Category Archives: Austin

Austin, Social Logical Austin, Uncategorized, University of Texas at Austin Sociology, Work, Occupations and Organizations

Research Q&A: Dr. Penny Green and Austin Americana

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A "picking circle" in Luckenbach, TX
A “picking circle” in Luckenbach, TX

                 Recently, faculty member Dr. Penny Green embarked on a research project looking at Austin’s unique music community.  We sent our intrepid blog editor to find out more in this edition of “Research Q&A.”

What’s your project about?

My project looks at the Central Texas Americana music community and how it has changed since the mid 1970s when Austin declared itself the “Live Music Capitol of the World”.  I’m focusing largely, though not exclusively, on these musicians’ economic positioning and quality of life, and how these have changed over time.

How did you get interested in this project?

Although I’ve enjoyed the “Austin Sound” since I was in grad school here in the 1970s and 1980s, I got interested in the Centex Americana music scene in about May of 2009.  I got to know some musicians who introduced me to other musicians, and I kept hearing the same thing over and over.  I kept hearing that the pay was staying the same as it had been for years and that it was getting more and more difficult to live in the Austin area.  So I figured it was time to find out whether I just happened to be talking to a small handful of disgruntled musicians or if there’s a pattern.

How does this compare to other cities?  I know that here in Austin, we’ve got some things like HAAM to try and help struggling musicians, but I can’t imagine that being enough.

I can’t presently answer that question in any definitive manner; it’s one of the things I’ll be looking at in the research.   But there was at least one musician who told me that he and his family moved to Lafayette, LA because they get paid better for the gigs and the cost of living is considerably lower.  He frequently plays in the Austin area, but Lafayette is now his home base.

Wow, that’s not good for the aforementioned “Live Music Capitol of the World” tagline.  Why is that going on?

That’s what I’m trying to find out in the research.

Do you have any hypotheses?

I’m thinking that perhaps more of the bars and other venues are no longer owned by local people; perhaps they’ve gone under corporate control.  There are also other things happening.  Americana musicians and their audiences seem to be predominantly white; at IMG_0873 (2)least that’s what I’ve observed.  As the region becomes more racially and ethnically diverse, it’s possible they’re being marginalized as the Austin music scene grows more diverse.  There’s also an age issue.  When I go to Americana live gigs, most the people there are in their mid-thirties, or older.  If you go to the Kerrville Folk Festival, for example, you’ll see a lot of gray hair.  If the population of Austin is getting younger, then that could be contributing to the marginalization process.   By the same token, we know that Austin, and perhaps much of Central Texas, is a beacon for retiring Baby Boomers; the size of the 65+ population has definitely increased over the last 10 years.  I haven’t had a chance to systematically analyze the numbers to see what’s happening to the age structure of the population.  And don’t forget about widening income inequality.  One of its most problematic consequences is an increase in the cost of living, especially the cost of housing; widening inequality is inflationary.  That’s definitely hitting musicians hard.  Another component of widening inequality is wage stagnation for most people, except those at the very top.  What appears to be happening to Americana musicians may be a special case of this more general phenomenon.

For someone who’s not familiar with the genre, how would you define Americana?

Well, that’s one of the questions we’re asking the musicians.  [laughs]  But my understanding is that Americana is a mixture of bluegrass, country western, blues, some jazz, and gospel….there’s a heavy emphasis in Americana on lyrics.  This is not “ear candy”.  It seems to appeal to an older, more mature audience.  It’s a more serious kind of music.

IMG_1141 (2)So it’s kind of building off that folk tradition of political and social activism in the lyrics?

You can definitely pick up an undercurrent of activist themes in some of the music, but not all.

What places in Austin can you still find this music?

In Austin, you can find Americana at the Cactus Café and Threadgill’s.  You can find it at the Continental Club and the Broken Spoke.  You can find it at Waterloo Icehouse.  Looking at Central Texas more broadly, you can find it at Poodie’s IMG_0726 (2)Roadhouse out Highway 71 west, Hondo’s in Fredericksburg, River City Bar and Grill in Marble Falls, and the Badu House in Llano.  There are Americana venues in San Marcos and New Braunfels.  And, of course, you can hear it in Luckenbach.   Americana musicians also play a lot of house concerts.

And if we think back 20 years ago, we would find more of this kind of music happening within Austin at places like the Armadillo World Headquarters or Threadgill’s…

The late, great Armadillo World Headquarters. Photo courtesy of Steve Hopson Photography
The late, great Armadillo World Headquarters. Photo courtesy of Steve Hopson Photography

The Armadillo and Threadgill’s on North Lamar are two key venues where the “Austin Sound” was born in the early to mid-1970s.  Unfortunately, the Armadillo was torn down and replaced by a city building, I think in the early 1980s.  But as I mentioned previously, you can still hear really good Americana at Threadgill’s, both north and south.

But a lot of the downtown, central Austin action has been taken over by other music whether that be for business, cultural, or demographic reasons, as you said earlier.

That’s what I suspect, but I don’t know for sure yet.

And how are you going to know “for sure”?  What’s your methodological strategy?

Sociology Undergraduate Advisor Debbie Rothschild (left) strumming the guitar fantastic.
Sociology Undergraduate Advisor Debbie Rothschild (left) strumming the guitar fantastic.

I’ll be doing a number of things.  First of all, I’m conducting interviews with Central Texas Americana musicians, using snowball sampling.  I’m also looking at demographic changes that have occurred in an 11-13 county region around Austin, as well as income inequality data for those counties.  I want to see how the distribution of income and cost of living have changed over time.  I also want to interview other members of the music business: producers, maybe some members of the Austin Music Commission and probably some venue owners.  But I haven’t gotten that far yet.

I see that you have a guitar here in your office.  Do you play as well?

Dr. Penny Green
Dr. Penny Green

I played as a kid; and now I’m taking lessons from Tommy Byrd, a very talented singer-songwriter here in Austin.  Debbie Rothschild, who is a very talented Americana singer/musician, has also been helping me. I’m thoroughly enjoying myself.  I’m also trying my hand at songwriting.  I want to immerse myself, as much as time permits (laugh), into the community that I’m studying.  One thing I’ve already learned is that, when you hold a full time job, as many musicians do, it’s real hard to find time to work on your music.  I look forward to continuing my work on this project.

Excellent! 

Austin, Gender and Sexuality, Political Sociology, Race and Ethnicity, Sociology of Gender, University of Texas at Austin Sociology, Work, Occupations and Organizations

Cati Connell – “Queer, Qualitative, and on the Market”

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by Brandon Robinson

Cati Connell

Cati Connell, an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Boston University, gave a talk this Monday, October 14, 2013, about her experiences as a queer, qualitative researcher on the academic job market. She received her PhD in Sociology from the University of Texas at Austin in 2010, sharing her job market experiences from three years ago with current graduate students. Her job market tips, tricks, and terrors were personal accounts that many can learn from.

Cati Connell and Christine Williams

In the first part of her talk “On Being Qualitative,” Cati realized that one of her main strategies in being a great qualitative researcher was to publish. She set a goal to publish just as much as the quantitative members in her cohort, which meant early and often. Cati advised co-authoring with faculty or other graduate student colleagues in order build one’s publication record, even before obtaining a Master’s degree. She also emphasized the importance of finding good mentors who have strong social capital (for her, Christine Williams). These mentors can be very beneficial in helping you become a productive graduate student and in navigating the market more successfully. Qualitative researchers should aim high early, so they can set themselves up for success on the job market later in their careers. Once on the market, Cati recommended applying broadly and reading job advertisements very closely, to see how one could be a fit for a certain job. Do not waste time applying for jobs that are not a good fit. A common example would be if a job specifically seeks a quantitative scholar, do not apply if all you do is qualitative work. Being oneself in the job application process is as important to hiring committees as the type of scholar you are based on your CV.

One thing all should remember is that the job market is not a meritocracy. There is real discrimination on the job market, and search committees can be racist, sexist, homophobic, and trans phobic. However, Cati told us that we should focus on the success stories of people who study marginalized sub-disciplines (like sexuality and gender) in order to not be discouraged. Scholars like Cati, who is at Boston University, Kristen Schilt at the University of Chicago, and Tey Meadow, who was a fellow at Princeton and will now be a faculty member at Harvard, are leading by example. While the academic job market is still hard for people who study marginalized subfields, the field on the whole is also changing, so focusing on success stories can help in making the market less daunting.

Cati also talked about “Being Queer” on the job market. She recognized that her own embodiment as white and gender conforming probably helped sooth the fears of hiring committees. It is also important to take into account one’s family and community needs while looking for a job. If having a vibrant LGBTQ community is important or having a pool of potential queer dating prospects is important, one should take these factors into account when applying for jobs. Be careful about applying for jobs in cities where you are not willing to move, though you should remain open-minded about non-urban opportunities, not assuming they have no LGBTQ people/communities. Navigating conversations about one’s personal life during the job interviews and dinner outings can be stressful, but you can generally choose to be as open as is comfortable. Nonetheless, Cati left us with great advice that anyone can use for their job talk, “Be confident in who you are and what you bring, and don’t apologize for it.”

