Category Archives: University of Texas at Austin Sociology

ASA, Demography, Sociology of Health, University of Texas at Austin Sociology

ASA 2012: Section on Aging and the Life Course

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Professor Mark Hayward, Chair Elect of the American Sociological Association’s Section on Aging and the Life Course (SALC), would like to share SALC’s exciting program for the ASA annual meeting in Denver next month (SALC’s days are August 17-18):

www2.asanet.org/sectionaginglifecourse/SALC_2012_Schedule.pdf

This year, SALC has also partnered with the Section on Children and Youth, as well as the Section on Culture, to create some special sessions to bridge our interests.

Please consider attending the annual meeting and joining the Section!

For more information about the Section on Aging and the Life Course, see: www.asanet.org/sections/aging.cfm

ASA, Uncategorized, University of Texas at Austin Sociology

ASA 2012, Aug 17-20: “Real Utopias”–UT SOC Presenters and Participants

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“Real Utopias”

American Sociological Association 2012 Annual Meeting

August 17-20   ·   Denver, CO

Colorado Convention Center & Hyatt Regency

~ The University of Texas at Austin Program ~

Fri 8/17     Sat 8/18     Sun 8/19     Mon 8/20

Friday, August 17

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Jacqueline L. Angel
Section on Aging and the Life Course Invited Session. What’s In a Name? Perspectives on the Sociology of Age, Aging, and the Life Course
Unit: Section Invited
Fri, Aug 17 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Panelist

Travis Beaver
Table 14. Culture, Politics, and Collective Action
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Sociology of Culture / Section on Sociology of Culture Roundtables
Fri, Aug 17 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Presenter: Roller Derby Revolution: Sport as a Social Movement

Mounira Maya Charrad
Contemporary Sociology Editorial Board
Unit: Meetings
Scheduled Time: Fri, Aug 17 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Session Submission Role: Participant

Robert Crosnoe
Section on Children and Youth Business Meeting
Unit: Meetings
Scheduled Time: Fri, Aug 17 – 3:30pm – 4:10pm
Session Submission Role: Participant

Carmen Marie Gutierrez
Table 02. Incarceration, Parole, and Treatment Interventions
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Crime, Law and Deviance / Section on Crime, Law, and Deviance Roundtables
Scheduled Time: Fri, Aug 17 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Dually Deviant: A Weberian and Durkheimian Perspective on the Reproductive Rights of Incarcerated Women

Mark D. Hayward
Section on Aging and the Life Course Business Meeting
Unit: Meetings
Scheduled Time: Fri, Aug 17 – 3:30pm – 4:10pm
Session Submission Role: Participant

Nicolette Denise Manglos
Section on Altruism, Morality and Social Solidarity Paper Session. Altruism, Morality and Social Solidarity: Envisioning Utopias
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Altruism, Morality and Social Solidarity / Altruism, Morality and Social Solidarity: Envisioning Utopias
Scheduled Time: Fri, Aug 17 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Haitian and Ghanaian Liturgy and Prayer as Constitutive-ends Practices

Michael Jason McFarland
Section on Aging and the Life Course Business Meeting
Unit: Meetings
Scheduled Time: Fri, Aug 17 – 3:30pm – 4:10pm
Session Submission Role: Participant

Megan Tobias Neely
Table 09. Employment and Gender
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Global and Transnational Sociology / Section on Global and Transnational Sociology Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Fri, Aug 17 – 4:30pm – 5:30pm
Presenter on individual submission: Women Political Executives on Women’s Rights: A Shifting Framework

Pamela Jane Neumann
Regular Session. Development and Gender
Unit: Development and Gender
Scheduled Time: Fri, Aug 17 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Empowerment Paradox: Volunteer Mothering as Community Participation in Nicaragua

Evangeleen Pattison
Regular Session. Inequalities in College Access and Completion
Unit: Higher Education, Sociology of.
Scheduled Time: Fri, Aug 17 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Changes in Ascribed and Achieved Advantage in American Higher Education

Pamela M. Paxton
Section on Global and Transnational Sociology Paper Session. Gender, Globalization, and Transnationalism
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Global and Transnational Sociology / Gender, Globalization, and Transnationalism
Scheduled Time: Fri, Aug 17 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Transnational Women’s Activism and the Global Diffusion of Gender Quotas

