@UTAUSTINSOC IN CHICAGO #ASA15

Sexualities in the Modern World? @UTAustinSOC says yes, in a big way. While our faculty, graduate students and alumni always represent at ASA, Longhorns will steer this year’s sexualities’ conversation in many directions. In glancing over the schedule, I found 82 presentations and table sessions and I’m sure there are more. I include a few of our graduate student presenters below.

Anima Adjepong
“I Want Ghana to Continue to Live in the United States”: Cultural Identity among Second generation Ghanaian immigrants

Claims about the absence of transnational activities among second-generation immigrants do not often consider how racialization shapes these processes. This paper examines the extent to which the U.S.-born children of Ghanaian immigrants participate in a “transnational social field” (Glick-Schiller 2005; Levitt and Glick-Schiller 2004) where they simultaneously engage in Ghanaian life and culture, while fully immersed in American life. Ethnographic investigation of an organization that comprises 1.5- (foreign-born immigrants who moved to the United States prior to or during adolescence and attended school here) and second-generation Ghanaians in Houston, Texas leads me to ask why a group of ostensibly American youth would so strongly identify as Ghanaians. This ethnography examines the ways in which identifying with Ghana and as Ghanaians helps these mostly U.S.-raised youth make sense of their difference as racialized Americans and foreign Ghanaians.

Shantel Gabrieal Buggs
‘Your Momma Is Day-Glow White’: Questioning The Politics Of Racial Identity, Loyalty, And Obligation

This article utilizes discourse analysis and an autoethnographic approach to explore the impact of U.S. racial and ethnic categorization on the experiences of an individual marked as ‘mixed-race’ in terms of individual identity and familial/cultural group loyalty and obligation(s). This essay focuses on an incidence of public policing through the popular social networking platform Facebook, centering on the invocation of racial obligation by white friends and family members. I analyze how racial loyalty is articulated by friends and family members in their posts on my personal Facebook page and how this ‘loyalty’ is used as means of regulating my mixed-race identity performance. This essay aims to understand several things, namely how identity is mediated through the invocation of racial obligation and how tension around identity plays out in the multiracial family.

Caity Collins
Work-Family Policies And Working Mothers: A Comparative Study Of Germany, Sweden, Italy, And The United States

Despite women’s common struggles to balance motherhood and employment, western countries have responded with drastically different work-family policies. Drawing on 100 in-depth interviews and field observation with middle-income working mothers in Germany, Sweden, Italy, and the United States, I examine how different ideals of gender, motherhood, and employment are reflected in and reinforced by the work-family policy regimes of these four countries. Given these different policy regimes, I investigate how working mothers negotiate the constraints and opportunities facing them daily as they balance motherhood and employment. Depending on a country’s level of policy support for women’s employment and caregiving, I observed variation in (1) how closely mothers identify with their policy regime’s ideal of motherhood and the “ideal worker,” and (2) the extent to which they experience guilt and tension about their identities as a mother and a worker. This is the first comparative study to incorporate mothers’ voices into the scholarly debates about the relationship between gender inequality and work-family policy around the world. Understanding women’s perspectives about what works – and what hinders – their achievement of work-family balance should be central to any scholarly endeavor to craft, advocate for, and implement work-family policy as a force for social change.

Elizabeth Cozzolino and Christine L. Williams
Child Support Queens and Disappointing Dads: Gender and Child Support Compliance

Despite increased spending on child support enforcement in the U.S. over the past 30 years, child support collections remain around 40%. Existing literature focuses on three main explanations for this low compliance: poor enforcement, inability to pay, and unwillingness to pay. These explanations either neglect gender or rely on outdated assumptions about gender. Our analysis of in-depth interviews with 21 members of separated families reveals two controlling images of separated parenthood—the child support queen and the disappointing dad—that may help explain the underpayment of child support. In a reversal of traditional parenting roles, we find that separated mothers are now evaluated on their ability to financially provide for their children while separated fathers are evaluated on the time and care that they provide. We argue that these changing expectations of fatherhood and motherhood may contribute to men’s unwillingness to pay child support and women’s reluctance to demand compliance.

Rachel Donnelly
Intergenerational Changes and Health: the Effects of Downward Educational Mobility

A clear majority of high school graduates in the United States decide to enroll in college. In addition to many economic benefits, higher levels of education create opportunities for better health. Social stratification by education creates inequalities in education and health that are socially reproduced within families. Given the context of educational expansion in the United States, this study used data from the General Social Survey to explore the detriments to self-rated health when adult children receive less education than their parents and how these detriments differ by sex and race/ethnicity. Binomial logistic regression models of self-rated health indicated that an individual completing less years of education than his/her mother (downward intergenerational educational mobility) increases the likelihood of reporting fair or poor health. In an era where an increasing number of Americans are completing higher levels of education, these findings illustrate the detrimental effects on health for those who are left behind.

Marc Garcia
Prevalence and Trends in Morbidity and Disability among Mexican American Elders in the Southwestern United States, 1993-2011

The aim of this study was to examine trends in morbidity and disability among elderly Mexican Americans residing in the southwestern United States. Seventeen-year panel data from the Hispanic Established Population for the Epidemiological Study of the Elderly were used to make detailed comparisons specific to nativity, gender and five-year age groups. Results show that foreign-born and U.S.-born Mexican Americans, with a few exceptions, have similar prevalence rates for morbidity regardless of gender. Conversely, IADL prevalence is higher for foreign-born women. Nativity is found to be a significant predictor of IADL disability for females and ADL disability for males. The differences we report have important implications for health services and health policy. Given the rapid aging of the Mexican American population, the prevention and treatment of medical conditions and disabilities, particularly among the foreign-born should be a major public health priority to reduce ADL and IADL dependence in the community.

Erika Grajeda
A “Safe Space” for Undocumented Immigrant Workers?: The Case of the San Francisco Day Labor Program and Women’s Collective

In the U.S., more than 117,600 immigrant, displaced, and homeless workers gather daily in public settings such as street corners, storefronts, and in recent years, worker centers, to procure “off-the books” employment. While “informal” or unregulated hiring sites have long been a common feature of the urban landscape, day labor worker centers represent a new organizational model that emerged in recent years to halt the exploitative practices associated with curbside hiring. Worker centers are thus said to represent a “safe space” for marginalized immigrant workers, particularly a growing number of women who are turning to these organizations to secure employment. While these immigrant organizations are increasingly taking on the role of labor market intermediary, creating recognizable day labor markets and sorting low-wage workers into the world of work in the U.S., they have been largely overlooked by scholars. This article examines new (day) labor organizing in the Latin American immigrant community through an ethnographic case study of the San Francisco Day Labor Program and Women’s Collective (SFDLP-WC). Through participant observation and semi-structured interviews with SFDLP-WC staff, members, and volunteers, I show that assumptions about gender difference are encoded into the worker center’s organizational practices, ideologies, and distributions of power, ultimately placing undue burden on the women members. I find that while worker centers are purported to be “safe havens” for undocumented workers, particularly women, they may actually reproduce existing structures of gender, race, and class inequality.

Pamela Neumann
“Rutas y Desvios: Gender-based Violence, Bureaucratic Practices and (in)Justice in Nicaragua”

In Nicaragua, like other countries in Latin America, women’s police stations serve as the critical first point of contact with the state for women experiencing various forms of domestic violence. With the passage of Law 779 (Ley Integral contra la Violencia hacia las Mujeres) in 2012, new requirements, such as prohibiting mediation and detaining suspected offenders, were introduced. A year later, Law 779 was reformed to permit mediation again under limited circumstances. Then, in August 2014, Nicaragua’s President Ortega signed an executive decree altering Law 779 to incorporate the involvement of community-level “Gabinetes de Familia” in the resolution of certain domestic violence cases. Drawing on participant observation in women’s police stations and in-depth interviews with women victims, this paper analyzes the relationship between these legal and political developments and the everyday interactions that women have with police. In doing so, it highlights both the constraints of local state actors embedded in a web of partisan bureaucracy as well as their agentic role in shaping different women’s ability to access legal justice in domestic violence cases.

Cristian Paredes
Attendance at Museums and Live Theaters: Ethnic Disparities in Highbrow Out-of-the-House Leisure Consumption in Houston

Dynamics of compensation for the deprivations of segregation and discrimination, and the support of multiculturalism derived from ethnic cohesion explain the consumption of out-of-home highbrow leisure events by minority/ethnic individuals, immigrants, and their descendants as efforts toward their integration and assimilation in metropolitan areas. Using data from the Houston Area Survey, I examine whether there are any significant ethnic disparities in the attendance at museums and live theatres, which represent a relevant dimension of out-of-home highbrow leisure in Houston. I found that the odds of frequently attending museums and live theatres are lower for Anglos compared with non-Anglos, and higher for U.S.-born individuals with at least one foreign parent compared with U.S.-born individuals with U.S.-born parents. These findings reveal that the audiences of museums and live theatres in Houston are already characterized by a noteworthy ethnic diversity.

Marcos Perez
What About my Parents? Three Dilemmas of a Community-Based Campus Organization.

Based on a year of ethnographic research on a large organization of undocumented college students, this paper explores the contradictions experienced by activists in one of today’s most important social movements in the United States: the DREAMers. I argue that the dual nature of the organization under study, which is both community-grounded and campus-based, generates three dilemmas that severely affect the group and its members. The first dilemma concerns the organization’s goals, and is experienced as the hard choice between focusing on the needs of undocumented students and pursuing a more inclusive agenda that incorporates their families. The second dilemma is related to the organization’s mobilizing structures, and is caused by its strong ties to the local Latino community, which provides many types of resources but at the same time hinders the group’s appeal to other ethnic and national groups. Finally, the third dilemma stems from the clash between the member’s own identities as hard-working Americans and their experiences of exclusion and discrimination. I describe how these contradictions generate tensions among activists and how they complicate the relations with allied organizations. I also discuss how my findings apply to the nation-wide immigration reform movement. I conclude by exploring how the three dilemmas might shed light on the challenges currently faced by immigrant communities in the United States.

Juan Portillo
Is there really a “female advantage” in higher education? Reconceptualizing the “boy crisis” in education

A topic that dominates education these days is the “crisis” faced by boys’ due to underachievement relative to girls in education. In her best selling book, The War Against Boys: How misguided feminism is harming our young men (2001), Christina Hoff Sommers writes that “it’s a bad time to be a boy in America” (p. 13). She claims that misguided efforts of feminist and women’s groups have resulted in pathologizing boys and men, leading boys to be shut out of educational attainment because of teachers’ perceptions of their “bad behavior” compared to girls’ “good behavior.” This sentiment is accentuated in higher education, as scholars and others are alarmed over an apparent “dominance” of women, who earn a larger proportion of college degrees than men. However, it is not statistics but rather: (a) moral claims about discrimination against boys (particularly boys of color); and (b) a “female advantage” that is to blame for boys’ “disadvantage,” which are misguidedly at the root of most scholarly work done on this topic. In this paper, I will address current understandings of a “boys’ educational crisis” and show that it is a dangerous framing that follows heteropatriarchal logics without challenging gender norms. I argue that: (1) Men of color can easily fall into the trap of speaking ONLY from personal experience, blinding them to the way in which masculinity and male privilege also shape their experiences and their relative disadvantage; (2) A dichotomy that reproduces male dominance is re-created, disguised as “true equality.”

Brandon Robinson
Doing Sexual Responsibility: Gay Men Navigating HIV Online

In this article, the author draws on 15 in-depth interviews with self-identified HIV negative gay men who use Adam4Adam.com for sexual purposes. The author examines how HIV discourses influence these men’s lives as they navigate their intimate and sexual relationships in cyberspace, and the author introduces the concept of doing sexual responsibility to illuminate how managing sexual health, HIV, and risk plays out on the interactional level within gay men’s online encounters. Specifically, the author shows how these men use the website interface to screen other users for HIV and how these men disclose one’s own status and safe sex practices. The author also exposes how these practices lead to the stigmatization of HIV positive individuals on the website. Lastly, the author uncovers how trust can lead to a contradiction of how gay men feel they should act and how they do act in certain sexual encounters. The author concludes that new ways of discussing sexuality, HIV, and sexual health need to be engendered.

Luis Romero
“From La Migra to El Amigo: The INS Campaign to Befriend Undocumented Immigrants during IRCA”

Before the passage of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), the relationship between undocumented immigrants and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was highly antagonistic. Undocumented immigrants were distrustful of the immigration service due to its deportation mission that implemented deceitful tactics, including using children to lure their undocumented parents and sending letters to immigrants promising legalization only to deport them once they arrived to INS offices. However, this changed for a brief period after the passage of IRCA when INS transformed its image in the eyes of immigrants and became their amigo – their friend. INS accomplished this by engaging in a furious public relations campaign and training their staff to be supportive of immigrants as they applied for legal status – unprecedented measures for an agency that was set on deporting immigrants. This paper explains why INS, an organization that was defined by its enforcement duties and attempted to push out undocumented migrants, became an organization that altered its mission during IRCA to help undocumented migrants gain legal status. The author differs from other explanations of INS’ behavior during IRCA by extending interest-convergence theory and the implications that converging interests have on undocumented immigrants and racial minorities. Using a historical and content analysis of INS interviews, government documents and independent reports, the author expands interest-convergence theory to examine INS’ motivations for helping undocumented immigrants and transforming from the antagonistic migra to their amigo.

Connor Sheehan
Race and Ethnic Differences in Reconstructing Childhood Health

Using the Health and Retirement Survey (n = 9,696) we analyze how race/ethnic disparities in retrospective ratings of child health and current levels of functional limitations are influenced by controls for specific sets of childhood health and socioeconomic conditions. This research is important because the lifecourse framework has become reliant on retrospective measures to operationalize child health. Generally, it’s assumed that reports of childhood health, socioeconomic status and diseases operate similarly across racial and ethnic groups, a questionable supposition considering substantial stratification in life experiences and access to medical care. Indeed, we find considerable race/ethnic differences in retrospective reports of child health with Blacks and Hispanics having higher odds of “fair/poor” child health than Whites. These differences are strengthened when childhood diseases are controlled for, and mediated when socioeconomic conditions are controlled. The lack of access to the health care system likely leads to underreporting of specific childhood conditions among minorities which leads to a suppressor effect when childhood diseases are controlled. Results from negative binomial models predicting the current number of functional limitations largely echo, albeit less strongly, the findings from the retrospective measures. Our results suggest that race/ethnic health disparities begin in childhood but also that childhood health is appraised differently between race/ethnic groups. Due to the observed differences, future life course work should use more general measures of child health than specific when exploring the origins of health disparities.

