A Digression on Writerly Fitness:

I’ve been reading and writing a bit about fitness lately, and I’ve noticed two trends come up again and again: High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) and “body confusion.” What does this have to do with TSP and writing you ask? Excellent question. 

In HIIT, as I understand it, you’re trying to build explosive speed and cardio prowess, and you’re doing it by alternating going full-tilt and taking it easy throughout your workout. You might jog for five minutes, then sprint for one, repeating the process for a half hour and getting your heart used to revving up and cooling down.

For a writer, a burst of creativity can’t necessarily be planned. But a dedicated time for work can. Try a “pomodoro timer” app or “Freedom” installed on your computer to keep you in a set workzone time. Write whatever comes to mind or work on assembling your bibliography. However you use those minutes, make them focused on your current writing task. Then ease off: tweet about your progress, check the score on your favorite game, switch the laundry, or give yourself five games of “dots” on your phone. Then… back to the grind! Do not skip the breaks. Soon enough, you’ll actually forget them on your own.

As for body confusion, this is the idea that doing one kind of workout isn’t just boring your mind, it’s boring your body. Exhibit A: my brother is a really great cyclist. He’ll argue about “great,” but he can ride a bicycle for hundreds of miles and stay up for the after-party. But in a recent “alleycat” race, he had to run a mile. Whoops. Turns out he has such good cardio doctors try to wake him up for blood pressure tests, but his body has no idea how to run a mile. He had trouble walking the next morning. From my understanding, this is also why things like CrossFit and barre classes have such a following: by switching up cardio, balance, and strength-training in endless permutations, your body keeps changing and you keep interested in the workout.

So it can be for writers: you may have gotten to where you can whip out a lit review or a blog post like nobody’s business, but that might be keeping you from exploring other avenues. You might even be overlooking a talent because you’ve never considered it. Perhaps you’re the master of the academic haiku or you know how to write up explanations of social theorists’ windy ideas in “personal ad” style, engaging students in a whole new way. You won’t know ’til you force yourself to mix it up.*

The same goes for your reading, by the way, so here’s a whole smattering of great new pieces on topics you may not think pertain to you or your interests. Maybe you’re underestimating the extent of your interest.

In Case You Missed It:

“A Social Welfare Critique of Contemporary Crime Control,” by Richard Rosenfeld and Steven Messner. Crime can be reduced through reducing motivation and reducing opportunity, but what trade-offs are we willing to make?

Editors’ Desk:

“Politics as a Vocation,” by Chris Uggen. Can sociologists make courageous politicians?

“Sketch #5: Of Foxes, Hedgehogs, and Spiders,” by Doug Hartmann. Thinking large and small and synthetically. With pictures.

Citings & Sightings:

“It Takes More than Drugs To Make an Addict,” by Kat Albrecht. A researcher who grew up in the crack epidemic starts testing addiction.

Office Hours:

“Lisa Wade on Sociological Images,” with Kyle Green. The co-founder and main author of the most popular sociological website on the Internet graces Office Hours with her very public sociological imagination.

Reading List:

“Working against the Clock,” by Amy August. August makes her TSP debut with a look at new research on education, employment, and white women’s mortality.

There’s Research on That!

“Where Are the Women in High Finance?” by Anne Kaduk. Kaduk makes her own TSP debut with sociological inquiry into why women are such a minority in economics.

“Government Shutdown,” by the TSP Editors. Some hidden effects of a shutdown.

“Columbus Controversy,” by Evan Stewart. Why annual celebrations of a guy accidentally sort of bumping into a new continent are a bit… off.

A Few from the Community Pages:

• Sociological Images. Lisa Wade hammers it home with a piece on pop stars and the patriarchal bargain. A perfect piece for discussing everything from the feminist movement to fame, solidarity, patriarchy, and subversion.
• Girl W/ Pen! Speaking of feminism, have you seen Gravity? Natalie Wilson, ahem, weighs in.
• Cyborgology. David Banks gives us the best sarcastic headline on the site this week and explains why Upworthy might just be about smug navel-gazing: “Through the simplification of extremely complicated geopolitical conflicts, Upworthy makes every story into Kony 2012.” It is also alluring and might be a gateway site to more serious inquiry. Banks offers a scientific challenge: examine something, propose an alternative, test, refine, retest. So get going!

