Roundup

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.❄️

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• This week, an unpublished Dr.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

• In How Abortion Access Shapes Women’s Financial Futures, Dylan DiGiacomo-Stumm explores how access to abortion care impacts women’s financial prospects, based on research published by Bethany G. Everett and Catherine J. Taylor in American Sociological Review. {2 min read}
• Check out our Media Report by Mallory Harrington for recent news featuring social scientists. This week, Michael Macy on the politicalization of children’s media censorship; Emine Fidan Elcioglu on the growing influence of YouTube on political education; Martin Shaw on defining genocide; and Andreas Reckwitz on the Western aversion to loss. {3 min read}

From the Archives

• As the government shutdown continues, funding for social safety nets like the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program is dwindling. A new bill would allocate emergency funds to continue providing food assistance to WIC recipients. However, several states have already delayed benefits. This 2013 article from our partners at the Scholars Strategy Network surveyed the patchy efficacy of seven government welfare programs for low-income families. {5 min read}
• Virtually all major news organizations have refused to agree to new rules put forth by the U.S. Department of War (formerly Defense) that would prohibit the publication of any material not approved for release by the Pentagon. The united front, including conservative-leaning outlets like Fox News, is seen as a defense of core journalistic principles. This 2019 article tracks the history of debates over what good journalism is and what it should be, discussing the role of journalism in hostile political contexts. {3 min read}

More from our Partners & Community Pages

First Publics

• First Publics announced the formation of the First Publics Advisory Board. The inaugural Board of six public sociologists will work with leadership to increase the publication’s representation of diverse scholarly viewpoints. Meet the Board and learn about First Publics’ priorities here. {3 min read}

Contexts

• Listing Addiction on your Resume by Elena G. van Stee highlights a phenomenon Joseph W. Silcox and Evan Stewart call “the professionalization of stigma,” drawing on interviews with people in long-term recovery from drug use. {1 min read}
• It seems like a paradox – why would someone enter a career field they’re critical of? In Good Lawyer, Bad Lawyer, Elena G. van Stee summarizes research by Matthew Clair and Sophia Hunt on the ways liberal law students justify their decision to enter professions they see as perpetuating injustice. {2 min read}

Council on Contemporary Families

• Amid Robert F. Kennedy’s campaign to find the biological causes of autism, historian Steven Mintz calls for a reframe. In his new piece, The Cultural Construction of Autism, Mintz argues that autism is more than a biomedical reality, and acknowledging this can contribute to more human-centered conversations. {6 min read}

Give Theory a Chance [podcast]

• Alicia M. Walker and Arielle Kuperberg join host Kyle Green to discuss their new book, Bound by BDSM: Unexpected Lessons in Building a Happier Life. {42 min listen}

New & Noteworthy

• In Thermal Injustice, S. Ericson highlights a new study in Demography on heat waves and caste inequality in India, emphasizing that “while temperature doesn’t discriminate, people do.” [2 min read]
• Check out this week’s Media Report by Mallory Harrington for recent news featuring social scientists. This week, Tressie McMillan Cottom on America’s first “meme president,” and Christopher Justin Einolf and Dylan J. Riley on the state of American civil society. Plus, new books from Martin Eiermann and Laura Hall. [2 min read]

From the Archives

• President Trump signed a proclamation marking October 13th Columbus Day, calling Christopher Columbus “the original American hero.” The proclamation omitted Indigenous Peoples’ Day, a holiday celebrated simultaneously, meant to honor victims of American colonialism. Nevertheless, many Americans will still celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day on Monday. Check out Allison Nobles’s 2017 article Why We Honor Indigenous Peoples’ Day, which highlights research on the racial and gendered aspects of colonialism in U.S. history. [2 min read]
• Sarah Mullally is the next Archbishop of Canterbury, making her the first woman to lead the Church of England and the global Anglican Church. Many conservative Anglican leaders have criticized Mullally’s appointment, as she is a woman and has publicly affirmed same-sex marriage. Consequently, the Anglican Church of Nigeria declared spiritual independence from the Church of England this week. Our 2021 article by Christine Delp unpacks how the Catholic Church handled a similar period of gender and sexuality debates. [2 min read]

