Mason Jones and I published a new Discovery on work by Catherine Sirois, Dependent, Delinquent, or Denied? In her research, Sirois found resource scarcity was causing social workers and probation officers to be “institutional offloading” youth who required lots of time and attention.
In the United States, Thanksgiving is around the corner. This holiday is notorious for family conflict around the dinner table, especially with politics. Learn more about some sociology behind this phenomenon from our video and TROT, “Visual Soc: Family Meal Conflict” by Isabel Arriagada and Mahala Miller.
This week TSP’s Caroline Garland published a new Discovery, Hard Work Pays Off?, on work by Rebecca Wetter and Claudia Finger. In this piece, we learn about the buy-in of the belief of meritocracy of German medical students. Students with parents who attended college were more likely to believe their hard work paid off than students whose parents did not attend college — who felt admissions were more dependant on class or influence.
The Grammy Award Nominations were released on November 10th! Learn more about what these awards mean for artists by reading Contexts recent article by Rose Xueqing Zhang.
Because of TSP’s growing student board, we have increased the number of “pitches” per week (where students review recent academic articles, write a brief summary, and present the articles to the rest of the board) and “workshops” (where students share their Discoveries drafts on screen and the rest of the board provides feedback real-time). This increased frequency of pitches and workshops will enable us to publish more content in the upcoming months!
We have two new ‘There’s Research on That” pieces, a YouTube video, and our weekly Clippings of Sociology and Sociologists in the news for you to check out:
In the spirit of Halloween, Mallory Harrington & Nicole Schmitgen wrote up work by sociologists and research on the paranormal, “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered: Sociology of the Cultic and Paranormal“. Check it out to learn more about what we know on this topic, including how “cultic milieu” shares space in our world with skepticism.
I wrote a piece on the research on body-worn cameras, or body-cams, used by police officers. Turns out that body-cams benefit both police and the public and the use of the technology has skyrocketed in recent years.
We had a great discussion about several candidates for our upcoming SOC 101 episodes last week. Our next steps will be reaching out to authors to schedule interviews, writing questions, and forming episode teams. More to come!
How do we relate to people around the world experiencing war and trauma? Read our ‘There’s Research on That’ by Brooke Chambers to learn more about how distant war and the degree media coverage can impact our selective empathy of conflicts.
Student loan forgiveness developments continue to make headlines. Read our ‘There’s Research on That’ by Amber Powell on how student loan debt disproportionately impacts students of color and women.
Backstage with TSP
We are growing! New board members are joining the TSP team and bringing new perspectives and energy! Podcast planning is also our primary project. We are currently looking for recent sociological books to add to our current SOC 101 episodes.
Meet some of the TSP student board members from our last board meeting in our latest TikTok! The TSP board is made up for undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Minnesota and led by Dr. Christopher Uggen and Dr. Douglas Hartmann.
Mallory Harrington published a new Discovery by Michelle Gomez Parra and Lorena Garcia on the impact college has on young Latina women. Gender and sexuality expectations were core drivers for Latinas to attend college and redefine their identity.
From the Archives
Fall is in full swing and Halloween is right around the corner! Read “Why We Love Autumn” by Edgar Campos to learn about how our emotions are connected with this cozy time of year.
Narges Mohammadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this past Friday. She has worked for decades towards gender equality in Iran and is currently sentenced to 31 years and 154 lashes for her work. Learn more about “women, life, freedom” in Iran by reading a piece written by Maryam Alemzadeh in Contexts.
Katalin Kariko also won a Nobel Prize for her work on the development of technology to create mRNA vaccines for COVID-19. Dr. Kariko has faced a number of barriers in her career – which is not uncommon for women in STEM careers. Read our TROT on these barriers here to learn more.
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.
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.
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!
