Category Archives: Austin

Austin, Gender and Sexuality, Political Sociology, Race and Ethnicity, Sociological Theory, Sociology of Gender, University of Texas at Austin Sociology

Intersections: Women’s and Gender Studies in Review Across Disciplines call for submissions

Leave a comment

Intersections: Women’s and Gender Studies in Review Across Disciplines has just published its ninth issue. Earlier this month, four current editorial staff members, Amy Lodge, Michelle Mott, Vivian Shaw, and Maggie Tate, hosted a round table discussion about working on an interdisciplinary journal. At the round table, the editors discussed the process for crafting an interdisciplinary call for papers, the procedure for producing the journal from the call for papers to the publication, and the move from a print journal to a web-based journal.

Intersections was founded in 2002 by graduate students in the English Department and the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies. Over the last several years, a number of Sociology graduate students have served as editorial staff members, contributors, and peer-reviewers. The current staff also consists of graduate students from the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies, Radio-Television-Film, American Studies, and African and African Diaspora Studies. As Amy, Michelle, Vivian, and Maggie walked us through the CFP for Issue 9: Gender and Social Justice and for the current CFP for Issue 10: Media(ting) Genders and Sexualities: Identity, Representation, and Politics in Media, they discussed how the editorial board works to find language that is broad enough to attract a wide array of submissions, but is specific enough to articulate a general theme. Choosing key terms that both reflect the editorial board’s interests and speak across many disciplines (recognizing that certain terms take on different meanings within various scholarly fields) is very challenging.

The current issue and last two issues are available in print copy (at no cost). You can obtain a copy by emailing: intersections.journal@gmail.com. In addition, the current issue is available to view online at: http://intersections.utexas.org. The Intersections Editorial Board are accepting submissions for article abstracts, book reviews, and creative submissions until December 1, 2011. See Call for Papers below for details:

CFP: Media(ting) Genders and Sexualities: Identity, Representation, and Politics in Media
Intersections: Women’s and Gender Studies in Review Across Disciplines is an interdisciplinary graduate student publication welcoming work from current graduate students. We are committed to the interdisciplinary research of women’s and gender issues and are affiliated with the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

The journal encourages scholars in all fields to contribute scholarly essays, book reviews, and creative writing relating to this issue’s theme, Media(ting) Genders and Sexualities: Identity, Representation, and Politics in Media. We expect that this theme will inspire submissions that put gender and sexuality in conversation with intersecting identities of race, economic class, disability, nationality, and indigeneity, and encourage submissions on all forms of media.
Submissions might address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

● Representations of gender, sexuality, and race
● Property, authorship, and expression in local and transnational contexts
● Queering media
● Space and the body in media
● Social media and popular culture

The deadline for 200 – 300 word abstracts is December 1, 2011. We use a digital Open Journal System for submissions. To submit your abstract, please make an account on our website: intersections.utexas.org. You will be able to track your submission through your account. Questions should be sent to editors at intersections.journal@gmail.com
Completed papers and artwork are due by February 1, 2012. All submissions should include the author’s name, institution and department, contact information, title of submission, and word count. Scholarly essays and creative writing should be less than 5000 words.  For book reviews, please email intersections.journal@gmail.com for a list of possible titles. Book reviews should be between 750 –1250 words and include publication information about books reviewed.

Austin, Crime, Law and Deviance, Sociological Theory, University of Texas at Austin Sociology

Addenda errata, or, Toward a sociology without society

Leave a comment

In ‘What’s in an Error? A Lévy Walk from Astronomy to the Social Sciences’ Isaac talked about how it was really error, or more precisely, the idea and observation that errors in natural scientific experiments and measurements seem to exhibit certain repeatable properties, or laws, that formed the foundation of the study of probability and statistics. Only against a background of noise, variance and aberrations was a concept of normal (eg average man), as well as the idea of truth as non-error, able to emerge and take shape. Versions of these concepts remain central to the social sciences from the 18th century to this day.

