Archive: Jan 2020

In this episode we are joined by Timothy Recuber, an assistant professor of sociology at Smith College and author of Consuming Catastrophe: Mass Culture in America’s Decade of Disaster. Recuber introduces us to the work Colin Campbell and discusses how he adapted Campbell’s concept of autonomous self-illusory hedonism for his research on media consumption of disasters. Recuber also reflects on the challenges of drawing on theories that transcend disciplinary boundaries.

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In this episode we speak to Jaime Kucinskas, an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Hamilton College and author of The Mindful Elite: Mobilizing from the Inside Out. Kucinskas explains how reading George Herbert Mead shifted her understanding of the self away from the individualistic model so popular in the United States towards seeing the self as a product of the social environment. We discuss the profound impact that realization had for Kucinskas, both as a scholar and as a person in the world.

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In this episode we are joined by Seth Abrutyn, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of British Columbia. Abrutyn joins us to speak about his initial encounters with the writings of Emile Durkheim and how his current research on suicide was both inspired by and offers important correctives to Durkheim’s famous work. Abrutyn also reflects on whether as a discipline we are guilty of deifying the classic theorists and whether the social theory syllabus is in need of a dramatic re-working.

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In this episode we speak to Jeffrey Montez de Oca an Associate Professor of Sociology and the founding director of the Center for the Critical Study of Sport at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. Montez de Oca shares tales from his circuitous path to Marxism and reflects on how he came to realize that Karl Marx provides the tools necessary to help us understand the alienation and inequalities brought about by capitalism.

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In this episode we are joined by Douglas Hartmann, Chair of the Department of Sociology at the University of Minnesota. We discuss how discovering C.L.R. James shaped Hartmann’s understandings of race and resistance. In particular, Hartmann reflects on how James memoir on cricket provides a valuable resource for understanding sports and politics.

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