Chelsea Smith
Change Over Time in Attitudes about Abortion Laws Relative to Recent Restrictions in Texas

Recent laws and regulations in the state of Texas have severely restricted access to abortion care; however, less is known about public opinion regarding such legislation. This study used the Houston Area Survey to investigate attitudes about abortion laws in 2009 (n = 1,393) and 2013 (n = 1,213), as a before-and-after comparison of 2011 restrictions. Descriptive results indicated a decrease in the proportion of Houstonians who were against restrictive abortion laws and who also reported conservative stances on welfare and immigration. Logistic regression analyses revealed that both before and after the 2011 legislation, the strongest predictors of public opinion on abortion laws were attitudes about gay marriage and political party affiliation. Multivariate results also suggested that Houstonians who were older and foreign-born were less supportive of restrictive abortion laws only following 2011 legislation. The findings of this study thus revealed continuity and change in attitudes (and correlates of attitudes) about abortion laws among respondents in the biggest city in Texas before and after the implementation of legislation severely limiting women’s access to abortion.

The study also has implications for current and future impacts on public opinion of the 2013 legislation, which received national attention following state Senator Wendy Davis’ filibuster. Nationally, one in five pregnancies in 2008 end in abortion and in Texas this statistic is slightly lower at 15% of all pregnancies (Guttmacher 2011). Abortions performed in Texas account for 7% of all abortions in the United States; however, in 2008 33% of women lived in one of the 92% of Texas counties without an abortion provider (Guttmacher 2011). Although legal, abortion is an increasingly difficult procedure for Texas women to obtain because of recent laws targeting providers. Legislation in 2003, 2011, and 2013 not only inhibited providers’ ability to serve their patients but also created obstacles to women seeking abortions. Tied to the recent legislation is the increasingly vitriolic public discourse and debate surrounding abortion laws. In this study, I take advantage of a unique dataset, the Houston Area Survey (HAS), to investigate public opinion about abortion laws before and after the 2011 legislation.

Christine Wheatley
Social Effects of Immigrant Detention, Removal, and Return

The 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) marks a restrictionist and punitive turn in contemporary United States immigration enforcement. The IIRIRA has made it significantly easier to deport non-U.S. citizens (Hagan, Eschbach and Rodríguez 2008; Rodríguez and Hagan 2004) and accounts for the nearly ten-fold increase in deportations since its passage, with Mexican citizens representing the vast majority of deportations. Despite these trends, few studies have examined the social impacts of IIRIRA, particularly such impacts of increases in detention and deportation. My research addresses this lacunae in immigration literature by assessing the intended and unintended consequences of IIRIRA for Mexican nationals, the largest group impacted by the legislation. In this paper, I uncover and examine the social effects of post-IIRIRA deportation law and practices on returning migrants in Mexico—Mexican nationals who recently returned to Mexico after living in the U.S. without documents, including deportees and other non-deportee returnees. I consider how current U.S. immigration enforcement affects their lives now, how it stays with them (or not) back in Mexico. I consider how this enforcement constrains them in Mexico—the various tangible and intangible, concrete and abstract forms of constraint they experience as a result of interacting, in some capacity, with the system of U.S. immigration enforcement.

UT Austin Sociologists Presenting at ASA 2014

This year the Department of Sociology has over 70 faculty and student presentation and participation sessions at the 2014 American Sociological Association Annual Meeting from August 16-19 in San Francisco, CA.

Dr Christine Williams will receive the Jessie Bernard Award at the ASA Awards Ceremony and Presidential Address on Sunday, August 17, at 4:30 pm. The Presidential Plenary features the formal address of ASA President Annette Lareau. The ASA Awards Ceremony, conferring the 2014 major ASA awards will open this session. All registrants are invited to attend this plenary session and the Honorary Reception afterwards to honor President Annette Lareau and the award recipients.

Below is a sampling of UT Austin Sociology research being presented at ASA 2014.

Beaver, Travis. Section on Sex and Gender Roundtable. 8/19, 8:30 am. “Effeminacy and the Glass Closet: The Erasure of Heterosexual Men’s Femininities.” A number of scholars have pointed to the increasing visibility and acceptance of gays and lesbians in Western nations since the 1990s. One of the potential ramifications of these changes is a transformation in the construction of heterosexual identities. Some masculinities scholars have found evidence that heterosexual masculinity is changing to be more inclusive of practices that have been stereotyped as “gay” or “feminine.” These scholars tie these transformations in heterosexual masculinity to the increasing social acceptance of gay and lesbian people. In other words, they argue that there has been a blurring or weakening of symbolic boundaries between gay men and straight men as being gay, and practices associated with being gay, become more socially acceptable. However, there is little discussion in the masculinities literature that specifically addresses or theorizes about male femininity, or how public perception and discourse about male femininity, or effeminacy, has been transformed by changes in the social status of gay men. I address this gap by analyzing public discourse surrounding Congresswoman Michele Bachman’s husband, Marcus Bachmann, with a specific focus on speculation and joking about his sexual identity. I argue that this discourse highlights the ways that male femininity is still conflated with being gay. Moreover, I contend that the glass closet, or the belief that some straight-identified men’s “true” gay identity is obvious and indisputable, conflates gender nonconformity and sexual identity in a way that works to erase the possibility of heterosexual men’s femininities.

Beicken, Julie. Military Sociology Roundtable. 8/16, 2:30 pm. “The Changing Moral Status of Torture Post-9/11.” This paper explores the ethical shift on the issue of torture after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 through an analysis of government documents that set the stage for detainee abuse and torture to occur in the ‘War on Terror.’ Using Sheldon Ekland-Olson’s model for how moral systems evolve, this paper demonstrates how the United States abandoned the deontological position of the treaties the prohibit torture in all circumstances in favor of a utilitarian position that torture is a lesser evil compared to the casualties of terrorism. Government officials and lawyers framed the ‘War on Terror’ as a novel war to which the Geneva Conventions did not apply. They dehumanized the terrorist enemy, creating an ‘other’ that deserves no protection in international law. Finally, they narrowed the definition of torture to such an extent that act previously considered torture would fall short of such a categorization and thus be permissible. 9/11 functioned as a crystallizing event that has altered the status of torture and war in the early twenty-first century.

Buggs, Shantel. Section of Racial and Ethnic Minorities Roundtable Session. Table 03 Mixed Race Studies. 8/16, 2:30 pm. “Black, White, and Shades of Grey: Mixed-Race Social Coping Responses to Segregation on Campus.” Mixed-race persons have a unique dilemma in that they have to reconcile more than one racial identity when trying to navigate social environments. While most people have to reconcile race and class, as well as political values, all of this is made more complex when one is mixed race—particularly if their races are on opposite ends of the social hierarchy. It has been well-documented that mixed-race persons have an array of experiences, with many feeling pressured to “pick” a side as they grow up (Zack, 1995; Brown, 2001; Parker & Song, 2001; Bayor, 2003; Winters, 2003; Renn, 2004; Rockquemore & Brunsma, 2008). In socially segregated spaces, where people divide themselves by race as well as group affiliations (i.e. fraternities, sororities, religious or political groups, etc.), all students develop ways to navigate separate communities. This project, then, aims to understand the impact of social segregation on mixed race students. Using semi-structured interviews and photo elicitation, this research illustrates the social coping strategies utilized by mixed race undergraduates at both a public and a private university to deal with issues of self-segregation within the University community, providing a greater understanding of the power of racial identity and social acceptance when mixed-race persons attempt to navigate the diverse communities found at universities.

Caroll, Jamie. Section on Organizations, Occupation and Work Roundtable Session. Table 12 Creativity and Strategic Action in the Workplace. 8/16, 4:30 pm. “Creativity and Success for All: Investigating the Relationship between Stratification, Workplace Environment and Success.” Creativity is a valued trait in today’s economy. Businesses strive to support creativity in the workplace so employees can design innovative products that boost the company’s ability to be competitive in the global market. But little is known about who has access to these creative workplaces and how creativity impacts personal and not just business success. This study investigates how racial background and educational attainment predict access to creative workplaces and if these creative workplaces are related to individual health, happiness and economic success. Creative workplace measures are based on Teresa Amabile’s work on creativity and organizational support. Using data from the 2010 General Social Survey (GSS), this study designs a measure of individual perception of workplace environment. The analysis separates and combines creative workplaces and supported workplaces to understand the interactions between these workplace characteristics. Findings indicate that having a bachelor’s degree does increase the likelihood of working in a supported and creative environment, but race is not a significant factor. Creativity is related to individual success, but only when joined with organizational support.

Charrad, Maya, and Amina Zarrugh. Section on Political
Sociology Roundtable on “Origins of Democracy.” 8/19, 2:30 pm. “The Politics of Constitution Writing: Tunisia after the Arab Spring.” This paper shows the sudden emergence of a new public sphere and engaged civil society following the fall of a long-standing authoritarian regime in Tunisia in 2011. We focus on the promulgation of a new constitution and the debate surrounding Article 28, which has been contested by some Tunisians as reducing women’s status to “complementary.” In previous historical periods, from the end of colonial rule to 2011, discourses on gender had been the purview of an authoritarian state in what we call “politics from above.” An examination of the discourses of Tunisian women, both opponents and supporters of Article 28, demonstrates the shift from a “politics from above” to a “politics from below” as women¹s groups are making demands upon the state and voicing their concerns in ways that have profoundly influenced the tenor of debates. The paper shows how quickly civil society may comes to the fore.

Collins, Caitlyn. Section on Sex and Gender Roundtable. “Policy and Practice.” 8/19, 8:30 am. “Work-Family Balance in a Dual Earner-Carer Society: Working Mothers and Social Policy in Sweden.” Sweden’s intertwining of family policy and labor market policy with gender equality policy create a unique social and economic climate for working mothers. The United Nations and the World Economic Forum rank Sweden as the most gender egalitarian nation in the world, and first for women’s economic opportunities. In contrast, the United States ranks 47th and 15th respectively. While many U.S. sociologists have examined large-scale demographic trends about women, work-family balance, and social policy in comparative perspective, and frequently call for the U.S. to implement similar policies here, rarely have they sought out and listened to the voices of working mothers. I report here on the findings of 25 in-depth interviews I conducted with mothers working in white-collar occupations in Stockholm, Sweden. I investigate how women are impacted day-to-day by the various policy solutions Sweden has implemented to address gender disparities in the workplace and at home. My respondents reported feeling that barriers to their occupational success and disparities resulting from their parental status were largely eliminated thanks to Swedish public policy and its influence on cultural attitudes. I argue that importing progressive policies alone without the attendant shifts in cultural norms and beliefs about men’s and women’s roles will not bring about the changes these scholars desire. I suggest that a renewed conversation focusing on gender equality policy must go hand in hand with family policy debates in order to improve women’s status in countries like the U.S. that lack a dual earner-carer approach to work and family.

Cuvi, Jacinto. Section on Economic Sociology. Invited Session. The Great Transformation (1944) Turns Seventy: Looking Backward and Looking Forward. 8/18, 2:30 pm. “The Politics of Market Destruction: Fields, Courts, and the Survival of Sao Paulo’s Street Vendors.” It is now 70 years since the publication of Karl Polanyi’s greatest work, The Great Transformation. In a new age of crisis, we have fresh impetus to revisit his arguments on markets, politics, and community; the causes of civilizational crises; and their possible resolutions. Toward this end, this session brings accomplished Polanyian scholars together with Polanyians in-the-making. Panelists will discuss the application of Polanyi’s central themes and concepts–the liberal creed, free market utopia, the self-regulating market, fictitious commodities, embeddedness, the double movement–to the analysis of historical processes, present-day developments, and possible futures.

Fridman, Daniel. Section on Economic Sociology Paper Session. Markets and Morals. 8/18, 10:30 am. “Suspicious Transactions: Managing Donations in a Police Department and the Distinction between Gifts and Bribes.” In this paper, we analyze the theoretical problem of the distinction between gifts and bribes and the strategies of a police department in Canada to maintain gift-giving practices, such as donations, while preventing them from being interpreted as bribes. In doing so, we differ from previous analyses that establish a clear-cut difference between gift and bribe. While the differences between gift and bribe may seem obvious, we argue that from the point of view of the observer, a ‘gift’ to a public agency like the police may just as easily be interpreted as an instance of bribery. This problem stems from the inherently ambiguous character of gift-exchange. Institutions, in our case the police, respond to this problem by employing management strategies to reduce the ambiguity of the gift and thus the possibility that an observer interprets it as a bribe. We identify four management strategies: distinguishing sponsorships from donations, limitations to donation use, framing out favoritism, and institutional separation via recognized charity organizations.

Gonzalez-Lopez, Gloria. Special Invited Session. 8/18, 8:30 am. “Sexuality in Migration: Complicating Economic Migration Theory.” Traditional sociological approaches to the study of migration tend to privilege the economic and material aspects of motivation for migration; more recent research has made gender, and sexuality, important analytic aspects of migration. Subsequent work has looked at them together in complicating migration analysis. Among the aspects shown to be important in migration scholarship that foregrounds sexuality are: the re-composition of the families in the “host” site; the reconfiguration of gender roles and family’s relationship to work, and often times, power within the family; the complications of sexual migration (in a global-sex framework) within a post-2008 recession era; and the newer ways “American” functions given migration in a post-9/11 anti-immigrant US. Sociology is ideally positioned to further the field of migration studies, where class and economic analysis are shaping the study of migration at the same time that migration analyses incorporate gender and sexuality. This panel will: (1) offer a general outline of the processes and recent developments of the mixing of migration studies with gender and sexuality, (2) present recent empirical work that attends to the intersections between migration, gender, and sexuality, and (3) propose a general mapping of where such work could tend attention to.