Job Market Resources

Blogs:
Conditionally Accepted: A Space for Scholars on the Margins of Academia
http://conditionallyaccepted.com/

The Professor Is In: Getting You Through Graduate School, The Job Market, and Tenure
http://theprofessorisin.com/

Get a Life, PhD: Succeed in Academia and Have a Life, Too
http://getalifephd.blogspot.com/

Social Inqueery: A Publicly Accessible Queer Social Science Blog
http://socialinqueery.com/

Sociology on the Margins
http://sociologyonthemargins.com/

ASA Section on Race and Ethnic Minorities Mentoring Blog
http://srem-mentoring.blogspot.com/

Queer Black Feminist (Andreana Clay)
http://queerblackfeminist.blogspot.com/

Crip Confessions: Rants of a Crip Sexologist
http://cripconfessions.com/

How To Leave Academia: Peer to Peer Post academic Support
http://howtoleaveacademia.com/

Books:

The Black Academics Guide to Winning Tenure – Without Losing Your Soul, Kerry Ann Rockquemore
Professors as Writers: A Self-Help Guide to Productive Writing, Robert Boice
Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia Paperback, edited by Gabriella Gutierrez y Muhs and Yolanda Flores Niemann
The Academic Job Search Handbook, Julia Miller Vick

Austin, Political Sociology, Uncategorized, University of Texas at Austin Sociology

Better Know a Sociologist : 10 Questions with Harel Shapira

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photo

Here at the UT Sociology Blog, we strive to find new and interesting ways to highlight the people and research in our department.  To that end, we present to you “Better Know A Sociologist,” where we ask 10 general questions to one of our illustrious faculty members.  Today we spoke to one of our newest faculty members, Dr. Harel Shapira.  

What first attracted you to sociology?

I remember being in high school and reading this book by Randall Collins.  I believe it was called Sociological Insight or Thinking about Sociology, it’s one of those basic introductory books.  Not a textbook so much as a collection of essays, each one dealing with a topic and showing how sociologists think about it.  For example, one was on love, one was on religion, another was the economy.  I think I was always drawn towards the historical, political science world of thinking.  And I remember reading this and it was just…it was incredibly counter-intuitive, but there’s also this sort of obviousness about it, right?  And I think that’s so wonderful about sociology.  On the one hand, it’s obvious: you read it and you say, “OK, that sort of makes sense.”  But at the same time, you have this reaction of “Oh, I didn’t think about it that way,” you know?  And I just remember reading this book and each one of these essays made me have that reaction towards the topic, like “Oh, so religion is actually about that?  That’s what we’re doing when we’re sitting around the table during Thanksgiving, that’s its significance?”  And the same for love, for the economy, and all those things.  So I think that that book just got me very excited about this thing called sociology that I’d never heard of and it also helped that Randall Collins is a beautiful writer and that the book was wonderfully written, and that it was short.  I just thought, “Wow, there are these people that do these things , this is what they do” and I was really drawn to it and took a few more sociology classes.  I should say that I was lucky enough that in my high school, there were actual sociology classes.

Yeah, that’s surprising.

Yeah, it was very cool.  We had these set of classes – this was in upstate New York – where the classes were actually connected to Syracuse University, so you took half of the class in high school and then half of the class at the actual university.  So it was really amazing and fortunate that they did actually have a proper sociology class.

So you got your Bachelor’s degree in sociology then?

I got my Bachelor’s in sociology from the University of Chicago.  I should say that over there, as much as my “concentration,” as they call it there, was sociology, there is a very serious core curriculum and many classes are cross listed, so I took a number of classes in very different fields.  As much of my education was in philosophy and history and even biology as it was in proper sociology.

But that’s another great thing about sociology, it’s that all of those different backgrounds contribute to the strength of your own sociological perspective.

Absolutely.  Yeah, that’s definitely another wonderful thing about sociology.

What did you do your dissertation on?

I wrote my dissertation about the border militia group called the Minutemen, who I assume you’ve heard of.  They’re this volunteer group that patrols the border between the US and Mexico trying to stop immigrants from coming across.  I was drawn to it for a couple of reasons.  One is a purely biographical reason: immigration and borders have played a really prominent role in my own life.  My grandparents immigrated to Israel from Europe and my parents immigrated to the United States. And of course in Israel, borders and security and militarization are incredibly prominent.  So in a sense, borders have been what my life has been about and I wanted to write and learn about it.  But there’s this other dimension, which is that we – and by we, I mean the social sciences, sociology – we don’t put enough energy into writing about and researching the right wing.  There was a movement in the 1950s with folks like Daniel Bell who wrote about conservative, right wing politics and then there was this amazing pause for almost 50 years.  There’s Kathleen Blee now at the University of Pittsburgh who has done some great work. But over all we know very little, and what we do know comes from the archives.  So there was also this motivation to just try and fill in this gap that exists.  So I was drawn to it for those two reasons and really, I guess there’s a  third one that’s very basic, and that’s that a lot of stuff I’m interested in has to do with how people tick in ways that I find very different than myself.  How people go about and do something that I don’t do and that I would never do and trying to figure out how it is that they do this and I don’t do it, what’s different about us.  But at the same time, also trying figure out what is actually similar about us yet leads us in different pathways and different directions.

At the same time, I’ve heard you speak about Waiting for Jose, the book that came out of your dissertation, and one of the most interesting things you discussed was the how a loss of community and the sense of anomie that comes out of it is partly why these men band together along the border, which links to some of what people like Robert Putnam have said about contemporary society.  But it sounds like that wasn’t really what you thought you were going to find or what you were originally interested in when you went to the field.

Yeah, I know!  I think I had the good fortune of having a few professors around me at Columbia where I did my dissertation who for the most part let me just go out and get my hands dirty without very much pregiven analytical or even theoretical frames.  Just to sort of go there and see what I find, see what’s interesting, see what strikes me, and it was in the process of going down there and then coming back and looking through field notes, talking with friends and professors that I came to figure out what the sort of story I want to tell about them is, what kind of story is the one that captures who these folks are. And what came out is that they have this diagnosis about America that is very far away from downloadwhat we think about when we think about right wing, conservative extremist politics.  I mean, there’s certainly things that they say that fit that mold, the mold people like Bell and Hofstadter talk about, but they also say so many things that don’t fit that mold that in fact fit – and here’s where Putnam comes up – that fit things that Robert Putnam says and talks about.  Not just Putnam, but Putnam is a great example because so many of us embrace Putnam in terms of giving a diagnosis of what is happening in America, what is wrong with America, what we might need to do to make it better.  So that was sort of this moment where I needed to pause, and really think, “wait a minute, what is going on here?  This is not what I expected.  How do I make sense of it?”  And from there it became about actually trying to figure out not just these people’s beliefs, their diagnosis of America, but trying to comprehend how even though they think things that are not so different from “the rest of us”, how come they arrive at such a different place.  It’s very easy to say “Oh, people believe these things that are very different from me and that’s why they do different things,” but it becomes much more difficult and I think actually much more accurate to say “Oh, they think things that are not that different but yet they get to a different place.“ And from there, not just thinking about their beliefs about immigration or America but thinking about their life experiences, their pasts, and seeing how much their experience of being soldiers – these are almost all military veterans and people who served for 25, 30, 35 years, essentially their whole lives as soldiers and are now aging veterans – seeing how these past experiences make this activity of patrolling the Border a really meaningful in a way that can not be reduced to simply an expression of ideology.

Why did you decide to work here at the University of Texas?

Well, it helped that they offered me a job. [laughs] Well, OK, first, it’s a serious research institution.  People are doing serious work here, I got that feeling from the beginning.  People are dedicated to doing really serious research. Not just in the sociology department, I felt that was true across campus.  So it was great to feel like you’re coming to a place where it’s not just your department where you can find people doing interesting things.  You know, the history department here is extremely strong, American Studies, the law school, the business school, the economics department.  There’s so many powerful, important institutions here, the Harry Ransom Center, the LBJ and Benson Libraries.  It’s just very exciting to be at a place where there are so many resources and so many interesting things happening.  It was also important for me to come to a place where I like the city and so the fact that it was in Austin was very important to me.

What’s been your overall experience of Austin?  Do you have any likes or dislikes?

