Friday Roundup

New and Noteworthy

Court fines and fees target and constrain the same groups of people that have been historically disadvantaged by incarceration according to research from Ilya Slavinski and Becky Pettit, written up on the site by Leonardo LaBarre.

Worth a Read (Sociologically Speaking)

As we round out the year, we reflected on the contributions of some of the “genius” social scientists named 2022 MacArthur Foundation fellows.

Citings & Sightings

The Associated Press and Religion News Service spoke with sociologists John Hawthorne and Jonathan Coley for their report on the tensions facing LGBTQ students at Christian colleges.

From the Archives

Today, news broke that Brittney Griner was released from Russian custody. Check out this piece from partner Engaging Sports on the working conditions of WNBA players that, among other consequences, leads players to seek highly lucrative off-season contracts internationally.

From our Partner and Community Pages

Actually, neighborhood social cohesion has not decreased over time and may actually have increased for some, according to new research from Kira England and colleagues featured on Council on Contemporary Families’ blog. However, some concerning disparities exist between high and low-resource people which is especially concerning given the connection between child and family wellbeing and social cohesion.

For people with synkinesis, masking may provide a welcome respite from the difficulty of communicating with others and expressing themselves when facial movements such as smiling can be impossible or uncomfortable. Faye L. Wachs writes for Contexts’ blog on the “social disability” of facial paralysis that impacts how the self is received, expressed, and interpreted.

Backstage with TSP

This week is our final board meeting of the semester. It’s a bittersweet moment, where we reflect on the accomplishments of the semester and look ahead to coming weeks that (hopefully) feature some more rest, relaxation, and connection. The wheels at TSP do not stop turning during the semester break, we continue to have editor’s meetings, publish new content, re-post our “Best of the Year” pieces, and plan for the coming semester. All the same, we’ll miss seeing each other every Friday morning. Thankfully, we know the weeks will fly by, re-energizing us and inspiring fresh ideas and content for the site.

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Image Descriptions and Attribution

Images, clockwise from top left. 1. A wooden gavel sits next to a pair of handcuffs and a stack of spread out cash Judge Gavel, Money And Handcuffs by George Hodan is licensed under CC 1.0. 2.  Jennifer Carlson, Reuben Miller, Emily Wang, and Steven Ruggles. Images courtesy of Macarthur foundation, licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0 3. A row of colorful adjoining houses in San Francisco. Row Of Homes San Francisco by Cristie Guevara, licensed under CC0 1.0 4. An older white woman and younger Asian American site next to one another, masked on public transit. Generational Differences by Susan Jane Golding, licensed under CC BY 2.0

This week around eight inches of snow fell here in the Twin Cities, forecasts now call for a heavy downfall of great reads…

New and Noteworthy

New board member Diana Hoerner wrote up research from TSP alum Amy August showing that, when preschool teachers rely on peers to reinforce appropriate behavior, this encourages selective inclusion and exclusion that fosters social isolation for some kids and not others.

Worth a Read (Sociologically Speaking)

In the wake of the attack on Club Q, Greggor Mattson wrote for Contexts blog on the complexities and realities of gay bars in the United States, places of community and celebration that only enter the spotlight after tragedy.

Citings and Sightings

The Indian Child Welfare Act is on the Supreme Court’s docket this year, The 74 spoke with Frank Edwards about the “enormous amounts of bias” present in the child welfare system, especially when teachers are expected to act as the eyes and ears of the system.

From the Archives

Merriam Webster named “gaslighting” as the word of the year, check out this piece from the archives on the “sociology of gaslighting.”

Backstage with TSP

This week, nominations for our “Best of 2022” went out. We rounded up exceptional pieces from our board members, partner, and community pages. It is a really fun opportunity to reflect on the year and all that we have accomplished. We look forward to announcing the winners and re-running this pieces in our “Best of” series during the semester break.

More from our Partner and Community Pages

“woman, life, freedom” and the progressive academe by Maryam Alemzadeh for Contexts.

Sitcoms and Social Networks by Evan Stewart for Sociological Images.

From Prussia With Love: The Palace That Got To Live Twice by Henning Schroeder for Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies’ blog.

Keeping Ties with Problematic Parents by Emma Bosley-Smith and Rin Reczek for Council on Contemporary Families’ blog.

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New and Noteworthy

We write up new research from Alexandra Murphy and colleagues showing that one in four Americans struggle to secure safe and reliable transportation and impoverished Americans are more likely to experience transportation insecurity.

Worth a Read (Sociologically Speaking)

Conflict constructively contributes to community life according to Evelyn Perry for Contexts. Perry draws on her ethnographic experience in one of the few economically and racially mixed neighborhoods in the city of Milwaukee to show how differences do produce confrontations between neighbors but residents are able to continually re-negotiate their sense of order together.