Keith, Robyn, and Pamela Paxton. Session on Voluntary Organizations. 8/19, 10:30 am. “The Informal Voluntary Association Landscape.” Sociologists have long been attentive to participation in associational life, and have recently grown concerned over its alleged decline. Yet most of this attention has been geared toward measuring participation in formal voluntary associations. To date scholars have not had a way to assess informal groups on any large scale. Luckily, a new source of data on informal voluntary associations is now available — Meetup.com. In brief, Meetup.com is a website designed to facilitate in-person associating by providing a platform for individuals to form and join in-person voluntary associations. In this paper, we use data downloaded from Meetup.com to map the landscape of member-generated, bottom-up, informal voluntary associations and compare it to the voluntary association landscape as traditionally measured through the General Social Survey (GSS). We assess how associations generated from the “bottom up” compare to traditional “top down” formal associations and demonstrate that the types of informal groups that Meetup users create are quite different from those measured in our national surveys. Our findings further indicate that current GSS questions are inadequate for — though not incapable of — measuring Americans’ informal group memberships.

Melvin, Jennifer. Race, Gender, and Class Section. Session on Intersectionality and Health: The Embodiment and Expression of Multidimensional Inequality. 8/18, 10:30 am. “Age Patterns of Race/Ethnic/Nativity Differences in Disability and Physical Functioning in the United States.” Objective: This study documents age group differences in disability and physical functioning for men and women across thirteen major race/ethnic/nativity sub-groups of the U.S. population. Method: We aggregate 14 years of data from the National Health Interview Survey to make detailed age comparisons across race/ethnic/nativity groups. Results: Middle-aged foreign-born individuals in nearly every group exhibit lower proportions of functional limitations and disability than U.S.-born whites. However, this pattern of immigrant advantage is generally reversed in late life. Moreover, most U.S.-born minority groups have significantly higher levels of functional limitations and disability relative to U.S.-born whites in both middle and late life. Discussion: Higher levels of disability and functional limitations among most U.S.-born minority groups and among immigrant populations in older adulthood most likely reflect the physical wear and tear of socioeconomic disadvantages throughout the life course and pose serious challenges for health providers and policymakers in a rapidly diversifying and aging population.

Paredes, Cristian. Section on Community and Urban Sociology. Invited Session. Race, Ethnicity, and Uneven Development: Emerging Issues in the 21st Century Southern City. 8/19, 10:30 am. “Explaining Pro-Immigrant Sentiment in Houston: Cosmopolitanism, Education, and Prejudice.” Houston can be recognized as a Southern city where local frames of prejudice might have expanded during the last decades to target not only African-Americans, but also immigrants.  Conversely, Houston can be recognized as a cosmopolitan metropolis due to its status as the world’s oil-technology distribution center with organizations that participate in national and global networks.  In this study, I examine whether individuals’ pro-immigrant sentiment acts as a social force that counters prejudice against immigrants.  Using the 2012 Houston Area Survey, I statistically analyze whether pro-immigrant sentiment is positively associated with the presence of immigrants in neighborhoods (community influences), and with educational attainment and white-collar occupations at the individual level.  I found that pro-immigrant sentiment is directly associated with the presence of immigrants in neighborhoods, but, unexpectedly, its association with occupational status is not significant, and its association with educational attainment is not necessarily positive.

Pattinson, Evangeleen. Session: Section on Sociology of Education Paper Session. The Effects of Health and Disability on Educational Outcomes. 8/17, 2:30 pm. “The Missing Link: Young Adult Health and Bachelor’s Degree Completion.”  This article examines the link between health in young adulthood and postsecondary success. In addition to considering differences in this association across types of health conditions, we also consider the role of potential mechanisms. In particular, we investigate whether three critical college experiences identified by theories of college student persistence—academic performance, social integration, and disrupted attendance—account for any differences we observe in rates of degree completion. Using nationally representative data from the Beginning Postsecondary Students (BPS) longitudinal study, we estimate models of timely baccalaureate degree completion using logit estimation. We find that, net of demographic characteristics, academic preparation, and institutional selectivity, students who report a mental health condition are significantly less likely to complete a bachelor’s degree than both their peers who do not report a health condition and their peers who report a physical health condition or some other type of health condition. Alternatively, students who report non-mental-health-related condition are no less likely to complete a bachelor’s degree than their healthier peers. Poor academic performance in the first year of college and disrupted attendance patterns explain the health-related educational deficit experienced by students who report a mental health condition. The findings highlight a potentially important role of mental health as a dimension of stratification within higher education. Policy implications are discussed.

Portillo, Juan. Race, Gender and Class Roundtable Section. Table 09 Education and Identity. 8/17, 2:30 pm. “More Than Music, More Than Sex: Latina College Students Performing ‘Smartness’ and Embodying Institutional Logics.” Building on Beth Hatt’s (2011) conceptual framework of “smartness as cultural practice,” I explore how Mexican American, female, undergraduate students make sense of themselves as “smart students” who made “smart choices” that rewarded them with the opportunity to attend college. Following an intersectional, feminist take on Bourdieu’s theory of habitus, I posit that the students who “make it” to college had particular dispositions developed early on in the educational pipeline, to attend to the expectations of appropriate Mexican American femininity within white-dominated, patriarchal institutions. In other words, to appear smart for Mexican American women in the US entails not just getting good grades, but also keeping an alleged “hypersexuality” under control. The study reveals the institutional logics of whiteness and patriarchy that dominate US educational institutions, as well as the ways in which Latina college students appropriate and remake these logics to work in their favor, as they simultaneously construct individual and institutional identities within universities. In the end, they attempt to achieve an “equal opportunity” by reproducing the gender, racial, and class hierarchies that created an unequal playing field for them in the first place. Nevertheless, their strategies for class advancement provide new understandings of Latina students and the gender, racial and class hierarchies of the social contexts they navigate. Instead of seeing them under a deficit lens, or blamed for the inequality that exists in universities, this study points back at the structures that create (or limit) opportunities for students based on gender, race, and class.

Robinson, Brandon. Section on Body and Embodiment Roundtables. Table 01 Weight, Fatphobia, and Bodily Capital. 8/17, 8:30 am. “The Quantifiable-Body Discourse: ‘Height-Weight Proportionality’ and Gay Bodies in Online Dating.” In this piece, I develop the concept of the quantifiable-body discourse to illuminate how the body is numerically measured in order to “objectively” compare bodies on Adam4Adam.com – one of the most popular online gay personal websites in the United States. The Internet is now the top place where gay and lesbian individuals meet their romantic partners; therefore, the need for researchers to understand this space and its influence on these men’s lives is crucial. For this research, I conducted in-person, in-depth interviews with 15 men in a South/Southwestern urban area who used Adam4Adam.com for sexual purposes, and I also analyzed 100 profiles in the same city. Turning to Foucault’s and other feminists’ ideas around quantification, health, and biopower, I show how the website quantifies bodies for users to quickly compare one’s body to another. My informants can rely on numbers, which are often couched in scientific reasoning of compositing the healthy, average person, to assess people’s size and desirability. Using Butler’s ideas about bodies and Connell’s concept of hegemonic masculinity, I then reveal how this quantification of bodies leads to the discrimination of people with larger bodies in this online gay dating space. I suggest that dating and hookup websites such as Adam4Adam.com are perpetuating the larger norms around bodies, health, longevity, and beauty. However, a queer critique of these issues may open up other imagined possibilities in the future for other bodies in cyberspace.

Rose, Mary. Sociology of Law Section Roundtable. 8/16, 8:30 am. “The Demography of the Jury.” In 2010, the Supreme Court issued a ruling in a jury representativeness case for the first time in about 30 years. Although making few changes to existing law, a notable feature of the case was the small amount of underrepresentation of African Americans, who were 7.28% of a county in Michigan but 6% of the jury pool. A look at the existing empirical literature makes it hard to gauge how typical or atypical this figure is, as research in this area has languished. In this paper, we offer an update of jury pools. First we examine one decade’s worth of federal court rulings in fair cross section and related cases. Although these come from cases in federal courts, because of habeas rulings, they represent oversight of both federal and state jurisdictions and practices. In addition, through responses sent following a large-scale request for information from federal districts, we examine court statistics maintained through so-called “AO-12” forms. These offer information on the racial profile of jurors qualified to serve, as well as the census profile of these same locations. Preliminary results show that the size of the typical disparity is larger than the Smith result- about a 5% “absolute disparity” – but nonetheless still too small to be legally actionable under current standards, even though this represents about a loss of about 40% of a given community. Results update our understanding of the modern jury pool, especially in guiding policy.

Shafeek, Neveen. Section on Medical Sociology Roundtable Session. 8/17, 2:30 pm. “Acculturation and Health among Middle Eastern Immigrants in the United States.” Previous studies show that the health outcomes of immigrants in the United States are favorable to that of U.S.-born whites. Little is known about the association between acculturation and physical health outcomes, particularly for Middle Easter immigrants. Using pooled data from the 2002-2012 National Health Interview Survey, I examine the association between acculturation and health outcomes among Middle Eastern (ME) immigrants in the U.S. and compare them to those of U.S.-born, non-Hispanic whites. A series of binomial logistic regression models are used for the analyses. Results indicate that acculturation is a determinant of self-rated health status. While the least acculturated ME immigrants have a significantly lower rate of reporting fair or poor health, the most acculturated ME immigrants have higher odds of reporting fair or poor health compared to U.S.-born whites. Results also show that ME immigrant groups, regardless of their acculturation status, are significantly less likely to have any chronic health conditions compared to U.S.-born whites. Finally, health behaviors have a modest impact on the relationship between acculturation and physical health outcomes of ME immigrants.

Smith, Chelsea. Parenthood 2 Session. 8/18, 8:30 am. “Parenting Stress, Infant Sleep Wakings, and Pathways to Parenthood.” Infants have erratic sleep schedules, and the often intense sleep/wake cycle of the early months of life can add to the burdens and adjustments faced by new parents. In addition to the current circumstances of infant and parent life, the transition to parenthood begins in the run-up to conception and through months of pregnancy, as parents adjust to new roles. Using data from the NICHD SECCYD, we explored the connection between parents’ stress and perceptions of their six-month-olds’ sleep. One in five mothers reported problematic infant sleep wakings, and they were more socioeconomically disadvantaged yet found parenting more stressful. In results from linear regression models, mothers tended to be stressed out when infants’ sleep wakings were problematic for them; however, this association differed by plannedness of the pregnancy. Mothers who planned their pregnancies did not experience more parenting stress than other mothers in general, but they did experience more stress when their children had problematic sleep wakings. Given these findings, programs and interventions aimed at assisting new parents with managing stress and infants with sleeping through the night should target mothers whose pregnancies were planned and for whom infant sleep wakings likely disrupt their otherwise planned out and positive transition to parenthood.

Sullivan, Esther. Regular Session: Ethnography/Ethnographic Studies 2. 8/18, 4:30 pm. “Managing Mass Eviction: Forced Relocation in Mobile Home Parks and the Paradox of State Intervention.” This article examines mass residential relocation through an ethnography of closing mobile home parks in Texas and Florida. Manufactured housing is the single largest source of unsubsidized affordable housing in the USA, home to 22 million primarily low-income residents. Most manufactured housing is installed in mobile home parks, which can legally close at any time, displacing entire communities. Based on two years living within and being evicted from closing mobile home parks in two states, this comparative ethnography juxtaposes sites of distinctive state practices for managing the forced relocation of park residents. In Florida, a site of explicit intervention and “model” legislation for mobile home park closures, the relocation process produced prolonged disruption and disorientation in residents’ lives. In Texas, where the state has adopted a hands-off approach, the disruptive relocation period was temporally limited. This paradoxical experience of eviction arose as Florida residents were processed according to a neoliberal logic of housing assistance. Private actors contracted to manage the relocation produced widespread confusion among Florida residents in two ways: 1) by manipulating the timing of eviction and 2) by deploying benevolent claims, mobilizing narratives of generosity and care while profiting off the dislocation of vulnerable residents.

Takasaki, Kara. Race, Gender and Class Roundtables. 8/17, 2:30 pm. “Scripted Stability: The Raced and Classed Reproduction of Gender Roles in Salsa Schools.” Leisure activities have been shown to be spaces with enduring social expectations about gender appropriate responsibilities and roles. Some social science research on salsa dancing has studied the agency that female salsa dancers have to resist and regulate their gender and sexuality in social dancing but do not seem to consider the ways that individuals might value the salsa gender structure for its stability. To explore how changing expectations about gender roles in society may impact leisure activities, I examined for-pay salsa dancing schools. In these institutions, instructors commercialized leader and follower dance roles, which were respectively gendered by masculine and feminine traits—characteristic of a stereotypical heterosexual relationship. Drawing on 20 in-depth interviews with equal numbers of male and female students and instructors from two Chicago dance schools, in-person observation of salsa classes at these schools, and participant observation at the schools’ social events and workshops, I illustrate how institutionalized and culturally disembodied knowledge reproduces gender role stereotypes that generate pleasure and anxiety for participants that have the resources to invest in classes. While “doing gender” was explicit and central to the dance curriculum, “doing leisure” in raced and classed ways was less acknowledged by participants. I argue that students did not try to resist or challenge salsa gender structure because they enjoyed its scripted stability and thus preferred to participate in it rather than destabilize it.

Umberson, Debra, Mieke Thomeer, and Amy Lodge. Section on the Sociology of the Family Paper Session. Love’s Labors Lost? Emotion Work in Hard Times. 8/16, 9:30 am. “Intimacy, Sex, and Emotion Work in Gay, Lesbian, and Heterosexual Relationships.” We merge the gender-as-relational perspective‹that gender is co-constructed and enacted within relationships with theoretical perspectives on emotion work and intimacy to frame an analysis of in-depth interviews with gay, lesbian, and heterosexual couples (N=15 gay couples, 15 lesbian couples, and 20 heterosexual couples). We find that emotion work directed toward minimizing and maintaining boundaries between partners as well as boundaries between emotional intimacy and sex are key to understanding the meanings and experiences of intimacy in long-term relationships. Moreover, intimacy, sex, and emotion work dynamics vary for men and women in gay, lesbian, and heterosexual relational contexts. Our findings provide a new way of thinking about diversity in long-term relationships as well as the unequal division of emotion work that goes into sustaining intimacy, going beyond a focus on gender difference and toward gendered relational contexts.