Catherine E. Ross
Table 05. Families across the Life Course
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Aging and the Life Course / Section on Aging and the Life Course Roundtables
Scheduled Time: Fri, Aug 17 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Presenter on individual submission: Preferences for Remarriage among the Widowed and Divorced

Sharmila Rudrappa
Contexts Editorial Board
Unit: Meetings
Scheduled Time: Fri, Aug 17 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Session Submission Role: Participant
Section on Asia and Asian America Invited Session. Asia and Migration: New Directions in the New Global Economy
Unit: Section Invited
Scheduled Time: Fri, Aug 17 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Gay Dads and Indian Surrogates

Connor Sheehan
Table 19. Drugs and Drug Use
Unit: Open Refereed Roundtables
Scheduled Time: Fri, Aug 17 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Drug Prevalence Differentials in Violent Deaths

Angela R. Stroud
Table 03. Inequality and Crime
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Crime, Law and Deviance / Section on Crime, Law, and Deviance Roundtables
Scheduled Time: Fri, Aug 17 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Is Concealed Handgun Licensing Motivated by Fear of Crime?

Debra Umberson
Section on Aging and the Life Course Business Meeting
Unit: Meetings
Scheduled Time: Fri, Aug 17 – 3:30pm – 4:10pm
Session Submission Role: Participant

Andres Villarreal
American Sociological Review Editorial Board
Unit: Meetings
Scheduled Time: Fri, Aug 17 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Session Submission Role: Participant

Michael P. Young
2013 W.E.B. Dubois Award for Distinguished Scholarship Selection Committee
Unit: Meetings
Scheduled Time: Fri, Aug 17 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Session Submission Role: Participant

Alumni

Sinikka Elliott (PhD, 2008)
Regular Session. Food and Agriculture
Unit: Food and Agriculture
Scheduled Time: Fri, Aug 17 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Presenter on individual submission: Bringing Sociology to the Table: A Case for a Sociological Approach to the “Obesity Epidemic”

ChangHwan Kim (PhD, 2008)
Section on Methodology Paper Session. Open Topic 1
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Methodology / Open Topic (2 sessions)
Scheduled Time: Fri, Aug 17 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Do Proxy Responders Report Earnings Accurately? Gender and Marital Status Effects of Proxy Responses

Jenny Trinitapoli (PhD, 2009)
Regular Session. Kinship and Pathways of Support
Unit: Family and Kinship
Scheduled Time: Fri, Aug 17 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Presenter on individual submission: Sibling Support among Young Adults in Malawi

Sara Yeatman (PhD, 2008)
Regular Session. Kinship and Pathways of Support
Unit: Family and Kinship
Scheduled Time: Fri, Aug 17 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Non-Presenter on individual submission: Sibling Support among Young Adults in Malawi

Saturday, August 18

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Lady Anima Adjepong
Table 07. Table 32. Sport and Sport Cultures
Unit: Open Refereed Roundtables
Sat, Aug 18 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Presenter: Play-forms of Association: An Examination of How Women’s Rugby Teams Develop Sociability and Organic Solidarity

Jacqueline L. Angel
Section on Sociology of Population Paper Session. Disciplines and Demography: Finding the Sociology in Population Processes
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Sociology of Population / Disciplines and Demography: Finding the Sociology in Population Processes
Sat, Aug 18 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Presenter: Contextualizing Financial Strain in the Older Latino Population

Ronald J. Angel
Journal of Health and Social Behavior Editorial Board
Unit: Meetings
Sat, Aug 18 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Participant

Julie Anne Beicken
Table 04. Medicine and Health
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Science, Knowledge and Technology / Section on Science, Knowledge and Technology Roundtables
Sat, Aug 18 – 8:30am – 9:30am
Presenter: Scientific Knowledge Production and the Creation of “Feeblemindedness”: A Foucauldian Approach to the Eugenics Movement

Dustin C. Brown
Regular Session. Biosociology/Biosocial Interaction
Unit: Biosociology/Biosocial Interaction
Sat, Aug 18 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Presenter: Does Marriage Lower Biological Risk among Older Adults?