Citings & Sightings

Is vandalism an effective tactic for environmentalism? Dana Fisher spoke with ABC about how younger activists are adoption confrontational tactics because of they perceive a lack of progress on environmental goals.

From the Archives

Next week many Americans will celebrate Thanksgiving. Friends and families gathering can bring tough conversations. Check out this piece from the TSP board with some social science perspectives on the value of talking and listening (especially to those we disagree with), plus a visual roundup of research on how family meals are a site of conflict, as well as companionship.

More from Our Partner and Community Pages

Doug Meyer wrote for Council on Contemporary Families’ blog on how his new book, Violent Differences, explores the significance of race for queer men’s experiences of sexual assault.

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New and Noteworthy

Board member Mason Jones wrote up new research from Stefanie Mollborn and colleagues showing that high SES parents try to negotiate with their kids, not set hard limits, to try and reduce “screen time” and “bad” tech uses

Worth a Read, Sociologically Speaking

Daniel Carlson wrote for Council on Contemporary Families on his new research showing that exactly how couples divide up household work matters for relationship satisfaction and happiness. When couples share tasks equally, rather than splitting tasks 50/50, they are happier and more satisfied.

Alumni Spotlight

In honor of The Society Pages’ tenth anniversary in 2022 we’re highlighting the contributions and ongoing work of our superb alumni!

This week we caught up with Erik Kojola who had this to say about his time on the board:

“I have fond memories of our Friday morning meetings pitching ideas for articles and talking about current events. I did several podcasts that enabled me to interview scholars doing exciting research and as a graduate student talk with some leading sociologists. One of my first interviews was with Michael Burawoy which was exciting and nerve-racking to interview a scholar who’d made major contributions to theories of class and labor as well as advancing public sociology. I was able to spend an hour talking with a former ASA president and to have an in-depth discussion about how he conceptualized public sociology. I also compiled a roundtable about climate change in the 2016 US Presidential election and got leading environmental sociologists to analyze the stakes of climate action and climate justice.

Now, I’m an assistant professor at Texas Christian University and have recently started some community-based and collaborative research on environmental racism in Fort Worth. I’m working with several community organizations to do applied research that will help them advocate for policies to protect public health and limit pollution in black neighborhoods. I’m also having students write policy reports and op-ed articles about environmental justice issues in Texas so they learn how to communicate issues to broader publics.

I continue to use TSP in my classes. I have students read Discoveries articles in my research methods classes to learn about different research methods and how to summarize research.”

Thanks for all your contributions to TSP and your ongoing public sociology work, Erik!

Backstage with TSP

This year, we have a group of talented undergraduates on our board. This is new for us and has meant changing up how we do “pitches,” where board members bring in recent social scientific articles and we consider whether to write them up. Returning board members have been pitching articles for both themselves and new board members to cover. There’s a lot of moving pieces trying to match articles with the interests of our board members but it’s been a fun process and has meant that, sometimes, people are writing up pieces that aren’t neatly within their comfort zone. This can be challenging but helps us pursue our broad, “big tent” vision of sociology.

More from Our Partner & Community Pages

Joe Eggers wrote for Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies’ blog on What Past is Worth Remembering?: Germany’s Colonial History in Public Memory

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Image Attribution

Starting at top left, clockwise 1. “dishes” by Attila Malarik is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. 2. “Berlin: Bismarck Memorial” by Taxiarchos228 is licensed under FAL. 3. “Erik Kojola” 4. “Untitled” by Japanexperterna.se is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

New and Noteworthy

For our partner page World Suffering I wrote up new research from Mike Vuolo and colleagues showing that prescription drug monitoring programs, that tracks prescriptions for drugs like opioids, decrease overdose deaths.

Worth a Read, Sociologically Speaking

Hilary Silver wrote for Contexts‘ blog on how the slow uptick in home work from its low point in the 1980s was fast-tracked by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Citings and Sightings

Giving context to Supreme Court news, Adam Harris interviews Natasha Warikoo for the Atlantic, on her September book Is Affirmative Action Fair?: The Myth of Equity in College Admissions.

Backstage with TSP

One thing we’re constantly thinking about at TSP is how much information to include in our Discoveries, short write-ups of new academic research. We want to make sure we’re accurately representing the research and the importance of the finding(s) but we also want to make sure we aren’t bombarding our readers with lots of jargon or complexity that makes the piece less accessible. It’s a tough balance to strike and something we always discuss in on our weekly Discoveries workshops.

Alumni Spotlight

In honor of The Society Pages’ tenth anniversary in 2022 we’re highlighting the contributions and ongoing work of our superb alumni!