Zarrugh, Amina. Section on Body and Embodiment Paper Session. 8/17, 2:30 pm. “The Body Politic: Law, Nationalism, and the State.” This paper examines the centrality of the visual in the space of protest and in demands made of the state by families of the disappeared in Libya. Drawing on Arendt’s insights in The Origins of Totalitarianism, I argue that regimes extra-judicially incarcerate and disappear bodies to make “death itself anonymous.” The absence of a corpse renders implausible culpability for a crime and ensures the invisibility of state violence. These disappearances, however, are not accepted without response. To demonstrate reactions to state erasure of life, I consider the case of a movement among families in Libya that mobilized visuals to confront state violence. From 2009-2010, families of the victims of a 1996 prison massacre demonstrated weekly outside the Benghazi courthouse to demand knowledge of the whereabouts of their loved ones’ bodies. Mothers, in particular, utilized visuals, including photographs of their sons, to preserve memories the Libyan state denied. Women invoked visuals in two ways: to offer alternative narratives about the lives of their families and to demand of the government photographs of their relatives’ bodies to affirm their deaths. This project also emphasizes the significance of the visual methodologically through an analysis of YouTube videos of the protest filmed prior to the recent regime collapse. In this case, the visual resurrects the lives of political dissidents anew despite the absence (and state non-recognition) of their bodies. This analysis has implications for other contexts, especially in Latin America, where disappearance has been an integral strategy of state repression.

UT Austin Sociologists Presenting at PAA 2014

Thursday, May 1
8:30 AM – 10:00 AM
Family Structure, Parents’ Partner Instability, and Weight Gains and Losses from Childhood into Adolescence
Shannon E. Cavanagh, University of Texas at Austin
Chelsea Smith, University of Texas at Austin
Robert Crosnoe, University of Texas at Austin

Families are a primary context of physical development and therefore receive ample attention in health research and interventions targeting unhealthy aspects of body size in the early life course. Given recent growth in the diversity in family composition and in the prevalence of child overweight, this study explores associations of family structure and instability with increases and decreases in BMI, with special attention to how these associations vary from early childhood into adolescence. With longitudinal data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (n = 1,215), first difference models revealed that experiencing family instability and living in a single parent family were associated with weight gain in early adolescence. Living in a single parent family was also associated with weight loss in early childhood. These results suggest that the time following family transitions might be an ideal intervention point to promote healthy weight, especially among adolescents.

Thursday, May 1
1:00 PM – 2:30 PM
Racial and Ethnic Differences in Retrospective Reports of Childhood Health
Connor Sheehan, University of Texas at Austin

Life course studies of health often rely on retrospective reports of childhood conditions and child health as the anchors for life course processes. Although some research points to the validity of these reports, no attention has been paid to race/ethnic differences in reported childhood health and the factors that may explain these differences. This is important because race/ethnic differences in childhood health are important in understanding the origins of adult health disparities. We analyze differences in ratings of general child health using the HRS (n = 12,359) and logistic models. We find that Non-Hispanic Blacks, Native-Born Hispanics and Foreign-Born Hispanics are more likely to report poor general child health than Non-Hispanic Whites. These differences are strengthened when childhood diseases are controlled but mediated when socioeconomic conditions are controlled. Because of the observed differences global measures of child health appear to be more robust when exploring the origins of health disparities.

Thursday, May 1
2:45 PM – 4:15 PM
Gender Differences in the Association between Childhood Adversities and Adult Health
Esther M. Friedman, RAND Corporation
Connor Sheehan, University of Texas at Austin
Tara Gruenewald, University of California, Los Angeles
Teresa E. Seeman, University of California, Los Angeles

Mounting evidence finds that adverse early-life experiences, such as material deprivation or parental abuse, indelibly influence later-life health, often irrespective of adult circumstances. However, we know little about how early-life adversities collectively shape adult health (e.g., additively, nonlinearly), or whether they shape health similarly for women and men. Using MIDUS data, this study examines how childhood adversities are associated with three indicators of cardiometabolic health—diabetes, heart disease and obesity—for women and men. We test five specifications of adverse childhood experiences, and show that functional form matters. For instance, we see a jump in the magnitude of the effect of four vs. five adversities for diabetes and obesity, while the relationship is fairly linear for heart disease. Gender matters too. The association between childhood adversity and heart disease is stronger for women than men; whereas, the association between childhood adversity and obesity is stronger for men than women.

Thursday, May 1
1:00 PM – 2:30 PM
Limited but Not Disabled: The Objective Functional Limitations, Subjective Disability and Mortality among Elderly Mexican Americans
Phillip A. Cantu, University of Texas
Ronald Angel, University of Texas at Austin

This study investigates the relationship between objectively assessed functional capacity measured in terms of POMAs and subjective self-reported functional capacity assessed in terms of subjective (ADLs). The analysis focuses on those respondents whose self-reported capacities (ADls) are more positive than the objective measures, labeled as “health optimists”. We investigate the predictive capacity of health optimism on mortality for the elderly Mexican American population of the Southwest US. Using data from the H-EPESE we predict mortality among health optimists and health realists. Poisson models suggest that mortality rates are higher for “realists” than “optimists” but only significant for US Born Mexicans. US Born Male optimists’ life expectancies were 1.83 years longer, and female optimists had 3.2 year advantage. We discuss the implications of discrepancies between objectively and subjectively assessed functional capacity for understanding predictors of functional decline in the older Mexican-origin population.

Thursday, May 1
2:45 PM – 4:15 PM
Putting Abortion Opinions into Place: A Spatial-Temporal Analysis of Twitter Data
Amanda Stevenson, University of Texas at Austin

There is a large amount of uncertainty about how people feel about reproductive rights and how the distribution of that sentiment varies by location. Large scale surveys ask questions in ways that are susceptible to bias and they rarely give us specific geographical information. On the basis of this uncertain data and their own political ideologies, politicians utilize abortion as a political tool to appeal to voters who are perceived as opposing abortion rights and to appeal to voters who are perceived as supporting abortion rights. Using abortion in this way has implications for access to abortion and other reproductive healthcare. Moments like Wendy Davis’ filibuster of the Texas omnibus abortion restriction bill may precipitate reactions and thus bring latent, hard to measure sentiment to light. We use data from Tweets about Davis’ filibuster to understand the spatial distribution of resistance to and support for abortion restrictions in Texas.

Friday, May 2
2:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Poster Session 7
The Effect of Catholic Hospitals on Rates of Postpartum Sterilization in California and Texas
Amanda Stevenson, University of Texas at Austin

We examine the role of Catholic hospitals in determining variation across local areas in rates of postpartum tubal ligation (PPTL), the second most common method of contraception in the U.S. Focusing on Texas and California, two large and diverse U.S. states with very different levels of public provision of reproductive health care, we find that in both states women who live in areas served more heavily by Catholic hospitals are less likely to receive postpartum sterilizations, even after accounting for individual characteristics, county poverty, and religious adherence. We conclude that current U.S. debates over the role of religious prohibitions on the provision of reproductive healthcare can have implications for the population-level prevalence of these services. To the extent that this variation in prevalence is due to limitations on access, Catholic hospitals’ refusal to provide PPTL may contribute to low levels of women accessing their preferred method of contraception.

Saturday, May 3
9:00 AM – 10:30 AM
Unmet Demand for Highly Effective Postpartum Contraception in Two Cities in Texas
Joseph E. Potter, University of Texas at Austin
Kristine Hopkins, University of Texas at Austin
Abigail R. A. Aiken, University of Texas at Austin
Celia Hubert, University of Texas at Austin
Daniel Grossman, Ibis Reproductive Health

The postpartum period represents a key opportunity for women to learn about and obtain effective contraception. We assess women’s contraceptive preferences and use in the first 6 months after delivery. We conducted a prospective cohort study of 800 postpartum women, recruited from 3 hospitals in Austin and El Paso, Texas. Women age 18-44 who wanted to delay childbearing for at least 24 months were eligible for the study and completed interviews following delivery and at 3 and 6 months postpartum. At each interview, participants were asked what contraceptive method they would like to be using, as well as what method they were actually using. This study found considerable interest in LARC and permanent methods. However, there is substantial discordance between method preference and actual use. At 6 months postpartum, many more women would like to be using a highly effective method than have been able to do so.

Thursday, May 1
2:45 PM – 4:15 PM
Punitive Immigration Policy and the Decline in Public Cooperation with the Police
Carmen Gutierrez, University of Texas at Austin

Many crimes are not reported to the police. Accordingly, data compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation from local law enforcement provides only a partial picture of the true volume of crime in society. There are substantive reasons to believe that variation in the reporting of crimes across Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) is a function of variation in sociodemographics characteristics, including the relative size of the immigrant population. To examine whether the likelihood that a crime is reported to the police varies as a function of immigrant concentration and other MSA-level characteristics, we draw upon geographically identified data on victimization incidents from the National Crime Victimization Survey, merged with data from the 2000 U.S. Census. Findings reveal that the reporting of a crime to the police is, in fact, inversely related to the proportion of immigrant residents within an MSA, net of individual characteristics and MSA-level correlates such as disadvantage.

Thursday, May 1
8:30 AM – 10:00 AM
Race Inequality in Education in Brazil and South Africa
Leticia J. Marteleto, University of Texas at Austin
Caitlin Hamrock, University of Texas at Austin

Thursday, May 1
1:00 PM – 2:30 PM
Race Inequalities in Education in Brazil: Using Twin and Sibling Fixed Effects Methods
Leticia J. Marteleto, University of Texas at Austin
Molly Dondero, University of Texas at Austin

Abstract: Most of the literature on racial inequality of opportunities and outcomes (in Brazil and elsewhere) focuses on disadvantages due to variance between individuals in different families. Although critical, this line of research does not capture variation in outcomes due to distinct race labeling that occurs within families. The goal of this paper is twofold. First, I examine the contexts within which adolescents are racially labeled differently to determine the characteristics of families crossing racial boundaries. The second goal of this paper is to determine the extent of disadvantages in education due to different race labeling within families. I use twin data from the 1982, 1987-2009 nationally representative PNAD to examine the impact of race labeling within families using kappa correlations and twins fixed-effects models. Findings suggest that there remain educational disadvantages associated with race labeling even after shared family factors and unobserved characteristics are accounted for.

Friday, May 2
11:30 AM – 1:30 PM
Poster session 6
Understanding How Multi-Racial Families in Brazil Classify Their Children
Eric E. Borja, University of Texas at Austin

The goal of this paper is to examine the process of racial labeling in Brazil, one of the largest multi-racial countries in the world. The question guiding this paper is: given a child within a mix-race family, what is the probability of that child being labeled preto (black)? The study we propose utilizes a logit model to analyze a nationally representative dataset of children between the ages of zero and seven, pulled from the household survey PNAD in the years 2001-2009, to study what affects the probability of a mix-race family labeling their child as preto. The focus of this paper is important because by examining parent’s choices of how they label their children we gain an understanding of how Brazilians think about race and its heritability.

Re)Membering the Body: the 21^st Annual Conference on Emerging Scholarship in Women’s and Gender Studies.

From March 20-21, 2014

The CWGS graduate student run conference offers both undergraduate and graduate students at any recognized university the opportunity to share their research highlighting issues in women’s, gender, and/or sexuality studies with the students and faculty affiliates of CWGS, The University of Texas at Austin community, and CWGS community partners.

CWGS’s 2013-2014 conference theme is “(Re)Membering the Body.” What are the limits of history and memory? How do we remember/recover that which the archive has erased? What are the implications of embodied history, embodied storytelling, embodied memory? Proposals for papers or posters that address these questions (or pose related ones) using the lenses of gender, race, sexuality, ability, performance or other feminist, womanist, queer or anti-racist methodologies will be presented.

Panel: Brown Bodies in Ivory Towers: Women of Color in Education
Where: Chicano Culture Room (UNB 4.206)
When: 9:00am to 10:30am

Juan Portillo: “More Than Music, More Than Sex:” Latina College Students Performing “Smartness” and Embodying Institutional Logics
Panel: Undoing the Gaze: (Mis)Represented Bodies Speak Back
Where: Lone Star Room (UNB 3.208)
When: 10:45am to 12:15pm

Shantel G. Buggs: “You and all of your friends look so exotic”: Locating the Trauma of Miscegenation in Contemporary Mixed Race Fetishism.”

In a moment where Western society continues to promote a notion of racelessness or being “post-racial”, the very bodies that are said to represent this shift – those of mixed-race people – are the ones that continue to be fetishized as the ideal “exotic”. The desire for the exotic is not new, as fantasies of miscegenation (racial-mixing) are rooted in anxieties regarding sexuality and sexual difference that can be traced back to antebellum slavery (Hartman 1997; Calvo 2008). In order to assess how contemporary filmmakers have been able to capitalize on certain controlling images and the legacy of traditions of racial fetishization, this essay explores the relationship between miscegenation as a primal scene (Calvo 2008) and the fetishized portrayals of mixed-race and/or light-skinned black women in the films Monster’s Ball (Forster 2001), Jumping the Broom (Akil 2008) and Temptation:Confessions of a Marriage Counselor (Perry 2013). These films invoke the trauma of miscegenation and the rapeability of the black female body in order to sexualize and commodify the racialized Other, which in this particular case manifests as the exotic mixed-race woman.