Um, it’s incredibly hot.  I still don’t get what they mean by “dry heat.”  I’ve spent a lot of time in Tel Aviv, and it’s funny because there are ways in which Austin reminds me of Tel Aviv, by which I mean it’s very hot and it’s kind of a utilitarian, plain looking city in terms of architecture and the highways with all these big concrete buildings.  But you know, you see these ramshackle little bungalows but then you go inside them and the houses are beautiful.  You see these restaurants that look dilapidated and then you go inside and it’s amazing inside: the architecture, the food, the people, everything.  So it reminds me of Tel Aviv in the sense that externally, it’s kind of ugly but internally, there’s a lot of character and quality and beauty.  I’ve also been struck by how young this city is.  I find myself every now and then driving and trying to see if I can spot anyone who is 60 or over and I swear, I don’t think I’ve found one old person in this city yet.  And that’s – no offense to old people – kind of exciting to always be around young people who bring all this energy.  For example, people are always biking around everywhere, which I really like.  It’s just got this sort of flavor to it and I don’t think there’s that many cities in America that have flavor, you know?  It’s got character.  You come to Austin and you go, “Ah, OK, this place is different than most places, it’s got something going on” and I think that is just a really, really exciting thing to be around.

If you could teach one sociological concept to the world, what would it be?

I don’t know if this is a sociological concept; more like a way of thinking about the world.  But I would just say…I’m teaching Introductory Sociology this semester and if I can get one thing across to the students – and this applies not just to the students but to anyone – it’s just to recognize how powerful society is.  To recognize as social these things in the world that are social. Let’s take the example of the institution of the University.  The University is something that we’ve created, right?  People got together and they said “we need education, let’s have these criteria for education, let’s produce this thing called the University,” which sort of came from religious training and so forth, “let’s have these criteria for admission, what are the criteria for admission, etc.”  There’s so much that gets rolled up in these things.  And you know, you can go all the way down.  Then you get the sports team, the paraphernalia around the sports team, you get burnt orange, which comes to signify so much.  And that flows into all these sorts of political questions.  Affirmative action was a big issue here recently, for example.  These are all profoundly social things that we have created.  They weren’t always there and I think it’s so important to step back and recognize the existence of these things and how powerful they are in shaping our lives.  Obviously, we could go on and on down the list: gender, race, etc.  Just to recognize that these are social things.  We’ve produced them, they change over time, and look how they influence our lives.  And I think so often – and this kind of goes back to my experiences with the Randall Collins book and its counter-intuitiveness – we go through our everyday lives living with these things without recognizing that we’ve created them or that these things have a history and that these things are impacting us in ways that we kind of take for granted and don’t even reflect on.

What’s the most rewarding part of your job?

Getting paid to think.  I mean that honestly.  I think getting paid to think and do research is such an amazing luxury.  Our conversation right now, I’m getting a paycheck for this conversation.  That is just amazing.  And it’s an incredible luxury and I think we are so fortunate to be in this position.  So many people would love to be doing this, but they don’t have the luxury to do it.  Getting paid to do this wonderful thing is remarkable.  I think about my parents and how much they paid for my education, or how much anyone or anyone’s parents pays to go to school.  But right now, we’re getting paid to go to school, right?  It’s actually mind blowing and I think it’s such an amazing thing.  And related to that I guess is being around all these remarkable people who are smart, interesting, and you like too.  Certainly there are some jerks in academia, but at least they’re interesting jerks. [laughs]  I think being surrounded by people who are so interesting and smart and have committed their lives to thinking and doing research is incredibly rewarding in itself.

Who is one person in the department besides yourself that is doing really interesting work and what is it?

Actually, I want to give two people, and these are my fellow members of the “new faculty cohort,” as we like to refer to ourselves.  I think both Ken and Dani are doing really amazing work.  In a  way, I think their work is kind of connected to each other.  Dani does this beautiful ethnographic work where, you know, we tend to think of the economy as a thing that naturally exists, right?  There’s this economy, it’s out there in the world and we’re economic actors.  Everyone is born trying to maximize their profits and to minimize their costs and we, by our so called nature, know how to be economic people.  It’s in our blood, it’s who we are.  You know that you’re supposed to get more money and lose less money.  And Dani does this amazing things where he says “actually, no, this is something we’re socialized into doing.  One becomes an economic actor.  One learns how to act economically in an economic society.”  And he has this great ethnographic project which looks at how people participated in these “Get Rich” clubs where they’re taught about how to invest their money.  I think it’s wonderful because again, it’s counter-intuitive: we take for granted the idea that everybody knows how to be an economic actor but actually we don’t.  And I love his research because when I first read it, it made me recall how my grandfather’s brother in Israel would always keep his money in his mattress.  He was afraid to give money to the bank.  What do you do with your money?  You put it under your mattress.  And I remember my father having this conversation and saying “Look, if you put the money in the bank you can get interest.”  But he didn’t trust the bank and he didn’t understand the concept of interest.  However, as a result of these conversations he finally put the money in the bank.  So in a sense, he’s kind of became this new economic actor.  But for the last twenty years of his life, the guy would wake up every morning at 6am, take a hour-long bus ride to the head office of the bank, ask to see the manager, and ask for a detailed receipt showing that his money was there.  He wanted to “see” the money.  It was hard for him to grasp this ethereal thing of his money being stored in the bank.  So that’s just a long way of saying I also like Dani’s work because I can make connections between it and some of the things I’ve thought about in my own life, which I think is a hallmark of all good sociology.  And then with Ken, I think he does something in a way that’s similar which is to talk about how the new economy today is so driven by finance.  First of all, finance is this thing where no one even knows what it is.  My friend says he’s an investment banker: I have no idea what that is.  So I think part of what Ken does is give some substance to it, and he does that by talking about the consequences of finance to the way our society is organized.  For example, one of the interesting things that he shows is how the increased emphasis on finance, the way the economy is driven by finance has consequences for say, labor unions, for people’s sense of themselves as workers and for what kind of work we value.  That “traditional” work, in a sense, has been really devalued as a consequence of this new finance-driven economy.

What are you current research interests?  What are you looking at these days?

I’m doing an ethnographic project right now on gun owners, focusing primarily in Texas.  At a basic level, I want to know why folks own guns.  I’m not a gun owner myself, but there’s an incredibly large population in America and especially in Texas that are gun owners.  I want to try and make sense of that.  When I was doing my dissertation, I had the chance to experience being around people who were all gun owners, and I remember sleeping in this tent at one point.  There were four people in the tent, and there were a whole bunch of guns around us.  We slept around guns and I couldn’t sleep the entire night.  I was terrified.  There were these guns around me and I was terrified.  And I remember thinking “for these folks, having the gun gives them a good night’s sleep.”  And again, I find that really amazing: how is it that for me, if I had a gun in my house today, I would be completely ill at ease, but for other people, it’s the precise opposite?  Trying to make sense of that is part of what I’m interested in and also I’m sort of interested in that following George Zimmerman, we have this discourse of self-defense in America.  We talk about self-defense so much and of course, in the trial what the jury was asked to decide was whether he was acting in self-defense or not, and I wonder the extent to which, when we talk about self-defense, we’re missing out on the fact that it’s not just about the individual.  When we think of self-defense, we often think of the individual who is defending themselves but actually a lot of times, when people act out of “self-defense,” they’re thinking about a larger group, right?  Often a group that has historical and collective memories, in other words, it’s not just about some crime or encounter happening at the moment, but something that happened a long time ago.  So they’re not owning the gun just to protect themselves but to protect something much bigger.

What’s one book you’ve read over the past year that you’ve really enjoyed and why?

Katherine Boo has this book called “Beyond the Beautiful Forevers” and it’s about slum dwellers in Bombay, India near the airport which is a relatively new slum as far as slums go.  I think it’s about 10-15 years old.  It emerged because of the fact that Bombay built this new airport and all these slum dwellers from other slums moved there because they do a lot of scavenging and could find a lot of construction materials from the builders and things that they could take and then sell.  Lo and behold, fast forward 10-15 years and now 3,000 are living in this slum.  And Katherine Boo – a journalist that’s written a lot for the New Yorker – goes and lives for a few years in the slum.  And she tells this story about the people living in the slum.  First of all, the book is beautifully written.  But also, even though she’s a journalist, it’s some of the best sociology that I’ve read in the past year.  The thing that I think she does really well beyond the amazing writing is it’s a book that on the one hand, is a story about suffering.  Incredible, incredible suffering.  But you can’t help but see at the same time this amazing resiliency.  And you leave with both those feelings, right?  You feel “this is awful, I can’t believe this exists” and without a doubt you leave thinking “wow, this is such an awful situation for these people and their lives within this slum” but you also leave with this – and I don’t want to sound too Oprah Winfrey – this renewed sense of hope or renewed sense of the power of humans to exist and love.

And that kind of overlaps with your own work, too.  For the Minutemen, they had these feeling of profound disaffection, alienation, and loss of structure and therefore were fashioning meaning and connection in the ways that they could.  And there’s a certain heroism in that as well.

Definitely, good point!

What do you like to do in your free time?

Netflix and fly fishing.

Netflix and fly fishing?

Yeah.  I’m still looking for places to go fly fishing in Texas.  In the northeast, I would go to upstate New York, the Catskills, or Pennsylvania.  I’ve heard rumors that there are some places in Texas to go fly fishing…

What exactly is required for fly fishing?  Do you need a fast moving river?  A deep river?  Just a river period?

There are different things, but yeah, you need a steam that is relatively fast moving and most importantly you need fish in it…..