This week we caught up with TSP alum Kyle Green. Here’s what he had to say about his time on the TSP board:

“Over the course of my four years with TSP I was involved with most, if not all, parts of the project. I think am proud of that. However, I am sure I am proud of four things: (1) Getting to be part of the initial transition from Contexts to TSP when all dreams seemed possible; (2) Working on the Getting Culture volume with Stephen Suh; (3) Hosting and producing many episodes of the Office Hours podcast with Sarah Lageson; (4) Creating, hosting, and producing the Give Methods a Chance podcast with Sarah Lageson. But really, it isn’t what I wrote/recorded as much as the friends I made (I started writing this statement as a joke but decided it is actually right by the time I finished typing). 

TSP has completely shaped my vision of the discipline and what it could/should be, for better or worse (usually better). For example, I still am surprised when I meet an academic who does not believe in the inherent value of producing accessible work that can be consumed rather easily by the sociologically interested. I also owe my big tent understanding of the discipline to my time at TSP and I owe my ability to have conversations with scholars across the discipline to my time spent listening to grad board members pitch ‘citings’ from a variety of subfields. Most directly linked to my time at TSP, I created the Give Theory a Chance podcast and have recorded almost 50 episodes with scholars across the social sciences. I can honestly say that I would not be the researcher and teacher I am today without my time spent as part of the TSP crew.”

Kyle Green is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at SUNY Brockport. He is also host and producer of the Give Theory a Chance podcast.

From the Archives

Ahead of next weeks midterm voting check out this research roundup!

More from our Partner and Community Pages

Abbie E. Goldberg wrote for Council on Contemporary Families’ blog on her new book describing the pathways and challenges and offering guidance for LGBTQ people seeking parenthood.

Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies’ blog posted Gelinada Grinchenko‘s Oral History Journal piece on her forthcoming book and series of accompanying short films and her experience and role in the context of the current conflict in Ukraine as an oral historian, survivor, and future storyteller.

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Image Attribution

Starting at top left, clockwise. 1. “Kyle Green” by Kyle Green. 2. “Women Couple Playing With a Boy” by Kampus Productions is in the public domain. 3. “Opioids” by  K State Research and Extension Extension and Education is licensed under CC BY 2.0. 4. “Vote here, vote aqui” by Erik (HASH) Hersman is licensed under CC BY 2.0. 5. Discoveries logo, The Society Pages, all rights reserved. 6. “Mom working from home” by  www.lyncconf.com/ is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

New and Noteworthy

New board member Leo LaBarre wrote up research from Dylan Jackson and colleagues showing that kids who are expelled or suspended from school experience earlier and more frequent police encounters.

Worth a Read (Sociologically Speaking)

Ahead of trick-or-treating on Monday, read this Conversation piece from sociologist Joel Best on his research of decades of media stories about hazardous and contaminated halloween candy.

Backstage with TSP

We’ve got something in the works (shhhhh!) that has us thinking about the books and articles that first got us interested in sociology. It’s fun to see the variation (from Marx to Evicted) and exciting to think about how we’d communicate what we love about these works to a public audience.

From the Archives

It’s Halloween weekend. Before you don the hat and hop on a broomstick, read this piece on how witchcraft as a religious practice empowers marginalized groups.

Alumni Spotlight

In honor of The Society Pages’ tenth anniversary in 2022 we’re highlighting the contributions and ongoing work of our superb alumni!

This week we caught up with TSP alum Hollie Nyseth Nzitatira. Here’s what she had to say about her time on the TSP board:

“The Society Pages is where I learned that social scientific writing does not need to be bad writing. That might sound a bit extreme, but after reading pages (and pages) of sociological theory written centuries ago, I thought that writing like a sociologist meant writing long paragraphs full of jargon. Thankfully, TSP changed this. As part of TSP, I learned the value of writing for broader audiences, as well as how to speak without academic terms that do not resonate with the public. 

I have used this ability to translate my research on genocide into broader settings in several ways, including but not limited to the following: 

• Creating policy reports for governments and nonprofits;
• Giving a TEDx talk;
• Publishing an op-ed in the New York Times;
• Speaking about my research on C-SPAN; 
• Writing grants for general audiences; 
• Consulting with museums as they create new wings on genocide; and 
• Training high school teachers.”

Hollie Nyseth Nzitatira is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the the Ohio State University. Her research examines why and how genocide happens and how countries rebuild in the aftermath.

More From Our Partner and Community Pages

Emily Fox and Canton Winer ask: What can asexual and aromantic folks teach us about friendship? What’s the difference between sexual and romantic attraction? Where is the line between a friendship and a romantic partner? for Council on Contemporary Families’ blog

New Contexts editors Amin Ghaziani and Seth Abrutyn invite your feature story pitches!