Alex Weinreb brought up the point that the rise of statistics and its incorporation into social studies were coeval with the relative geographic immobility of people in the 18th century. What struck me was how much statistical sociology is tied to criminology since its inception. Adolphe Quetelet, the founder of statistical sociology, was a criminologist and used his method primarily to study crime causation. Even the Lévy walk was a mathematical concept, I believe, first developed out of practical application to track down prison escapees within certain calculated perimeters. Given its strong ties to Staatswissenschaft, the emergence of social statistics seems to go hand in hand with that of governance and social control, policy and police–hence the centrality of the normal-pathological distinction.

Nonetheless, the historical contingency of something doesn’t necessarily invalidate its internal consistency. Statistics does describe something, and presents reality, at least in part, in certain ways. Amanda’s presentation outlined some of these principles or consistencies and addressed the utilities and limitations, risks and yields, of a number of statistical models (eg instrumental variables). Alex pointed out that current multilevel nonlinear social statistical models even seem to vindicate many previous, non-statistics-based sociological observations. The underlying assumption in the debate on merits of statistics-based sociology versus those of non-statistics-based sociology is interesting, in that proponents typically put forth that what can’t be empirically verified can’t be included as true, while opponents counter what’s true often lies beyond empirical verification itself. The positions perhaps are not so contradictory as they seem, for there is a supposition common to both, and that is, large-scale phenomena are necessarily somehow more complex than small-scale phenomena (if the distinction of large and small even holds). Here, the statistician’s or (for the lack of a better term) ‘positive sociologist’s’ role becomes merely one of delimitation, whereas that of the ‘critical sociologist’ becomes one of extension of epistemic scope. Expansion and edification are not mutually exclusive.

Perhaps it is this very assumption that needs questioning. Is it really easier to predict the motion of a cell or atom than it is to predict how someone or group will behave? Physics has shown us that the opposite can actually be the case. Large-scale phenomena, as such, are to a far extent stable and relatively easily predictable; it’s when we get down to the micro- and nano-levels of reality that laws collapse and things become very uncertain. Light may be both particle and wave, and yet this keyboard on which I’m typing, I’m fairly certain, won’t suddenly turn into a dove and fly away.

Sociologist Jean Baudrillard once said that knowledge is a high-definition screen onto which the low-definition image that is reality is projected. What may this mean for the sociological apparatus? How may the relation between theory and evidence, knowledge and object, itself be re-conceived within the field? Amidst such questions, Isaac’s and Amanda’s talks remind us of a level of reflexivity that is both essential and useful to the practice and imagination of sociology.

Austin, Political Sociology, Sociological Theory

Durkheim’s Anomie in the Modern Era: A Discussion on Greece and the Occupy Wall Street Movement

Leave a comment

This week, American Public Media’s Marketplace featured a story on the growing debt crisis in Greece. The radio interview of BBC’s Paul Mason piqued my curiosity when the discussion briefly turned to Émile Durkheim’s concept of anomie.

What are your thoughts? Share your comments below, and feel free to use the following questions as guidelines:

  • What kind of comparisons can we draw between the sentiments in Greece and the developing Occupy Wall Street movement in the United States?
  • What other theoretical frameworks could be applied to the growing disillusionment in Greece? In the U.S.?
  • What implications might the situation in Greece have for the European Union?
[Edit: The Occupy Wall Street movement has now expanded to Austin. Read about today’s protest here.] 
Austin, Globalization and Development, Latin American Studies, Political Sociology, Sociological Theory, University of Texas at Austin Sociology, Work, Occupations and Organizations

2011-12 Brownbag Series off to a fine start

Leave a comment

On Monday, October 3, 2011 Marcos Perez, Pamela Neumann and Katie Sobering discussed their summer field research in Argentina and Peru. Thanks to faculty and students who engaged the panelists in a lively conversation, prompting the expansion of brownbag format to allow for an hour or more of discussion after presentations. Read more

Vivian Shaw, Christine Wheatley and Ori Swed discussed their summer fieldwork in Japan, Mexico and Israel yesterday at a brownbag luncheon, initiating our Graduate Student Panel and Presentation series for Fall 2011 Read more

