~the-society-pages | Bookmarks (112)

New & Noteworthy This week’s Clippings of sociology in the news includes Julia Sonnevend in Public Seminar on her new book Charm: How Magnetic Personalities Shape Global Politics, Eric Klinenberg in the New York Times on the dangerousness of heat waves,  Fraya Frehse in Pesquisa on homelessness in Brazil, Tressie McMillan Cottom in an online discussion on the […]

Are you looking for a new classroom activity to engage students? Angela Adkins (2023) suggests using open-ended, non-directive vignettes to promote the discussion of sociological theory and address systemic issues and social justice.

There are two distinct variations of The Talk. There is The Talk about sex and The Talk about racism. Regardless of the variation, Black families are bound to have both discussions with their children. The Talk about sex is the most known of the two discussions as it applies to all racial and ethnic groups, […]

In this episode, guest hosted by Jabez Turner, Dr. Andrea S. Boyles, Associate Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies at Tulane University joins us to read from Patricia Hill Collin’s Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (1990). In addition, Dr. Boyles also reflects on the impact the work has had on […]

See Odum and Kordsmeier’s discussion about the impact teaching sociology in “unprecedented times” can have on students. While various difficulties may arise while teaching during crises, this article gives teachers ideas to craft their pedagogy for an engaged future.

Police tape. Photo by kat wilcox under Pexels license. This article is republished from the Conversation, read the original article here. Most school shootings don’t just happen out of nowhere – there are typically warning signs. A year before a 14-year-old boy was arrested for allegedly opening fire in his high school math class in Winder, Georgia, on […]

For tenure track faculty with research intensive roles, balancing research and teaching can be difficult. Meanwhile, students are eager to obtain transferable skills to enhance their career prospects at the same time as community and government organizations benefit from research projects that provide useful data for their work. With these realities in mind, I set […]

Following a school shooting in Winder, GA, the New York Times ran a story on gun laws in Georgia, noting that the state does not have a “red-flag law”–a measure allowing judges to order a temporary confiscation of firearms if there is a credible risk of harm. Jeffrey W. Swanson (Professor in Psychiatry and Behaviora...

New & Noteworthy From the Archives Here are a few pieces for this back-to-school season: Backstage with TSP More from our Partners & Community Pages Contexts: Council on Contemporary Families: First Publics:

Contexts is trying to stay cool as the summer sizzles, blending dreams with reality. The essays in our new issue, Dream Horizons, are a panacea for the heat and your wanderlust. Whether you’re taking the family on a road trip, looking for a beach getaway, or just enjoying the sun, you’ll find plenty to ponder […]

from the editors in brief: “Making Merit,” by Elena G. Van Stee. “A Broader Look at the Housing Crisis,” by Parker Muzzerall. “Saving Money, Saving Relationships,” by Elena G. Van Stee. “Are You Holding?” by Sophie X. Liu. “Travel and The Times,” by Parker Muzzerall. “Paying Attention. Period.” by Sophie X. Liu. “Our Forests, Ourselves,” by […]

Looking to summarize to students recent discussions on eviction and gentrification? Hepburn, Louis & Desmond (2024) look at six million court cases filed in 72 cities in the US and find that eviction is a durable component of neighborhood disadvantage.

During a recent interview with conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt, former president Donald Trump weighed in on California water policy. Trump lamented that the state had rejected his proposal to redirect water “down from the north” because its Democratic leaders were “trying to protect a tiny, tiny little fish.” The “tiny little fish” in question was […]

Rebecca L. Davis is a Professor of History and of Women and Gender Studies at the University of Delaware. Her most recent book is Fierce Desires: A New History of Sex and Sexuality in America (Norton, 2024). She is also the author of Public Confessions: The Religious Conversions that Changed American Politics and More Perfect […]

When I first started teaching, in the Fall of 2022, I was surprised by how often things that seemed obvious to me eluded the grasp of my students. This wasn’t about course material: that, I expected to have to teach them. But I was surprised by how often students didn’t seem to know things that […]

Elizabeth Chiarello, “Trojan Horse Technologies: Smuggling Criminal-Legal Logics into Healthcare Practice,” American Sociological RevieTrojan Horse Technologies: Smuggling Criminal-Legal Logics into Healthcare Practicew, 2023 A pharmacist wearing a white coat working at their lab station. Image by Polina Tankilevitch under Pexels license. Over 500,000 Americans have died as a result of opioid overdose since 1999. Policymakers, police, […]

We are thrilled to welcome Amanda Cheong to the Contexts Blog in celebration of her recent Publication Award from the American Sociological Association’s Section on Public Sociology and Sociological Practice (SPSS). In this post, blog editor Elena van Stee chats with Amanda about her award-winning feature article, partnership with the Latin American Legal Defense and Education […]

New & Noteworthy The latest pieces from TSP include: From the Archives Backstage with TSP More from our Partners & Community Pages Context’s latest includes: Council on Contemporary Families: give theory a chance has 5 new podcast episodes to listen to:

In this episode, Jabez Turner interviews Dr. William Turner, Assistant Professor of African & African-American Studies at SUNY Brockport, about W.E.B. Du Bois. Dr. Turner reflects on the importance of Du Bois in his own intellectual development, discusses the marginalization of Du Bois within sociology, and explains how the rigor and depth of Du Bois’s […]

Blog post assignments can help students experiment with writing sociologically. Find out how Ruth M. Hernández-Ríos has used blogs to teach students to analyze complex theories about gender and sex while also improving their writing in this The Society Pages post from 2019.

The Nation ran an article on Michael Sierra-Arévalo’s (Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas – Austin) recent book The Danger Imperative. Sierra-Arévalo examines police culture and how it shapes interactions with the public. He describes the “danger imperative” as “policing’s governing institut...

Sociology courses frequently focus on helping students understand the severity of our social problems. We can do even better by also helping students take practical steps to address these problems. Helping students practice civic engagement is important because it addresses a too-frequent blind spot in our pedagogy: we assume that students who learn about problems […]