Yeah, I imagine that’s important.

Mostly I went trout fishing, and yeah, I just love it because it’s….first of all, it’s an activity that I prefer doing by myself as opposed to other people, and that might be the only activity where that’s the case for me.  Also, it’s incredibly calming and frustrating at the same time.  And just sitting in the amazing scenery it’s a great way to see things.  I love just driving around with your fly rod in the car and you see a stream and you just stop and go in there for an hour or so and then you keep going to the next spot.  And I also just like it because Hemingway liked it, and he’s my favorite writer.

 

Austin, Gender and Sexuality, Health and Well-Being, Sociology of Gender, University of Texas at Austin Sociology

UT’s Gender and Sexuality Center, and Tips for LGBTQ Allies in the Classroom

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By Shane Michael Gordon

gscThe Gender and Sexuality Center (GSC) on the UT campus provides opportunities for any UT student and any member of the Austin community to explore, organize and promote the learning of gender and sexuality issues. The GSC has in the ten years of its existence made strong efforts to provide resources for anyone willing to learn and become informed of LGBTQ and women’s issues while offering outreach, education and advocacy throughout campus.

History of the GSC is rooted primarily in two organizations, the Women’s Research Center and the GLBTA Agency, formed in 1997 and 2001 respectively through the student government and headed by student directors. As the organizations’ services overlapped an agreement was formed to establish a joint center with a permanent office and full-time director. With help from the student government the Gender and Sexuality Center officially opened its doors in August 2004.

As one of its missions is to promote the understanding of the LGBTQ community, the GSC hopes to help instructors improve the classroom setting for LGBTQ students. Here are some tips for promoting a diverse, inclusive and respectful learning environment:

  • Do not immediately assume everyone in the classroom is heterosexual or traditionally gendered, as this assumption can segue into students making anti-LGBTQ remarks just because of an alleged “absence” of LBGTQ students.
  • Do use inclusive language in your syllabi, presentations and whenever possible, such as discussing civil unions as well as marriage and using the term “parent” in lieu of mother and father.
  • Do not make negative remarks or jokes aimed toward LGBTQ people.
  • Do work to set an example of proper conduct for students, especially if you encounter a biased remark, as this can be an important opportunity to set the facts straight about the LGBTQ community, along with promoting understanding while actively dialoguing with students to create an accepting and non-judgmental classroom environment.

The GSC is currently headed by its director Ixchel Rosal (rosal@austin.utexas.edu) with education coordinator Shane Whalley (swhalley@austin.utexas.edu) and program coordinator Liz Elsen (liz.elsen@austin.utexas.edu). As the Center prepares to celebrate its tenth anniversary it plans to continue the work it has been doing while expanding its programs throughout both the campus and the community.

Austin, Current Events, Demography, Social Logical Austin

Social Logical lens on the Canopy Art Studio complex

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Canopy Studios is another example of the movement further East by Austin artists who have been priced out of more central locations.  Most have relocated in light industrial zones and have tagged on to the East Austin Studio Tour, sponsored by ArtAustin. Can we consider the move East to be part of the gentrification of East Austin or are these artists among the “victims” of rising real estate prices? It’s a hot topic, which Dr. Javier Auyero’s Ethnography students address in an upcoming co-authored publication that portrays the other side of East Austin.

West Austin Galleries are generally cast in the traditional brick and mortar mold of white walled mini museums. South Austin sports a few new spaces, but like their colleagues in the East, they tend (literally in some cases) toward the converted garage aesthetic. As a long time Austin resident, I have been part of the progressive push of the creative class from Austin’s core to destinations South and East. The myth of Austin as the Live Music Capital of the World has yet to be eclipsed by the visual art scene but with an influx of wealthy Californians, who knows? Demographic maps show Austin’s distribution of age (and wealth) has not changed much, despite gentrification. So look for most of our artists on the fringe, keeping it weird. As we can see from last week’s Canopy gallery openings, Austin still represents.

One

ASA, Austin, University of Texas at Austin Sociology

UT Austin SOC presenting at ASA

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2013logo

The University of Texas at Austin is well-represented once again at the American Sociological Association‘s Annual meeting in New York, New York. You can find the Annual meeting program schedule here. Listed below are UT Austin students and faculty who will be presenting their work August 10-13.  Abstracts of their work

Adjepong, Lady Anima
Regular Session. Race, Class, and Gender
Unit: Race, Class, and Gender
Scheduled Time: Tue Aug 13 2013, 8:30 to 10:10am
Presenter on individual submission: What Do You Call a Woman with One Blackeye? Readings Bruises on Women Rugby Players

Angel, Jacqueline L.
Table 04. Living Arrangements
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Aging and the Life Course / Section on Aging and the Life Course Roundtables
Scheduled Time: Sun Aug 11 2013, 2:30 to 4:10pm
Non-Presenter on individual submission: Contextualizing Older Mexican American Living Arrangements: The New Old Age and the Constraints of Culture

Angel, Ronald J.
Journal of Health and Social Behavior Editorial Board
Scheduled Time: Mon Aug 12 2013, 8:30 to 10:10am
Session Submission Role: Participant

Arevalo, Ellyn Margaret
B. Table 20. Sex and Gender
Unit: Open Referreed Roundtables
Scheduled Time: Sun Aug 11 2013, 10:30 to 12:10pm
Session Submission Role: Table Presider
Presenter on individual submission: The Self-Perceived Effects of Pornography by Those Who Use It

Averett, Kate H.
Regular Session. Family and Kinship: Gender and Families
Unit: Family and Kinship
Scheduled Time: Sun Aug 11 2013, 8:30 to 10:10am
Presenter on individual submission: Raising Them to Be Who They Truly Are: LGBTQ Parents Resisting Heteronormative Gender
Table 10. Fathering and Labor Force Participation
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on the Sociology of the Family / Section on the Sociology of the Family Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Tue Aug 13 2013, 10:30 to 11:30am
Session Submission Role: Table Presider

Beaver, Travis
Table 06. Music and Culture
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Sociology of Culture / Section on Sociology of Culture Roundtables
Scheduled Time: Sun Aug 11 2013, 8:30 to 10:10am
Session Submission Role: Table Presider
Presenter on individual submission: Devo’s “Standardized Computer Rock”?: The Influence of Critiques of Mass Culture on Music Criticism

Brown, Letisha
Section on Race, Gender, and Class Paper Session. The (Un) Anticipated Consequences of Race, Class, and Gender Surveillance in Public Space
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Race, Gender, and Class / The (Un) Anticipated Consequences of Race, Class, and Gender Surveillance in Public Space
Scheduled Time: Sat Aug 10 2013, 4:30 to 6:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Sporting Bodies in Descent: An Intersectional look at Black Female Athletes
Student Forum Paper Session 1
Unit: Student Forum Sessions
Scheduled Time: Sun Aug 11 2013, 8:30 to 10:10am
Session Submission Role: Presider


Butler, John Sibley
A. Table 29. Political Economy
Unit: Open Referreed Roundtables
Scheduled Time: Sat Aug 10 2013, 2:30 to 4:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Hi-Tech and Military Capital- Israel’s Economic Development Model
Regular Session. Blacks and African Americans
Unit: Blacks and African Americans
Scheduled Time: Mon Aug 12 2013, 8:30 to 10:10am
Presenter on individual submission: Old Southern Codes in New Legal Bottles? Race, Sexual Harassment and Organizational Science

Cantu, Phillip
Section on Disability and Society Paper Session. Interrogating Disability as an Axis of Inequality
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Disability and Society / Interrogating Disability as an Axis of Inequality
Scheduled Time: Tue Aug 13 2013, 12:30 to 2:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Meritocracy for some: Disability and Bachelor’s Degree Attainment.

