teaching

Paste MagazineThe Wire DVDs reports that students at Harvard will soon be able to register for a class based on the HBO series, “The Wire”.

The class will be taught by sociology professor William J. Wilson, an outspoken, long-time fan of the show. “It has done more to enhance our understanding of the challenges of urban life and the problems of urban inequality, more than any other media event or scholarly publication,” Wilson told the audience at a panel discussion on campus.

That’s high praise from a renowned sociologist, who is not alone in his enthusiasm for the show as a vehicle for teaching.

Harvard is not the only university to offer a course about The Wire. UC-Berkeley teaches a film studies course about it, and so does Middlebury College. Duke offers a literature course that uses it to examine phenomenology and 21st century visual media.

This BigInside Higher Education reports on new work from Neil Gross, a sociologist at the University of British Columbia, whose research explores today’s faculty politics. This new study engages the contentious and ongoing debate over professors politics. Inside Higher Ed notes, “Right-wing critics make much of the fact that many surveys have found professors — especially in the humanities — to be well to the left of the American public. This political incongruence is frequently used as a jumping off point to suggest that professors are indoctrinating students with leftist ideas.” 

The analysis, Neil Gross explains, indicates that “conservative critics are correct about humanities professors’ leanings, but incorrect about their views of what classroom responsibility entails.”

In fact, Gross finds — in a study based on detailed interviews of professors’ in various disciplines — that faculty members take seriously the idea that they should not try to force their views upon students, or to in any way reward or punish students based on their opinions. And this view is shared by professors who see their politics playing a legitimate role in their research agendas, not just those who view their research agendas as neutral.

The aim of this new research is, in part, Gross writes, to shift the discussion of professorial politics away from the unsurprising (many professors are liberal) to “a more systematic” study of how “academicians in various fields and at various points in time understand the relationship between their political views, values, and engagements and their activities of knowledge creation and dissemination, and to how such understandings inform and shape academic work and political practice.” It’s not enough to simply document professors’ politics, Gross writes. What is needed is more attention to how professors handle the “knowledge-politics problem” in their work.

Specifically, the findings in the interviews Gross conducted raise questions about the assumptions of some critics of academe that one can draw conclusions about what goes on in classrooms based on the political and research writings of professors.

Read more…

too good for harvardInside Higher Education reported this week on a new national survey from the American Sociological Association, which found that sociology departments across the country have been able to expand their programs by attracting new students, but that growth in faculty lines has lagged behind. 

The survey — conducted in 2007 and updating a study from 2001 — came before the recent economic downturn that has crunched budgets at many colleges and is probably adding to the pressures documented in “What Is Happening in Your Department?,” written by Roberta Spalter-Roth, director of research for the association. Further adding to the concern is that graduate programs are reducing the percentage of applicants they admit, who would eventually add to the faculty base. While such an increase in selectivity could be considered a healthy sign, the two reasons given for it in the survey don’t suggest strength. The reasons are lack of funds for stipends and the declining quality of applicants.

The study included feedback from faculty members and chairs who voiced concerns surrounding expected retirements without replacements, rising numbers of undergraduate with too few resources, and the implications of the rising number of undergraduates who ‘double-major’ in sociology. 

Read the full story, here. Check the numbers.

The Chronicle of Higher Education ran a piece this week in their ‘Community College’ section from sociologist Chad M. Hanson, who “Fled a Humorless University for a Sanctuary of the Liberal Arts.”

Hanson writes about finding a fulfilling career beyond the University of Texas system, where he worked as a research associate:

A successful career at a community college depends on shifting one’s perception. Students — even the snarling ones with baseball caps pulled down over their eyes and baggy pants hanging off their posteriors — must become the focus of one’s work life and the source of one’s job satisfaction. Regardless of whether they want or feel as if they need to take your courses, ill-prepared and unmotivated students show up in your classroom, and that fact often presents a challenge to new teachers. Even so, the good ones eventually realize that making ill-prepared and unmotivated students a priority is a luxury of sorts. At universities, educators take pride and pleasure in the challenge of securing grants to pay for new lines of research, but I have the freedom to make the surly, often-ill-prepared kid in the back row the challenge of my professional life, and that suits me.

Hanson provides a thoughtful reflection about what pushed him to pursue this type of career in sociology…

Community-college teaching can be lucrative. I received a pay increase when I left the university and took up teaching at a two-year college. But that’s not why I left my job conducting research. I left because, though the work was meaningful, it was humorless. Near the end, as I sat in front of the computer in my office, I could feel the hours and days slipping by without the kind of uninhibited laughter that makes your eyes water and your cheeks ache. I longed for that. I was surrounded by brilliant people who took themselves far more seriously than anybody should, no matter how many ways you prove yourself or your intelligence. Once on a coffee break, I caught a look at myself in a mirror — short-sleeve shirt, bold-striped necktie, and a pocket protector lined with upscale pens and mechanical pencils. I looked like a ball of rubber bands wound too tight to be useful to anyone. I knew I needed a change.