More from our Partners & Community Pages

Contexts

• Fire Flight by Parker Muzzerall discusses the unexpected way highly destructive wildfires affect migration patterns, based on findings from an interdisciplinary team led by sociologist Kathryn McConnell, and published in Nature Communications. [2 min read]

Council on Contemporary Families

• As the gender wage gap persists, Ashir Coillberg spotlights the unique burden it places on working mothers, who made 71 cents for every dollar earned by working fathers in 2022. Coillberg’s The Wage Gap Robs Mothers of What They’re Owed was originally published by the National Women’s Law Center and reprinted by CCF this week. [5 min read]

First Publics

• When an undergrad lesson involves unchaste topic matter, it can be tricky to find the right balance between appropriate boundaries and fruitful discussion. In Teaching Consent Before Content, Joey Bernert reflects on how practicing consent in the classroom helped them facilitate a compelling lesson on BDSM and kink. [5 min read]

New & Noteworthy

• Housework Gender Expectations in American Households by Emma Goldstein details the surprising way the COVID-19 pandemic affected gender equity, from an article published in Socius by Melissa A. Milkie, Liana C. Sayer, Kei Nomaguchi, and Hope Xu Yan. [3 min read]
• In the latest episode of The Society Pages Podcast, Jordyn Wald considers the paradoxical concept of “heteropessimism” in straight women. [3 min listen]

From the Archives

• The children’s TV show “Reading Rainbow,” which aired on PBS from 1983 to 2006, is returning. With new host Mychal Threets, known for his viral videos about the joy of libraries, “Reading Rainbow” aims to help children become avid readers. This 2023 Contexts piece highlights the importance of books in shaping how young people see themselves and understand the world in an era of book banning. [6 min read]
• This week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered his vision for the military to hundreds of top-ranking military officials. Hegseth argued for several changes to the image of the military including an end to “fat troops” and “fat generals,” claiming this was a “bad look” for the U.S. military. This 2016 article from our partner Scholars Strategy Network article discusses the prevalence of weight-based discrimination in the U.S. and the lack of legal prohibitions against it. [5 min read]

More from our Partners & Community Pages

Contexts

• Data show that professors in the U.S. tend to be more liberal than the average American. In A Closer Look at Ideology and Truth on Campus, Michael D. Briscoe joins the conversation on “the partisan professoriate” to critique Lawrence Eppard and Jacob Mackey’s recent Contexts article, “Ideology Versus Truth on Campus.” [8 min read]

Council on Contemporary Families

• In The Silent Signals of Great Sex, Alicia M. Walker asks, what aren’t we saying in the bedroom? Drawing on an interview-based study she conducted with Audrey Lutmer, Walker calls attention to the power and peril of non-verbal cues in moments of intimacy. [4 min read]

First Publics

• For undergraduate students, social theory can feel hard and confusing. For professors, so can teaching it. Seasoned theory professor Michel Estefan offers Seven Principles for Teaching Social Theory to help undergrads stay the course. [5 min read]

New & Noteworthy

• Left Behind? Vote Populist by S. Ericson highlights new research by Rafaela Dancygier and colleagues on the rise of radical right populism in Europe. Published in the American Journal of Political Science, the study finds that regions with higher levels of emigration—not immigration—are more likely to support populist radical right (PRR) parties. Using data from across Europe and detailed precinct data from Sweden, the researchers show how population loss can fuel resentment, weaken local economies, and shift political attitudes. As young, working-age residents leave, those who remain may feel abandoned—opening the door for PRR leaders to exploit a sense of decline and distrust in mainstream politics.
• Mourning the Loss of Melissa Hortman by Christopher Uggen, Douglas Hartmann, and The TSP Grad Board reflects on the shock following the assassination of former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman. Remembered as a brilliant, humble, and selfless public servant, Hortman’s death stunned the Minnesota community and The Society Pages team. While TSP typically offers social science context on issues like political violence or threats to democracy, the authors chose not to rush analysis in this moment of grief. Instead, they honor Hortman’s legacy and mourn a devastating loss—to her family, her community, and the civic fabric she worked so hard to strengthen.