Scholars Strategy Network:

“How Do People Make Political Decisions when Compelling Identities Pull them in Different Directions?” by Samara Klar.

*I, for example, write up descriptions of comedy records for an indie label. After the first 50 or so, I realized I’d run out of ways to say “this is funny,” and came up with a series of style challenges for myself. I want to build a whole suite of these sorts of challenges for academics—what do you suggest?

What Does the Letta Say?

EEP! There was no Friday Roundup. Guess who’s fault that is? Mine-oh-mine. But to make it up to you, here’s some fresh Monday morning reading!

In Case You Missed It:

“The Fascination and Frustration with Native American Mascots,” by Jennifer Guiliano. A look at the history and fight over mascots, as the Redskins go 1-4 in the NFC East.

Editors’ Desk:

“Sketch #4: TSP @ White House,” by Chris Uggen. Dr. Uggen goes to Washington.

Office Hours:

“Lisa Wade on Sociological Images,” with Kyle Green. Finding time in a packed schedule, Lisa Wade talks about her favorite posts, her inspirations, and how she finds the time to broaden several hundred thousand sociological imaginations every month.

Reading List:

“The Whiteness of Warcraft,” by Jacqui Frost. New research shows massive multi-player online games like World of Warcraft bring together enormous populations in play, but their avatar choices are limited. Not all of those players can be white, right?

Citings & Sightings:

“The Moral Compass of Millennials,” by Letta Page. A philosopher counters the argument that Wikileaks and hacktivism show a moral ineptitude among Millennials.

Teaching TSP:

“There’s Research on That! A Classroom Tool,” by Hollie Nyseth Brehm. How to use TSP’s latest feature to get students talking.

“Framing and Counter-Framing,” by Kia Heise. Using a recent podcast with Abigail Saguy to explore the sociological concept of “framing.”

A Few from the Community Pages:

• ThickCulture. Andrew Lindner takes a sociological look at the evolution of the contemporary conservative movement.
• Sociological Images. Lisa Wade on PinkWashing and medical research, as well as economic mobility and education.
• Cyborgology. A look down at Upworthy, and a look forward at digital media and consent.
• Girl W/ Pen! The Feminist Pull of Gravity (not to be confused with a feminist version of the documentary Pull of Gravity, though we’d be super into that, too).
• Dispatches from a New Dean. The UnBox committee!

Scholars Strategy Network:

“The Dubious Case for Leaving U.S. Police Trainers and Private Contractors in Afghanistan,” by Jeremy Kuzmarov.

For the next couple of Roundups, I’d like to welcome TSP’s graduate editor Hollie Nyseth Brehm. She’ll be covering for me as I head off on a 3-hour cruise. Actually, there’s no cruise. But I do expect to find myself washed up on a beach for a stretch, so I won’t be rounding up the site until… October 11th? Craziness. For now, one last hurrah before heading for the airport (yet again).

Features:

“Environmental Inequalities,” by Hollie Nyseth Brehm and David Pellow. We think of environmental damage as infesting specific sites (Erin Brokovich, anyone?) or being a fully global problem (ozone layer: we need one). Brehm and Pellow urge us to consider the ways in which environmental hazards work to more directly impact the most vulnerable global citizens.

Editors’ Desk:

“Sketch #2: Ears to the Ground,” by Doug Hartmann. Talking to the media is daunting; it’s hard to speak in soundbites when scholars are used to 40 pages of nuanced analysis to make a point. What do social scientists get out of the exchange? Turns out: more data.

Citings & Sightings:

“Strong and Stable: Personal and Civic Lives,” by John Ziegler. New work reported in the Atlantic measures voting patterns and finds that personal tragedies along with other life disruptions can keep people away from the polls. Is a stable life the first step to civic participation?