Read more.

Inside Higher Ed reports on a recent publication from the American Sociological Association about the job market for new Ph.D.s.

“New Ph.D.’s in sociology appear to have a healthy job market in which to land positions, based purely on the numbers. But an analysis released by the American Sociological Association also points to a potential mismatch in specialties, as hiring committees appear to be much more enamored of criminology than are sociology graduate students.”

The up-side…

“The overall picture is quite positive. The association had listings in 2006 for 1,086 unique positions, 610 of them for assistant professors. During that same year, 562 Ph.D.’s were awarded in sociology. The report notes that not all of the posted positions in any year are filled by new Ph.D.’s or at all, but given that there are also postdoctoral positions, positions for which no rank is specified, and positions not included in the ASA job listings, the outlook is encouraging for new Ph.D. recipients.”

The down-side…

“Where things are slightly less certain is in the area of specialties. More than one third of the assistant professor positions did not specify a subfield. But the top subfield specified (nearly three times more than the runner up) was criminology/delinquency, and the sixth most popular subfield was a related one, law and society. The concern of those who prepared the report is that evidence suggests grad students are focused elsewhere.”

Read more.

Charles Tilly, legendary sociologist and Columbia University professor has passed away at age 78. The New York Times obituary cited Tilly’s unique combination of historical and quantitative methods in his work. A prolific scholar, Tilly published 51 books and more than 600 scholarly articles.

Excerpts from the Times obituary:

“In an interview on Thursday, Adam Ashforth, a professor of anthropology, political science and sociology at Northwestern University, called Dr. Tilly ‘the founding father of 21st-century sociology.’ He particularly praised Dr. Tilly’s seamless synthesizing of his own work on witchcraft and politics in South Africa. Dr. Ashforth also mentioned Dr. Tilly’s dizzying output of books, which had been running at more than a book a year for more than two decades.”

“’It was exhausting keeping up with him,’ Dr. Ashforth said. ‘We’ll now have a chance to catch up with our reading.'”

“On April Fool’s Day in 1969, The New York Times asked leading intellectuals what they considered foolish. Dr. Tilly answered, ‘One way I’d like to improve social life is to get a guy to stop for five minutes or one minute or 10 seconds and listen to what the other guy says.’”

UPDATE: In January 2012, we caught up with Jessie Daniels for her latest picks in the best of the best documentaries, and got replies from several other professors representing different courses. Please check out the new lists! https://thesocietypages.org/specials/documentaries/

Here are more items suggested by the commentors:

Josh Page, a professor of sociology (particularly law, crime, and deviance) at the University of Minnesota, sends in his Top Five list for teaching undergrad courses on the criminal justice system, noting “The ‘reality’ TV stuff about prison life is pretty much uniformly bad.”

Top Five Prison Documentaries for Crime and Punishment Courses

1. Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo (2009) http://sweetheartsoftheprisonrodeo.com/
2. The Dhamma Brothers (2008) http://www.dhammabrothers.com/
3. The Farm (1998) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0139193/
4. Writ Writer (2008) http://www.writwritermovie.com/
5. Ghosts of Attica (2001) http://icarusfilms.com/new2001/gho.html

Favorite Re-entry Documentary
Omar and Pete (prison reentry) (2005) http://www.pbs.org/pov/omarandpete/

 

Another great friend of The Society Pages, Prof. Andrew Lindner of Concordia College, Moorhead, writes in with his own favorite documentaries with teaching. He said he’d have included “49 Up,” but since it had already been mentioned, these are his next Top Five, culled from the film series he puts on every semester at Concordia:

But I do a film series every semester on campus, so here are a few not mentioned:

1. “Manufactured Landscapes” (2006), based on the work of photographer Edward Burtynsky, it has some unbelievable footage from Chinese factories. Great for teaching about globalization and capitalism.

2. “Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills” (1996) – a classic documentary on the (now recently freed) West Memphis Three. A powerful and disturbing illustration of stigma and social control.

3. “The War Room” (1993) – an insider’s look into Bill Clinton’s path to victory in the 1992 primaries. I use this in my “Political Sociology” course to talk about rhetoric, political strategy, and political professionals.

4. “Flow: For Love of Water” (2008) – a terrifying documentary on our dwindling water supply and how it is owned and managed by corporations for profit. Great for discussions of capitalism, privatization, or environmental sociology.