From the Archives

• The flooding in Texas has now claimed at least 100 lives. The Emotional Toll of Natural Disasters by Jasmine Syed highlights sociologist Alice Fothergill’s research on how natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina impact children’s mental health. Fothergill finds that separation from loved ones during disasters causes deep anxiety, while staying in dangerous conditions with family also takes an emotional toll. The key, she argues, is ensuring safety and connection. Fortunately, emergency systems have improved—New Jersey’s response during Hurricane Sandy showed lessons learned from Katrina. Fothergill emphasizes giving kids agency during disaster prep to boost their sense of control and resilience in the face of trauma.
• The latest spending and tax bill, “Big Beautiful Bill”, is set to impact the Child Tax Credit (CTC)—now lifted to $2,200 per child. Tracing the CTC’s journey from a 1997 middle-class tax break to the pandemic’s ARPA boost, this piece shows how even temporary increases slashed child poverty, cut injuries and behavior problems, and strengthened parents’ economic stability. Studies from the U.S. and abroad link larger payments to lower ADHD and aggression, reduced maternal depression, and long-term health gains. Policy simulations suggest a permanent, expanded CTC could trim child poverty by 9 percent while adding half a million jobs,.

More from our Partners & Community Pages

Contexts

• Let Sociology Majors Dream Bigger by Yolanda Wiggins urges sociology departments to expand how they support students’ futures. After seeing a brilliant former student working retail, Wiggins reflects on how sociology programs often undersell the degree’s value beyond academia and nonprofits. Despite training in data, ethics, and systems thinking, students rarely hear how their skills apply in fields like tech, design, or policy.

Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies

• “They Really ARE All That” by George Dalbo and Kipper Bromia shows how decentralized curricula, teacher unfamiliarity, and Turkish-backed denial let the 1915 genocide fade from world-history courses. AP materials praise Ottoman “diversity” dozens of times yet bury the genocide in a three-sentence sidebar, proving that Ottoman nostalgia sanitizes empire and leaves students uninformed.
• Book review of Settler Garrison: Debt Imperialism, Militarism, and Transpacific Imaginaries, by Jodi Kim (2022), Duke University Press. by Kurt Borchard reviews how U.S. military and debt imperialism sustain domination across the Pacific under the guise of liberation. From Parasite to POW camps and Guam, the author shows how the U.S. constructs “exempt” zones—spaces it occupies without granting sovereignty—linking settler colonialism to neocolonial control. Through analysis of Indigenous art, literature, and media, she explores how cultural resistance reimagines futures beyond militarized empire.
• Perpetrators of Pixelated Colonialism and Violence by Julianna Rose Longhenry examines how even “cozy” video games like Minecraft can reflect real-world logics of domination and dehumanization. From stealing beds to building villager farms, players often justify exploitation using the game’s mechanics—mirroring how ordinary people rationalize cruelty. Drawing on James Waller’s theories of perpetration, Longhenry argues that the treatment of Minecraft villagers reveals how violence becomes normalized, even in play.

New & Noteworthy

TSP board member Eleanor Nickel has a new Discovery, “Love Behind Bars.” Based on a recent article by Kristin Turney, Katelyn Rose Malae, MacKenzie A. Christensen, and Sarah Halpern-Meekin, the ripple effect of jail incarceration is strongly felt by women and children of incarcerated persons.

Our latest Media Report on Clippings features some Spookiology from Margee Kerr, Lars Birger Davan, Marc Eaton, and Dennis Waskul in Axios and Atlas Obscura, Patricia Romero-Lankao on transitioning to green energy and equity in NPR, and Alexei Levinson on the war in Ukraine and Putin’s career in The Bell.

From the Archives

How do we relate to people around the world experiencing war and trauma? Read our ‘There’s Research on That’ by Brooke Chambers to learn more about how distant war and the degree media coverage can impact our selective empathy of conflicts.

Student loan forgiveness developments continue to make headlines. Read our ‘There’s Research on That’ by Amber Powell on how student loan debt disproportionately impacts students of color and women.

Backstage with TSP

We are growing! New board members are joining the TSP team and bringing new perspectives and energy! Podcast planning is also our primary project. We are currently looking for recent sociological books to add to our current SOC 101 episodes.