Cavanagh, Shannon
Regular Session. Social Class and the Early Life Course
Unit: Children/Youth/Adolescents
Scheduled Time: Sun Aug 11 2013, 8:30 to 10:10am
Session Submission Role: Session Organizer
Regular Session. Social Connections and Adolescent Development
Unit: Children/Youth/Adolescents
Scheduled Time: Sun Aug 11 2013, 2:30 to 4:10pm
Session Submission Role: Session Organizer
Table 02. Gender and Sexuality
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Communication and Information Technologies / Section on Communication and Information Technologies Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Sat Aug 10 2013, 4:30 to 5:30pm
Presenter on individual submission: Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained: Gender, Agency, and Homophily in Online Dating
Table 17. Gender Ideologies, Differences, and Norms
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Sociology of Sex and Gender / Section on Sex and Gender Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Mon Aug 12 2013, 8:30 to 9:30am
Session Submission Role: Table Presider

Charrad, Mounira Maya
Regular Session. Arabs and Arab Americans
Unit: Arabs and Arab Americans
Scheduled Time: Mon Aug 12 2013, 10:30 to 12:10pm
Session Submission Role: Presider
Regular Session. Sociology of Middle East and Muslim Societies
Unit / Sub Unit: Middle East and Muslim Societies, Sociology of / Sociology of Middle East and Muslim Societies
Scheduled Time: Tue Aug 13 2013, 2:30 to 4:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: WOMAN FRIENDLY REFORMS OF ISLAMIC LAW UNDER AUTHORITARIANISM: Tunisia from the 1950s TO 2010

Chen, Wenhong
Section on Communication and Information Technologies Paper Session. Who’s Lonely Now? Examining the Impacts of Technology Use on Social Connections and Relationships
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Communication and Information Technologies / Who’s Lonely Now? Examining the Impacts of Technology Use on Social Connections and Relationships
Scheduled Time: Sat Aug 10 2013, 2:30 to 4:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Communication Matters: Usage Pattern, Social Capital, and ICT Impacts in the American Workplace
Table 03. Health and Healthcare
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Communication and Information Technologies / Section on Communication and Information Technologies Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Sat Aug 10 2013, 4:30 to 5:30pm
Presenter on individual submission: Correlates of Informational and Participatory eHealth Behaviors
Table 10. The Social Media Landscape – China and Korea
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Communication and Information Technologies / Section on Communication and Information Technologies Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Sat Aug 10 2013, 4:30 to 5:30pm
Session Submission Role: Table Presider

Chen, Yu
Table 04. International Cities, Segregation and Neoliberalism
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Community and Urban Sociology / Section on Community and Urban Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Mon Aug 12 2013, 10:30 to 11:30am
Presenter on individual submission: What is Unique about Fraccionamientos? Study of a settlement type in Guadalajara Metropolitan Area, Mexico

Collins, Caitlyn McKenzie
Table 08. Work/Family Balance
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on the Sociology of the Family / Section on the Sociology of the Family Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Tue Aug 13 2013, 10:30 to 11:30am
Session Submission Role: Table Presider
Presenter on individual submission: Just How Family Friendly? Women’s Experiences with Work-Family Policies in Germany

Cozzolino, Elizabeth
Student Forum Paper Session 1
Unit: Student Forum Sessions
Scheduled Time: Sun Aug 11 2013, 8:30 to 10:10am
Presenter on individual submission: Bringing God into the Bedroom: Weber’s Religious Rejections of the World and Evangelical Sex Manuals

Crosnoe, Robert
Regular Session. Challenges in Policy and Practice
Unit: Education
Scheduled Time: Mon Aug 12 2013, 8:30 to 10:10am
Session Submission Role: Session Organizer
Regular Session. Paths to College
Unit: Education
Scheduled Time: Tue Aug 13 2013, 12:30 to 2:10pm
Session Submission Role: Session Organizer
Regular Session. Race, Class, and Gender in Education
Unit: Education
Schedule Time: Sun Aug 11 2013, 2:30 to 4:10pm
Session Submission Role: Session Organizer
Table 19. Families and Child Well-being
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on the Sociology of the Family / Section on the Sociology of the Family Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Tue Aug 13 2013, 10:30 to 11:30am
Non-Presenter on individual submission: Maternal Employment Trajectories and Early Childhood Academic Achievement

Dondero, Molly
Table 03. Immigrants and Education
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on International Migration / Section on International Migration Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Sat Aug 10 2013, 10:30 to 11:30am
Presenter on individual submission: Immigrant-Native Differences in Saving for College

Gabriel, Paige
Section on Sex and Gender Roundtable Session (one-hour). Table 01. Art, Representation, and Images I
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Sociology of Sex and Gender / Section on Sex and Gender Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Mon Aug 12 2013, 8:30 to 9:30am
Presenter on individual submission: Handguns and High Heels: Male and Female Agency in Movie Posters

Garcia, Marc Anthony
Table 06. Immigration and Health
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Medical Sociology / Section on Medical Sociology Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Sat Aug 10 2013, 4:30 to 6:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Nativity Differentials in the Prevalence of Comorbidity and Disability among Elderly Latinos

Glass, Jennifer L.
Author Meets Critics Session. Counted Out: Same-Sex Relations and American’s Definitions of Family (Russell Sage, 2010) by Brian Powell, Catherine Bolzendahl, Claudia Geist, and Lala Carr Steelman
Unit: Author Meets Critics
Scheduled Time: Tue Aug 13 2013, 10:30 to 12:10pm
Session Submission Role: Session Organizer
Awards Ceremony and Presidential Address
Unit: Plenary and Presidential Panels
Scheduled Time: Sun Aug 11 2013, 4:30 to 6:10pm
Session Submission Role: Presider
Thematic Session. Shifting Meanings of Family and Work
Unit: Thematic Sessions
Scheduled Time: Tue Aug 13 2013, 12:30 to 2:10pm
Session Submission Role: Discussant

Ha, Hyun Jeong
Regular Session. Sociology of Middle East and Muslim Societies
Unit / Sub Unit: Middle East and Muslim Societies, Sociology of / Sociology of Middle East and Muslim Societies
Scheduled Time: Tue Aug 13 2013, 2:30 to 4:10pm
Non-Presenter on individual submission: WOMAN FRIENDLY REFORMS OF ISLAMIC LAW UNDER AUTHORITARIANISM: Tunisia from the 1950s TO 2010

Hayward, Mark D.
Section on Aging and the Life Course Invited Session. Life Course Studies and Biology: Opportunities and Challenges
Unit: Section Invited
Scheduled Time: Sun Aug 11 2013, 10:30 to 12:10pm
Session Submission Role: Panelist
Section on Aging and the Life Course Invited Session. Matilda White Riley Lecture (one-hour)
Unit: Section Invited
Scheduled Time: Sun Aug 11 2013, 12:30 to 1:30pm
Session Submission Role: Session Organizer
Section on Sociology of Population Paper Session. The Social Demography of Race-Ethnicity
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Sociology of Population / The Social Demography of Race-Ethnicity
Scheduled Time: Mon Aug 12 2013, 4:30 to 6:10pm
Session Submission Role: Discussant

Hummer, Robert A.
Table 06. Physical Functioning
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Aging and the Life Course / Section on Aging and the Life Course Roundtables
Scheduled Time: Sun Aug 11 2013, 2:30 to 4:10pm
Non-Presenter on individual submission: Race/Ethnic and Nativity Differentials in Physical Functioning during Middle and Late Life

Humphries, Melissa
Table 03. Immigrants and Education
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on International Migration / Section on International Migration Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Sat Aug 10 2013, 10:30 to 11:30am
Non-Presenter on individual submission: Immigrant-Native Differences in Saving for College
Table 13. Higher Education 3
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Sociology of Education / Section on Sociology of Education Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Sat Aug 10 2013, 4:30 to 5:30pm
Session Submission Role: Table Presider
Presenter on individual submission: Exploring the Connection between College Credits and Young Adult Health

Jensen, Katherine Christine
Regular Session. Sociology of Law
Unit / Sub Unit: Law, Sociology of / Sociology of Law
Scheduled Time: Tue Aug 13 2013, 2:30 to 4:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: A Critique of Credibility: The Asylum-Screening Process in Brazil

Kasun, Paul Stanley
Table 06. Religion and/or Fertility in Family Life
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on the Sociology of the Family / Section on the Sociology of the Family Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Tue Aug 13 2013, 10:30 to 11:30am
Session Submission Role: Table Presider
Table 16. Migration and Religion
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on International Migration / Section on International Migration Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Sat Aug 10 2013, 10:30 to 11:30am
Presenter on individual submission: Immigration Laws Broken and Functioning: Religious and Racial Worldviews

Keith, Robyn Alexandra
Regular Session. Internet and Society 2
Unit: Internet and Society
Scheduled Time: Mon Aug 12 2013, 4:30 to 6:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Which Niche? Agency and Homophily in Online Voluntary Organizations

Kendig, Sarah M.
Table 19. Families and Child Well-being
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on the Sociology of the Family / Section on the Sociology of the Family Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Tue Aug 13 2013, 10:30 to 11:30am
Non-Presenter on individual submission: Maternal Employment Trajectories and Early Childhood Academic Achievement

Kilanski, Kristine
Regular Session. Affirmative Action
Unit: Affirmative Action
Scheduled Time: Sun Aug 11 2013, 10:30 to 12:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: The Problem with Corporate Diversity

Kim, Yujin
Table 09. Families in East Asia
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on the Sociology of the Family / Section on the Sociology of the Family Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Tue Aug 13 2013, 10:30 to 11:30am
Presenter on individual submission: Bridal Pregnancy and Women’s Educational Attainment in South Korea

Kirk, David S.
Section on Crime, Law, and Deviance Invited Session. Crime and the Financial Crisis
Unit: Section Invited
Scheduled Time: Mon Aug 12 2013, 8:30 to 10:10am
Presenter on individual submission: Economic Insecurity, and the Proliferation of Concealed Handgun Licenses in Texas

Lariscy, Joseph
Regular Session. Mortality
Unit: Mortality
Scheduled Time: Sun Aug 11 2013, 12:30 to 2:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: The Significance of Differential Record Linkage for Understanding Black-White Survival Inequality