“A Fitting Tribute,” by Erin Hoekstra. Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow, extends her work on inequality into wider realms in a reflection on the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington.

Teaching TSP:

“Guest Post: Environmental Inequality, Class, and Life Chances,” by Marie Berry. Extending Brehm and Pellow’s new work (above) to discussions of “life chances,” or “the odds that an individual will obtain the resources and opportunities necessary for a long and successful life.”

A Few from the Community Pages:

• New Books in Sociology. “Superdads,” with author Gayle Kaufmann. 
• Sociological Images. The beat stays catchy, the words stay sketchy. SocImages keeps unblurring those lines with the help of Project Unbreakable. And while we’re pissed off, guess what you can’t have in movies? No, it’s not explicit violence or abuse, it’s wrinkles. Dirty damn lady wrinkles.
• Cyborgology. Robin James on the real meaning of time: it’s not money, it’s value.

Oh, have you heard of this Scholars Strategy Network? Of course you have! You’re hip, in-the-know sorts. But the reason I’m pointing it out specifically right now is that I want to direct your eyes to two specific things going on over at their site:

1. As Syria takes the spotlight off Miley (for real), I recommend you return to Richard Lachmann and Hal Brands’s thoughts on America’s foreign policy and its place in the world. SSN’er Jeff Faux also talks war-weariness in the Huffington Post.
2. September’s topical spotlight on SSN is labor and unionization. While we’ll be featuring several of the briefs in this suite (I believe 17 make up the full complement) on the SSN section of TSP (fun with acronyms!), it’s particularly worth reading Nick Carnes and Jake Rosenfeld’s summary of the spotlight pieces.

Now, back to TSP, riiiiiight after I wish my mom a happy birthday. Happy Birthday, Mom!

Okay, TSP! A week’s worth of goodness, right here for you, adjusted for the tardiness of last Friday’s Roundup:

Features:

“Social Fact: Death—Not the Great Equalizer?” by Deborah Carr and Julie A. Phillips. Race and gender affect life expectancy, but it’s surviving the first quarter of life that really seems to make the difference. It’s also important here to check out the previous Social Fact, on race and homicide rates. I’m not sure I’ll ever get “not horrified” with the fact that murder is the most common cause of death among any race or age group.

Editors Desk:

“Sketch #1: Just Don’t Call It That,” by Doug Hartmann. In the first installment of a new series on larger visions for the field of sociology and its place in the public sphere, Doug starts at the beginning: branding. Can we get by with calling what we do “sociology”?

Office Hours:

“Holly Thorpe on Snowboarding Bodies,” with Kyle Green. I’ll just crib from Kyle’s intro here:

In this episode, we talk with Holly Thorpe about her excellent book Snowboarding Bodies in Theory and Practice. We discuss the use of theory to study physical practice, the rapid growth of the sport, gender relations, marketing, the snowboarding body, and writing about sports for different audiences.

A Few from the Community Pages:

• Sociological Images threatens to break the Internet with their fantastic—and fantastically trafficked—post on gender, power, and body language. Take up some space, people!
• Sociology Lens’s Lisa Sugiura gives a brief introduction to research on the burgeoning online pharmacy business, from a scoiological perspective.
• Girl w/ Pen! adds a new columnist, who, in her first turn on the site, checks out the videos for “Blurred Lines” and “Defined Lines” and wonders where the feminism really comes in.

Scholars Strategy Network:

“How the Decline of Unions has Increased Racial Inequality,” by Meredith Kleykamp and Jake Rosenfeld.

“Unions Foster Middle Class Leadership in Democracy,” by Aaron J. Sojourner.

“Talking about Politics Boosts Civic Participation,” by Casey Klofstad.

Getting down with what’s up on The Society Pages (and if you just wanna get down, NPR’s streaming the new Elvis Costello/The Roots album here)

Shiny New Book:

In case you missed our excitement about the publication of our first reader with W.W. Norton & Co. (hard to do, what with all the skywriters we hired…), please do check out the source of our pride, The Social Side of Politics. Click on through to Norton to request a desk copy or order your own.