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Image Attribution

Images clockwise from upper-left. 1. Image: Group of adults lying down with their heads in the center. “Group of Friends Happily Lying on a Grass Field” by Kampus Production is licensed under CC0. 2. Dr. Hollie Nyseth Nzitatira 3. Image: Pile of colorful sugar-coated candy “Candy” by mooppoert is licensed under CC0 4. Image: A witch flies in front of a full moon on a broomstick. “Witch And Full Moon” by Linnaea Mallette is licensed under CC0. 5. Image: The back of a young black person in a red jacket, they are facing a large building in the distance. Image licensed by CC0.

New and Noteworthy

New board member Caroline Garland wrote her first piece (!), writing up research from Benjamin Karney and colleagues showing that slightly raising the minimum wage decreases both divorce and marriage rates in cities.

Worth a Read (Sociologically Speaking)

Check out this piece in partner Berkeley Journal of Sociology’s relaunch issue from Santiago J. Molina on “Biological Citizenship and Surveillance in the COVID-19 Pandemic.”

From the Archives

With Liz Truss resigning (outlasted by a head of lettuce) check out this piece from partner Sociological Images connecting Theresa May’s 2015 rise to prime ministership to the “glass cliff” for women leaders promoted in times of crisis.

Citings & Sightings

NPR and the LA Times spoke with Nancy Wang Yuen ahead of the Anna May Wong quarter release next Monday. Wong will be the first Asian American featured on U.S. currency.

More from our Partner and Community Pages

Meyer Weinshel writes for Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies’ blog on Art in the Public: Voice to Vision at the Solidarity Street Gallery

Council on Contemporary Families‘ blog reposted Barbara Risman‘s piece on how Life in Post-Roe America forces new understandings of sex and pleasure.

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New and Noteworthy

Council on Contemporary Families’ blog re-printed Arielle Kuperberg and Pamela Stone on their new research that shows that representations of stay-at-home fathers have gotten more positive, but only for some dads.

Worth a Read (Sociologically Speaking)

Check out this piece from Tyler Leeds in the Berkeley Journal of Sociology on the “Unthinkable Path Forward for American Journalism,” drawing on both social science research and personal experience.

Backstage with TSP

This week we’re talking podcasts! It’s been a few years since we’ve put out an Office Hours podcast. We’re excited to think about what the future of TSP produced podcasts might be. Some of our new undergraduate board members are really excited about getting involved in pocast-ing. We’re not sure how this will shake out just yet but are looking forward to getting the conversation going again.

From the Archives

With news that Hurricane Ian has hit coastal communities in the United States hard, check out our write up of Junia Howell and James Elliot‘s work on “Disaster Relief’s Unequal Aid”

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New and Noteworthy

Chantal A. Hailey wrote about results from her experimental study that show that that high students express different race-based preferences for schools than their parents

Worth a (Look), Sociologically Speaking

TSP partner Berkeley Journal of Sociology published a photo-essay on the process of producing the documentary film “Una Escuela llamada América,” that explores the relationship between production of the documentary and social research as well as how visual narratives can serve public debates

Backstage with TSP

This week we’re starting off a new round of pitches for the semester, returning board members summarize new sociological articles they think would make good Discoveries for the site. This year, we’re focusing on making sure we have good coverage of the generalist journals in sociology. It can be tempting for graduate students to only pitch articles from their sub-areas but we think this broader focus will help us connect back to the big vision of the field, something that is at the heart of TSP

From the Archives

In the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona hitting Puerto Rico, read this roundup of research from us on “Not So Natural Disasters”

Citings & Sightings

NPR’s “On the Media” spoke with John Thompson about how technology has changed the book industry, paving the way for Amazon’s global dominance

More from Our Partner & Community Pages

Andrew Guest wrote for Engaging Sports on Thinking Fandom: When (and How) to Watch Games We Love and Hate

New & Noteworthy

Mieke Beth Thomeer described findings from their new study for Council on Contemporary Families’ blog showing that never married respondents were at increased risk for poor mental and physical health relative to married adults as the pandemic progressed during 2020.

Worth a Read (Sociologically Speaking)

We reposted Sarah Shannon’s piece in The Criminologist on how archival-based learning can bring challenging topics to life for students, viscerally connecting them with course concepts and providing opportunity for community engagement.

Backstage with TSP

This week marks our first board meeting of the semester! As you read this, we may be gathered around the table welcoming new board members and excitedly reuniting with old friends. This year, we’re joined by a cohort of undergraduate board members for the first time. We’re excited to work with this group of amazing undergraduates, helping connect them to public sociology and scholarship and benefitting from their energy, enthusiasm, and fresh ideas!

More from our Partner & Community Pages

For their relaunch issue the Berkeley Journal of Sociology spoke with Arlene Stein and Jessie Daniels, authors of Going Public, a field guide for connecting research to public audiences and policymakers.

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