Lee, Jinwoo
Table 09. Families in East Asia
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on the Sociology of the Family / Section on the Sociology of the Family Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Tue Aug 13 2013, 10:30 to 11:30am
Presenter on individual submission: Bridal Pregnancy and Women’s Educational Attainment in South Korea

Lodge, Amy C.
Section on Body and Embodiment Paper Session. The Body and Embodiment
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Body and Embodiment / The Body and Embodiment
Scheduled Time: Sat Aug 10 2013, 10:30 to 12:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Gendered, Raced Body Projects: Body Image Concerns and Exercise Over the Life Course
Table 06. Physical Functioning
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Aging and the Life Course / Section on Aging and the Life Course Roundtables
Scheduled Time: Sun Aug 11 2013, 2:30 to 4:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Family of Origin and Physical Activity Trajectories over the Life Course: A Qualitative, Intersectional Analysis

Maldonado, Amias Shanti
Table 09. Relationships of Power
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Sociology of Sexualities / Section on Sociology of Sexualities Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Tue Aug 13 2013, 10:30 to 11:30am
Session Submission Role: Table Presider
Presenter on individual submission: Erotic Domination and Protest Masculinity: Fixing Crises in the Gender Order
Table 15. Work and Labor I
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Sociology of Sex and Gender / Section on Sex and Gender Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Mon Aug 12 2013, 8:30 to 9:30am
Presenter on individual submission: Work, Weddings, and Promises: Gender in Long Term Cohabitation

Marteleto, Leticia
Sociology of Education Editorial Board
Unit: Meetings
Scheduled Time: Sun Aug 11 2013, 8:30 to 10:10am
Session Submission Role: Participant

Melvin, Jennifer
Table 06. Physical Functioning
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Aging and the Life Course / Section on Aging and the Life Course Roundtables
Scheduled Time: Sun Aug 11 2013, 2:30 to 4:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Race/Ethnic and Nativity Differentials in Physical Functioning during Middle and Late Life

Muller, Chandra
Regular Session. Affirmative Action
Unit: Affirmative Action
Scheduled Time: Sun Aug 11 2013, 10:30 to 12:10pm
Non-Presenter on individual submission: The Problem with Corporate Diversity
Table 09. STEM Issues
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Sociology of Education / Section on Sociology of Education Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Sat Aug 10 2013, 4:30 to 5:30pm
Non-Presenter on individual submission: Sports as Protective Gear for Women in STEM Fields

Pattison, Evangeleen
Table 09. STEM Issues
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Sociology of Education / Section on Sociology of Education Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Sat Aug 10 2013, 4:30 to 5:30pm
Session Submission Role: Table Presider
Presenter on individual submission: Sports as Protective Gear for Women in STEM Fields

Paxton, Pamela M.
2014 Jessie Bernard Award Selection Committee
Unit: Meetings
Scheduled Time: Sat Aug 10 2013, 2:30 to 4:10pm
Session Submission Role: Participant
Regular Session. Religion and Prosocial Behavior
Unit: Religion
Scheduled Time: Mon Aug 12 2013, 2:30 to 4:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Volunteering and the Dimensions of Religiosity: A Cross-National Analysis

Perez, Marcos Emilio
Regular Session. Ideology and Identity in Social Movements
Unit: Social Movements
Scheduled Time: Sat Aug 10 2013, 8:30 to 10:10am
Presenter on individual submission: Iron Fellows: Commitment and Disengagement in a Poor People’s Movement

Popan, Adrian Teodor
Table 19. Political Leadership and Socialization
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Political Sociology / Section on Political Sociology Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Mon Aug 12 2013, 4:30 to 5:30pm
Presenter on individual submission: Cult of Personality: Social Actors Behind the Stage

Powers, Daniel A.
Section on Sociology of Population Paper Session. The Social Demography of Race-Ethnicity
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Sociology of Population / The Social Demography of Race-Ethnicity
Scheduled Time: Mon Aug 12 2013, 4:30 to 6:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Erosion of Advantage: Decomposing Race/Ethnic Differences in Infant Mortality Rates among Older Mothers

Prickett, Kate C.
Table 04. Living Arrangements
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Aging and the Life Course / Section on Aging and the Life Course Roundtables
Scheduled Time: Sun Aug 11 2013, 2:30 to 4:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Contextualizing Older Mexican American Living Arrangements: The New Old Age and the Constraints of Culture
Table 19. Families and Child Well-being
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on the Sociology of the Family / Section on the Sociology of the Family Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Tue Aug 13 2013, 10:30 to 11:30am
Presenter on individual submission: Maternal Employment Trajectories and Early Childhood Academic Achievement

Raley, Kelly
Section on Sociology of Population Paper Session. The Social Demography of Race-Ethnicity
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Sociology of Population / The Social Demography of Race-Ethnicity
Scheduled Time: Mon Aug 12 2013, 4:30 to 6:10pm
Session Submission Roles: Presider, Session Organizer
Section on the Sociology of the Family Paper Session. Family Stratification
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on the Sociology of the Family / Family Stratification
Scheduled Time: Tue Aug 13 2013, 2:30 to 4:10pm
Session Submission Roles: Presider, Session Organizer

Ramos-Wada, Aida Isela
Section on Sociology of Religion Paper Session. Intersections II – Religion/Race/Ethnicity
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Sociology of Religion / Intersections II – Religion/Race/Ethnicity
Scheduled Time: Mon Aug 12 2013, 2:30 to 4:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Testing and Developing Theories of Religious Conversion among US Latinos

Regnerus, Mark D.
Special Session. Gender Politics in Heterosexual Sex
Unit: Special Sessions
Scheduled Time: Sun Aug 11 2013, 2:30 to 4:10pm
Session Submission Role: Panelist

Reith, Nicholas E.
Regular Session. Religion and Prosocial Behavior
Unit: Religion
Scheduled Time: Mon Aug 12 2013, 2:30 to 4:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Volunteering and the Dimensions of Religiosity: A Cross-National Analysis

Riegle-Crumb, Catherine
Regular Session. Paths to College
Unit: Education
Scheduled Time: Tue Aug 13 2013, 12:30 to 2:10pm
Session Submission Role: Discussant

Robinson, Brandon Andrew
Section on Sociology of Sexualities Paper Session. Interrogating Inequalities within LGBTQ Communities: Secondary Marginalization
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Sociology of Sexualities / Interrogating Inequalities within LGBTQ Communities: Secondary Marginalization
Scheduled Time: Tue Aug 13 2013, 8:30 to 10:10am
Presenter on individual submission: The Beauty of Online Dating: Quotidian Practices of Sexual Racism on a Gay Dating Site

Robinson, Keith D.
Sociology of Education Editorial Board
Unit: Meetings
Scheduled Time: Sun Aug 11 2013, 8:30 to 10:10am
Session Submission Role: Participant

Rodriguez, Nestor P.
Regular Session. Immigration Enforcement, Deportations, and Exclusion
Unit: Immigrant Communities/Families
Scheduled Time: Sat Aug 10 2013, 2:30 to 4:10pm
Session Submission Role: Presider
Presenter on individual submission: Deportations in the United States: Implications for Immigrant Communities
Section on Latino/a Sociology Paper Session. Immigrants, Illegality and Belonging
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Latino/a Sociology / Immigrants, Illegality and Belonging
Scheduled Time: Mon Aug 12 2013, 10:30 to 12:10pm
Non-Presenter on individual submission: American State “Reforms” to Manage its Undocumented Immigrant Population, 1920-2012

Ross, Catherine E.
Table 06. Health and Well Being 2
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Inequality, Poverty and Mobility / Section on Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Tue Aug 13 2013, 10:30 to 11:30am
Presenter on individual submission: Reconceptualizing the Association between Food Insufficiency and Body Weight: Distinguishing Hunger from Economic Hardship

Rudrappa, Sharmila
Contexts Editorial Board
Unit: Meetings
Scheduled Time: Sat Aug 10 2013, 4:30 to 6:10pm
Session Submission Role: Participant

Ryan, Tricia S.
C. Table 15. Health Care Policies and Practices
Unit: Open Referreed Roundtables
Scheduled Time: Mon Aug 12 2013, 10:30 to 12:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Medical Education in Kyrgyz Health Care Reform: The Case of Unexpected Out Migration from Rural Kyrgyzstan

Sakamoto, Arthur
Regular Session. Asians and Asian Americans
Unit: Asians and Asian Americans
Scheduled Time: Mon Aug 12 2013, 8:30 to 10:10am
Session Submission Roles: Presider, Session Organizer
Table 10. Class, Status, and the Pursuit of Mobility
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Race, Gender, and Class / Section on Race, Gender and Class Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Sat Aug 10 2013, 2:30 to 3:30pm
Non-Presenter on individual submission: The Socioeconomic Attainments of Filipino, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Hmong, Laotian, and Thai Americans

Salinas, Viviana
Table 06. Religion and/or Fertility in Family Life
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on the Sociology of the Family / Section on the Sociology of the Family Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Tue Aug 13 2013, 10:30 to 11:30am
Presenter on individual submission: Union Transitions after the First Birth in Chile

