Our mantra here at Sociology Toolbox, has never been more important: TEACH WELL, IT MATTERS.

One this last day of 2016, the view from the top floor of the world headquarters of Sociology Toolbox is overcast and gloomy  – both literally and figuratively: Trump is a few weeks away from being inaugurated, police in the U.S. continue to kill unarmed citizens, climate change continues without being sufficiently addressed, the consensus on what constitutes a “fact” seems to be slipping away, and a Trump presidency seems likely to lead to so many things taking several significant steps backward. On the upside, massive protests are already being planned and communities fighting to preserve and strengthen equal rights, greater income equality, environmental protection, religious freedom, richer democracy, women’s rights, access to healthcare, racial justice, and so much more have an opportunity to work together like never before.

After joining the Community Pages of The Society Pages in late January, we have had an unprecedented year of traffic on the blog with nearly 250,000 pageviews in 2016!

Thanks to all those who reTweeted, liked and shared on Facebook, and forwarded links to their friends, students, and colleagues. I’m honored that people have found these resources useful, interesting, and some have even adopted them in their classrooms!

Here’s a look back at our posts in 2016:

We started the year with a look at the 2015 data on the police use of lethal force in the US. We will update this in early January with 2016 data. Here you will also find a link to open access bar charts and tables on the data to use in your classroom, blog, or discussion. This was by far our most visited page!

This was followed up with three related posts. The first a discussion among three scholars on the response of many people to the data showing that Blacks are disproportionally victims of police use of lethal force:

A call for more interdisciplinary research on race and the police use of lethal force:

And an assignment introducing the basics of Excel using data on race and the use of lethal force by police:

We took a sociological look at the Super Bowl – there’s so much more to it than the game:

Everyone assumes that college is the ticket to greater income equality in the US. Check out this post to see how it often ends up reproducing class:

If you and or your students need a basic introduction to climate justice, here is an analogy that you may find useful:

We developed a handy list of questions to help students develop critical thinking skills and come to class prepared to be more actively engaged in discussion:

We celebrated the Cubs’ amazing season and World Series victory with a guest post from a colleague and anthropologist, Holly Swyers:

Drawing from my own survey research with the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance and corresponding with the UNFCCC COP22 meeting in Morocco, we wrote about the “trust gap” among climate change civil society organizations in Africa toward high-emitting nations of the global North:

And lastly, we looked at how the US is a laggard in electing a woman to the top political office and why people were immediately protesting president-elect Trump:

Thanks again to all the readers! Be sure to follow us on Facebook to keep up with our great new posts in 2017!

Teach well, it matters!

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