New & Noteworthy

First off (in case you missed it) we are happy to share that Clippings is back – thanks to TSP board member Mallory Harrington! TSP will bring you weekly updates of sociology and sociologists in the news. This week we have Janet Vertesi in The Conversation on NASA and AI-human teams, Matthew Desmond in the ACLU’s podcast At Liberty on poverty, Juliet Schor in NPR’s TED Radio Hour on the four-day workweek, Neil Gross in Time on police reform, and Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve in WHYY on a police officer charged with over 200 sex crimes.

“Your Tweets, pictures, and messages may be used against you.” Also from Mallory Harrington’s desk, we have a new Discovery on Social Media in Criminal Trials from work by Jeffrey Lane, Fanny A. Ramirez, and Desmond U. Patton. In this piece, we cover how public defenders face many challenges in defending their clients on the social media front.

From the Archives

The current national blood shortage is leaving vulnerable people at risk. Blood donations, sociologists have found, are largely motivated by altruism, empathy, and internal-personal motivations. Click here to read TSP’s “There’s Research on That” on blood donation by Jillian LaBranche.

Sexual assault rates are typically high during the beginning of the school year and this time (August-November) is known as the “Red Zone”. Reporting these sexual charges is usually left to victims, but the act of reporting a sexual assault can subject victims to risks. Read our Discovery Counting the Cost of Reporting Sexual Assault by Amber Joy Powell on work in Sociological Science.

More from our Partners & Community Pages

Contexts has two new pieces for you to read:

• Bonnie Siegler and Greer Mellon wrote about their research on the presence of anti-Asian biases of White parents’ school preferences for their children.
•  Rose Xueqing Zhang wrote about attachment styles and memories of past relationships shaping how we think about current relationships.

Council on Contemporary Families published:

• Mari Tarantino and Tyler Jamison shared findings from their research from interviews with lesbian, gay, and bisexual young adults on how they navigated and managed their relationships.

From the Archives

António Guterres, the United Nations secretary general, didn’t mince his words when addressing representatives from around the world about climate change. Click here to read Erik Kojola’s Discovery on political parties and opinions towards climate change.

Have a Fantasy Football team? Click here to learn more about women’s participation in Fantasy Sports by Amber Joy Powell.

Worth a Read (Sociologically Speaking)

Dr. Robert Bullard, Father of Environmental Justice, was interviewed by Nature on his decades of work within the environmental justice movement. He shared about his inspiration from DuBois to do “kickass sociology” and the inroads made to fight environmental racism.

Citings & Sightings

Dr. Joshua Murray was featured in The Conversation about the recent United Auto Workers strike. The use of “stand-up” strikes against key plants has a rooted history in union strike strategy and can mitigate effects on workers.

Dr. Christy Glass and Dr. Guadalupe Marquez-Velarde spoke with Utah Public Radio about racial differences in NFL players’ likelihood of high-paying and high-risk positions.

Backstage with TSP

Backstage we are getting new members acclimated and pitching new candidate journal articles to transform into Discoveries. At TSP, all board members “pitch” the latest social science journal publications to the other board members. These pitches may become Discoveries if they are deemed timely, rigorous, and distinctive. Stay tuned for a new arrangement of Discoveries coming your way!

More from our Partners & Community Pages

Contexts has two new pieces to read:

• Joseph Cohen discussed his work with Contexts in the Book Reviews section to connect the public with Sociology’s latest and greatest studies.
• Rin Reczek and Emma Bosley-Smith wrote a new post on their latest book Families We Keep: LGBTQ People and Their Enduring Bonds with Parents, exploring and explaining LGBTQ+ adult’s relationship with their parents.

New & Noteworthy

TSP is happy to announce our official TikTok page and our first video by board member Nicole Schmitgen on our TSP discovery Separate, Unequal, and Denied: The Double Discrimination of Black Disabled Students by Ellie Nickel – which are both based on “Not in My Schoolyard: Disability Discrimination in Educational Access,” in the American Sociological Review. Check it out!

Leo LaBarre’s most recent piece, “Child Poverty Prevention Policies and CPS Involvement” covers how poverty policies can impact the level of CPS involvement. This piece covers work by Jessica Pac and colleagues in Social Service Review on different policies’ potential to reduce the national CPS caseload by 669,018.

Citings & Sightings

Evan Steward (former TSP alum) at UMass Boston published a piece in The Conversation about voting patterns and religious affiliations. There were a number of surprising findings (at least to me).

Brian Donovan has been in the news for the sociology course The Sociology of Taylor Swift at The University of Kansas. Read some coverage of this course here and others like it.

Backstage with TSP

At our latest TSP meeting, we assigned “beats” for our board members, or topical areas of sociology that each member keeps a close eye on. This is one way we keep tabs on all the going-ons in the world of sociology. We also premiered our social media team’s latest work, discussed some candidates for potential discoveries, and discussed a recent publication by Dr. Uggen, Dr. Hartman, and our former Graduate Managing Editor Mahala Miller on how we translate research for public audiences.