ASA, Austin, Crime, Law and Deviance, Demography, Family Sociology, Gender and Sexuality, Globalization and Development, Political Sociology, Race and Ethnicity, Sociology of Gender, Sociology of Health, Sociology of Religion, University of Texas at Austin Sociology, Work, Occupations and Organizations

Happening Sunday, August 21st

Leave a comment

Congratulations to Dr. Christine Williams, Sociology Department Chairperson and this year’s Sociologist for Women in Society Feminist Lecturer Award! Christine will be honored this evening at ASA.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by to say hello at the Department Alumni Night event last night! It was great to see some unexpected visitors and swap ASA stories. We will be bringing back some good ideas, so not everything that happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

Sunday August 21st UTSOC Presentations and Roundtables

Augustine, Jennifer March
Section on Children and Youth
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

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

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

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
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.

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”

Hummer, Robert A
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”

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

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”

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”

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”

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″

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

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”

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”

Stephan, Rita
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

Williams, Christine L.
Section on Organizations, Occupations, and Work Business Meeting
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 21 – 11:30am – 12:10pm
Session Submission Role: Participant

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”

ASA, Austin, Demography, Family Sociology, Gender and Sexuality, Political Sociology, Race and Ethnicity, Sociological Theory, Sociology of Gender, Sociology of Religion, University of Texas at Austin Sociology

Saturday ASA events

Leave a comment

Happening Today:

Department Alumni Night from 9:30 -11:30 in the Augustus I & II, Emperor’s level of Caesar’s Palace

Saturday, August 20th UT SOC presentations:

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”

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

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”

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”

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”

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”

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”

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

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”

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”

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

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

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”

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”

Young, Michael
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”

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”

ASA, Austin, University of Texas at Austin Sociology

UT Austin SOC – ASA Issue

Leave a comment

Welcome to the new Sociology graduate program blog.  Our inaugural issue highlights UT Austin research being presented at the 2011 American Sociology Association’s annual meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada.  We will be blogging and tweeting from the corridors of Caesar’s Palace, mixing business with pleasure, watching how “what starts here, changes the world.”

Call for submissions! Bloggers and tweeters needed.

UT Grad Sociology Facebook page

Our website: http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/sociology/

Congratulations to Yuka Minagawa!

Yuka Minagawa was recently awarded the Honjo International Scholarship from the Honjo International Scholarship Foundation. The Honjo International Scholarship Foundation was created to strengthen academic partnerships between Japan and other countries. Yuka’s selection in this very intense competition was based on her outstanding record of academic achievement to date and her scholarly promise. Yuka specializes in the sociology of health, with a particular emphasis on Russia and eastern Europe. She holds a masters degree in Russian Studies from Harvard University and is working toward her Ph.D. in Sociology here at the University of Texas at Austin. Her scholarship was awarded for two years, beginning September 2011.

Kudos to Christine Wheatley, elected as the next student representative to the council of the International Migration Section of ASA!

Sociology Brownbag
Tuesday, July 5th 11:30 – 1:00 In BUR 214

Tackling Auburn Football: Losing by Winning and Winning by Losing
Dr. James Gundlach

Dr. Gundlach, earned his PhD in Sociology at UT in 1976 and was a Sociology faculty member in the Auburn Department of Sociology, Anthropology, Social Work, and Criminology from 1974 to 2001. During that time he worked his way up from Instructor to Full Professor and Director of Sociology. Dr Gundlach ended his career at Auburn by challenging the offering of sociology classes in directed reading format to Auburn athletes by a Criminology professor in a way that gave them A’s for doing almost no work and learning no sociology.

In this informal presentation Dr. Gundlach will first describe how he became a UT PhD and got his job at a university that marginalized the social sciences (note the department’s name). He will then describe how he ended his career by tackling Auburn’s abuse of Sociology to help Auburn win this year’s national football championship

New York Times Article: Auburn Ousts 2, but Doesn’t Fault Athletics