Shannon Cavanagh
Social Psychology Quarterly Editorial Board
Unit: Meetings
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 18 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Session Submission Role: Participant

Mounira Maya Charrad
Section on Political Sociology Invited Session. Is There a Politics of Law or a Legality of Politics?
Unit: Section Invited
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 18 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Session Submission Role: Panelist

Wenhong Chen
Table 05. Politics
Unit: Open Refereed Roundtables
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 18 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Media Use and Civic Engagement in Western China

Robert Crosnoe
Sociology of Education Editorial Board
Unit: Meetings
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 18 – 12:30pm – 2:10pm
Session Submission Role: Participant

Carlos Diaz-Venegas
Section on Sociology of Population Paper Session. Disciplines and Demography: Finding the Sociology in Population Processes
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Sociology of Population / Disciplines and Demography: Finding the Sociology in Population Processes
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 18 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Presenter on individual submission: Contextualizing Financial Strain in the Older Latino Population

Mark D. Hayward
Journal of Health and Social Behavior Editorial Board
Unit: Meetings
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 18 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Session Submission Role: Participant
Regular Session. Biosociology/Biosocial Interaction
Unit: Biosociology/Biosocial Interaction
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 18 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Non-Presenter on individual submission: Does Marriage Lower Biological Risk among Older Adults?

Robert A. Hummer
Journal of Health and Social Behavior Editorial Board
Unit: Meetings
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 18 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Session Submission Role: Participant

Hortencia Jimenez
Section on Latino/a Sociology Business Meeting
Unit: Meetings
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 18 – 1:30pm – 2:10pm
Session Submission Role: Participant

David Michael McClendon
Section on Sociology of Population Paper Session. Population, Environment, and Context
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Sociology of Population / Population, Environment, and Context
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 18 – 12:30pm – 2:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Where It’s Easier Being Blue: The Second Demographic Transition and IVF Utilization in the United States

Michael Jason McFarland
Regular Session. Biosociology/Biosocial Interaction
Unit: Biosociology/Biosocial Interaction
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 18 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Does Marriage Lower Biological Risk among Older Adults?

Christian Luis Paredes
Section on Human Rights Paper Session. Human Rights of Migrants
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Human Rights / Human Rights of Migrants
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 18 – 12:30pm – 2:10pm
Non-Presenter on individual submission: Coercive Immigration Enforcement and Bureaucratic Ideology

Pamela M. Paxton
Regular Session. Cross-National Sociology
Unit: Cross-National Sociology
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 18 – 12:30pm – 2:10pm
Session Submission Role: Session Organizer

Catherine Riegle-Crumb
Sociology of Education Editorial Board
Unit: Meetings
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 18 – 12:30pm – 2:10pm
Session Submission Role: Participant

Bryan Rees Roberts
Section on Community and Urban Sociology Invited Session. Utopia or Dystopia? Comparing Cities in the Global North/Global South
Unit: Section Invited
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 18 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Session Submission Role: Panelist

Keith D. Robinson
Sociology of Education Editorial Board
Unit: Meetings
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 18 – 12:30pm – 2:10pm
Session Submission Role: Participant

Nestor P. Rodriguez
Section on Human Rights Paper Session. Human Rights of Migrants
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Human Rights / Human Rights of Migrants
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 18 – 12:30pm – 2:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Coercive Immigration Enforcement and Bureaucratic Ideology

Dara Renee Shifrer
Regular Session. Social Psychology
Unit: Social Psychology
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 18 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Presenter on individual submission: A Mixed Methods Study of How Socioeconomic Status is Associated with Adolescents’ Sense of Control
Section on Social Psychology Paper Session. Social Psychology and Inequality
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Social Psychology / Open Topic on Social Psychology (2 sessions)
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 18 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Regional Differences in Adolescents’ Locus of Control: Social Disadvantage or Cultural Exceptionalism?