Shiny New Facebook:

Well, not really, but we’re doing a lot more posting on FB, usually drawing together related articles from across our site. Love a SocImages post? We’ll let you know about a White Paper or Special Feature that pairs well. Excited to see Dalton Conley in Vogue? We’ve got stuff on that, too!

Citings & Sightings:

“Social Network Sorrows,” by Andrew Weibe. Researchers are all over the map when it comes to deciding if social networking is “good” or “bad” for us. Here’s a new look.

A Few from the Community Pages:

• Cyborgology. Getting in early on the “Burning man is the new…” media meme, the Cyborgs wonder if Burning Man is the new capitalism. For more on Burning Man, of course, check out our Roundtable with four sociologist/burners here
• Sociological Images. Ruh-roh. Male intimidation in the face of female success. Continuing to think about flight attendants, who SocImages has previously taught us are badasses who don’t get tipped, they also reveal “your flight crew” is a pretty hastily assembled bunch of badasses.
• Girl w/ Pen! Heather Hewitt on how Afghan women communicate through poetry.

Clear Eyes, Full Hearts

In just three days, a new school year is upon us. For my part, I enjoy the ritual: I buy a new pair of Converse (high-top Chucks, black, always). I make sure I’ve got a fresh notebook or two. I think hard about how to be organized and motivated (this will fall away quickly), and I try to draw on the enthusiasm of all of the incoming students swarming the campus. And then I get geared up for the next wave of great ideas and new readers flowing into The Society Pages. Then Doug gives me a good “Coach Taylor” pep talk, and we dive in. Can’t wait to see what the inbox brings. All I know is, with readers and authors like these, we can’t lose.

If all else fails, show a movie (see the comments for many suggestions).

Shiny New Book:

In case you missed our excitement about the publication of our first reader with W.W. Norton & Co. (hard to do, what with all the skywriters we hired…), please do check out the source of our pride, The Social Side of Politics. Click on through to Norton to request a desk copy or order your own.

Shiny New Facebook:

Well, not really, but we’re doing a lot more posting on FB, usually drawing together related articles from across our site. Love a SocImages post? We’ll let you know about a White Paper or Special Feature that pairs well. Excited to see Dalton Conley in Vogue? We’ve got stuff on that, too!

Features:

“From Unassimilable to Exceptional: The Changing Status of Asian Americans,” by Jennifer Lee. Lee continues her TSP series on the stereotype promise of Asian Americans, focusing in particular on educational outcomes and self-fulfilling prophecy. Turns out even “good” stereotypes can trap.

“The Fascination and Frustration with Native American Mascots,” by Jennifer Guiliano. News outlets are dropping the use of the name “Redskins” for Washington, D.C.’s team, but owner Dan Snyder stands staunchly by the moniker. How crowds came to do the “Tomahawk Chop,” and what recent litigation means for group’s self-determination.

Editors’ Desk:

“Energy and a New Academic Year,” by Doug Hartmann. Doug drops off his son at college… about a quarter mile from the office… and reminds us that societies are still made up of individuals.

“Sex Sells Sociology,” by Doug Hartmann. Add sociology to the long list of things the public likes more with a hefty dose of titillation.

Citings & Sightings:

“Colleges Suffering College Debt, Too,” by Letta Page. Two UC Berkeley students (familiar with struggling school systems) consider how the student debt problem has been pushed to a breaking point at least in part by a college debt problem.

“Little Pink Subprimes,” by Evan Stewart. NYU’s Jacob Faber talks to the Atlantic Cities about the wealth gap and the housing bust.

“God’s Green Earth,” by Evan Stewart. Are believers better “stewards of the earth”?

Teaching TSP:

“Compassion,” by Hollie Nyseth Brehm. A guide for using Natan Sznaider’s recent Office Hours episode in class.

“Infantalization and Fantasy Football,” by guest author Zachary Miner. A great example of introducing the concept of gender stereotyping with new sociology students.

“FOOD, INC. Film Guide,” by Kia Heise. If you do go the “show a movie” route, here’s one way to do it.

