
New & Noteworthy
This week’s Clippings by Mallory Harrington includes Swiss sociologist and mental health advocate Jennifer Walter’s Threads post on the Trump administration’s “shock doctrine” to cognitively overwhelm citizens; Tonika Lewis Johnson and Maria Krysan’s new book, Don’t Go: Stories of Segregation and How to Disrupt It, highlighting how warnings to avoid Chicago’s South and West sides reinforce harmful segregation; Ardeshir Geravand’s caution that Iran’s soaring inflation may foment social unrest if citizens’ legitimate paths to economic mobility remain blocked; and Jamie Lee Kucinskas’s forthcoming The Loyalty Trap: Conflicting Loyalties of Civil Servants Under Increasing Autocracy, on the challenges American civil servants faced during Trump’s first term.
Our latest podcast episode includes TSP Board members Jordyn Wald, Emma Goldstein, and Forrest Lovette discussing Tressie McMillan Cottom recent opinion piece in The New York Times on “Dry January”, or avoiding drinking alcohol during the month of January.
Francesca Bernardino‘s new piece, Listening to Music (and Being Tracked) In the Streaming Age, writes on research by Michael James Walsh in Media, Culture & Society, covering how music streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music blur the line between personal listening habits and public identity. These social media-like elements heighten self-consciousness and spotlight the burden of constant data collection.
From the Archives
According to a recent NYT article, 33% of 8th graders read at a “below basic” level according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress. COVID-19 and the move to online classes (which has been associated with absenteeism) has been one suggested source of the decline, as well as the increased shift of reading on devices. Check out this Discovery from 2022 on how virtual schooling had (and has) impacts beyond the classroom.
President Trump signed an executive order directing the Education Department to prioritize funding school choice programs and making alternative schooling more accessible to families. This TROT from 2019 reviews research on school choice and public education, showing that school choice can reinforce inequality.
The Super Bowl is this weekend. Check out this list of some sociology pieces by us and our partners before the big game.
More from our Partners & Community Pages
- shedding the wealth by Colter J. Uscola covers research by Julian Posada on Venezuelan gig workers losing earnings to costly intermediaries and volatile crypto transactions.
- intergenerational costs also by Colter J. Uscola summarizes research by Veronica L. Horowitz, Ryan Larson, Robert Stewart, and Christopher Uggen on how monetary sanctions extend beyond individuals, leaving intergenerational stigma and financial strain on disadvantaged families.
- a woman walks into a brothel… by Parker Muzzerall writes up Eileen Tsang‘s research on women who purchase sex from male workers, seeking intimacy, pleasure, and gender role reversal—challenging traditional views of commercial sex.
Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
- Musk for Forgetting, against Democracy by Joachim Savelsberg unpacks Elon Musk’s support for Germany’s far-right AfD and the recent 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
Council on Contemporary Families
- Cherished Family Possessions, Celebrity, and News Coverage of the Los Angeles Fires by Michelle Janning writes on the LA fires shattering, the city’s mythical image, highlighting the deep cultural significance of home, possessions, and family narratives—even as celebrity losses blurred lines between relatability and privilege.
- Creating Space for Constructive Conflict in Teaching Theory by Tess E. Starman writes on her experiences teaching sociological theory at a conservative-leaning Catholic university through embracing disagreement, power-sharing, and critical engagement by actively applying theory to real-world social issues.
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