Megan Tobias Neely: Risky Business: Organizations, Gender, and Risk-Taking in the Finance Industry

Panel: Emerging Research in Sexual Violence and Society: Critical Scholarship on the Topic of Sexual Violence
Where: Lone Star Room (UNB 3.208)
When: 1:00pm–2:30pm

Paige Gabriel: Economic Power and Sexual Violence: Unwanted Sex in Sole Female Breadwinner Relationships

Abstract: This project examines sexual violence, specifically the phenomenon of sex that is unwanted but not forced, in heterosexual couples where the woman is the only breadwinner.  Little research has been done that specifically addresses the impact of economic power on the incidence or dynamics of unwanted sex, and this family form provides the opportunity to examine how flipping paradigm of economic power in relationship affects violence and power.  I pay special attention to differences between men who leave the labor force willingly to focus on reproductive labor and men who would like to work for pay outside the home but are marginalized by the labor market.  Using related literature, I theorize how unwanted sex may or may not occur in these relationships and discuss the implications for broader issues of women’s power and (in)equality in long-term heterosexual relationships.

Elizabeth Cozzolino: Other Second Assaults: How Institutions Fail Separated Women with Domestic Violence Histories

How do institutions serve domestic violence victims who have children? Drawing on interviews collected as part of a larger study, I present a case study of how institutions can commit a “second assault” (Martin 2005) against mothers with domestic violence histories. Institutions have their own aims and organizational logics that may not always put the safety and wellbeing of victims at the center of their mission (Martin 2005). Here, I present how Child Support Enforcement, Child Protective Services, and the Internal Revenue Service fail to serve and protect mothers with domestic violence histories. This exploratory study concludes with policy implications and a call for further research.

Panel: Spectating History, Performing Identity: Racialized Bodies in Performance
Where: Chicano Culture Room (UNB 4.206)
When: 2:45pm – 4:15pm

Kara Takasaki: Scripted stability: the raced and classed reproduction of gender roles in salsa schools

Leisure activities have been shown to be spaces with enduring social expectations about gender appropriate responsibilities and roles. Some social science research on salsa dancing has studied the agency that female salsa dancers have to resist and regulate their gender and sexuality in social dancing but do not seem to consider the ways that individuals might value the salsa gender structure for its stability. To explore how changing expectations about gender roles in society may impact leisure activities, I examined for-pay salsa dancing schools. In these institutions, instructors commercialized leader and follower dance roles, which were respectively gendered by masculine and feminine traits—characteristic of a stereotypical heterosexual relationship. Drawing on 20 in-depth interviews with equal numbers of male and female students and instructors from two Chicago dance schools, in-person observation of salsa classes at these schools, and participant observation at the schools’ social events and workshops, I illustrate how institutionalized and culturally disembodied knowledge reproduces gender role stereotypes that generate pleasure and anxiety for participants that have the resources to invest in classes. While “doing gender” was explicit and central to the dance curriculum, “doing leisure” in raced and classed ways was less acknowledged by participants. I argue that students did not try to resist or challenge salsa gender structure because they enjoyed its scripted stability and thus preferred to participate in it rather than destabilize it.

Friday, March 21, 2014

Panel: Patriarchal Spaces: Rethinking War, Militarism and State Welfare…
Where: Eastwoods Room (UNB 2.102)
When: 9:00am – 10:30am

Caitlyn Collins: “They Call Me a Career Whore”: The Promise and Limits of Family Policy for Working Mothers in Western Germany

Abstract: U.S. feminist scholars often look to European countries as models for progressive family policy, but few scholars investigate the policies from the perspectives of the working mothers who are impacted by them. Drawing on 26 in-depth interviews, this paper examines women’s experiences of the work-family policies in Germany, a country that provides generous support to working mothers. The German mothers I interviewed struggle to balance motherhood and employment despite – and in some cases because of – work-family policy. These mothers are stigmatized for being employed outside the home while raising young children. Yet staying at home can leave mothers feeling unfulfilled. I conclude that these “family-friendly” policies are insufficient unless they are accompanied by cultural acceptance of gender equality.

Panel: Bodies at the Intersections of Counter-Memory
Where: Lone Star Room (UNB 3.208)
When: 10:45am-12:15pm

Brandon Robinson: The Quantifiable-Body Discourse: A Queer Analysis of Gay Male Bodies in Cyberspace
The male body is objectified and commodified in societies, though there are culturally specific ideas about what constitutes the ideal form of male beauty. Within mainstream gay communities, the hegemonic norm of beauty has often been documented as being young and muscular. In this paper, I explore how the body is constructed and desired on Adam4Adam.com – one of the most popular online gay personal websites in the United States. For this research, I conducted in-person, in-depth interviews with 15 men in the Austin area who used Adam4Adam.com for sexual purposes. I show how the website quantifies bodies for users to quickly compare one’s body to another. I use the term the quantifiable-body discourse to capture this numerical body assessment phenomenon, when people rely on numbers, which are often couched in scientific reasoning of compositing “the normal, average person range,” to assess people’s size and desirability.  I then reveal how this quantification of bodies leads to the discrimination of people with larger bodies in cyberspace. I suggest that dating and hookup websites such as Adam4Adam.com are perpetuating the larger norms around bodies, health, longevity and beauty. However, a queer analysis of these issues may open up other imagined possibilities in the future for queer bodies in cyberspace.

ASA 2013 Presenting UTAustinSOC 

Kate Averett  Raising Them to Be Who They Truly Are:  LGBTQ Parents Resisting Heteronormative Gender

Sociological research has demonstrated that the dominant parenting discourses and practices in the contemporary U.S. are heteronormative, that is, they assume that children are, and ideally should be, heterosexual. Furthermore, heteronormativity in childrearing practices has been shown to be tied to a preference among many parents that their children conform to gender normative behaviors. If gender-typical behavior in childhood is encouraged in part due to the parental expectation of, and preference for, heterosexual children, do parents who do not hold this expectation or preference resist the cultural imperative to raise gender-conforming children? Based on data collected from in-depth interviews with 36 largely middle class lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer-identified (LGBTQ) parents, I argue in this paper that LGBTQ parents often try to resist the stereotypes of strict binary gender with their young children and, further, that they see this as a method of allowing their children their children the “choice” of different future paths, including as a means of not restricting their expression of their gendered and/or sexual identities.

Travis Beaver The Important Sound of Things Falling Apart or “Standardized Computer Rock”? The Influence of Critiques of Mass Culture on Music Criticism

Cultural critics and scholars have historically viewed mass culture with contempt, arguing that standardized cultural commodities would destroy both “high” art and “folk” art. This contempt for mass culture is partially based on the Romantic conception of art: whereas genuine art is anti-commercial, challenging, and created by a unique artistic genius, mass cultural objects are standardized, escapist, and vulgar because they are produced for commercial purposes. In this paper, I will show how music criticism was influenced by the Marxist/Romantic critique of mass production by examining critical responses to the American new wave band Devo. Music critics accused Devo of producing standardized, facile music that was used to manipulate the masses. Like the Frankfurt School, these critics assume that the masses are passive consumers who are manipulated by commercial commodities. This paper will also compare and contrast this music criticism to Devo’s intentions as commercial artists and to fan interpretations of the band’s music and message. This comparison will demonstrate the importance of incorporating an analysis of the modes of production, a reading of the cultural “texts,” and ethnographic research into the lived cultures of the people who consume cultural products when studying popular culture.

Letisha Brown The (Un) Anticipated Consequences of Race, Class and Gender Surveillance in Public Space

On August 11, 2012, South African runner Caster Semenya came in second during the women’s Olympic 800meter-event. With the speculation about her gender that erupted after she won gold at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin in the women’s 800meterevent; her silver medal during the Olympic Games left some speculating that she purposefully threw the event. This article utilizes a theoretical and ethnographic approach to examine (a) the ways in which a black feminist approach to sports studies can contribute to our understandings of race, gender, class and disability among other dimensions of oppression; (b) the historical framing of black women as masculine or “genderless”; (c) the media framing of Caster Semenya and Oscar Pistorius in the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

John Sibley Butler Old Southern Codes in New Legal Bottles? Race, Sexual Harassment and Organizational Science

Historically, old southern codes were used to regulate the interactions between black males and white females. We draw parallels between these codes and current sexual harassment laws to examine perceptions of sexual behavior that cross racial lines. Specifically we examined how white and black female targets perceived and reacted to the behavior of white and black males. Our results indicate that both white and black women perceive the behavior of black men as more sexually harassing and more threatening. Further, women in general are more likely to report black men. Implications for research and the management of sexual harassment are discussed.

Ori Swed and John Sibley Butler The Israeli Model of Hi-Tech Entrepreneurship, Military Capital, and the Hi-Tech Industry

The Israeli hi-tech boom has received vast attention in professional, business, and academic literature as pundit and scholar alike are in agreement over the centrality of Israeli military’s success. The Israeli model utilizes the military as an economic engine and a hotbed for innovation that translates knowledge, resources, and skills into the local hi-tech industry. At the center of this model lies the relationship between the military and companies. In this paper we would like to suggest a new outlook for examining this model. Instead of focusing strictly on the technological aspects and relations, we suggest that in the Israeli economic development model the Israeli Defense Forces should also be seen as a socialization institution. Specifically, the military capital gained throughout service is the key for understanding the success of the Israeli hi-tech sector.

Mounira M. Charrad and Hyun Jeong Ha Woman Friendly Reforms Of Islamic Law Under Authoritarianism: Tunisia From The 1950s TO 2010

With reforms spanning over a half-century, Tunisia has been a leading country in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in regard to family law and women’s rights. It continues to stand at the forefront of the modern Muslim Middle East in this respect (Charrad 2007: 1514). Promulgated in the 1950s as “Majalla” in Arabic, “Code du Statut Personnel” in French or “Code of Personal Status” (CPS) in English, a pioneer reform of family law expanded women’s rights in marriage, polygamy, divorce, alimony, and custody. Although inequities persist, notably in regard to inheritance, the CPS is one of the most “woman friendly” legislation in the region. The initial reform was followed by subsequent amendments, which enhanced the protection of the nuclear family, women and children.

This paper discusses the sustained reforms of Islamic family law that occurred in Tunisia from the 1950s to 2010. We offer suggestions as to the sociopolitical conditions that made the reforms possible in different historical periods. We argue that the political context and political motivations have shaped the policy on family law and women’s rights. Sustained reforms were possible because succeeding regimes, which can only be qualified as authoritarian, found it in their best interests to pursue a reformist policy, especially after the initial reforms of the 1950s set the tone oversubsequent decades. The political interests of the regime aligned with the activism of women’ rights advocates from the 1980s onward. In the sociological literature, the analysis of legal changes in favor of women draws heavily on the history of the United States where women’s activism was critical in bringing about policy changes (Freeman 1975; Evans 1980 and 2004). The case of Tunisia, however, calls into question this dominant model and offers an example of authoritarian regimes making reforms for reasons of their own interests. After providing an overview of the history and legal system of Tunisia, we outline the substance of the reforms and their significance. Methodologically, we use primarily legal texts and the commentaries of legal scholars or social science analysts. In December 2010-January 2011, Tunisia was the first country to experience the Arab Spring when a mass protest brought the collapse of the regime then in place. The consequences of the Arab Spring are currently being played on several fronts and may reshape the sociopolitical and legal arenas. This paper therefore considers the Tunisian legislation before the eruption of the Arab Spring and only raises questions about what may come next.

Caity Collins Just How Family Friendly? Women’s Experiences with Work-Family Policies in Germany

Are “family-friendly” policies the solution to the working mother’s dilemma? Little research turns to women themselves who live in countries with these social policies to answer this question. Drawing on 26 in-depth interviews, this paper examines the lived experiences of women in Germany, a country that provides generous support to working mothers. I investigate five policies in particular: parental leave and job security, part-time work, flexible schedules, telecommuting and home offices, and cash allowances to parents. I argue that women still struggle to balance motherhood and employment because gender inequality persists in Germany, despite – and in some cases because of – welfare state support. Women are stigmatized for being employed outside the home while raising children, and for their family status at work. This hostility, combined with the availability of work-family policies, shape women’s decisions about whether, when, and how much to work, what sorts of jobs to work in, and how they conceive of themselves as parents and employees. The gendered messages women receive from the state, businesses, and dominant culture leave the women I interviewed feeling like inadequate mothers and inadequate workers. These “family-friendly” policies are insufficient unless they are accompanied by cultural acceptance of gender equality.

Elizabeth Cozzolino Bringing God into the Bedroom: Weber’s Religious Rejections of the World and Evangelical Sex Manuals

In his well-known essay “Religious Rejections of the World and their Directions,” Max Weber ([1948]1991a) argues that religion and sexuality are in fundamental conflict with one another as each offers a competing version of salvation. Yet, the existence of sex advice manuals written by from an evangelical Christian perspective questions this assertion. I argue that the inner-worldly nature of evangelical Christianity logically extends itself to encompass sexual conduct, as evangelical authors extend Luther’s “calling” into the sexual sphere. For evangelical Christian couples, no longer does sex represent an “inner-worldly salvation from rationalization;” rather sex becomes another rationalized sphere in which religion dictates the proper procedure of “Christian sex” (Weber [1948]1991a:346). First, I summarize Weber’s argument and lay out his religious typology. Next, I use secondary data about evangelical sex manuals to demonstrate the ways in which they rationalize sex. Finally, I utilize Weber’s distinction between inner-worldly and other-worldly asceticism to explain why there is no corresponding market for Catholic sex advice manuals.

Dan Jaster – presenting at the Rural Sociological Association meeting – Penny auctions: Transformation of identity and values into strategy

In the early 1930s, the American Midwest erupted in protest against falling commodity prices and increased farm foreclosures, forming a decentralized social movement called
the Farmers Holiday Association. The hallmark of this movement became the penny auction, in which farmers bid on foreclosed farms for pennies on the dollar and subsequently returned the farm to the previous owner. Previous analyses of the Farmers Holiday Association have focused on the economic aspects and goals of farmer activists; few have discussed the values and identity processes behind their actions. The rapid spread and popular usage of the penny auction strategy could be due to its link to the values embedded within a rural identity. Community solidarity and aid to a neighbor in need are mores built into a rural lifestyle (see Danbom 1995); this translation of values into action would make the tactic easy to understand and support. The rapid spread and popularity of the penny auction thus may be due to its embodiment of rural community ideals. Key to the dissemination of this strategy was the expanding definition of the concept of community and rural identity. This paper will document the national spread of the movement, as well as the values associated with it. The popularity and strength of this tactic lie in its connection to identity; the strategy was the identity.