Scholars Strategy Network:

• “Making Sense of Trends in U.S. High School Graduation,” by Richard J. Murnane.
• “Can Charter Schools Fix American Public Schooling?” Luis Miron. See also: Contexts viewpoints on the same.

A Few from the Community Pages:

• Girl w/ Pen welcomes guest poster Kendra Ijeoma with “Three of Chicago’s Most Influential Women on Building Power and Influence.”
• Sociological Images gives advice for new college students and considers correlation and causation when it comes to lead clean-up and the crime drop.
• Cyborgology considers resistance through play (hashtags have power, people… I mean, maybe outside #shitgirlssay. That one’s got nothin’.) and “Turkle-esque irony” in the “I forgot my phone” video.
• Sociology Lens asks a great question: “Does Your Life Pass the Bechdel Test?“

Still Wise Words

Hopefully, we all have a teacher or two who stirs fond memories. For me, one of the first to spring to mind is Loren J. Samons II, a professor of classical studies at my alma mater, Boston University. Prof. Samons is notable for many reasons (one of his brilliant strokes was to refer to the class, collectively, as “scholars”—a convention that set the tone for each lecture in just one word), but this week, I found an old syllabus. I wondered why I’d kept it—I took several classes from Prof. Samons in my time at BU, but it still seemed an odd document to cling to, some 12 years after graduation. And then I read. Nestled within many wise words for young students learning to learn, write, engage with literature, and find their way through sources both ancient and modern, was this gem:

Your most important functions on the computer are “delete” and “trash.” The more frequently you employ these, the better your paper will be. The most dangerous functions are “cut” and “paste.” No sentence or paragraph you compose has a right to exist. It is more difficult to correct a bad sentence than it is to write a new, good sentence. A paragraph that is ill-constructed in one part of your paper will be just as ill-constructed two pages later.

The italics are mine. Elsewhere, Samons states so many things that have become part of my standard advice to writers. Surely, I lifted them from this influential professor. For instance:

If you cannot point to a thesis statement or several sentences informing the reader precisely what you will argue, you need to rewrite your introduction.

And:

The key to knowing whether a paper is long enough [or short enough] is the following question: Have I established my case?

And of course:

The best argument can be spoiled by poor or sloppy presentation… special care should be paid to spelling, punctuation, grammar, and vocabulary. The following tips may help…: Dictionaries should be consulted frequently… Read your work to yourself aloud… Give it to someone whose writing you respect or who will be brutally honest with you [to read].

Now, on to a few authors who’ve hit every item on Dr. Samons’ list this week.

Features:

“Social Fact: The Homicide Divide,” by Lauren J. Krivo and Julie A. Phillips. Murder is the most common cause of death among young black males. Here are the facts.

“Color-Blindness vs. Race-Consciousness: An American Ambivalence,” by Meghan A. Burke. Burke suggests that by avoiding claims to colorblindness and, instead, facing tricky racial issues head-on, the U.S. will arrive more quickly at a country in which race is present without being divisive.

The Editors’ Desk:

“If You See Something, Say Something,” by Chris Uggen. The unexpected, but earnest compliment: a humble but effective bonding mechanism. Or: go out of your way to be nice. It’s worth the trip.

“The Quarterback Sociologist,” by Doug Hartmann. The 49ers’ Colin Kaepernick is many things, but is he the prime example of QB habitus?

Citings & Sightings:

“After DOMA,” by Erin Hoekstra. Sociologist Rick Settersten on “chasing the law” when it comes to marriage and adoption rights for all.

“You’re Dad’s Favorite,” by John Ziegler. Resentment builds when fathers show their favoritism.

“The More Things Change,” by John Ziegler. American time use hasn’t changed much in 50 years, though we are getting more ________ (hint: rhymes with “fredentary”).

Teaching TSP:

“Book Review Speed Dating,” by Hollie Nyseth Brehm. A witty way to get students talking about their readings.

A Few From the Community Pages:

Oh noes. It’s late. The week’s nearly over. Today I must leave it with: the Community Pages are churning out great content as usual, so please, please, share your favorites in the comments!

