• 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 Behavioral Sciences at Duke University) commented that transitioning between adolescence and young adulthood is “a relatively high-risk time, particularly for young men, for not just mass shootings, but violence and aggression” and that red-flag protection law “is an important policy because it’s nimble, it’s risk-based and focused on individual circumstances.”
  • Scott Thumma (Professor of Sociology of Religion at Hartford International University) appeared on PBS News, discussing megachurches (religious congregations with 2,000+ worshipers) and the recent resignation of several high-profile pastors . Thumma explains that “many people flock to them because they [have] all of the amenities that people were looking for in a congregation. They had robust Sunday school programs, youth programs and exciting worship.” About 40% of megachurches are nondenominational, making them “accountable only to themselves.” Thumma notes that “we don’t have really good data on congregations and the incidence of misconduct across all congregations, but certainly anything that happens in a megachurch…gets amplified because they have such a high profile.”
  • The New York Times ran a story on escalating tensions in many labor unions between union leaders and left-leaning union members calling for the union to take a stance on the war in Gaza and other issues outside the workplace. Ruth Milkman (Professor of Sociology at the City University of New York) commented that “insofar as the new energy [in the labor movement is about young people] — and it mostly is — part of what comes with that is Gaza being a high priority.” Milkman added that union leaders have generally aligned their unions with Democratic politicians and may be reluctant to “take strong stands on anything that might risk political capital” or their access to party leaders.
  • Earlier this summer, a 17-year-old killed three girls and injured ten people in a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, UK. Following the attack, false rumors spread online that the attacker was an asylum seeker or Muslim immigrant. The misinformation–linked to the far-right movement–prompted a series of violent riots across the UK, in which mosques and a hotel used to house asylum seekers were targeted. Stephanie Alice Baker (Reader in Sociology at City St. George’s, University of London) commented that the UK has “a wide populist movement that is being sowed and cultivated both online and offline.” However, Baker emphasized that “there is never one reason or cause for a riot,” but rather “a complex web of social, political and economic” factors. “There is no doubt that people across the country are experiencing a cost-of-living crisis, mortgage rates and rents have skyrocketed. People are struggling to make ends meet,” Baker explains. “At the same time, there has been a rise in immigration, which many perceived to be the cause, but obviously is a scapegoat.” This story was covered by City University of London.
  • Ruth Horowitz’s (Professor of Sociology at New York University) new book, Passionate Work: Choreographing a Dance Career, studies dancers in the corps de ballet and how they sustain a passion for dance through a profession characterized by uncertainty. In an interview with Pointe Magazine, Horowitz highlights the camaraderie of being in the corps: “Being in the corps brings people together in ways other positions in the company can’t, because you can’t do a triple pirouette if everyone else is doing a double. So while ballet can be very competitive, being in the corps requires a lot of teamwork and a certain amount of cohesiveness that is a building block for some of these deep-seated relationships.”