New & Noteworthy

In case you missed it, the Super Bowl was this weekend. Read up on some of TSP’s Super Bowl-related sociology here. We also have a new Discovery on the NFL’s Rooney Rule by TSP board member Nadia Jackson-Fitch from work by Christopher I. Rider, James B. Wade, Anand Swaminathan, and Andreas Schwab in the American Journal of Sociology, using promotion data on NFL coaches from 1985-2015.

From the Archives

Does Blindness Beat Bias? by Evan Stewart in Sociological Images on one dating reality show, Love is Blind, that eliminates visual cues (new season coming out this Valentines’ Day).

No presidential debates for the 2024 election? Polls may indicate little impact, but remember polls aren’t always the most reliable representations of data. Read this piece from Contexts on who chooses to participate in online political polls by Danielle Koonce.

More from our Partners & Community Pages

Contexts latest:

• How does parenting impact happiness? Read how different groups experience happiness and parenting differently by Parker Muzzerall.
• Stephanie Ternullo interviewed over 50 residents of Motorville Wisconsin about how local organizations’ contexts, organized labor, and other aspects of rural America strengthen progressive politics or shifts towards populism.

First Publics has two new Class Notes:

• Anna Rogers writes about the importance of incorporating popular culture in the classroom to engage, enhance learning, and encourage critical thinking.
• Shelby Clark discusses her using Community-Based-Learning in a sociology class and how it can further involve students to get engaged in their communities.

Sociological Images has a new piece on how Large Language Models can have an impact on society and religion by Evan Stewart.

New & Noteworthy

We have two new pieces from TSP for you to check out:

• Super Bowl LVIII is this upcoming Sunday. Read some sociology on the Super Bowl, football, and sports from us and our partners. The list includes Politics and Sports: Strange, Secret Bedfellows by Douglas Hartmann and Kyle Green, Hegemonic Masculinity in Super Bowl Commercials by David Mayeda, and more!

• Clippings, featuring Rebecca London on changes over the last 30 years on how children play in KPBS, Susan Brown in a USA Today about ‘gray divorce’ and the growing rate of divorce for adults over age 55, Martin Schröder on generational differences of work ethic in Phys.org.

From the Archives

• Flooding in Southern California, LA, and other natural disasters leave millions in damage and several dead. Read about the unequal aid that follows these disasters from our Discovery on work by Junia Howell and James R. Elliott.

• In the spirit of the Super Bowl, check out our ‘There’s Research on That’ by Jean Marie Maiere on the health and eating habits of athletes.

More from our Partners & Community Pages

• Contexts has a new piece by Rose Xueqing Zhang on work by Khoa Phan Howard about sexual racism in interracial friendships for gay men.

• The latest from Council on Contemporary Families includes Hannah Tessler and Canton Winer writing on the masculine expectations of men in asexual and romantic relationships.

New & Noteworthy

This week Mallory Harrington writes up work by Aruna Ranganathana and Aayan Dasa on Baul sangeet folk-music and the level of asynchronous and synchronous creativity experienced by men and women musicians. There were different experiences for women and men in the recording space and asynchronous environments were preferred by women.

From the Archives

The first Native American actress, Lily Gladstone, is the first to be nominated Best Actress for the upcoming Academy Awards. Check out this Sociological Images piece to learn about how U.S. schools teach about indigenous history in the United States.

Texas’s governor Greg Abbott has mobilized the Texas National Guard and state troopers at the U.S.-Mexico border, leading to issues with the federal border patrol. Read more about the border from a recent Sociological Images piece by Ghazah Abbasi.

More from our Partners & Community Pages

There are two new pieces in Contexts this week:

• Colter Uscola writes up work by Beka Guluma on immigrants think about their racial and cultural identity as they acclimate to America.
• Marcus A. Brooks covers some of the discourse surrounding Sociology’s balancing between a scientific and social justice focus.

Council on Contemporary Families also has two new reads:

• An interview with Jessi Streib on luckocracy, which is based on hidden information and class-netural selection criteria.
• Daniel L. Carlson, Priya Fielding-Singh, Richard Petts, and Kristi Williams cover some of the health and employment impacts of COVID-19 on mothers.

First Publics has a new Reflections:

• Taura Taylor writes about the sociological character arc and the personal and intellectual journey and purpose of sociology in our lives.

New & Noteworthy

A new year and new Clippings from Mallory Harrington! This week includes Alexandrea Ravenelle in CNBC on the gig economy, Jacqui Frost in The Conversation writing on atheist churches, Mark Whiting in Newsweek examining common sense, Hajar Yazdiha in The Emancipator on Dr. Martin Luther King, and John Skrentny in the Los Angeles Times on STEM workers.