Shafeek Amin, Neveen Fawzy
Table 06. Immigration and Health
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Medical Sociology / Section on Medical Sociology Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Sat Aug 10 2013, 4:30 to 6:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Immigrant Health: A Comparison between Middle Eastern Immigrants and US-born Whites

Skalamera, Julie
Regular Session. Social Class and the Early Life Course
Unit: Children/Youth/Adolescents
Scheduled Time: Sun Aug 11 2013, 8:30 to 10:10am
Session Submission Role: Presider

Smith, Chelsea
Section on Children and Youth Paper Session. The Changing Transition to Adulthood: Developing Skills, Capacities and Orientations for Success
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Sociology of Children and Youth / The Changing Transition to Adulthood: Developing Skills, Capacities and Orientations for Success
Scheduled Time: Sun Aug 11 2013, 8:30 to 10:10am
Presenter on individual submission: The Push and the Pull: Adolescents’ Expectations for Early Pregnancy

Sobering, Katie
Table 13. Movement-state Interactions
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Political Sociology / Section on Political Sociology Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Mon Aug 12 2013, 4:30 to 5:30pm
Presenter on individual submission: ¡Mierda…todo! (Shit…all of it!): Science, Embodiment and the Fight Over Environmental Contamination in Northwest Argentina

Sullivan, Esther
Section on Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility Paper Session. What Can Ethnography Teach Us About Inequality, Poverty and Mobility?
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Inequality, Poverty and Mobility / What Can Ethnography Teach Us About Inequality, Poverty and Mobility?
Scheduled Time: Mon Aug 12 2013, 4:30 to 6:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Half-way Homeowners: Eviction and Forced Relocation among Homeowners in Manufactured Home Parks in Florida

Sutton, April M.
Table 02. Labor Markets
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Sociology of Education / Section on Sociology of Education Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Sat Aug 10 2013, 4:30 to 5:30pm
Session Submission Role: Table Presider
Presenter on individual submission: Learning to Labor or Preparing For Power? Local Labor Contexts and Differential Opportunities to Learn

Swed, Ori
A. Table 29. Political Economy
Unit: Open Referreed Roundtables
Scheduled Time: Sat Aug 10 2013, 2:30 to 4:10pm
Session Submission Role: Table Presider

Thomeer, Mieke Beth
Regular Session. Mental Health 2
Unit: Mental Health
Scheduled Time: Sat Aug 10 2013, 10:30 to 12:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Chronic Conditions and Distress within Marriage: A Dyadic Approach
Table 15. Family and Health
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on the Sociology of the Family / Section on the Sociology of the Family Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Tue Aug 13 2013, 10:30 to 11:30am
Session Submission Role: Table Presider

Umberson, Debra
Author Meets Critics Session. Invisible Families Gay Identities, Relationships and Motherhood among Black Women (University of California Press, 2011) by Mignon R. Moore
Unit: Author Meets Critics
Scheduled Time: Mon Aug 12 2013, 2:30 to 4:10pm
Session Submission Role: Critic
Special Session. Sociological Research on Happiness
Unit: Special Sessions
Scheduled Time: Tue Aug 13 2013, 8:30 to 10:10am
Presenter on individual submission: Gender and Happiness

Wheatley, Christine
Section on Latino/a Sociology Paper Session. Immigrants, Illegality and Belonging
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Latino/a Sociology / Immigrants, Illegality and Belonging
Scheduled Time: Mon Aug 12 2013, 10:30 to 12:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: American State “Reforms” to Manage its Undocumented Immigrant Population, 1920-2012

Williams, Christine L.
Regular Session. Affirmative Action
Unit: Affirmative Action
Scheduled Time: Sun Aug 11 2013, 10:30 to 12:10pm
Non-Presenter on individual submission: The Problem with Corporate Diversity
Thematic Session. The Micropolitics of Domination
Unit: Thematic Sessions
Scheduled Time: Tue Aug 13 2013, 2:30 to 4:10pm
Session Submission Roles: Discussant, Presider and Session Organizer

Young, Michael P.
Table 15. Political Organizing and Social Protest
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Political Sociology / Section on Political Sociology Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Mon Aug 12 2013, 4:30 to 5:30pm
Non-Presenter on individual submission: Religious Activism in Tocqueville’s America: The Temperance and Anti-Slavery Movements in New York State, 1828-1838

Austin, Crime, Law and Deviance, Uncategorized

Journeys with Jaster: Exploring the Prison Economy of Huntsville, TX

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By Dan Jaster

In an attempt to distance myself both mentally and physically from graduate life and sociology (a key skill to have if one is to successfully navigate the passage between the Charybdis of performing personal research an the Scylla of teaching/classwork responsibilities), I recently spent 36 hours in Huntsville, Texas. I opted to take the camera that my partner and I share and do what I love to do most: wander about taking pictures, documenting the beauty and banality of life.

Since many may not be familiar with Huntsville, it is largely known for three things: 1) it DSC_0551was the home of Sam Houston (See photo at right); 2) consequently, it is home of Sam Houston State University (SHSU); and 3) it is a hub for the Texas state prison system. I figured this would be a prime chance to observe life in a town where the prison was a central cultural landmark.

As has been documented by Foucalt (1977), the prison is site of ultimate domination: everything is observed and controlled. While the Huntsville units were not panoptic in the strict sense, the boundaries of this control were not limited to within its brick-lined walls. As Comfort (2007) illustrated, the controlling tentacles of the prison system extend beyond the lives of the prisons, shaping and regulating the lives of prisoners’ significant others and families. Indeed, the power of the prison system permeates throughout Huntsville, oddly juxtaposing its past and current history with the ideals associated with the man that made the town famous.

My first experience with the permeable boundaries of the prison domination complex was related to the very thing that I was using to temporarily free myself from the weight of graduate school: my photography. The most well-known and easily identifiable prison in the Huntsville complex (the Walls Unit) was within walking distance of the SHSU campus; you can see the prison from campus, and hear the sirens when shift changes are occurring

View of an abandoned prison building across from the Walls Unit
View of an abandoned prison building across from the Walls Unit

In the sticky East Texas summer heat, I wandered the town in the early evening to see what was within near the hotel. Initially, the guards were friendly enough: I waved hello to them, and they waved back. It wasn’t until the next day that I was to truly experience how the prison controls all who surround it, even if they know nobody inside.

The next morning, I wandered back to the prison. I noticed a bunch of men wearing white jumpsuits working on a drainage ditch. Having toured the (inter)nationally famous Criminal Justice program building, I recognized them as prisoners. Huntsville uses the prisoners as cheap (captive) labor; as Wacquant (2009) noted, the state uses prisoners as a source of cheap labor, a much-needed commodity in the neoliberal era. Indeed, these prisoners provide not only cheap labor for basic city maintenance (I saw my fair share of prison buses transporting workers throughout the city), but it also uses them to build and maintain the historical buildings that draw tourists in. Whether or not this is exploitative is up to the reader: these men are learning skills, but wages and choice are questionable (and some skills, such as rebuilding a log cabin from remains, seem anachronistic in the modern economy). DSC_0599

As I approached the front of the prison, a guard in a watchtower confronted me. It turns out that taking pictures of a prison is suspicious activity (in full disclosure, this makes sense based on my outward appearance: I am fully bearded, and was wearing sunglasses and a fatigued baseball cap). He told me that taking photographs of the prison was only allowed in one area; I couldn’t understand where that area was, but it seemed to be in the general direction of the front of the prison. I continued on my way.

When I arrived at the front of the prison, another guard confronted me. Again, I was warned about taking pictures of the prison. She seemed to indicate that the area allowing photographs wasn’t the front, but somewhere else; that being said, I better understood where I WASN’T allowed to take pictures (the other three sides). The interrogation didn’t end there: she wanted to know why I was taking pictures. I explained to her that I like wandering around and taking pictures, but this didn’t satisfy her curiosity; it wasn’t until I explained that I had never been to Huntsville before that she reiterated where I wasn’t allowed to take pictures and let me on my way, albeit with a suspicious gaze. I knew at that point that around each complex, the prison would dictate where I was allowed to go due to my possession of a camera.

These experiences make Huntsville a city of seemingly contradictory fame. On the one hand, the prison system dominates the local economy and rhythms of life. The prison employs many people, and prisoners supply cheap labor for the maintenance of the tourism industry (additionally, while I wasn’t able to make it, one could visit the Texas State Prison Museum). The presence of the prison is ubiquitous; its specter haunts and looms over almost every aspect of the town. However, the town is also well known for its association with Sam Houston, a key leader in the fight for Texas’ independence. The city thus constitutes an awkward juxtaposition for the tourist: it is a place to celebrate a hero and a group of people fighting for their freedom, while also highlighting their dependence on and enslavement by the incarceration system. Ultimately, this juxtaposition also symbolizes a sociologist’s relationship with society: while one can attempt to gain temporary solace from the sociological imagination, it can be difficult to turn off one’s mind, involuntarily illuminating the social world around us.