Katie Jensen A Critique of Credibility: The Asylum Screening Process in Brazil

This paper uses theories of feminist geopolitics and embodiment to illuminate how the legal frameworks of refugee policy in Brazil play out in asylum screening processes. This work draws from participant-observation fieldwork in Rio de Janeiro in 2012 with the organization Cáritas, which receives, interviews and produces case recommendations of asylum seekers. I find that credibility, an internationally ubiquitous institutional concept used to discuss the quality of refugee applicants’ cases, both obfuscates and allows for the unchecked reproduction and enactment of social prejudices throughout the application process. This paper highlights how the bureaucracies of asylum screening can further marginalize applicants as they must adequately perform their trauma, satisfy stereotypes, and communicate within the narrative frames prescribed by the officials given the power to decide who receives asylum – and who does not.

Robyn Keith Which Niche? Agency and Homophily in Voluntary Organizations

Social scientists have long stressed the importance of voluntary organizations in American life, but most voluntary organizations are relatively homogenous. Previous research has explained homophily in voluntary organizations as the result of pre-existing social ties (McPherson and Popielarz 1995), but what happens when voluntary organizations draw new members from the Internet rather than traditional social networks? Additionally, research has not yet examined how groups establish a niche for themselves in social space, nor to what extent group members and organizers actively do so. The current paper builds on McPherson’s (1983) ecological model of organizations, and provides new insight into how voluntary organizations shape who can (and cannot) participate in their group in the Internet age. I use qualitative data from Meetup.com, a website that allows users to join groups online and then meet up in person at offline events. Because Meetup is Internet-based, it provides users and group organizers with greater agency to meet others with similar characteristics. I demonstrate how group organizers develop knowledge of the pertinent social space and then use this knowledge and relevant cultural capital to adjust the size of their group’s niche relative to other groups. Finally, groups still establish homophily, even without drawing from pre-existing social ties; however, this may preclude others from participating in a group as readily. My findings shed new light on how group membership is established using the Internet, but how these practices may be also exclusionary.

David S. Kirk (University of Texas-Austin), Angela R. Stroud (Northland College) Economic Insecurity, and the Proliferation of Concealed Handgun Licenses in Texas

The economic conditions leading up to following the financial crisis of 2008 have strained many communities across the United States. Rising poverty, increased unemployment, high foreclosure rates, and falling home prices have altered national and local conditions in dramatic ways that have strained families and communities.
This panel presents current research examining the context and consequences of these recent patterns for crime and safety in the United States.

Amy Lodge Gendered, Raced Body Projects: Body Image Concerns And Exercise Over The Life Course

Previous research suggests that body image concerns serve as an impetus for exercise but has not investigated how these concerns motivate adults to exercise in different ways by gender, race, and age. This study analyzes 60 in-depth interviews with Black and white men and women to address these questions. Findings suggest that individuals are motivated to exercise, in part, by a desire to align their bodies with culturally ideal masculine and feminine bodies. Men are equally likely to report exercising to gain and lose weight, while women are motivated to exercise from a
desire to lose or maintain their weight. Some midlife respondents — particularly women — report that they also exercise in order to maintain a youthful appearance and that aging makes it harder for them to lose weight. Racial differences also emerged wherein Black men, in particular, are motivated to exercise by a desire to gain muscle weight, while white men emphasize that there are limits to their desired muscularity. Further, some Black respondents emphasize that there are limits to their desired thinness via exercise.

Family Of Origin And Physical Activity Trajectories Over The Life Course: A Qualitative, Intersectional Analysis

Previous research suggests that parents shape their children’s exercise habits and may set them on trajectories of (in)activity. Yet, it is unknown why adults transition away from or continue on active and inactive exercise trajectories or how these life course processes may differ at the intersection of race and gender. To fill these gaps, this paper merges life course and intersectionality theoretical perspectives to frame a qualitative analysis of 61 in-depth interviews with black and white men and women. Results suggest that for individuals whose parents set them on active trajectories, about half remain consistently active over the life course, while a large minority experience life course transitions or turning points away from an active lifestyle — a process I term developed disadvantage. For respondents with inactive parents, the vast majority report transitioning to an active lifestyle either in early adulthood or midlife in response to personal health or weight concerns, parental health or weight concerns associated with inactivity — a life course process I term adverse modeling, or peer or intimate partner influence.
Results further suggest that these life course processes differ by race and gender. For example, black women are more likely than other groups to transition away from an active trajectory as a result of parenthood and adverse modeling in response to parents’ weight concerns is more common among women than men.

Dan Powers Erosion of Advantage: Decomposing Differences in Infant Mortality Rates among Older Non-Hispanic White and Mexican-Origin Mothers

Recent research shows an erosion of infant survival advantage in the Mexican-origin population relative to non-Hispanic whites at older maternal ages, with patterns that differ by nativity. This finding runs counter to the well-documented Hispanic infant mortality paradox and appears to be consistent with the conceptual framework of weathering. We carry out a multivariate decomposition of the difference in Mexican-origin and non-Hispanic white infant mortality at older maternal ages to better understand sources of the difference, with selected medical and social risk factors contributing to components of the difference. We find significant differences in the distribution of risk factors and their effects across the three populations of interest. The IMR gap between Mexican-origin women and non-Hispanic whites can be attributed to numerous offsetting factors, with inadequate prenatal care standing out as a major contributor to the IMR difference. Equalizing access to and utilization of prenatal care provides one possible route to closing the IMR gap at older maternal ages.

Aida Ramos-Wada Testing and Developing Theories of Religious Conversion among US Latinos

The growth of Protestantism — especially its evangelical variants– among US Latinos has been the focus of considerable discussion among researchers. Few studies to date have investigated the patterns associated with Latino religious affiliation and conversion from Catholicism to Protestantism. Our study tests various theories about why some Latinos convert including the semi-involuntary thesis, the national origin hypothesis, and assimilation theory. We use data from a large national sample of US Latino surveyed in 2006 by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life (n=4,016). We find little evidence to support the semi-involuntary thesis among Latinos, only partial support for assimilation theory; however, national origin appears to be an important factor in predicting conversion. We discuss how war and violence in home country may influence the religious composition of early migrants and thus shape both the religious composition and conversion of later migrants. Lastly, we discuss the importance of evaluating non-instrumental theories of conversion.

Brandon Robinson “The Beauty of Online Dating”: Quotidian Practices of Sexual Racism on a Gay Dating Site

This paper seeks to explore the nuances of racialization within the largest gay dating and hookup site in the United States – Adam4Adam.com. As 40 to 53% of men seeking men use the Internet for dating and hookup purposes, Adam4Adam.com is a prime site to explore the racialization of the erotic and the manifestations of racism within the online gay community. Through analyzing the website and people’s profiles and through conducting 15 in-person, in-depth interviews, the author reveals the quotidian racist practices on this site and white hegemony’s control over desirability. Through relying upon theories of racialized sexualities and race and space, the author illuminates how Adam4Adam.com is already organizing racist erotic play by its very structure and its filtering system. From there, the author shows how the abjection of black individuals confines them to racial sexual stereotypes while concurrently normalizing racial discrimination for the users who inhabit the website. However, the author also explores the productive possibilities of marking whiteness within this space, which might provide understandings of the ruptures of white hegemony within an online arena. The author concludes by arguing that quotidian racist practices are exacerbated within male-for-male online spaces; however, the chasms of white hegemony within these cyberspaces may allow scholars to uncover new ways of challenging racism within the digital era.

Esther Sullivan Half-way Homeowners: Eviction and Forced Relocation among Homeowners in Manufactured Home Parks in Florida

The last four decades of U.S. housing policy have seen an overhaul of the federal allocation of affordable housing as a public good to the neoliberal model of private and for-profit provision of affordable housing. This shift warrants a study of the link between the interests that now shape low-income housing markets and the stability of the housing they provide. Nowhere are the effects of this shift more evident than in the homes of the 10 million American households living in manufactured housing, which is installed largely on the private lands of for-profit developers who can close parks and force residents to move themselves and their homes with as little as 30-days notice. This ethnography of mass eviction in a Florida mobile home park examines state regulations intended to protect residents of parks during relocations and analyzes how these
policies are shaped by non-state actors and private interests.

Ori Swed Military Capital in the Israeli Hi-Tech Industry

The unique relations between the Israeli armed forces and the local hi-tech industry have
been identified as a strong explanatory variable for the Israeli hi-tech boom. This article highlights the role of the military as a socialization institution in those relations. We identify how the accumulation of “military capital” during military in service contributes to soldiers as veterans and employees in the hi-tech sector. Military service brings with it professional training, social ties, and social codes that influence the composition of the hi-tech workforce and hi-tech industry’s organizational and functional culture. Examination of Israeli hi-tech workers’ profiles reveals not only a very high proportion of military capital amongst the employees but also an institutional preference for those who possess it.

ASA 2012 Presenters and Participants: UT-Austin

This year we have 65 faculty and students presenting and participating at ASA annual meeting. (See alumni here.) Faculty are in Bold.

To see their profiles, click here (faculty) and here (students).

For the full conference schedule, click here.

Adjepong, Lady Anima
Angel, Jacqueline L.
Angel, Ronald J.
Arevalo, Ellyn Margaret
Averett, Kathleen H.
Beaver, Travis
Beicken, Julie Anne
Brown, Dustin C.
Bylander, Maryann
Cabrera, Sergio Antonio
Carrington, Ben
Cavanagh, Shannon
Charrad, Mounira Maya
Chen, Wenhong
Crosnoe, Robert
Diaz-Venegas, Carlos
Dondero, Molly
Gonzalez-Lopez, Gloria
Gutierrez, Carmen Marie
Hayward, Mark D.
Hummer, Robert A.
Humphries, Melissa H.
Hyun, Jeong Ha
Jensen, Katherine Christine
Jimenez, Hortencia
Lodge, Amy C.
Manglos, Nicolette Denise
McClendon, David Michael
McFarland, Michael Jason
McNamee, Catherine
Muller, Chandra
Neely, Megan Tobias
Neumann, Pamela Jane
Paredes, Christian Luis
Pattison, Evangeleen
Paxton, Pamela M.
Prickett, Kate C.
Raley, Kelly
Regnerus, Mark D.
Riegle-Crumb, Catherine
Roberts, Bryan Rees
Robinson, Brandon Andrew
Robinson, Keith D.
Rodriguez, Nestor P.
Ross, Catherine E.
Rudrappa, Sharmila
Sheehan, Connor
Shifrer, Dara Renee
Sitko, Robert
Sobering, Katie
Spangenberg, Emily Jane
Stevensen, Amanda Jean
Stroud, Angela R.
Sullivan, Mary Esther
Sutton, April M.
Swed, Ori
Tate, Margaret
Thomas, Patricia A.
Thomeer, Mieke Beth
Umberson, Debra
Villarreal, Andres
Wheatley, M. Christine
Williams, Christine L.
Young, Michael P.
Zarrugh, Amina

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Borrowing across Borders: An exploration of migration, microfinance and debt in rural Cambodia.
Presentation by Maryann Bylander at the Rethinking Development Conference at Cornell University

Abstract:
Studies of international migration consider questions of what compels, sustains, and structures migration patterns globally, as well as how migrations shape and impact sending communities. The study of migration and development takes particular interest in the latter question, seeking to understand how migration can impact sending communities and serve as a driver for growth, poverty reduction and social change. Past research highlights how migration can be a poverty reducing household strategy, a brain-draining process, a stable aid alternative, a mechanism for national economic growth, and a catalyst for social change, to name but a few. Relatively ignored in recent analyses of migration and development is the role that debt, particularly newly available microfinance loans, plays in facilitating, shaping, and sustaining migration patterns. Though debt is a central focus in studies of trafficking and debt-bonded migration, few studies of labor migration attempt to understand the relationship between international migration and loans or debt. This study seeks to fill this gap by explicitly exploring the debt-migration connection, with a focus on understanding how debt-financed migration impacts the potential for migration to contribute to development. This is a particularly timely topic of study as the recent expansion of microfinance has significantly altered the accessibility of credit in even the most remote areas, opening up a space to ask what impact newly available streams of credit might have for migration patterns, or the potential that migration holds for poverty reduction in migrant sending areas.

In past decades scholars have pointed to a lack of available credit markets as one of the push factors propelling out-migration, explaining individual migration decisions as part of a household strategy aimed at diversifying incomes, reducing risk, and often responding to undeveloped credit and insurance markets in home countries. Though these theories have been useful in explaining migration streams in many contexts, there has been little theoretical or empirical work re-evaluating this concept in the wake of the proliferation of microfinance in developing countries. This article explores the connections between microfinance, debt and migration in a rural commune in Northwest Cambodia, where there are high rates of out-migration to Thailand. In this context, I find that the new availability of microfinance, and a strong culture of migration interact in ways that challenge past assumptions of relationship between migration and the availability of credit. Instead of curbing migration, access to low-interest credit enables migrations, allowing even the poorest households access to the capital they need to cross borders. At the same time, the strong migration patterns present in the area enable the growth of microfinance, as potential borrowers base their loans on the perceived ability to pay debt back through successful migrations. This interplay raises questions as to the potential for both microfinance and migration to promote sustainable development.

Through a nuanced qualitative analysis, this paper offers new perspectives on both microfinance and migration as potential motors for rural development. Drawing from three years of field work and over 80 interviews with migrants and the family members of migrants, this article illuminates the relationship between microfinance and migration, arguing that in this context migration and microfinance have become mutually enabling processes, with each allowing for and promoting the other’s growth. After exploring the ways in which migration and microfinance are mutually enabling, this paper then discuss the impacts this has on the potential for migration to contribute to development and poverty reduction within households. By highlighting the strong links between migration and microfinance, this article opens up a space for new research questions further exploring the migration/microfinance connection.