More from our Partners & Community Pages

Contexts has new pieces to check out:

• Sophie X. Liu writes up work by Liliana V Rodriguez on the role of humor in coping with impossible situations.
• Dr. Aldon Morris‘s essay from the University of California Press blog highlighted his meeting with the president of Ghana, Akufo-Addo, on W.E.B. Du Bois’s legacy in Ghana.  

Council on Contemporary Families latest include:

• Patricia Drentea writes up the change and evolution of the meaning of family, based on her latest book Families and Aging

New & Noteworthy

Changes to Affirmative Action may impact elite prep schools, which serve as a major pipeline into elite universities. Read Richard Zweigenhaft’s latest Special Feature to learn more.

TSP board member Ellie Nickel’s writes up research by Lauren Rivera and András Tilcsik on Double Discrimination for educational opportunities that students who are Black and Disabled face.

Citings and Sightings

Parents are especially vulnerable to economic shifts and uncertainties. Sociologist Jessica Calarco was featured in The Atlantic and provides insight on some of the risks and realities that parents face.

Russian sociologist Boris Kagarlitsky, a Professor at the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences,  was charged with “justifying terrorism” for an online post analyzing the possible fallout of the destruction of the Crimea bridge.

Backstage with TSP

With the American Sociological Association’s annual conference a few weeks away, we will be launching a new podcast, videos, and other content within the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned on Twitter, or X, for more.

More from our Partner and Community Pages

Contexts has new pieces on:

• Police Officer’s determination of what constitutes the “hate” in hate crimes.
• COVID-19 blame and scapegoating in South Korea.
• Meet the editors: Laura Beth Nielsen and Seth Abrutyn

Council on Contemporary Families latest includes:

• LGBTQ health and its connections with State-Level Protections.
• What makes “Great Sex”?

New & Noteworthy

Fathers who spend more time on childcare duties with their young children are more likely to feel that men and women should be treated equally. Read our latest Discovery written up by Caroline Garland on Tomas Cano’s and Heather Hofmeister’s work, published in the Journal of Marriage and Family. 

Citings and Sightings

Marriage patterns in the United States among midlife adults have increased, as perceptions of marriage have become more of a “capstone” life experience. Click here to listen to sociologist Susan Brown’s comments on NPR about this trend.

Backstage with TSP

Behind the scenes, our grad board is working on some new discoveries, special features are being edited, and new YouTube videos for our channel are being developed. Stay tuned for more upcoming content!

More from our Partner and Community Pages

Our partner Contexts has a number of great reads that have been published over the past few weeks, including (but not limited to) what is it to be ukrainian, black sociology: a primer, and the privileged professor. Give one (or all) a read!

Are you the oldest child? Click here to read the Council on Contemporary Families piece on favoritism towards the “prodigal children” by Reilly Kincaid. 

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New & Noteworthy

Good healthcare systems have been linked to reduced impacts of childhood adversity on adult health. Gradboard member Nicole Schmitgen writes up important findings from Matthew Andersson and colleagues in our latest TSP discovery.

Prisons around the world have a variety of disparities, but what about differences across prisons-within-prisons? Jacob Otis explores the contrasts between English & Welsh, and Norwegian prisons based on insights from Ben Crewe, Julie Laursen, and Kristian Mjåland.

Citings and Sightings

Supreme Court rulings have sparked nationwide discussions and demonstrations. Click here to hear about some sociologists’ reactions to rulings on affirmative action and student loan forgiveness.

Backstage with TSP

With July having arrived, TSP has made significant progress on some new projects. This includes our growing YouTube channel (early access) which will be regularly updated in the coming months with new content. Stay tuned for more!

From the Archives

Regions across the United States have experienced a surge in smog caused by Canadian wildfires. To delve deeper into the connection between humans and wildfires, click here.

More from our Partner and Community Pages

Peter Harvey writes up some of his research on how students make sense of their position and identity in society in Contexts’ blog.

In Sociological Images, Victoria Lieberman covers how female and male body types are portrayed in children’s TV and movies, click here to read more.

Ever wondered about the older adult dating scene? Lauren Harris in Council on Contemporary Families covers her recently published research in the Journal of Marriage and Family.

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