Lisa Wade

New & Noteworthy

Nicole Schmitgen has a new Discovery on work by Margarita Torre on women and union support. According to her research, 11% of Black women are a part of unions, more than other racial groups of women. Future union participation by women is expected to rise.

Our Clippings Media Report includes The Cut interview with Gretchen Sisson on her new book and the adoption industry, Elijah Anderson on the continued relevance of W.E.B. Du Bois’s The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study to today, Eric Klinenberg in Plain English with Derek Thompson on aloneness and loneliness, and Robert Bullard on Living on Earth about flooding in Alabama and segregation.

From the Archives

Libraries continue to be the site of controversy for groups who feel libraries allow too radical books onto its shelves. Read our Discovery by Nick Matthews, Hotspots in Red-Hot Demand in Rural America, to learn more.

Tax Day is coming quick! Learn about some tax myths from Contexts here.

More from our Partners & Community Pages

Contexts latest include:

• Sophie X. Liu writes up study by Nicolo Pinchak and colleagues reveals that the presence of dogs in neighborhoods is related with decreased rates of property and street crimes.
• Jaeun Lim and Benjamin Cornwell‘s latest study challenges the genetic explanation for obesity and detail the importance of social networks on this measure of health, covered by Rose Xueqing Zhang.

Council on Contemporary Families:

• Do I Belong? Isolation and Identity Among Minoritized Youth by Sophia Rodriguez and Gabrielle Cabrera Wy write up their research on minoritized students ‘sense of belonging’ and find they have a weaker ‘sense of belonging’ and more bullying.
• Debby Herbeni covers some findings from her new book, Yes, Your Kid, on today’s teens, sex, and communication.

First Publics has a new Dialogues:

• First Publics talks with Dalton Conley (You May Ask Yourself: An Introduction to Thinking Like a Sociologist), Shamus Khan (A Sociology Experiment), Lisa Wade (Terrible Magnificent Sociology), and Kathleen Korgen (Sociology in Action) on writing their Sociology textbooks.

New & Noteworthy

This week’s Clippings includes Alison Cares in Tampa Bay Times and Inside Higher Education on Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr.’s proposed plan to remove “Principles of Sociology” as an option to fulfill the social science course requirement at public universities (click here to read ASA’s response), Christopher P. Scheitle in The Conversation about religion diversity among graduate students, Philip Cohen in Smithsonian Magazine featuring new research showing that life expectancy across the U.S. fell from 2019 to 2021 and that women now live 5.8 years longer than men, Jennifer Earl in Meduza on political repression, and Anna Samchuck in El País on the Wall Evidence Project, which has been documenting the graffiti and inscriptions left by the Russian military in occupied areas of Ukraine since February of 2022.

From the Archives

December is one of the most generous months, read The Social Determinants of Charitable Giving to learn more about individual donations.

The new Hunger Games movie is in theatres, to learn more about deviance and rebellion read the classic, Power and Powerlessness: Quiescence and Rebellion in an Appalachian Valley.

The Biden administration is proposing changes to TANF to close loopholes that some states have been using to spend funds on non-welfare programs. Learn more about TANF by reading our Public Assistance Provides Food and Shelter Discovery by Allison Nobles.

More from our Partners & Community Pages

First Publics has its latest on Soc Intro Textbooks with Lisa Wade, author of intro book Terrible Magnificent Sociology.

Council on Contemporary Families latest include Eman Tadros, Chantal Fahmy, Sara (Smock) Jordan, and Antonia Guajardo write up some of the complexities of fathering while incarcerated.

Contexts has new pieces to watch and read on claiming colors with Gary Alan Fine and Fiona Greenland, The Golden Bachelor and adult dating by Lauren Harris, and Queer Farmers by Taylor Hartson.