Monday, October 3rd Latin American Summer Research Brownbag

Social movement theory, inequality, worker’s rights, social networks and political sociology provided the backdrop for a vigorous discussion led by Latin American researchers: Marcos Perez, Pamela Neumann and Katie Sobering. Conversation was so engaging that we are expanding the format of these panels to encourage an hour or more of discussion after the presentations. Thanks to everyone for an inspiring morning and special thanks to Pamela Neumann for her summary and to Pamela, Marcos and Katie for sharing their work.

Pamela Neumann’s summary:

Writing in 1844, Marx predicted that the rise of capitalism would lead to man’s alienation, both from labor (the act of working) and from his fellow man (community and relationships). These processes could only be reversed, he argued, in the context of an economic system within which workers themselves controlled the means of production and engaged in work aimed at contributing to the general welfare rather than simply to the accumulation of capital. While the merits of the specific system that Marx envisioned continue to be debated, what is undeniable is that work is a fundamental part of who we are. This idea came sharply into focus during today’s Latin American Summer Research Panel in which we discussed worker occupied businesses in Buenos Aires,  Argentina’s piquetero movement (whose primary grievances revolve around the absence of employment opportunities) , and metallurgical workers in La Oroya, Peru who describe themselves as “enfermos” (ill) over their lack of full-time work in the wake of the company’s closure.

In each case, it is clear that the kind, quality, and/or lack of work has profound effects that go well beyond the capacity to meet basic needs–touching issues of identity (how we see ourselves), solidarity (how we relate to others in similar or different circumstances), and mobilization (the ways in which we express grievances and make demands).  In the case of Peru, with which I am most familiar, environmental activists and NGOs were quick to explain the lack of massive protest in the community over the levels of contamination produced by the metallurgical complex as a simple case of people fearing the loss of their jobs. But is it so simple? The Faustian task of choosing between serious negative health effects or the loss of economic livelihood is hardly an easy one. Especially when, perhaps, the phrase “economic livelihood” does not do justice to the full extent to which such labor represents more than a means of acquisition but rather an entire way of life, a deeply internalized part of people’s habitus that touches their very core of being.  A full understanding of such identification was beyond the scope of the five weeks of fieldwork I conducted this summer, but after putting my own preliminary findings in dialogue with those of my fellow panelists today, I look forward to exploring these questions in greater depth in the future.

Marcos Perez in Buenos Aires, Argentina
Marcos described the tentative results of five weeks of fieldwork in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The complexities of the decline of a social movement will be presented through the cases of three groups of activists, which will be used as illustrations of the different ways organizations dealt with the reduction in mobilization experienced by Argentinean society after 2002.

Pamela Neumann in La Oroya, Peru
This summer, with funding through the Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies (LLILAS), Pamela Neumann conducted exploratory ethnographic research in La Oroya, Peru, a hub of metallurgical activity since the 1920s. Her research explores some of the ways in which the residents and organizational actors in this mining town have responded to the high levels of environmental contamination and health effects caused by the town’s metallurgical complex. For example, in the early 2000s, a consortium of local residents, national and international NGOs joined forces to demand that the current owner of the town’s metallurgical complex, Doe Run Peru, comply with the environmental standards set forth by the Peruvian government. However, these activities came to a halt shortly following DRP’s temporary closure in 2009, which has created a variety of new social and economic challenges for residents of La Oroya, which are described in distinctive ways by NGO actors, community leaders, and company workers.

Katie Sobering in Buenos Aires, Argentina
Katie Sobering presented the findings from her summer 2011 fieldwork in Argentina, where she worked at Hotel BAUEN, a worker-recovered business located in downtown Buenos Aires. This project was a continuation of fieldwork begun in 2008 and examined how workers construct legitimacy from a position of economic marginality.  To do so, she compared the variety and diversity of networks present in the hotel during the two periods and then examined both the networks and efforts at coalition-building to understand the changing structures and experience of work in a global economy.

Summer Research Panel with Vivian Shaw, Ori Swed and Christine Wheatley

Many thanks to Vivian, Christine and Ori for yesterday’s informative fieldwork panel. It was interesting not only from the standpoint of diverse projects and methodological approaches in Japan, Mexico and Israel but in the way the research experience evolved for each presenter. Vivian Shaw took us into spatial landscapes marked by political, emotional and cultural significance reflected in peace and war memorials in Japan. Her theoretical framework grew in response to her interaction with the spaces and the cultural, racial and gender nuanced messages which differed significantly for internal and external audiences. Christine Wheatley emphasized the practical approaches she has taken to her ethnographic fieldwork in Jalisco, Mexico. Using course assignments to maximize publishing and fellowship proposal deadlines, Christine funded two summer fieldwork projects, presented her findings at The American Sociological Association and published an article in the Latin Americianist. Building on her success, she will continue pursuing dissertation funding and publishing opportunities. Ori Swed’s archival research in Israel uses a historical/comparative method which is quantified in databases that capture complex relationships between state and terrorist initiated violence. He continues to uncover new questions that affect the theoretical underpinnings of his research. Mapping the context and patterns of violent exchanges in the Second Intifada is expanding Ori’s research on the evolving culture of war in the middle east.

Atomic Memory: The Political Aesthetics of Race, Gender, and Trauma in the Museum

Vivian Shaw will discuss her summer 2011 fieldwork in Japan, researching three museums related to World War II and the atomic bombings, the Hiroshima Peace Museum, the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, and Yasakuni Shrine/Yushukan museum, a controversial “war heroes” shrine and museum in Tokyo. Her project looks at the aesthetics of trauma and memory in these spaces as political discourses on nationality, race, and gender. In this talk, Shaw will also evaluate her research process, including challenges and theoretical shifts encountered in her fieldwork.

Deportation and Migration in Jalisco, Mexico

Christine Wheatley’s research interests center on processes of deportation, both as a form of exclusion and of forced return migration, a critical and understudied area with consequences for sending and receiving nations, and migrants themselves. In the summer of 2010, with funding from the Mellon Foundation, she conducted a first phase of pre-dissertation ethnographic fieldwork work across Jalisco, Mexico, gathering over 50 interviews discussing the similarities and differences between voluntary and involuntary return. This summer, with support primarily from the E. D. Farmer International Fellowship via The Mexican at UT, Christine returned to Jalisco for a second phase of pre-dissertation fieldwork in order to clarify the primary research questions that will form the basis of her dissertation project. Since the research project is still exploratory, she visited a number of new towns but spent most of her time in the various hometowns of return migrants that she visited in 2010, conducting follow-up interviews with returnees (most of whom migrated to the U.S. without proper documents) in order to begin to assess how the experience of return changes over time.

The dynamics of Violence between State and Terror Organizations in Israel and Palestine

Ori Swed’s summer research was an archival data collection in Israel as part of a project of examining the dynamics of violence between state and terror organizations. The research uses the case study of the Second Intifada, a conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, which took place in 2000-2005. Ori’s primary research in Israel was collecting information and data in archives and libraries on the conflict. The complimentary aspect of Internet data collection and theory analysis is being done in Austin.

UT AUSTIN SOCIOLOGISTS PRESENTING AT ASA
To search the program schedule: UT presenters listed under University of Texas, University of Texas at Austin and University of Texas-Austin:

Adut, Ari – Thematic Session: Scandal Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Session Organizer – Presenter on individual submission: Scandal and the Public Sphere

Angel, Ronald J. Sociology Roundtables.
Scheduled Time: Tue, Aug 23 – 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Non-Presenter: Ethnic Heterogamy and Partner Violence in Mexico
Section on Global and Transnational Sociology / Section on Global and Transnational
Journal of Health and Social Behavior Editorial Board Meeting
Time: Sat, Aug 20 – 8:30am – 10:10am Session Submission Role: Participant

Augustine, Jennifer March
Section on Children and Youth
Social Context, Public Policy, and Child and Adolescent Well-being.
Scheduled Time: Tue, Aug 23 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Child Care and Common Illness Among Preschoolers
Table 05. Getting and Being Married
Section on the Sociology of the Family Roundtables
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 21 – 12:30pm – 1:30pm Session Submission Role:Table Presider

Auyero, Javier
Rose Series in Sociology Editorial Board
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 21 – 12:30pm – 2:10pm
Session Submission Role: Participant

Bhatt, Wasudha
Table 06. Roundtables: Immigrants from a Race, Gender, and Class Perspective
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Race, Gender, and Class / Section on Race, Gender, and Class
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 2:30pm – 3:30pm
Presenter on individual submission: Racist Medicine: Indian physicians’ experiences with racism, and sexism in U.S. medical workplaces

Julie Beicken
Table 03. Impacts and Outcomes
Unit: Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 10:30am – 11:30am
Presenter: “The Impact of Eugenics on U.S. Coercive Sterilization Legislation in the Early 20th Century”

Blanchard, Sarah
Table 08. International and Comparative Perspectives on Educational Outcomes
Unit: Section on Sociology of Education Roundtables.
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Session Submission Role: Table Presider
Presenter: “Scholars without Borders: The Graduate School Trajectories of International Students at a Major Research University”

Brown, Dustin C
Regular Session. Health Issues in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Studies
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 20 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: “Same-Sex Cohabitation and Self-Rated Health”

Brown, Letisha
Table 05. Democracy and Social Organization
Unit / Sub Unit: Theory Section / Section on Theory Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 8:30am – 9:30am
Presenter: “The Black Panther Party for Self Defense: A Marxist, Maoist, Black Nationalist Organization”

Browne, Simone
Thematic Session. Towards a New Racial Studies
Scheduled Time: Tue, Aug 23 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Presenter: “Flying While Black: Border Control, DNA and the Case of the Lips”

Bylander, Maryann
Regular Session. International Migration
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 21 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Session Submission Role: Presider

Cabrera, Sergio Antonio
Table 09. Culture as an Educational Tool
Section on Sociology of Culture / Section on Sociology of Culture Refereed Roundtable.
Scheduled Time: Tue, Aug 23 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Presenter on individual submission: “Neoliberal Consumer Citizenship and Relationship Management Marketing: A sociological analysis of marketing textbooks”

Carrington, Ben
Contexts Editorial Board
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 20 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Session Submission Role: Participant

Cavanagh, Shannon
Social Psychology Quarterly Editorial Board
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 21 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Session Submission Role: Participant

Charrad, Mounira Maya
Regular Session. Middle East and Muslim Societies
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 20 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Non-Presenter: “The Moroccan Gentle Revolution: Women’s Activism and 2004 Reforms of Islamic Law”
Section on Comparative/Historical Sociology Paper Session. Islam and the Modern World
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Presenter on individual submission: “Patrimonial Politics: Tunisia, Morocco, Iraq”

Chen, Wenhong
Table 19. The Impact of Modern Technology – Refereed Roundtables.
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Community and Urban Sociology
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 20 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Presenter: “The Social Capital Effects: Embedded Resources, Tie Strength, and the Digital Divides”

Crosnoe, Robert
Section on Children and Youth Business Meeting
Scheduled Time: Tue, Aug 23 – 9:30am – 10:10am
Session Submission Role: Chair
Section on Children and Youth Invited Session. Sociological Perspectives in Federally Funded Research on Children Unit: Section Invited
Scheduled Time: Tue, Aug 23 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Session Submission Role: Panelist
Section on Children and Youth Paper Session. Social Context, Public Policy, and Child and Adolescent Well-being
Unit / Sub Unit: Social Context, Public Policy, and Child and Adolescent Well-being.
Scheduled Time: Tue, Aug 23 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Non-Presenter: “Child Care and Common Illness Among Preschoolers”
Section on Sociology of Education Council and Business Meeting
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Session Submission Role: Participant
Sociology of Education Editorial Board
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 20 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Session Submission Role: Participant

Cuvi, Jacinto
Regular Session. Historical Sociology/Processes II: States, Societies, & Symbolic Power
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Presenter: “Blowing the institutional gridlock: informal institutions and symbolic action in the reform of Sunat”

Danielle Dirks (PhD 2011, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Occidental College)
Regular Session. Law and Society
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 21 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Non-Presenter: “Tooled for Capacity: Subverting Justice for Juveniles in Texas’ Municipal Courts”
Student Forum Advisory Panel
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 21 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Session Submission Role: Participant
Student Forum Workshop. Different Types of Publication Opportunities for Students
Unit: Student Forum Sessions
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Session Submission Role: Panelist

Ebot, Jane Ofundem
Table 02. Causes and Consequences of Health for Children
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Sociology of Population Refereed Roundtable.
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 20 – 4:30pm – 5:30pm
Presenter: “There’s No Place Like Home: Urban-rural Differentials in Nutritional Status among Children in Ethiopia”

Frederick, Angela
Regular Session. Narrative, Biography, and Culture
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 20 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Presenter: “Bringing Narrative In: Storytelling, Political Ambition, and Womens’ Paths to Public Office”

Ha, Hyun Jeong Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Paper Session.
Open Topic on Collective Behavior and Social Movements.
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Presenter on individual submission: “Islamic Feminism, A New Paradigm to Crack out Patriarchy in Egypt”

Hamrock, Caitlin
Table 10. Achieved and Ascribed Characteristics at Work
Unit: Section on Organizations, Occupation, and Work Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 21 – 10:30am – 11:30am
Presenter: “The Relationship Between Field of Degree and Field of Occupation: Does Education Socialize or Signal?”

Hayward, Mark D
Journal of Health and Social Behavior Editorial Board
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 20 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Session Submission Role: Participant
Regular Session. Health and Well-Being
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 21 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Non-Presenter: Race/Ethnic Differences in Health among Children Who Live with Parents or Grandparents, U.S. 1972-2009.