Robert Sitko
Regular Session. Consumption and Economic Inequality
Unit: Consumers and Consumption
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 18 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Session Submission Role: Presider

Amanda Jean Stevenson
Table 03. Inequality
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Sociology of Population / Section on Sociology of Population Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 18 – 2:30pm – 3:30pm
Presenter on individual submission: The Effect of First Interbirth Interval on Women’s Poverty at Midlife

Mary Esther Sullivan
Table 02. Housing and Inequality
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Community and Urban Sociology / Section on Community and Urban Sociology Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 18 – 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Presenter on individual submission: Informal Development in Low-income Communities: Housing Conditions and Self-help Strategies in Informal Subdivisions in Texas

April M. Sutton
Section on Social Psychology Paper Session. Social Psychology and Inequality
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Social Psychology / Open Topic on Social Psychology (2 sessions)
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 18 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Non-Presenter on individual submission: Regional Differences in Adolescents’ Locus of Control: Social Disadvantage or Cultural Exceptionalism?

Margaret Tate
Regular Session. Visual Sociology
Unit: Visual Sociology
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 18 – 12:30pm – 2:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Representing Social Invisibility: Aesthetics of the Ghostly in Rebecca Belmore’s Named and Unnamed

Debra Umberson
Journal of Health and Social Behavior Editorial Board
Unit: Meetings
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 18 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Session Submission Role: Participant
Professional Development Workshop. ASA Editors Offer Insights and Advice on Writing and Submitting Articles
Unit: Professional Workshop
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 18 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Session Submission Role: Panelist

Christine L. Williams
Regular Session. Consumption and Economic Inequality
Unit: Consumers and Consumption
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 18 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Session Submission Role: Session Organizer

Alumni

ChangHwan Kim (PhD, 2008)
Regular Session. Asians and Asian Americans: Economic and Educational Processes
Unit: Asians and Asian Americans
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 18 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Are Asian American Women Advantaged? Labor Market Performances of College Educated Female Workers

Jennifer Karas Montez (PhD, 2011)
Section on Sociology of Population Paper Session. Disciplines and Demography: Finding the Sociology in Population Processes
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Sociology of Population / Disciplines and Demography: Finding the Sociology in Population Processes
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 18 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Presenter on individual submission: How do Parents’ and One’s Own Education Accumulate to Shape Adult Health?

Wei Zhang (PhD, 2008)
Regular Session. Asians and Asian Americans: Economic and Educational Processes
Unit: Asians and Asian Americans
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 18 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Discrimination and Psychological Distress among Asian Americans: Exploring the Moderating Effect of Education
Table 02. Mental Health of Asians and Asian Americans
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Sociology of Mental Health / Section on Sociology of Mental Health Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 18 – 10:30am – 11:30am
Session Submission Role: Table Presider
Presenter on individual submission: English Proficiency and Psychological Distress among Latinos and Asian Americans

Sunday, August 19

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Ellyn Margaret Arevalo
Table 10. Relationships and Sex Among Young Adults
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on the Sociology of the Family / Section on the Sociology of the Family Roundtables (one-hour)
Sun, Aug 19 – 2:30pm – 3:30pm
Presenter: Relationship Formation Processes Among Emerging Adult Men and Women

Kathleen H. Averett
Section on Sex and Gender Paper Session. Youth and Children Transgressing Gender Boundaries
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Sex and Gender / Youth and Children Transgressing Gender Boundaries
Sun, Aug 19 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Presenter: Anxious Publics, Disruptive Bodies: The Case of the Transgender Girl Scout

Sergio Antonio Cabrera
Regular Session. Consumer Citizenship
Unit: Consumers and Consumption
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 19 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Session Submission Role: Presider

Ben Carrington
Section on Sex and Gender Invited Session. The State of Masculinities Studies: Current Trends and Future Directions
Unit: Section Invited
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 19 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Session Submission Role: Panelist

Shannon Cavanagh
Section on the Sociology of the Family Paper Session. Family Structure and Children’s Well-being
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on the Sociology of the Family / Family Structure and Children’s Well-Being
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 19 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Non-Presenter on individual submission: Family Trajectories and School Readiness in the United States and the United Kingdom

Mounira Maya Charrad
Section on Comparative-Historical Sociology Council and Business Meeting
Unit: Meetings
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 19 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Session Submission Role: Participant
Section on Comparative-Historical Sociology Paper Session. Modernity Reconfigured: Post-colonial Theory and Comparative-Historical Sociology
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Comparative-Historical Sociology / Modernity Reconfigured: Postcolonial Theory and Comparative-Historical Sociology
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 19 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Modernity, Islam and Gender: Post-colonial Perspectives