More from our Partners & Community Pages

Contexts has a new video to watch:

• Elena van Stee’s conversation with Michèle Lamont, Mari Sanchez, and Shira Zilberstein about their new book Seeing Others: How Recognition Works – And How it Can Heal a Divided World.

Council on Contemporary Families latest on:

• School Resource Officers (SROs) presence within elementary schools in the United States, and some of the benefits and complexities that follow by Samantha Viano.

New & Noteworthy

TSP is happy to announce our first episode of the SOC 101 podcast. We interviewed Dr. Reuben Miller, author of Halfway Home: Race, Punishment, and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration. Me and my fellow interviewers had a lot of fun interviewing Dr. Miller and we learned a lot! We also published a new TSP Special Feature by Chris Knoester on sex discrimination and transgender athletes.

Citings & Sightings

John Nelson wrote an article for The Conversation about the backbone of AI language models – human beings.

Liesel Ritchie was featured in 10 News, discussing some of the implications of the Maui Wildfires – including the impact on survivors’ mental health, and how home can have a different meaning after a disaster.

Backstage with TSP

We held our first official TSP board meeting this past Friday and we are beyond excited for this semester. Alongside catching up our newest members, we honored previous TSP board members’ tireless work and made plans for the semester. Also, we are now experimenting with using Slack as a way to organize our work – we’ll see how it goes.

More from our Partners & Community Pages

Contexts‘ latest and greatest include:

• When Plans Fail, by Jessica Halliday Hardie explores how poor young women set plans for their future and pursue their goals.
• Q&A with Dr. Emily Huddart Kennedy and Ph.D. candidate Carly Hamdon on their context article on “Do People Who Drive Trucks Care About the Environment?” from Context’s Summer 2023 issue.

Council on Contemporary Families published:

• How government allowances support single mothers and their children living in poverty by Amie Bostic.

New & Noteworthy

We have several new and reposted pieces published this past week including a piece by me on Rural/Urban boundaries on work by Daniel T. Lichter and Kenneth M. Johnson, and a particularly interesting read, Hacking Barbie, by Martha McCaughey and Beth Davison (I will be seeing the Barbie movie this weekend with my partner). In World Suffering, Mahala Miller writes about the risks and realities of bullying as school starts – click here to learn more.

Citings & Sightings

Sociologist Kristen Barber recently wrote a piece about the recent (and ongoing) Zuckerberg-Musk cage-fight drama. Give it a read to learn more about its ramifications for “masculine anxiety”.

The Conversation compiled a list of 7 songs that are milestones to hip-hop’s 50 years of influence on society – give it a read (and a listen).

Backstage with TSP

September is here and TSP will be bringing more sociology to a device near you! If you are interested in bringing some of your sociological work to our readers, visit https://thesocietypages.org/about/ and click on “Submissions”.

More from our Partners & Community Pages

Contexts has new pieces on:

• How intersectional identities for Latina immigrant mothers shape their lived experiences by Sarah Bruhn.
• Q&A with Dr. Katja M. Guenther on their article on “Irresponsible Pet Owner” from Context’s Summer 2023 issue.
• How college experiences and context shape students’ making sense of inequality, and their role in it by Jonathan Mijs.

Council on Contemporary Families latest includes:

• How older siblings may be a source of support and success for disadvantaged families by Emma Zang.

New & Noteworthy

A whole lot has been happening with TSP! Our founders and fearless leaders Douglas Hartmann and Chris Uggen received the 2023 Public Understanding of Sociology Award at the American Sociological Association Conference, Sarah Shannon and Diana Graizbord launched First Publics, and we have published new content on dating for older adults, adult bullying, and an “About Us” video on TSP.

Citings and Sightings

Flordia’s new education standards for the educational narrative about African American history have led to a number of responses from sociologists, including Caty Taborda who wrote a piece for WBUR – click here to read more.

Deborah Carr was featured in the New York Times’s piece on heat-related illnesses, and commented on older adults’ selection of retirement locations, with most prioritizing a low cost of living and proximity to family over migration to warmer climates.

Backstage with TSP

Summer is over (almost). TSP will be welcoming several new board members, producing more social media content on other platforms, and investing in new ideas and projects as the academic year starts. Happy Fall! (almost)

More from our Partner and Community Pages

Contexts has new pieces on:

• Q&A with Elena G. van Stee on her Summer 2023 Context’s feature article.
• An undocumented immigrant’s story (part 1; part 2; part 3) of pursuing legal status by Jozef C. Robles.
• Multigenerational living arrangements in China by Rose Xuequing Zhang.
• Meet the editors: Letta Page, Jooyoung Lee.

Council on Contemporary Families latest includes:

• Regulation of Polgamies by Melanie Heath.
• How college students learn about their position in a world with inequality and segregation by Jonathan J.B. Mijs.
• How transgender people’s families’ are actually more supportive than not by Laurel Westbrook and Stef M. Shuster.

New & Noteworthy

Changes to Affirmative Action may impact elite prep schools, which serve as a major pipeline into elite universities. Read Richard Zweigenhaft’s latest Special Feature to learn more.