Henderson, Andrea
Regular Session. Religion
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 20 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Presenter: “Race-based Discrimination, Religious Involvement and Mental Health among Black Americans”

Hofmann, Erin
Regular Session. International Migration
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 21 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Presenter: “Global Changes and Gendered Responses: The feminization of migration from Georgia”

Hopkins, Kristine
Regular Session. Immigrant Communities/Families II: Family Dynamics and Parenting
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 20 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Non-Presenter: “Acculturation and Parent-Teen Communication about Sex among Mexican-origin Families”

Hummer, Robert A
Journal of Health and Social Behavior Editorial Board
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 20 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Regular Session. Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Population Processes in the United States
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 21 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Non-Presenter: “Temporal Changes in Self-Rated Health: APC Models of Racial Disparities”

Paul Stanley Kasun
Table 10. Public Opinion on Immigration
Unit: Section on International Migration Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 10:30am – 11:30am
Presenter: “Immigration Perspectives Structured Racism and Religion; Attitudes of Welcoming, Economic Threat, Illegal Immigration Toward Immigrants”

Kendig, Sarah M
Table 03. Intra-Familial Investments Section on the Sociology of the Family Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 21 – 12:30pm – 1:30pm Table Presider
Table 10. Family and Adolescence Section on Social Psychology Roundtable. (co-sponsored with the Sociology of Emotions)
Scheduled Time: Tue, Aug 23 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Presenter: “Race/Ethnic and Class Differences in the Timing of First Sex and Adolescent Pregnancy: Considering Girls’ Mattering?

Kilanski, Kristine
Thematic Session. Gender Disparities in Careers across the Occupational Hierarchy
Scheduled Time: Tue, Aug 23 – 12:30pm – 2:10pm
Non-Presenter on individual submission: “Gender and the Neoliberal Career”

Kuo, Janet
Table 06. Parenting Section on the Sociology of the Family /Roundtables
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 21 – 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Presenter: “Causal Effects of Father Involvement on Childrens’ Psychological Well-being in Two Biological-Parent Families in Taiwan”

Lariscy, Joseph Tyler
Regular Session. Immigrant Communities/Families II: Family Dynamics and Parenting
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 20 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Presenter: “Acculturation and Parent-Teen Communication about Sex among Mexican-origin Families”

Lodge, Amy
Section on Aging and the Life Course Paper Session. Age and Sociological Imagination: Individual and Micro-level Dynamics
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Presenter: “Age and Embodied Masculinities: Mid-Life Gay and Heterosexual Men Talk about their Bodies”

Manglos, Nicolette Denise
Section on Sociology of Religion Paper Session. Comparative Religions at Home and Abroad
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 21 – 12:30pm – 2:10pm
Presenter: “Thresholds of Trust: Dynamics of Ethno-Religious Incorporation for Today’s Ghanaian Migrants”
Table 11. Religion and Political Action
Unit: Section on Sociology of Religion Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 21 – 8:30am – 9:30am
Presenter on individual submission: “Religion and Political Engagement in Sub-Saharan Africa”

Masters, Ryan Kelly
Table 03. Theory and Political Ideology
Unit: Student Forum Session
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 20 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Session Submission Role: Table Presider

McFarland, Michael
Table 23. Religion and Health
Unit: Section on Medical Sociology Refereed Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Presenter: “Does a Cancer Diagnosis Influence Religiosity? Integrating a Life Course Perspective”

Minagawa, Yuka
Table 10. Comparative and Historical Criminology
Sub Unit: Section on Crime, Law, & Deviance Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Tue, Aug 23 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Presenter: “The Social Consequences of Post-Communist Structural Change: An Analysis of Suicide Trends in Eastern Europe”

Mueller, Anna Strassmann
Section on Sociology of Education Paper Session. New Perspectives on Gender Inequality in Education
Unit: Open Topic on Sociology of Education (4 Sessions).
Scheduled Time: Tue, Aug 23 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Session Submission Role: Presider
Table 08. International and Comparative Perspectives on Educational Outcomes
Unit: Section on Sociology of Education Roundtable.
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Non-Presenter: “Scholars without Borders: The Graduate School Trajectories of International Students at a Major Research University”
Table 18. Friends and Peer Networks in Schools
Unit: Section on Sociology of Education Roundtable.
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Non-Presenter: “Adolescent Society and the Social Dynamics of Friendship Formation in American High Schools”

Muller, Chandra
Section on Sociology of Education Council and Business Meeting
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Session Submission Role: Chair
Section on Sociology of Education Paper Session. Transitions, Adjustment, and Mobility in Educational Attainment
Unit: Open Topic on Sociology of Education (4 Sessions).
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Non-Presenter: ” The Shape of the River from Middle through High School: Race, Gender, and Grade Trajectories”
Table 07. Academic and Social Determinants of College Attainment
Unit: Section on Sociology of Education Roundtable – Presider
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Table 08. International and Comparative Perspectives on Educational Outcomes
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Non-Presenter: “Scholars without Borders: The Graduate School Trajectories of International Students at a Major Research University”
Table 18. Friends and Peer Networks in Schools
Unit: Section on Sociology of Education Roundtable.
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Non-Presenter: “Adolescent Society and the Social Dynamics of Friendship Formation in American High Schools”
Thematic Session. Gender Disparities in Careers across the Occupational Hierarchy
Scheduled Time: Tue, Aug 23 – 12:30pm – 2:10pm
Non-Presenter: “Gender and the Neoliberal Career”

Paredes, Cristian Luis
Table 17. Global Ethnicity
Unit: Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Roundtables
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 21 – 2:30pm – 3:30pm
Presenter on individual submission: “The Structuring Effects of Racial Agency in Peru”

Pattison, Evangeleen
Table 02. Classical Theory and Contemporary Sociology
Unit: Section on Theory Roundtables
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 8:30am – 9:30am
Presenter: “Education and Stratification: The Role of Class and Status in Structuring Educational Opportunities”
Table 20. Extracurricular Influences on Equity in Academic Outcomes
Unit: Section on Sociology of Education Roundtable.
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Session Submission Role: Table Presider
Presenter: “The Role of Sports Participation on Advanced Math Course-taking for Black and White Males”

Paxton, Pamela
Table 12. Gender and Politics
Unit: Section on Political Sociology Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 20 – 4:30pm – 5:30pm
Non-Presenter: “Criminal Violence, Political Resources, and Women’s Political Victories”
Table 13. Civil Discourse and Civic Engagement
Unit: Section on Political Sociology Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 20 – 4:30pm – 5:30pm
Presenter: “Checkbooks in the Heartland: Change Over Time in Voluntary Association Membership”

Perez, Marcos Emilio
Table 10. Income Inequality – Empirical Evidence
Unit: Section on Economic Sociology / Section on Economic Sociology Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Tue, Aug 23 – 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Presenter: “Opportunities for a Few: Pro-market Economic Policies and the Regressive Redistribution of Income”

Pieper, Christopher
Table 12. Religion and Social Action
Sub Unit: Section on Sociology of Religion Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 21 – 8:30am – 9:30am
Presenter: “What Would Jesus Protest?: A Map of Progressive and Conservative Christian Movement Dynamics, 1960-2000”

Pudrovska, Tetyana
Table 16. Mental Health
Unit: Section on Medical Sociology Refereed Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Non-Presenter on individual submission: “Spousal Mental Health Concordance”
Table 23. Religion and Health
Unit: Section on Medical Sociology Refereed Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Non-Presenter: “Does a Cancer Diagnosis Influence Religiosity? Integrating a Life Course Perspective”

Reczek, Corinne E.
Regular Session. Health Issues in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Studies
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 20 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Presenter: Same-Sex Cohabitation and Self-Rated Health
Section on Medical Sociology Paper Session. Mechanisms of Health: Qualitative and Quantitative Perspectives
Scheduled Time: Tue, Aug 23 – 12:30pm – 2:10pm
Presenter: “The Promotion of Unhealthy Habits in Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Intimate Partnerships”

Regnerus, Mark D.
Thematic Session. The Cultural War and Red/Blue Divide: Re-examining the Debate Demographically and Behaviorally – Panelist
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 21 – 10:30am – 12:10pm

Reid, Megan
Table 09. Race, Gender, Class & Policy
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 2:30pm – 3:30pm Roundtable
Presenter on individual submission: “Deservingness” and Waiting for Help After Hurricane Katrina”

Riegle-Crumb, Catherine
Section on Sociology of Education Paper Sessions and Roundtable
Session Organizer

Robinson, Brandon Andrew – Brandon is a member of our Fall 2011 graduate cohort
Table 05. Collective Behavior and Social Movements
Unit: Section on Sociology of Sexualities Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 21 – 2:30pm – 3:30pm
Presenter: “This is What Equality Looks Like? How Dutch LGBT Assimilation Marginalizes Gender Non-Conformists”

Robinson, Keith
Sociology of Education EditoriaL Board – participant
Section on Sociology of Education Roundtable Series
Session Organizer of 25 tables

Rodriguez, Nestor P.
Table 06. Immigrants from a Race, Gender, and Class Perspective – Roundtables
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 2:30pm – 3:30pm
Presenter: “Racist Medicine: Indian physicians’ experiences with racism, and sexism in U.S. medical workplaces”

Rose, Mary
Section on Sociology of Law Business Meeting
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 20 – 9:30am – 10:10am
Session Submission Role: Participant

Rountree, Meredith
Regular Session. Law and Society
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 21 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Presenter: “I’ll Make Them Shoot Me: Accounts of Death Row Prisoners Advocating for Execution”

Ryan, Tricia
Table 03. Comparative Health Policy
Unit: Section on Medical Sociology Refereed Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Presenter: “Unintended Consequences to Health Reform: Patient Responses to Family Medicine and Village Health Committees in Kyrgyzstan”

Sakamoto, Arthur
C. Table 03. Migration
Unit: Open Refereed Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Non-Presenter: “Revisiting Malthus for Developed Nations? Non-Poor Population Growth as a Population Characteristic”

Sasson, Isaac
C. Table 03. Migration (3)
Unit: Open Refereed Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Presenter: “Revisiting Malthus for Developed Nations? Non-Poor Population Growth as a Population” Characteristic

Shafeek Amin, Neveen Fawzy
Table 03. Immigrant Education
Section on International Migration Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 10:30am – 11:30am
Presenter: “Religiosity and Academic Achievement among Immigrant Adolescents in the U.S”

Shaw, Vivian
Table 02. Gender and Culture
Unit: Student Forum Sessions
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 20 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Session Submission Role: Table Presider

Shifrer, Dara
Regular Session. Disability and Social Life
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 20 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Presenter: “Social Influences on the Attitudes and Behaviors of High School Students Identified with LD”
Section on Sociology of Education Paper Session. Exploring Racial-Ethnic Inequalities from Kindergarten to College
Open Topic on Sociology of Education (4 Sessions).
Scheduled Time: Tue, Aug 23 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Session Submission Role: Presider
Section on Sociology of Religion Paper Session. Religious Movements and Institutions
Unit:Religious Movements and Institutions.
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Presenter: “Education and Religion: Compromises toward the Preservation of a Separatist Community”

Stephan, Rita
Regular Session. Middle East and Muslim Societies
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 20 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Presenter : “The Moroccan Gentle Revolution:Women’s Activism and 2004 Reforms of Islamic Law”
Section on Peace, War, and Social Conflict Paper Session. Women and Peacebuilding
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 21 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Session Submission Role: Presider

Stroud, Angela R.
Table 05. Gender and Violence
Unit: Section on Sex and Gender Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 20 – 4:30pm – 5:30pm
Presenter on individual submission: “Gender, Violence and Concealed Handgun Licensing”

Sullivan, Mary Esther
Table 12. Rebuilding Communities/Housing
Unit: Section on Community and Urban Sociology Refereed Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 20 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Presenter: “Manufacturing Insecurity: Assessing Eviction and Displacement of Mobile Home Park Residents”

Sutton, April M
Section on Sociology of Education Paper Session. Transitions, Adjustment, and Mobility in Educational Attainment
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Presenter: “The Shape of the River from Middle through High School: Race, Gender, and Grade Trajectories”
Table 22. Exploring the Influence of Cultural Capital Across Diverse Settings
Unit: Section on Sociology of Education Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Session Submission Role: Table Presider

Thomeer, Mieke
Table 16. Mental Health
Unit: Section on Medical Sociology Refereed Roundtables
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: “Spousal Mental Health Concordance”

Umberson, Deb
JOURNAL OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOR Editorial Board
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 20 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Session Submission Role: Participant
Section on Aging and the Life Course Business Meeting
Scheduled Time: Tue, Aug 23 – 1:30pm – 2:10pm
Session Submission Role: Participant
Section on Aging and the Life Course Paper Session. Age and Sociological Imagination: Individual and Micro-level Dynamics
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Non-Presenter: “Age and Embodied Masculinities: Mid-Life Gay and Heterosexual Men Talk about their Bodies”

Villarreal, Andres
American Sociological Review Editorial Board
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 21 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Session Submission Role: Participant

Warr, Mark
American Sociological Review Editorial Board
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 21 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Session Submission Role: Participant

Wheatley, M. Christine
Table 06. Legal Status and Deportation
Unit: Section on International Migration Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 10:30am – 11:30am
Presenter: “Push Back: U.S. Immigration Policy, Deportations, and the Reincorporation of Involuntary Return Migrants in Mexico”

Williams, Christine L.
Section on Organizations, Occupations, and Work Business Meeting
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 21 – 11:30am – 12:10pm
Session Submission Role: Participant
Special Session. Postindustrial Culture and the Flexible Self: Beyond the Cubicle
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Session Submission Role: Discussant
Thematic Session. Gender Disparities in Careers across the Occupational Hierarchy
Scheduled Time: Tue, Aug 23 – 12:30pm – 2:10pm
Presenter: “Gender and the Neoliberal Career”

Young, Michael
2012 W.E.B. DuBois Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award Selection Committee
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 21 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Session Submission Role: Participant
Regular Session. Religion II
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 20 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Presenter: “Rebellion and Breakthrough: Evangelical Disruptions, Social Movements, and the Transformation of American Values”
Thematic Session. Scandal
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Session Submission Role: Discussant

Yu, Wei-hsin
Section on Organizations, Occupation, and Work Paper Session. The New World of Work
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 21 – 12:30pm – 2:10pm
Presenter: “Better Off Jobless? Scar Effect of Contingent Employment in Japan”

Zarrugh, Amina
Table 05. Gender and Violence
Unit: Section on Sex and Gender Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 20 – 4:30pm – 5:30pm
Presenter: “Revenge of the Virtuous Women”: Framing of Gender and Violence in Palestinian Militant Organizations”