Gloria Gonzalez-Lopez
Policy and Research Workshop. New Ethical Challenges in Qualitative Research (sponsored by the Committee on Professional Ethics)
Unit: Research/Policy Workshop
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 19 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Session Submission Role: Co-Leader

Katherine Christine Jensen
Research Poster Session. Communicating Sociology
Unit / Sub Unit: Poster Presentations / Communicating Sociology
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 19 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Lessons from the Spatial Margins in Argentine Memory-making: Sites of Memory in Buenos Aires

Amy C. Lodge
Section on Medical Sociology Paper Session. Social Networks, Social Support, and Health Across the Life Span
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Medical Sociology / Social Networks, Social Support, and Health Across the Life Span
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 19 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Presenter on individual submission: Parenthood and Physical Activity across the Life Course: How do Gender and Race Matter?

Nicolette Denise Manglos
Theory Section Invited Session. Agency or Personhood?
Unit: Section Invited
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 19 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Session Submission Role: Panelist

Catherine McNamee
Table 14. Marriage Values and the Value of Marriage
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on the Sociology of the Family / Section on the Sociology of the Family Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 19 – 2:30pm – 3:30pm
Presenter on individual submission: Race-ethnic Differences at Remarriage and the Role of Pro-nuptial Values

Chandra Muller
Table 03. Cultural and Sociopolitical Representations
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Disability and Society / Section on Disability and Society Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 19 – 8:30am – 9:30am
Non-Presenter on individual submission: Racial Minorities in High School Disproportionately Labeled with Learning Disabilities

Christian Paredes

Section on International Migration Paper Session. Migrating People, Migrating Culture
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on International Migration / Migrating People, Migrating Culture
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 19 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Using Media in Foreign Languages: an Analysis of Cultural Proximity and Cosmopolitanism in Austin, Texas

Pamela M. Paxton
Regular Session. Social Capital, Trust, and Well-being
Unit: Social Capital
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 19 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Do Social Connections Create Trust? A Longitudinal Analysis

Mark D. Regnerus
Table 10. Relationships and Sex Among Young Adults
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on the Sociology of the Family / Section on the Sociology of the Family Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 19 – 2:30pm – 3:30pm
Non-Presenter on individual submission: Relationship Formation Processes Among Emerging Adult Men and Women

Catherine Riegle-Crumb
Section on Sociology of Education Paper Session. Gender Differences in Education
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Sociology of Education / Open Topic on Sociology of Education (6 sessions)
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 19 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Session Submission Role: Presider

Brandon Andrew Robinson
Table 03. Sexuality, Health, and Meaning-Making
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Sociology of Sexualities / Section on Sociology of Sexualities Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 19 – 8:30am – 9:30am
Presenter on individual submission: In Defense of Barebacking and Sexual Risk Taking: Weberian Perspective on Rationalization, Discipline, and Disenchantment

Dara Renee Shifrer
Section on Medical Sociology Paper Session. The Causes and Consequences Illness-related Stigma
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Medical Sociology / The Causes and Consequences Illness-related Stigma
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 19 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Stigma of a Label: Educational Expectations for High School Students Labeled with a Learning Disability
Table 03. Cultural and Sociopolitical Representations
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Disability and Society / Section on Disability and Society Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 19 – 8:30am – 9:30am
Presenter on individual submission: Racial Minorities in High School Disproportionately Labeled with Learning Disabilities

Katie Sobering
Table 15. Service Work
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Organizations, Occupation and Work / Section on Organizations, Occupation and Work Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 19 – 4:30pm – 5:30pm
Presenter on individual submission: From Worker to Worker-owner: A New Theater of Service Work

Emily Jane Spangenberg
Table 13. Resource Use, Governance, and Social Inequality
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Environment and Technology / Section on Environment and Technology Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 19 – 2:30pm – 3:30pm
Presenter on individual submission: The “Sick Poor” and the “Healthy Professional”: Environmental Health Discourse in Abra Pampa, Argentina

April M. Sutton
Section on Sociology of Education Paper Session. Gender Differences in Education
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Sociology of Education / Open Topic on Sociology of Education (6 sessions)
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 19 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Gender Differences in Postsecondary Matriculation: Rurality, the Local Labor Economy, and Gender Role Socialization