Backstage with TSP

The Spring semester is off and running! We have a few new faces at our weekly TSP board meeting this semester. This semester we will continue to bring you Discoveries and ‘There’s Research on That’ pieces, and have a number of new projects in the work. Stay tuned for more!

More from our Partners & Community Pages

The latest and greatest from Contexts includes:

• Parker Muzzerall on the climate crisis and military spending.
• Elena G. Van Stee on family and politics.

Council on Contemporary Families has a new piece:

• Lauren Harris writes her work with other researchers on communication patterns of families during COVID-19.

New & Noteworthy

Our latest includes a new ‘There’s Research on That’ by me on union organizing in the United States. Check it out to learn about some brief history, tactics used by unions and employers, and some of the impacts of unions on workers.

From the Archives

It’s an election year (in case you somehow missed it). Read some pieces by us and our partners to learn more about voting suppression, nationalism, and more!

I recently visited a “Little Free Library” with my kids and found some interesting literature inside. Read this piece from Contexts about the now-well-established phenomenon.

More from our Partners & Community Pages

Contexts‘ latest includes:

• A conversation with Elena G. van Stee and Hajar Yazdiha on the political misappropriation of the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.
• Holly Hummer writes on her research in ‘a good time to not have children‘ about women without children during COVID-19 and their views on motherhood.
• Trica Keaton on racial profiling in France, and its raceblindness within its national policy.

Council on Comtemporary Families has a new piece:

• Kelley Fong’s new book Investigating Families: Motherhood in the Shadow of Child Protective Services includes her research with vulnerable families and CPS.

New & Noteworthy

We have two new Discoveries for you to read:

• Policing and Crimmigration by Leo LaBarre on a study by Michael T. Light, Jason P. Robey, and Jungmyung Kim how local and federal law enforcement in California and Texas differently work together when policing immigrants. They found immigrants were almost 10% more likely than citizens to be incarcerated in Texas, whereas the immigrant-citizen gap was only 2% in California.
• Teachers’ Racial Blame in the Classroom by John Purnell covers research by Jayanti Owens on race and the use of blame by high school teachers toward students. Dr. Owens shows evidence of ‘tough love’ by teachers of color towards Black and Latino students.

Check out some of our ‘Best of 2023’ pieces including:

• Defending Against Social Media in Criminal Trials by Mallory Harrington (best opening line).
• Roses are Red, Violets are Blue: Online Dating May Have a Gendered View by Nicole Schmitgen (best title).
• Not Just a Monolith: Complicating Asian American Identity by Shania Kuo (best TROT).

From the Archives

Government shutdown avoided? Read our TROT on shutdowns to learn more about how impactful.

Children and adults experiencing homelessness are particularly vulnerable to cold weather, especially in Minnesota. Check out this World Suffering piece by Ron Anderson The Intractable Suffering of the Homeless to understand some of the complexities, and risks.

More from our Partners & Community Pages

The latest from Contexts includes:

• Rose Xueqing Zhang writes up a recent publication by Sarah Goodrum, Jessie Slepicka, William Woodward, and Beverly Kingston on how school structure and culture can contribute to violence.
• Parker Muzzerall covers research by Pierre-Christian Fink on the front and backstage of financial crises.

Council on Contemporary Families a piece on love and loss:

• Deborah Carr writes about The Golden Bachelor and older adult dating and five important truths about widowhood, grief, and loss from The Golden Bachelor.

New & Noteworthy

This week I posted a new Discovery, ‘Right to Work’ Laws, based on work by Tom VanHeuvelen. In his research, VanHeuvelen finds that workers living in states with ‘Right to Work’ laws, which limit union organizing and strength, are paid 5-12% less than states without ‘Right to Work’ laws.

Over the next several weeks I will also be posting our Best of 2023 pieces. Mallory Harrington’s piece, Defending Against Social Media in Criminal Trials, won our ‘Hook, Line, & Sinker’ Award with the opening line, “Your Tweets, pictures, and messages may be used against you.”

From the Archives

The Holiday season is right around the corner, and so is consumerism. Check out this piece from Sociological Images, 1/3 of People Say Commercialism is the Worst Part of Christmas, to learn more. Ugly sweater season is also here, read The Ugly Christmas Sweater: From Ironic Nostalgia to festive simulation to inform yourself before donning your ugliest sweater.

More from our Partners & Community Pages

Contexts has two new pieces to read:

• race, “that ugly word”, by Ann Morning on differences of views on race of college students in the United States and Western Europe from their new book An Ugly Word: Rethinking Race in Italy and the United States.
• better together, or what sociology’s history of moral debate can teach you by Shai M. Dromi and Sam Stabler about the trajectory of sociology as a field from their new book, Moral Minefields: How Sociologists Debate Good Science.