New & Noteworthy

This week’s Clippings includes Samuel L. Perry‘s work in The Washington Post on new House Speaker Mike Johnson and assault weapons, Carolina Are in El País on sexualization in social media, Carolyn Liebler in The Washington Post on the Census and measuring Americans with Indigenous heritage, and Amin Ghaziani in SciTechDaily on the ambivalence of coming out experiences of LGBTQ adults.

From the Archives

Pain and suffering are commonplace in the news, especially now. Read j. Siguru Wahutu’s TROT on “consuming the pain” through images of the “other” in the media.

Daylight savings time was this past Sunday (in case you haven’t noticed by now). Learn more about the history of Daylight Savings time by reading Lisa Wade’s piece in Sociological Images.

Backstage with TSP

Because of TSP’s growing student board, we have increased the number of “pitches” per week (where students review recent academic articles, write a brief summary, and present the articles to the rest of the board) and “workshops” (where students share their Discoveries drafts on screen and the rest of the board provides feedback real-time). This increased frequency of pitches and workshops will enable us to publish more content in the upcoming months!

More from our Partners & Community Pages

Contexts has a new piece on “dyadic interviewing”, interviewing both young adults and their parent, in research with Elena van Stee, Gaby Flores, Ariel Chan, and Angelica Qin.

Council on Contemporary Families has a new piece on 7 patterns of women’s journey through motherhood, education, and work through adulthood by Bo-Hyeong Jane Lee and Anna Manzoni.

First Publics has a new Reflections by Michael Kennedy on his teaching journey towards a critical and public-oriented approach.

Before we get to the heart of the matter, let’s just put it out there: SocImages’ annual Christmas Roundup is ready and ripe for the readin’! Get it!

Now, rather than our usual Roundup, it’s time to announce this year’s fully unscientific, but fully entertaining TSP Awards! Hopefully these excellent pieces from our original content, our blogs, and beyond will keep you in reading material in the days of travel and food comas ahead. We wish you a wonderful New Year full of health, productivity, and ridiculousness, because every good year is a little ridiculous. more...

What Does the Letta Say?

EEP! There was no Friday Roundup. Guess who’s fault that is? Mine-oh-mine. But to make it up to you, here’s some fresh Monday morning reading!

In Case You Missed It:

“The Fascination and Frustration with Native American Mascots,” by Jennifer Guiliano. A look at the history and fight over mascots, as the Redskins go 1-4 in the NFC East.

Editors’ Desk:

“Sketch #4: TSP @ White House,” by Chris Uggen. Dr. Uggen goes to Washington. more...

In the wake of the annual American Sociological Association meetings, it is always interesting to see what (if any) new research and ideas from the field capture media attention. One topic is fairly predictable: sex. Stories about sex and sexuality get the eyeballs, and sociology is no exception. (Uncomfortable point in fact: sex and sexuality are two of the most common search terms new readers use to find The Society Pages.) The most recent example is an article that originally ran in the Los Angeles Times on “hookup culture” on college campuses.

The story, from a writer named Emily Alpert, reports on recently released research from Martin Monto, a sociologist at the University of Portland. The main thrust of the findings is that, while a new form of sexual intimacy has emerged on college campuses in the last decade or so (intimate physical encounters between friends and casual-but-known acquaintances: “hookups”), this does not mean that college students are having more sex than ever before. Indeed, according to Monto’s work, fewer than one third of college students surveyed between 2002 and 2010 had had sex with more than one person in the preceding year—the same level reported in the 1980s and 1990s. (What is new is that 68% of those who were sexually active were involved with a friend, an increase from 56% in previous periods.) As one headline put it: “Sex on campus has changed, [but] not surged.”

Being both a bit titillating (sex on campus!) and yet reassuring (our kids haven’t gone completely wild—whew), the story definitely has legs. Since it originally appeared in the Times over a week ago (I’m actually not sure if it came directly from the meetings in New York, an ASA press release, or coincidental timing ), I’ve seen a number of references, reprints, and reflections—including, as of this morning, in both of the local papers in the Twin Cities. more...