Friday Roundup

New & Noteworthy

• It Takes More than Just Concern to Participate in Climate Action by Luna Iman spotlights new research on the most motivated mindsets to tackle climate change.

From the Archives

• This week, the Department of Justice took down thousands of recently released documents related to Jeffrey Epstein that contained identifiable information about nearly 100 victims. Survivors issued a statement calling the release of their identities “outrageous,” saying they should not be “named, scrutinized, and retraumatized”. This 2018 Discovery from Amber Joy Powell unpacks how perceptions of risk often keep victims of sexual assault from reporting what happened.
• This February marks the 100th year since the earliest observances of Black History Month. Amidst federal dismantling of Black history exhibits and an anti-DEI climate, this 2017 piece by Neeraj Rajasekar underscores the importance of calling attention to the history of race and racism in the United States.”

More from our Partners & Community Pages

Council on Contemporary Families

• CCF reposted a brief by Sarah Schoppe-Sullivan on when aspiring to perfect parenthood becomes counterproductive.

New & Noteworthy

• Murder at Home, Police Violence at Work by Sara Kadoura details a new study that reveals how homicide in white police officers’ neighborhoods impacts their use of force on the job. {2 min read}
• Market Transition and Materialism in China by Tianhe Chen covers new research showing how economic reform reshaped Chinese cultural values. {2 min read}
• In An Update from TSP in the Twin Cities, TSP’s editors give some initial reflections and updates regarding ICE presence in Minnesota. {3 min read}
• Check out our Media Report by Mallory Harrington for recent news featuring social science experts. Last week, Nicole Bedera on how ICE Watch can de-escalate violence; Matthew Marr on a Florida state-required sociology textbook; Cynthia Miller-Idriss on violence and masculinity; and Tressie McMillan Cottom on how to fight political exhaustion. {2 min read}

More from our Partners & Community Pages

Council on Contemporary Families

• Alicia M. Walker talked to Nina Bandelj about her new book, Overinvested: The Emotional Economy of Modern Parenting for CCF’s “3Qs” series. {7 min read}
• Also for CCF’s “3Qs” series, Alicia M. Walker talked to Fatima Suarez about her new book, Latino Fathers: What Shapes and Sustains Their Parenting. {7 min read}
• In January, CCF reprinted research by Raquel Delerme on the costs of mothers’ care work for their incarcerated adult children. The study was published last year in Gender & Society. {4 min read}
• At the beginning of the year, a CCF brief by Jean Choi, Sae Hwang Han, Yee To Ng, and Elizabeth Muñoz detailed their findings on how neighborhood cohesion shapes cognitive health. Their study was previously published in The Journals of Gerontology. {5 min read}

First Publics

• This week, First Publics reposted a piece from Victor Ray that contextualizes ICE’s occupation of Minnesota. {7 min read}
• In Teaching Methods in Times of Crisis, the First Publics board recounted takeaways from a webinar with sociologists Steve McKay, Patricia Richards, and Naomi Sugie. The professors answered questions about how, and why, to teach research methods in abnormal times. {8 min read}

Give Theory a Chance [podcast]

• In this episode, Chris Conner joins host Kyle Green to discuss Conner’s research on the electronic music scene and gay dating apps. {43 min listen}

Backstage with TSP

• TSP is easing back into regularly scheduled programming while our board continues to manage stressors related to federal presence in the Twin Cities. Thank you for bearing with us as we navigate new developments.
• Anastasia Dulle is our newly minted Graduate Editor. She joins Doug and Chris leading TSP operations.
• The alliteration is back! The “TSP Friday Roundup” is rebranding as “TSP Tuesdays” to accommodate board members’ schedules this semester.
• Anastasia will work with board member Sara Kadoura to bring you the latest from TSP and our partners every week.

Happy New Year!🍾

New & Noteworthy

• Countries with generous parental leave policies are thought to be good for women and mothers; but a study from Jennifer Hook and Meiying Li cautions that long paid parental leaves might exacerbate the inequalities they purport to address. Read more in Jordyn Wald’s Where “Good” Work-Family Policies Go Wrong. {5 min read}

More from our Partners & Community Pages

Council on Contemporary Families

• Can parenting techniques affect children’s relationship with state authority? Herbert Rodrigues discusses his research in When Harsh Discipline Backfires: What Brazilian Teens Teach Us About Parenting and Authority. {6 min read}
• In a brief of her 2024 Social Problems article, Vanessa Delgado writes, U.S. parents financially support their adult children. But in immigrant families, it’s the reverse. {3 min read}

Semester Roundup & Behind the Scenes

We’ve had a great fall semester at TSP, welcoming five new board members who share our mission to publish high-quality public sociology. 

