Midwest Sociology
Cross-Class Marriages and Families
As Valentine’s Day quickly approaches, many couples will be deciding — and in some cases, disputing — how best to celebrate their love and commitment to one another. Because people’s beliefs about marriage and family are shaped by social class conditions early in life, most people marry partners with income, education, and occupation levels similar […]
A Place at the (Global Development) Table
Each year in January, the World Economic Forum hosts its annual meeting in the Swiss resort town of Davos. The event brings together state leaders, business tycoons, and philanthropists who cultivate relationships between governments and businesses, all with the hope of guiding global progress. This year, the annual meeting made headlines for featuring a Somalian […]
How Gender Matters for Regretted Hookups
Jeremy E. Uecker and Brandon C. Martinez, “When and Why Women Regret Sex in Hookups More Than Men Do: An Analysis of the Online College Social Life Survey,” The Sociological Quarterly, 2017 Sexual preferences are more than just sexual orientation. Since individuals attach different meanings to sexual acts, they may experience and look back on […]
Gender, Mental Illness, and Reproductive Decision Making
Brea L. Perry, Emma Frieh, and Eric R. Wright, “Therapeutic Social Control of People with Serious Mental Illness: An Empirical Verification and Extension of Theory,” Society and Mental Health, 2018 Throughout history, concerns about women’s sexual behavior and reproduction have often been tied to mental health. For example, in the Victorian era, doctors believed that women’s […]
Schools Shrink Home-grown Gaps in Math and Reading
Paul T. von Hippel, Joseph Workman, Douglas B. Downey, “Inequality in Reading and Math Skills Forms Mainly before Kindergarten: A Replication, and Partial Correction, of “Are Schools the Great Equalizer?,” Sociology of Education, 2018 There are two understandings of how schools affect inequality. On the one hand, evidence suggests that schools increase inequality by providing […]
Is Calculus Integral?
Daniel Douglas and Paul Attewell, “School Mathematics as Gatekeeper,” The Sociological Quarterly, 2017 High school math teachers may have a new answer to the perpetual student question, “Why do we have to learn this?” Researchers who study education stratification know that math serves as a gatekeeper to advanced high school degrees, selective colleges, and sought-after […]
"Meet the Midwest!" Talking with Dr Thornhill
Dr. Ted Thornhill is a professor at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers, FL. He has published several academic journal articles about race, racism, and racial inequality in educational institutions; this includes discussing how race shapes smaller processes such as individuals’ socialization and larger processes such as admissions criteria and educational curriculum. Dr. Thornhill…
Far-Right Extremism and Anti-Religious Violence
The mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue has been characterized as the deadliest attack on Jewish people in U.S. history, and mourning services continued last week and over the weekend for the shooting victims. In a recent article for The Conversation, Jeff Gruenewald and William Parkin discuss how the recent rise in violence […]
About Midwest Sociology
Midwest Sociology is a partnership between the Midwest Sociological Society and The Society Pages dedicated to bringing sociology–especially sociology produced in our region– to broader public visibility and influence.
