal justice systems. This week’s Clippings includes Blake R. Silver in The Conversation on how public higher education creates uncertainty for students, Elizabeth Vaquera in […]

Gretchen Sisson is the author of Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood. She is a sociologist with Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health in the department of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, where she studies abortion and adoption in the United States. Her research was […]

Blake R. Silver’s (Associate Professor of Sociology at George Mason University) new book, Degrees of Risk: Navigating Insecurity and Inequality in Public Higher Education, examines the ways in which colleges and universities create uncertainty for students. In an interview with The Conversation, Silver describes tha...

Megan C Kurlychek, Matthew C Kijowski, Alysha M Gagnon, “The Long-Term Consequences of Imprisoning Our Youth: The Lasting Impact of Time Spent in Adult Jails and Prisons,” Social Problems, 2022 Barbed and razor wire, chain link fence, and a security camera in a somber gray. Image by Pixabay under Pexels license. Youth (10-17 year-olds) today […]

New & Noteworthy Daniel Cueto-Villalobos‘s latest Discovery on research by Ioana Sendroiu on how small business during COVID-19 navigated the balance between keeping their doors open, and protecting the public. The study found that many small business owners prioritized public health and employee well-being over profits, navigating moral dilemmas beyond partisan divides. This week’s Clippings […]

Sociological theory often feels disconnected from nearly everything else we teach in undergraduate courses. This is not totally an accident, but it is unfortunate. Why? Because sociological theory is the backbone of the discipline, and of the sociological imagination you hear so much about. As a scholar who studies adolescent suicide and youth suicide clusters […]

Looking for more ways to center your students? Check out this piece from Schall on letting go of power and making students co-contributers in the classroom.

The New York Times ran a story on intensive parenting (involving “painstakingly and methodically cultivating children’s talents, academics and futures through everyday interactions and activities”) and parents’ mental health, citing Melissa Milkie (Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto) and Kei Nomaguc...

Ioana Sendroiu, “From reductive to generative crisis: businesspeople using polysemous justifications to make sense of COVID-19,” American Journal of Cultural Sociology, 2022 A woman wearing a mask shopping at grocery store. Image by Anna Shvets under Pexels license. Psychology research suggests that crisis and uncertainty lead humans to think in stark binaries, which fuel division and […]

Numerous projects in the recent past have recounted the lives of Holocaust survivors who immigrated to Minnesota after World War II, with many of which telling the stories of dozens of survivors and their postwar lives in the Twin Cities. Not all survivor projects are as sweeping as these, however they are just as important. […]

Having seen how many students are unaware of how to register to vote, the mechanics of voting, and why voting matters, coupled with my own naturalization as a U.S. citizen, has compelled me to make voter engagement and registration an integral part in my classes and spearhead a college-wide effort in the same realm. There […]