• Back in October, a small but mighty crew got into the Halloween spirit for our Friday meeting. 
• Last weekend, we showed off our bowling skills (some more than others) with friends and family at our TSP winter party.
• While we look ahead to the next semester, we also say farewell and thank you to our long-time managing editor Jake Otis. Read more about Jake, including some of his TSP highlights, in Best of Jake Otis.

A Look Ahead

• As TSP board members finish up finals and wind down for winter break, here’s what you can expect from us:
  • A new installment of our flagship “Discoveries” series every other week
  • “Best of TSP” spotlights, featuring the board’s favorite articles we published this year
  • A slower weekly roundup schedule, keeping you up to date on fresh content from TSP, our partners, and community pages
• Friday board meetings will reconvene in late January, and with them our regularly scheduled programming.

From Minneapolis, the TSP board wishes you a happy and restful holiday season.❄️

New & Noteworthy

• Disability and (In)Accessibility in American Churches by Anastasia Dulle presents social science research on the legal and theological justifications for ableism in Christian churches. {3 min read}
• Who’s to Blame for Climate Change? by S. Ericson details a new survey study that reveals how media framing can shape perceptions of climate change. {3 min read}
• Check out our Media Report by Mallory Harrington for recent news featuring social science experts. Last week, Scott Schieman on the state of AI attitudes in the workforce; Musa al-Gharbi on higher education’s “awokening”; and Murat Haner, Justin Pickett, and Melissa Sloan on the shifting target of political violence. Plus, reflections on the life and career of medical sociologist Alice Wong. {4 min read}

From the Archives

• The president’s xenophobic remarks this week renewed political attacks on Somali-Americans. The population is also a target of increased ICE actions in the Twin Cities. This piece – #BlackMuslimsResist: Minnesota Somalis Fight Back – from our partners at the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies places this moment in historical context, reminding us how the president’s 2017 “Muslim ban” caused pain and inspired resistance in the Twin Cities. {3 min read}
• Another TSP article from 2023 highlights how immigration arrests affect the children who witness them, shaping their future relationship with law enforcement. {3 min read}

More from our Partners & Community Pages

Contexts

• Contexts is turning the page on its print magazine, moving to online-only publications. The outgoing editors, Amin Ghaziani and Seth Abrutyn, reflect on the big change and offer a sneak peek at what’s inside the Fall 2025 issue. {4 min read}

Give Theory A Chance 

• In the latest episode of Give Theory A Chance, Kyle Green speaks to Christopher R. Matthews about radical honesty in the methods section, Simone Weil, and conceiving research as sacred. {79 min listen}

Council on Contemporary Families

• This week, CCF reprinted a report by Renee Ryberg and Arielle Kuperberg on the thin landscape of financial assistance for student parents enrolled in colleges and universities. The study was published earlier this year in The Journal of Higher Education. {7 min read}
• Last week, a CCF brief by Zhe (Meredith) Zhang detailed the author’s findings on differences in unpaid caregiving work by gender and sexual identity. The study, by Zhang, Madeline Smith-Johnson, and Bridget K. Gorman, was published last year in Demography. {7 min read}

New & Noteworthy

• In Violence and Detained Immigrants’ Access to Justice, Anastasia Dulle presents new research from Mirian G. Martinez-Aranda detailing the unique barriers to justice faced by detained immigrants marked for deportation in America. {3 min read}
• Check out our Media Report by Mallory Harrington for recent news featuring social science experts. This week, Francesco Duina on why we tolerate inequality; Stephen Whitehead on a masculinity non-crisis; Bailey Brown on parental stress caused by school choice decisions; Willy Pedersen on the link between alcohol consumption and earning potential; and Victor Onyilor Achem on the violent consequences of a cattle-grazing ban in Nigeria’s Middle Belt. {4 min read}