Council on Contemporary Families a new read:

• What does it mean to be a “daddy”? by Tony Silva from his new book, Daddies of a Different Kind: Sex and Romance Between Older and Younger Adult Gay Men from his research on interviews with relationships with large age-gaps.

First Publics has a new Dialogue on Intro Soc Textbooks:

• Kathleen Korgen discussed her textbook Sociology in  Action: Introduction to Sociology, which utilizes active learning to get students invested in learning sociology.

Sociological Images latest includes:

• The Border is a Budget by Ghazah Abbasi, on some of the complexities of borders as means of political, but also economic maintenance.

New & Noteworthy

Caroline Garland’s latest Discovery, How UN Requirements Create Problems for Delegations from Developing Nations, highlights work by Danielle Falzon on how developing countries are at a disadvantage compared to nations with more resources. High expectations can lead some of the developing countries’ delegates underslept, hungry, and overworked.

From the Archives

Abortion headlines continue to frequent headlines, learn more about some of the impacts of abortion restrictions by reading contexts, abortion restrictions are harmful to everyone.

Alexei Navalny, a Putin critic, went missing from prison. Check out the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies‘ piece, Unpacking the Charges Against Putin for reading up on some of his violations of human rights.

Backstage with TSP

The TSP team met Sunday at a bowling alley to celebrate another year of hard work by the board! We had a blast spending non-work time together and were able to recognize some great work over the last year. When we come back together after the holiday break, we will be welcoming several new board members (it’s going to be a packed board room!).

More from our Partners & Community Pages

Contexts has a new video to watch with Dr. Ashley Rondini and Dr. Jerry Saunders II on cancer prevention guidelines, which predominantly are tailored towards people with ‘fair’ skin types.

First Publics‘s latest includes Ellen T. Meiser’s Rethinking Service-learning to be More Public and Creative, on the role of higher education students’ roles in local institutions.

New & Noteworthy

This week’s Clippings includes Alison Cares in Tampa Bay Times and Inside Higher Education on Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr.’s proposed plan to remove “Principles of Sociology” as an option to fulfill the social science course requirement at public universities (click here to read ASA’s response), Christopher P. Scheitle in The Conversation about religion diversity among graduate students, Philip Cohen in Smithsonian Magazine featuring new research showing that life expectancy across the U.S. fell from 2019 to 2021 and that women now live 5.8 years longer than men, Jennifer Earl in Meduza on political repression, and Anna Samchuck in El País on the Wall Evidence Project, which has been documenting the graffiti and inscriptions left by the Russian military in occupied areas of Ukraine since February of 2022.

From the Archives

December is one of the most generous months, read The Social Determinants of Charitable Giving to learn more about individual donations.

The new Hunger Games movie is in theatres, to learn more about deviance and rebellion read the classic, Power and Powerlessness: Quiescence and Rebellion in an Appalachian Valley.

The Biden administration is proposing changes to TANF to close loopholes that some states have been using to spend funds on non-welfare programs. Learn more about TANF by reading our Public Assistance Provides Food and Shelter Discovery by Allison Nobles.

More from our Partners & Community Pages

First Publics has its latest on Soc Intro Textbooks with Lisa Wade, author of intro book Terrible Magnificent Sociology.

Council on Contemporary Families latest include Eman Tadros, Chantal Fahmy, Sara (Smock) Jordan, and Antonia Guajardo write up some of the complexities of fathering while incarcerated.

Contexts has new pieces to watch and read on claiming colors with Gary Alan Fine and Fiona Greenland, The Golden Bachelor and adult dating by Lauren Harris, and Queer Farmers by Taylor Hartson.

New & Noteworthy

Shania Kuo published a new “There’s Research on That”, Not Just a Monolith: Complicating Asian American Identity. In this piece, she unpacks some of the problems with the umbrella term “Asian Americans”. Immigration, panethnicity, East Asian cultural overshadowing, and anti-Asian Racism are all covered.

In case you missed it, I created a quick list of some TSP Thanksgiving-themed pieces. This includes our fantastic video and TROT by Isabel Arriagada and Mahala Miller on family conflict around the dinner table.

From the Archives

War in the Middle East, Ukraine, and around the world continues to make headlines as more lives are destroyed. Learn more about The Impact of Distance from War by Kristalena R. Herman.

More from our Partners & Community Pages

Contexts has their Fall 2023 issue to read before 12/15 for free! Check out the table of contents to read about machine learning, divorce in Korea, college access after incarceration, and more!

Council on Contemporary Families has new content on persistent racial housing inequality in public housing by Junia Howell, Ellen Whitehead, and Elizabeth Korver-Glenn.

Our friends at The Berkeley Journal of Sociology are accepting submissions for their 65th Volume until December 15th! Click here to send your submission and reach a public audience! Also, in case you haven’t already, order the 64th Volume – “Space and Place at the Margins” – here.