 

Sources cited:

Comfort, Megan. 2007. Doing Time Together: Love and family in the shadow of the prison. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Foucault, Michel. 1977. Discipline and Punish. New York: Vintage.

Wacquant, Loïc. 2009. Punishing the Poor. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Austin, Social Logical Austin, University of Texas at Austin Sociology

Sociology’s new home in CLA sustainable in many ways

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The College of Liberal Arts building (CLA) which we now call home has been lauded as smart and environmentally sustainable. The COLA blog, Life and Letters features a great slide show emphasizing the sleek, modern design that has brought the Sociology Department and the Population Research Center together for the first time:
http://lifeandletters.la.utexas.edu/2013/01/a-new-building-for-a-new-era/

According to David Ochsner’s article in the College of Liberal Arts News page:

Not only is the building the newest landmark for the campus, it is also a model for innovative funding and cost-effective planning and design. The building was paid for by the college — a first at The University of Texas at Austin — which means it was built without tapping legislative or UT System funding. Although final calculations are still pending, the total cost is projected to be $87 million, less than the project’s initial expected cost of $100 million. The model is one of the reasons the resulting facility was completed under budget and with more usable space – about 16,000 square feet more – than originally planned. More about financing.

“Many new buildings today are described as innovative, but this building truly stands out as a model for cost-effective planning and design in the 21st century,” says Randy Diehl, dean of the College of Liberal Arts. “This space will be vital in our ongoing efforts to attract and recruit the highest-quality faculty and students.”

While UT Austin Sociology is known for its amazingly productive and collaborative community of scholars I think we can agree with Dean Diehl when he says:

“This is our shot at greatness,” Dean Randy L. Diehl says of the building’s potential to help attract top graduate students, faculty and grants. “A modern Liberal Arts building will ensure that we have the space we need to teach our students, promote world-class research and foster the collaboration and intellectual give-and-take that’s vital to a great university.”

It will be a pleasure to host our recruiting events in our new space, acknowledging the advent of the 21st Century in style.

Austin, University of Texas at Austin Sociology

Tips on maintaining health work/life balance for end of semester and holidays

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From Sociology Graduate Students, Faculty and Staff:

When I am confronted with a difficult task or an academic challenge that seems insurmountable, it really helps me to think of all the previous objectives that I achieved that seemed impossible at the time.

Daily exercise first thing in the morning at least an hour of it.

My best tip, for perfectionists:
The best paper is a done paper.
My second best tip:
Nothing is more important than exercise and eating.

My biggest suggestion is to get enough sleep, especially before exams. Making time for sleep is as important as reviewing your notes and way more important than checking Facebook. If you have time for social media, you have time for sleep.

Give random grades according to the sounding of students’ last names
Answer all students’ mails with a poem
Stop checking email after 11 AM
Quit reading sociology texts-articles (I stopped doing that a while ago anyway)
Invite graduate students to drink and drink and drink
Drink with spouse
Drink alone

Taking Comps in October, and only having pass/fail classes definitely makes for a healthier end of semester 🙂

Take walks, breathe and use all your senses to feel alive. Hum, sing or dance when the mood strikes. Take time to be alone, quiet and open every day and get away for a day or two by yourself every season, if possible.

Cross dress every Wednesday at 9 pm.

Nothing like a cold beer in your hand and a warm dog at your feet to put things in perspective

Believe me, you don’t want my tips!!!!

Stop in the middle of the day and make sure you have a proper lunch. Also, go outside even if for 10 minutes. Repeat the mantra: there is light at the end of this tunnel!

Therapy

The truth is what keeps me sane during the holiday break is doing something I’ve never done before. The holiday break (exams, papers, dissertation chapters, grants) can get SO hectic. And people always seem to be forcing smiles on your face because it’s a cheerful time of year. Why not turn that forced smile into an actual real dazzling smile by trying something new? For example, I am running a 5K on Saturday and I’m taking burlesque and pole dancing classes everyday for the entire months of December and January. Though I’ve got tons of stuff to do, I’m always really excited about the next day and the new spin, grip, or twirl I’m going to learn in class. That way I come to school with a smile even when students drive me crazy!

Refuse to take your profession seriously, ask your colleagues provocative questions like: Can “hot” and “demography” can be used in the same sentence? Propose a panel: “Carnal Accounting. On the libidinal vagaries of an emerging sizzling profession.”

Tip for Staying Healthy:

1. This time of the semester invariably involves early mornings and late nights. With Texas being such a temperamental state in terms of the weather, it’s important to be prepared for any and all weather conditions. Check the weather before you go out: a sunny morning could easily turn into a chilly evening, and exposure to large temperature changes are an easy way to get sick. Whether on campus or at a coffeehouse, make sure you have the proper clothes to stay warm.

2. In an ideal world, you would be able to finish the semester while still making yourself nutritious and delicious foods in the comfort of your own home. Unfortunately – and in the “department of things you already knew”, especially if you’re a sociologist – this is not an ideal world. However, still make an effort to eat healthy by avoiding heavy amounts of fried or fast food. Make that extra effort to incorporate fruits and vegetables into your diet by packing them as snacks. Try to snack healthily and often while you study so you can avoid both the binge of fast or processed foods when you’re absolutely starving as well as the “food coma” that may come after a big meal (which will be sure to put a cramp in your productivity)

Tips for maintaining sanity:

1. Make small goals that you can meet on a daily or weekly basis. Parcel out your big projects so they don’t seem so big.

2. Solidarity! Everyone feels the crunch of the end of the semester, from the neophyte freshman to the overworked graduate student to the harried professor. Lean on your fellow academics, and let them lean on you as well. Misery indeed DOES love company.

3. Own a pet! Not only are they endless sources of affection and adoration, but consider this: your pet does not care HOW you did on that exam nor does he care if you met the deadline for NSF funding. They love you regardless.

4. And on a related note, remember: the anxiety and stress you feel is self-produced and socially constructed. We put expectations on ourselves (often deriving from social expectations, or expectations others have of us), internalize these expectations, and then discipline ourselves when we fail to meet these. That’s all well and good to a point, but it’s equally important to give yourself self-compassion. Your grades, your funding, your publication count: these things do not affect or reflect the quality of person you are or your worth as a human being.

Sit in the sun. Hug a cat. Go for long walks. Bake. 🙂

I am glad to study here. People are friendly to international students. I learn a lot not only from classes but also from people I meet.

I still struggle for English. I did not do well as I expect this semester. However, I keep trying. I think it will get better. I often take a walk alone. I love autumn here. Immersing in sunshine and beautiful nature helps to release depression. I also like to jog, which helps to refresh my brain.

Beyond the lots of great and helpful things listed below, a couple of others:
Spend time with people not in academia.
Talk about something totally unrelated to sociology with your friends. If this is hard for you, play board games or darts at a bar.
Make the bed every day. An uncluttered room is an uncluttered mind.

My tip is to listen to 90s music.

Eat Clementines. Take a three-minute dance party break to your favorite song. Do yoga. Don’t sacrifice sleep. Spend time with people who make you grin. Study near a window. Remember that our work always gets done, and that school is only one part of what defines us as human beings. Reflect upon and revel in what makes your life wonderful!

Austin, University of Texas at Austin Sociology, Work, Occupations and Organizations

Christine Williams featured on KEYE

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Wal-Mart Employees Prepare To Walk Out On Black Friday

As Wal-Mart gears up for its Black Friday sale, some employees are preparing to walk out. But other employees we spoke with in the Austin area fear they could lose their jobs for speaking their mind. The protests are organized by “Our Wal-Mart” a national group representing Wal-Mart employees.The group has the support of The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.

Wal-Mart employee Topaz Chambers is scheduled to work on Thanksgiving, but she wants people to know that working the holiday isn’t the only reason people are protesting. She makes $8.25 an hour and says it’s difficult to make ends meet. “I have to get personal loans just to pay my bills, so right now I’m kind of in debt, so I’m trying to pay those back. It’s really hard working here,” she says.

Christine Williams is the chair of the Sociology Department at the University of Texas and author of Inside Toy Land, a study of low wage retail work. She says many see the walk out as another attempt to unionize Wal-Mart workers. Williams says, “While there are tons of workers that are employed by Wal-Mart that would love to see a union, it’ll still be an uphill battle.”

Williams is skeptical because of Wal-Mart’s ability to fight against the formation of unions, but she does think the protests will help improve conditions. “I think by taking this job action, the workers at Wal-Mart will get more public sympathy and will get some concession so they can live a decent life on the jobs that they have,” she says.

As for Wal-Mart executives, they say they have a strict anti-retaliation policy and add that if any associates have concerns they want to hear about them and will take action. But employees like Topaz Chambers say they don’t want to take any chances and has deciding not to walk out. She says, “Eventually they’re going to find something to fire you about. I wish I had the mojo to actually do it but I’m kind of scared.”

By Lydia Pantazes