TSP board member Ellie Nickel’s writes up research by Lauren Rivera and András Tilcsik on Double Discrimination for educational opportunities that students who are Black and Disabled face.

Citings and Sightings

Parents are especially vulnerable to economic shifts and uncertainties. Sociologist Jessica Calarco was featured in The Atlantic and provides insight on some of the risks and realities that parents face.

Russian sociologist Boris Kagarlitsky, a Professor at the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences,  was charged with “justifying terrorism” for an online post analyzing the possible fallout of the destruction of the Crimea bridge.

Backstage with TSP

With the American Sociological Association’s annual conference a few weeks away, we will be launching a new podcast, videos, and other content within the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned on Twitter, or X, for more.

More from our Partner and Community Pages

Contexts has new pieces on:

• Police Officer’s determination of what constitutes the “hate” in hate crimes.
• COVID-19 blame and scapegoating in South Korea.
• Meet the editors: Laura Beth Nielsen and Seth Abrutyn

Council on Contemporary Families latest includes:

• LGBTQ health and its connections with State-Level Protections.
• What makes “Great Sex”?

New & Noteworthy

Fathers who spend more time on childcare duties with their young children are more likely to feel that men and women should be treated equally. Read our latest Discovery written up by Caroline Garland on Tomas Cano’s and Heather Hofmeister’s work, published in the Journal of Marriage and Family. 

Citings and Sightings

Marriage patterns in the United States among midlife adults have increased, as perceptions of marriage have become more of a “capstone” life experience. Click here to listen to sociologist Susan Brown’s comments on NPR about this trend.

Backstage with TSP

Behind the scenes, our grad board is working on some new discoveries, special features are being edited, and new YouTube videos for our channel are being developed. Stay tuned for more upcoming content!

More from our Partner and Community Pages

Our partner Contexts has a number of great reads that have been published over the past few weeks, including (but not limited to) what is it to be ukrainian, black sociology: a primer, and the privileged professor. Give one (or all) a read!

Are you the oldest child? Click here to read the Council on Contemporary Families piece on favoritism towards the “prodigal children” by Reilly Kincaid. 

Last Roundup

Sign Up for Inbox Delivery of the Roundup

TSP Edited Volumes

New & Noteworthy

Good healthcare systems have been linked to reduced impacts of childhood adversity on adult health. Gradboard member Nicole Schmitgen writes up important findings from Matthew Andersson and colleagues in our latest TSP discovery.

Prisons around the world have a variety of disparities, but what about differences across prisons-within-prisons? Jacob Otis explores the contrasts between English & Welsh, and Norwegian prisons based on insights from Ben Crewe, Julie Laursen, and Kristian Mjåland.

Citings and Sightings

Supreme Court rulings have sparked nationwide discussions and demonstrations. Click here to hear about some sociologists’ reactions to rulings on affirmative action and student loan forgiveness.

Backstage with TSP

With July having arrived, TSP has made significant progress on some new projects. This includes our growing YouTube channel (early access) which will be regularly updated in the coming months with new content. Stay tuned for more!

From the Archives

Regions across the United States have experienced a surge in smog caused by Canadian wildfires. To delve deeper into the connection between humans and wildfires, click here.

More from our Partner and Community Pages

Peter Harvey writes up some of his research on how students make sense of their position and identity in society in Contexts’ blog.

In Sociological Images, Victoria Lieberman covers how female and male body types are portrayed in children’s TV and movies, click here to read more.

Ever wondered about the older adult dating scene? Lauren Harris in Council on Contemporary Families covers her recently published research in the Journal of Marriage and Family.

Last Roundup

Sign Up for Inbox Delivery of the Roundup

TSP Edited Volumes

New & Noteworthy

Millennial mothers are spending less time in the workforce and more time on housework and childcare when compared to Generation X and Baby Boomer mothers. Read our latest Special Feature by Brendan Churchill, Leah Ruppanner, and Sabino Kornrich to learn more. 

Citings and Sightings

As the United States continues to grapple with labor shortages today, Smithsonian Magazine recently highlighted the photography of sociologist Lewis Hine and his thousands of photos of children’s working conditions in the 1900s. Click here to read more and view dozens of pictures of child labor in the 1900s.

Backstage with TSP

Summer is heating up! We have a number of projects nearing completion and coming soon to a computer/phone/or device near you. You may have also noticed that I am not Mahala. As Mahala passes the TSP torch to me this summer (Jake), I want to say a quick thank you and tribute to the years of guidance, commitment, and leadership Mahala has provided the TSP board. Thank you Mahala!

More from our Partner and Community Pages

College students returning home during COVID-19 faced the challenge of living through a pandemic, while simultaneously adjusting (or not) back to their parents’ authority, writes Elena van Stee of partner Contexts’ blog. 

The impacts of wrongfully imprisoning an innocent person go far beyond just the person, the friends, family, and community are also robbed of time with their loved one, Janani Umamaheswar writes in Council on Contemporary Families’ blog. 

Last Roundup

Sign Up for Inbox Delivery of the Roundup

TSP Edited Volumes