• Jessica Calarco’s (Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison) new book, Holding It Together: How Women Became America’s Safety Net, describes how our lack of an effective social safety net pushes U.S. women into undervalued labor–particularly care work. “We can’t really get by without a social safety net, but we’d like to pretend that we can, and that’s where women’s labor comes in,” Calarco told Esquire. “We maintain the illusion of a DIY society by relying on women to fill in the gaps. Women do the unpaid and underpaid labor that holds everything together.” Calarco was also interviewed about the book in Salon and Fast Company.
  • Thomas D. Beamish (Professor of Sociology at the University of California-Davis) wrote an article for the Conversation on how Americans’ understanding of tragic events has changed in the 21st Century. Tragedies were often explained in reference to “God, fate, bad luck, blameless accidents or…individual responsibility” in the 20th Century. Now there is a focus on assigning social blame (where “societal institutions such as the government, industry, civil society and even American culture are held responsible”). Beamish emphasizes that tragic events are now politically polarizing, rather than unifying.
  • In his new book, The Last Plantation: Racism and Resistance in the Halls of Congress, James R. Jones’ (Assistant Professor of Sociology and American Studies at Rutgers) new book argues that the lack of racial diversity among congressional staffers perpetuates inequalities. “The unequal racial makeup of congressional staff is one of the most important problems subverting our multiracial democracy,” he writes. This story was covered by Politico.
  • Anna Akbari’s (former Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at NYU) recent memoir, There is No Ethan: How Three Women Caught America’s Biggest Catfish, describes her experience being emotionally manipulated by an online catfisher. The New York Times review of the book notes that although Akbari’s dissertation focused on “aspirational identity,” she withholds her sociological perspective until the epilogue. There, “she poses fascinating questions: What are the ethical boundaries of digital platforms? Is lying to create intimacy a violation of consent? When does inauthenticity become evil? And how should the law handle people who engage in virtual offenses that are not financially motivated…?”