Scholars Strategy Network:

“Violence against Women Riding Public Transport Is a Global Issue—Especially in Developing Countries,” by Meda Chesney-Lind.

“The Pros and Cons of State Tax Breaks for Senior Citizens,” by Bayliss J. Camp and Charles Lockhart.

Verdict? What Verdict?

There’s no mistaking it: this week’s talk focused on the acquittal of George Zimmerman, the Floridian who killed teenager Trayvon Martin in February 2012. Below, you can find some of the week’s pieces about Martin, Zimmerman, and privilege here on The Society Pages, as well as a few other topics we hit on.

In the meantime, I’ve gotten two other suggestions of palate cleansing items to bring to your attention:

Sociologists: be sure to check out Scatterplot’s “Clusters of Sociology,” by Neal Caren. Grad board member Sarah Lageson writes: “[It’s] a network analysis of published sociology papers, looking at how the most cited articles cluster together over time, which ends up mapping on to what we think of as sociological subfields (i.e., crim, education, race, etc)… [a] cool application of network analysis [that] shows how really important pieces are central to subfields, as evidenced by the continual links to other important articles.”

Everyone: A fun piece from Steve Kraske in The Kansas City Star on the history of “Prairie Home Companion,” its upper midwestern cultural relevance, and why Lake Wobegone is “real.”

In Case You Missed It:

“Visualizing Punishment,” by Sarah Shannon and Chris Uggen. An actual look at disparities in imprisonment across states, over time and by race.

Special Feature:

“Wearing Privilege,” by Jennifer Lee. Speaking of privilege, a UC-Irvine sociologist reflects on knowing about the status privileges she carries (as non-black, highly educated, female, etc.) and feeling that privilege at work in the wake of Zimmerman’s acquittal.

Related: “Teaching Privilege to the Privileged.” Professors weigh in on courses meant to make white privilege visible even in an ostensibly “colorblind” age.

Office Hours:

“Michelle Alexander on The New Jim Crow,” with Kia Heise. Professor and civil rights lawyer Michelle Alexander shocked many when she claimed, in her 2011 book, that the racial dimensions of the American criminal justice system now constitute a reinvention (or continuation) of the pre-civil-rights era Jim Crow laws.

Citings & Sightings:

“Death Makes a Lively Topic,” by Evan Stewart. A Swiss sociologist’s sobering salons go worldwide.

“By Any Other Name,” by Erin Hoekstra. As soon as I hear on NPR that “yo” has become the gender neutral pronoun of choice among kids in Baltimore, we’re reading Dalton Conley writing in Vogue about his own kids, E and Yo, and why the Civil Rights Movement changed naming conventions in the U.S.

“Predicting Progress,” by Andrew Weibe. Is Mark Abdollahian Egypt’s Nostradamus? Using computer analysis to predict the outcome of social movements.

Teaching TSP:

“Documentaries on Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Media,” grad student Kyle Green shares his favorite picks for movie day.

A Few from the Community Pages:

• Sociological Images. Over 17,000 Facebook “likes”? If you missed it, it’s time to go read “Stand Your Ground Increases Racial Bias in ‘Justifiable Homicide’ Trials.” See also: “Who Would You Shoot?” “‘I Am a Man,'” “Who’s Afraid of Young Black Men?” “The War on Blacks: Arrests for Marijuana Possession,” “Language and Trayvon Martin’s Life,” and much much more.
• Cyborgology. Is the “I Am Not Trayvon Martin” meme nothing more than widespread white guilt and self-congratulation? Black Bodies in the Justice System. Consumers, retailers, and tracking: camera 1, camera 2.
• Girl w/ Pen! Why child poverty is bad for democracy.

Scholars Strategy Network:

“If Immigration Reform Is Enacted, Will Newly Legalized Migrants Have Access to Federal Social Benefits?” by Cybelle Fox.

Double Your Fun

Time to play catch-up!

