The success of TSP owes a great deal to the rise of public sociology. And no single individual played a bigger role in facilitating that rise than Berkeley sociologist Michael Burawoy who basically invented the term almost a decade ago and then made it the focus of the annual sociology meetings he organized during his presidency of the ASA back in 2004. In recent years, Burawoy has been devoting his considerable energies to another project: that of building a more truly global, international sociology. To that end Burawoy, now President of the International Sociological Association, has launched a new online publication called “Global Dialogue.” more...
public sociology
Here in Minneapolis, Earth Day and the Invisible Children campaign to “Cover the Night” clashed just a bit, as we found our own Walker Art Center’s sculpture garden damaged in the name of raising awareness about Joseph Kony and the ongoing atrocities in Uganda. For a lot of people here and elsewhere, the name Kony has certainly become more “famous” with Invisible Children’s recent efforts, but the context has been lacking. Beyond a flashy video and exhortations to do something now—even if it’s causing a lot of expensive damage to public art—many are left without any real idea of what’s happening in Uganda, how Ugandans themselves are working to solve the crisis, and how effective campaigns like Invisible Children and even the individual efforts of well-meaning Americans can really be. Our own Shannon Golden recently interviewed the U of M’s Amy Finnegan, who wrote her dissertation on Invisible Children, about these vexing questions, and now Finnegan has launched a website with other scholars in order to help give a broader view and perspective on Kony, Uganda, and activism. Dr. Finnegan writes:
In response to Kony2012, Making Sense of Kony has some excellent information to contextualize and begin further dialogue on the LRA, northern Uganda and the surrounding region, militarization in Africa, and the role of advocacy. Please check it out and pass it on!
Thanks to Dr. Finnegan for continuing the role of public sociology by taking on such a big, tangled issue and working to help us all understand it better. For those of you who are academics, you’ll also find helpful teaching resources on the new site.
The University of Minnesota’s annual Sociology Research Institute conference is a special time for all of us; in it, we celebrate our department and our discipline, providing a forum for our students, faculty, staff, and affiliates to discuss their research and debate current sociological issues. We also take the time to celebrate others who’ve done important, field-shaping work in the past year. In 2011, we were overwhelmed with the outpouring of support for the winner of our annual Public Sociology Award: Gwen Sharp and Lisa Wade, co-founders of The Society Pages’ Community Page Sociological Images.
In many ways, the type of public outreach Gwen and Lisa do with their immensely popular website is overlooked within the academy, but how many of us can claim that over half a million people see—and engage with—our work every month? I’d venture none. Gwen and Lisa, however, can not only claim, but proclaim this accomplishment. They are the embodiment of TSP’s ideal: they talk about society with society. Their site encourages both academic and non-academic readers to exercise and develop their sociological imagination by presenting brief sociological discussions of compelling and timely imagery that spans the breadth of our society. Their site is described, at least within the nominations we received, as a “relatable, interesting way to draw both students and the public into sociology” and as “vibrant and refreshing work” that lies “at the intersection of teaching and scholarship.”
Lisa Wade earned her PhD at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and is currently in the department of sociology at Occidental College in Los Angeles, CA. Gwen Sharp also earned her PhD at Madison and is at Nevada State College in Henderson, where she teaches courses in gender, race and ethnicity, sexuality, stratification, and popular culture. Both are exemplary scholars, engaged citizens, and public sociologists of the first degree. We are so proud to host Sociological Images and to honor them today with the 2012 Public Sociology Award.
Please join us—all of you!—tomorrow night (Saturday, April 21st) from 6-8pm at the Town Hall Brewery at Seven Corners in Minneapolis to meet and mingle with Gwen, Lisa, and the rest of the TSP team.
Here in Minneapolis, Earth Day and the Invisible Children campaign to “Cover the Night” clashed just a bit, as we found our own Walker Art Center’s sculpture garden damaged in the name of raising awareness about Joseph Kony and the ongoing atrocities in Uganda. For a lot of people here and elsewhere, the name Kony has certainly become more “famous” with Invisible Children’s recent efforts, but the context has been lacking. Beyond a flashy video and exhortations to do something now—even if it’s causing a lot of expensive damage to public art—many are left without any real idea of what’s happening in Uganda, how Ugandans themselves are working to solve the crisis, and how effective campaigns like Invisible Children and even the individual efforts of well-meaning Americans can really be. Our own Shannon Golden recently interviewed the U of M’s Amy Finnegan, who wrote her dissertation on Invisible Children, about these vexing questions, and now Finnegan has launched a website with other scholars in order to help give a broader view and perspective on Kony, Uganda, and activism. Dr. Finnegan writes:
In response to Kony2012, Making Sense of Kony has some excellent information to contextualize and begin further dialogue on the LRA, northern Uganda and the surrounding region, militarization in Africa, and the role of advocacy. Please check it out and pass it on!
Thanks to Dr. Finnegan for continuing the role of public sociology by taking on such a big, tangled issue and working to help us all understand it better. For those of you who are academics, you’ll also find helpful teaching resources on the new site.
The University of Minnesota’s annual Sociology Research Institute conference is a special time for all of us; in it, we celebrate our department and our discipline, providing a forum for our students, faculty, staff, and affiliates to discuss their research and debate current sociological issues. We also take the time to celebrate others who’ve done important, field-shaping work in the past year. In 2011, we were overwhelmed with the outpouring of support for the winner of our annual Public Sociology Award: Gwen Sharp and Lisa Wade, co-founders of The Society Pages’ Community Page Sociological Images.
In many ways, the type of public outreach Gwen and Lisa do with their immensely popular website is overlooked within the academy, but how many of us can claim that over half a million people see—and engage with—our work every month? I’d venture none. Gwen and Lisa, however, can not only claim, but proclaim this accomplishment. They are the embodiment of TSP’s ideal: they talk about society with society. Their site encourages both academic and non-academic readers to exercise and develop their sociological imagination by presenting brief sociological discussions of compelling and timely imagery that spans the breadth of our society. Their site is described, at least within the nominations we received, as a “relatable, interesting way to draw both students and the public into sociology” and as “vibrant and refreshing work” that lies “at the intersection of teaching and scholarship.”
Lisa Wade earned her PhD at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and is currently in the department of sociology at Occidental College in Los Angeles, CA. Gwen Sharp also earned her PhD at Madison and is at Nevada State College in Henderson, where she teaches courses in gender, race and ethnicity, sexuality, stratification, and popular culture. Both are exemplary scholars, engaged citizens, and public sociologists of the first degree. We are so proud to host Sociological Images and to honor them today with the 2012 Public Sociology Award.
Please join us—all of you!—tomorrow night (Saturday, April 21st) from 6-8pm at the Town Hall Brewery at Seven Corners in Minneapolis to meet and mingle with Gwen, Lisa, and the rest of the TSP team.