From the Archives

• Trump has signed a bill to release the Epstein files after months of controversy and legal fighting. Our article from 2019 looks at how laws and legal proceedings shape cultural understanding of what constitutes sexual assault or harassment. {3 min read}
• Wicked: For Good hits theatres today. Stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are on a press tour to publicize the sequel to last year’s blockbuster Wicked. This 2015 piece from our partners at Sociological Images discusses how big publicity might inflate the movie’s long-term success in theatres. {5 min read}

More from our Partners & Community Pages

Contexts

• Contexts published an essay by Laurel R. Davis-Delano and Stephanie A. Fryberg responding to the publication’s summer 2025 cover design. The authors write that the cover image – a tipi – and accompanying title – “Erasures and Defiance” – contribute to the “elimination, erasure, and dehumanization” of Native Americans. Contexts has issued an apology for the cover. {9 min read} 

Council on Contemporary Families

• Alicia M. Walker talked to Christina J. Cross about her new book, Inherited Inequality: Why Opportunity Gaps Persist between Black and White Youth Raised in Two-Parent Families for CCF’s “3Qs” series. {5 min read}

New & Noteworthy

• In her new TSP Special Feature, Midlife Motherhood: Everything, everywhere, all at once, Tannistha Samanta draws on interview research she conducted with later-in-life prospective mothers to describe the paradox of high and low expectations these women face. {6 min read}
• Check out our Media Report by Mallory Harrington for recent news featuring social scientists. This week, Ruth Braunstein on the historical context of the “No Kings” protests; Mike Savage on rethinking wealth; Sally Riggs Fuller and Ramon Aldag on the pros of “groupthink”; Yu Xie on the new brain drain; and Ashley Railey on the unique challenges of treating substance abuse in rural America. {3 min read}

From the Archives

• The largest annual conference on climate change – the COP30 – kicked off in Brazil this week with 190 countries participating. 2024 was the warmest year on record. Our 2019 piece provides pointers on how to teach students to think sociologically about climate change. {2 min read}
• This week, many observed Veterans’ Day in honor of the service of US military veterans. This 2019 article looks at cumulative impacts on veterans health including the psychological impacts of exposure to combat as well as the difficult and often unsupported transition from service back to civilian life. {3 min read}

More from our Partners & Community Pages

Council on Contemporary Families

• In the latest installment of CCF’s “3Q” series, Alicia M. Walker interviews Elizabethe Payne on the failure of anti-bullying policies to protect LGBTQ+ youth and her new book, Queer Kids and Social Violence, edited with Melissa J. Smith. {5 min read}

New & Noteworthy

• Shania Kuo summarizes the landscape of social science research on Islamophobia in the United States in the latest installment of our series, “There’s Research on That.” {4 min read}
• Check out our Media Report by Mallory Harrington for recent news featuring social scientists. This week, Alexandrea J. Ravenelle on the new major movie inspired by her research on the gig economy; Canton Winer on “gender detachment”; Orlando Patterson on the dimensions of freedom; and Tony Silva and Emily Huddart on Canada’s embrace of the paranormal. {3 min read}

From the Archives

• The New York City mayoral race ended this week with the election of Zohran Mamdani. In his campaign Mamdani positioned himself against economic elites and “corporate greed” and pledged to make New York City more affordable for residents. This 2012 article from our partners at the Scholars Strategy Network discusses why the interests of the wealthy are often overrepresented in American politics. {5 min read}
• Condé Nast folded Teen Vogue into Vogue.com and laid off much of the staff. According to a union statement, many of those laid off are BIPOC women or trans politics reporters, including the politics editor. The Roosevelt Institute, a think tank which had applauded Teen Vogue for its political coverage, called the merger “evidence that corporate concentration eliminates innovative ideas and silences voices with less power.” This 2016 piece from Sociological Images considers how media mergers threaten racial representation. {2 min read}

More from our Partners & Community Pages

Contexts

• In his new piece for Contexts, Andrew McNeely reflects on his upbringing in a gun-loving Texas family, arguing for a sociological focus on how gun culture affects both its members and the wider public. {7 min read}

Engaging Sports

• In Beyond Myths, Jack Hardwicke and Christopher R. Matthews complicate the widely held belief that sport is good for public health. {7 min read}

Council on Contemporary Families

• In The Lonely, Fractured Lives of Estranged Grandparents, practicing psychologist Joshua Coleman explains his concern over decreasing rates of grandparent/grandchild closeness. This piece was originally published in 2024 in Psychology Today. {5 min read}

First Publics

• In A Clingy Friend, Tamanna M. Shah considers what it means to teach sociology in a moment when AI is both an object of study and a tool shaping pedagogy. {5 min read}

Happy Halloween!