In Case You Missed It:

“Thinking About Trayvon: Privileged Response and Media Discourse,” by Stephen Suh. A roundtable discussion from just months after Trayvon Martin’s death, this piece looks at media framing and public responses.

The Editors’ Desk:

“The Home Stretch (Or: Introducing Our Third Book),” by Doug Hartmann. In which Doug details some of the coming content for Color Lines and Racial Angles, TSP’s third reader from W.W. Norton (the first two volumes are due out by the end of the year). 

Citings & Sightings:

“Economics, Sentimentality, and the Safe Baby,” by Letta Page. An economist walks into a baby expo… and calls on some classic social science.

“The People’s Art,” by Letta Page. If a society is enriched by its art, is it impoverished by keeping that art in museums?

“A Gender Gap and the German Model,” by John Ziegler. An emerging education gap shows women outstripping men in the race for diplomas in the U.S. Does Germany offer a solution?

“‘Spiritual’ Scofflaws,” by Evan Stewart. What happens when there’s neither an angel nor a devil on your shoulder.

“A New South Africa?” by Erin Hoekstra. In post-Apartheid South Africa, Somali refugees are everyone’s target.

A Few from the Community Pages:

• Sociological Images. Imagining “Indians” in Hollywood, Milwaukee’s economy at the family level, the always-present nostalgia for the past (we walked uphill, both ways), and flight attendants are more than sky waiters: they’re stone-cold badasses.
• Girl w/ Pen. What’s thought leadership and how do we go to there? A podcast on women and heart health (or lack thereof) and how Ani DiFranco might help the situation.
• Cyborgology. Taking on the airwaves: Women are getting the worst on Game of Thrones and Dr. Who, while Black Mirror freaks everyone out.

Scholars Strategy Network:

“Why Immigration Reform with a Path to Citizenship Faces an Uphill Climb in Congress,” by Tom K. Wong.

“What Happens if [Now that] the Supreme Court Weakens [Has Weakened] Voting Rights?” by Gary May.

“How Conservative Women’s Organizations Challenge Feminists in U.S. Politics,” by Renee Schreiber.

Summer Bloggin’, Happened So Fast

For real. It’s the end of June. What happened? Here in Minnesota, it’s a blur of downed trees and hot, muggy days. And yet, the hits keep comin’. Here’s what TSP was doing (when the power was on).

Special Features:

“The Struggle for a Truly Grassroots Human Rights Movement,” by James Ron, David Crow, and Shannon Golden. Around the world, it’s elites leading the charge for human rights, and even then, it’s often only in rhetoric. How do we get the oppressed more involved in championing their own rights?

Office Hours:

“Colin Jerolmack on The Global Pigeon,” with Kyle Green. NYU’s Jerolmack on a bird that’s traversed the globe, going from celebrated, bred, and raced, to reviled and called “rats.” What does the pigeon’s place say about societies?

Citings & Sightings:

“A New South Africa?” by Erin Hoekstra. Post-Mandela, post-apartheid, South Africa has a new oppression problem: refugees.

“Kings of the Court,” by John Ziegler. Sociologist and ESPN commentator Michael Eric Dyson considers the parallels being drawn between Michael Jordan and LeBron James. Is the sports world big enough for two icons?

A Few from the Community Pages:

• Girl w/ Pen. Jean jackets and feminism: both alive and well in the Midwest. Immigrant wives? Not faring so well. 
• Sociological Images. If people still used the word “chooglin,” we’d say SocImages keeps on doing it. From gender in the brain to the marketplace, boring old college sex lives to how doctors hope to die, the team covered a lot of ground this week. AND they had a professorial GIF party!
• Cyborgology. Nathan Jurgenson is on a righteous rant about victim blaming and online privacy (hint: don’t violate others’ privacy); David Banks has reached the end of the Internet, run out of swear words; and there’s a whole lotta dronin‘ going on.

Scholars Strategy Network:

“How Conservative Women’s Organizations Challenge Feminists in U.S. Politics,” by Ronnee Schreiber.

“Why America Needs to Find New Ways to Support Local Journalism,” by Peter M. Shane.