5. “Secret of the Wild Child” (1994) – an outstanding PBS/Nova documentary on feral children, particularly the famous Genie case mentioned in almost every sociology text. Challenges many students assumptions about socialization.

 

Nathan Palmer shares:

This is such a great idea and I’d like to thank TSP and Jessie Daniels for doing this. Resources like this and The Sociological Cinema make finding great videos for our classes so much easier. Thanks for taking the lead on this and for allowing the rest of us to share.

My Top Five Documentaries.

Race The Power of an Illusion Pvert 3: The House We Live In (2003)
My favorite film to show how historic and institutional racial discrimination is affecting us to this day. It does a great job connecting whiteness to citizenship and explaining red lining/block busting. I use it in my 101s and race & ethnicity classes.
The Color of Fear (1994)
An oldie, but a goodie. The film is a recording of 9 men of different racial ethnic backgrounds talking candidly about race. My only critique of the film is there are no women included and multiple racial groups are left out as well.

Food Inc. (2008)
More than anything I want my students in my environmental sociology class to understand how social inequality and environmental degradation are connected. The portion of this film dedicated to the mistreatment of farmers, factory workers, and the animals/land they use is priceless.
The Battle for Whiteclay (2008)
This independent film documents how 4 liquor stores in Whiteclay, NE (a town of 14 people) sell 12,500 cans of beer a day. The off-sale liquor stores take advantage of their proximity to the Pine Ridge Reservation, who banned alcohol sales and possession on their lands. Despite there being no legal place for the 12,500 cans to be consumed (Whiteclay only has off-sale establishments) there have been nearly no arrests while the liquor dealers make millions of dollars annually. The video is an excellent example of government corruption, exploitation, and selective law enforcement.

Inside Job (2010)
The 2008 credit crisis is a perfect example of how changes at the institutional level have a cascading affect all the way down to the individual. It also gets at how social problems are socially constructed. This film more than any other explains the complex crisis in a way that is approachable.

 

From Sarah Lageson:

One site I have relied on for seeking out sociologically relevant videos is Sociology at the Movies.

I also think a neat project for students in food or labor-related courses is to view Edward R. Murrow’s Harvest of Shame, then view a selection of contemporary documentaries that highlight how little has changed since 1961. Some really great documentaries include:

American Harvest,

The Harvest/La Cosecha,

and New Harvest, Old Shame.

 

Carolyn Liebler says:

I often use movie clips in introduction to sociology when introducing a set of theories or concepts. Students use the movie clips to pull out examples of each theory/concept. They appreciate the chance to apply sociology to their regular lives.

For example, I show a short clip from:

1) Little Miss Sunshine – for students to pick out examples of material culture, non-material culture, subculture, counterculture, face and face work, front stage, and back stage behavior.

2) Wedding Crashers – as a way to apply the following theories of deviance: rational choice, labeling theory, differential association theory, and obligatory action.

3) The beginning of Ghostbusters – to apply the three major tenets of ethical research methods

4) Fiddler on the Roof – to play “spot that social institution!” and talk about how social institutions are interrelated.

 

Dedicated friend-to-TSP Joe Soss sends in this list of his Top 5:

1. At the River I Stand
2. Merchants of Cool
3. Occupation: Dreamland
4. Stonewall Uprising
5. Inside Job

And one from a student, Thom Friend:

College student here, taking courses on media & gender. Some of my favorite documentaries we have viewed in the classroom:

– Generation M: Misogyny in Media & Culture
– The Mickey Mouse Monopoly
– Iron Jawed Angels (Dramatization of the Women’s Suffrage Movement)
– Tough Guise: Men and Masculinity in Media
– Further Off the Straight & Narrow
– Makers (PBS)

Then some of my personal recommendations:

– Zeitgeist: Moving Forward
– Power and Terror: Noam Chomsky
– Forks Over Knives

What makes students happier than watching movies during class time? — A new blog post provides some beneficial guidance in selecting films for specific sociological topics.

A recent update to the blog titled ‘Thinking at the Interface‘ provides a thorough and exemplary list of films to use in sociology classes. The list is organized around common themes of introductory sociology courses including the sociological imagination, research methods, race, ethnicity, and gender, just to name a few!

Link to the list… 

702920003_60c6159b89_m.jpgIts not just a fantasy anymore, someone is actually teaching a ‘Sociology of the Simpsons’ course…Professor Darren Blakeborough of University College of the Fraser Valley as reported by the local news in Victoria, British Colombia. This new course, offered to advanced undergraduates, in a class of 30, links the popularity of the show to the issues it addresses. Read more…