New & Noteworthy

• In the mood for something spooky? Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered, a new StoryMap from Jordyn Wald, tracks the Sociology of the occult. This visual special feature is based on a 2024 piece by Mallory Harrington and Nicole Schmitgen. {3 min scroll}
• Check out our Media Report by Mallory Harrington for recent news featuring social scientists. This week, Michael Benediktsson on the history of the public bench; Ash Watson on who the digital revolution leaves behind; Jennifer Glass on the contentious results of a new Pew Research survey on parenting; Alex Wood on the rise of the freelancer; and Alka Menon on the quickening cycle of trends in cosmetic surgery. {3 min read}

From the Archives

• This week, an unpublished Dr. Seuss manuscript was uncovered in UC San Diego’s Geisel Library. Penguin House plans to publish the book titled Sing the 50 United States! in the summer of 2026. Small Books, Big Questions, a 2018 article by Evan Stewart for Sociological Images, discusses how children’s books reflect the culture around them. {3 min read}
• The Fed lowered interest rates earlier this week, but will this resolve housing shortages? Read Steven Schmidt’s recent piece in Council on Contemporary Families covering research in Los Angeles on this ongoing and complex issue for want-to-be homeowners and sellers. {6 min read}

More from our Partners & Community Pages

World Suffering

• Research finds that forgiveness is healthy, but the pressure to do so may not be. TSP’s Managing Editor, Jacob Otis, wrote Social Expectations of Forgiveness for our partner publication World Suffering this week. {4 min read}

Council on Contemporary Families

• Increases in Community Income Improve Birth Outcomes by Molly A. Martin was originally published in CCF’s Brief Reports and reprinted by CCF this week. Read about the novel experimental design Martin and colleagues used to find a causal link between income and birth outcomes, from their study published in Demography. {4 min read}

New & Noteworthy

• Domestic Violence Doesn’t Have Just One Exit by Jacob Otis highlights the diverse ways victims resist abuse, from research by Lynette Renner, Carolyn Hartley and Knute Carter, published in the Journal of Family Violence. {2 min read}
• In the latest episode of Sociology in the News, TSP board members Jordyn Wald and Mallory Harrington discuss Emine Fidan Elcioglu’s recent article in The Conversation on how YouTube shapes young adults’ political identities. {5 min listen}
• Check out our Media Report by Mallory Harrington for recent news featuring social scientists. This week, Elizabeth Chiarello on pharmacists as “medical gatekeepers”; Patrick Sheehan on “hype” culture in Silicon Valley; Nancy Berns on flag burning; and Abigail Coplin on American-Chinese research collaboration. Plus, a new book by Charles Derber on societies’ self-imposed breakdowns. {3 min read}

From the Archives

• The “No Kings” movement is galvanizing Americans to protest in the streets, including some who attend in inflatable costumes like frogs, dinosaurs and unicorns. This piece from 2024 covers some sociology behind humor in politics. {6 min read}
• Republican-led states are adjusting SNAP benefits to restrict junk food, in line with the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again campaign. Some experts say the restrictions will have little to no impact on children’s health outcomes. Check out our 2018 article that considers Why Poor Parents Say “Yes” to Junk Food. {2 min read}

More from our Partners & Community Pages

Contexts

• In a Letter from the Editors, Contexts’ Seth Abrutyn and Amin Ghaziani offer an overview of the Summer 2025 magazine issue. They hope that pieces centering positivity will bring light to our ever-darker afternoons. {3 min read}

Council on Contemporary Families

• With teens’ growing access to high-potency cannabis products, Jamie Seabrook outlines his research on a little-known condition linked to frequent and prolonged usage in Cannabis and Vomiting: What Every Parent, Youth, and Doctor Should Know. {4 min read}