Debra Umberson
Section on Medical Sociology Paper Session. Social Networks, Social Support, and Health Across the Life Span
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Medical Sociology / Social Networks, Social Support, and Health Across the Life Span
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 19 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Non-Presenter on individual submission: Marital Status, Marital Transitions, and Alcohol Use: A Mixed-methods Study

Christine L. Williams
Author Meets Critics Session. Framed by Gender: How Gender Inequality Persists in the Modern World (Oxford University Press, 2011) by Cecilia Ridgeway
Unit: Author Meets Critics
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 19 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Session Submission Role: Critic
Regular Session. Consumer Citizenship
Unit: Consumers and Consumption
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 19 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Session Submission Role: Session Organizer

Amina Zarrugh
Table 15. Politics and Civic Engagement
Unit: Open Refereed Roundtables
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 19 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Session Submission Role: Table Presider
Presenter on individual submission: Participant Propriety: A Case for the Study of the Body in Social Movement Organizations

Alumni

Nicole Angotti (PhD, 2010)
Regular Session. Social Dimensions of AIDS
Unit: AIDS, Social Dimensions of
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 19 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Non-Presenter on individual submission: Struggle Against AIDS as Discursive Object: Institutionalization and the Rise of Bio-medicine in Malawi 1999-2009

Anna Strassmann Mueller (PhD, 2011)
Section on Medical Sociology Paper Session. Social Networks, Social Support, and Health Across the Life Span
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Medical Sociology / Social Networks, Social Support, and Health Across the Life Span
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 19 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Presenter on individual submission: Are Suicidal Behaviors Contagious in Adolescence? Understanding the Role of Selection in Suicide Imitation

Corinne Reczek (PhD, 2011)
Section on Medical Sociology Paper Session. Social Networks, Social Support, and Health Across the Life Span
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Medical Sociology / Social Networks, Social Support, and Health Across the Life Span
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 19 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Presenter on individual submission: Marital Status, Marital Transitions, and Alcohol Use: A Mixed-methods Study

Sara Yeatman (PhD, 2008)
Regular Session. Social Dimensions of AIDS
Unit: AIDS, Social Dimensions of
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 19 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Non-Presenter on individual submission: Struggle Against AIDS as Discursive Object: Institutionalization and the Rise of Bio-medicine in Malawi 1999-2009

Monday, August 20

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Julie Anne Beicken
Section on Sociology of Education Paper Session. Race, Ethnicity, and Nativity in Education: Social Psychological Mechanisms
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Sociology of Education / Open Topic on Sociology of Education
Mon, Aug 20 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Presenter, Winners and Losers: Teachers’ Perceptions of the Children of Immigrants

Sarah F. Blanchard
Section on Sociology of Education Paper Session. Race, Ethnicity, and Nativity in Education: Social Psychological Mechanisms
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Sociology of Education / Open Topic on Sociology of Education
Mon, Aug 20 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Presenter, Winners and Losers: Teachers’ Perceptions of the Children of Immigrants

Maryann Bylander
Section on International Migration Paper Session. Transnationalism and Development Issues
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on International Migration / Transnationalism and Development Issues
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 20 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Presenter on individual submission: Until I Go to Thailand: A Culture of Migration among Rural Cambodian Youth
Table 03. Issues in Migration
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Sociology of Development / Section on Sociology of Development Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 20 – 8:30am – 9:30am
Presenter on individual submission: Migration and the Expansion of Micro-credit in Cambodia

Sergio Antonio Cabrera
Regular Session. Consumer Identities
Unit: Consumers and Consumption
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 20 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Session Submission Role: Presider

Ben Carrington
Regular Session. Cultural Studies
Unit: Cultural Studies
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 20 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Session Submission Roles: Presider, Session Organizer

Mounira Maya Charrad
Section on Comparative-Historical Sociology Paper Session. Revolutions “New” and “Old”
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Comparative-Historical Sociology / Revolutions “New” and “Old”
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 20 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Session Submission Roles: Presider, Session Organizer

Wenhong Chen
Table 15. Stress, Coping, Social Status and Health
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Medical Sociology / Section on Medical Sociology Roundtables
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 20 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Non-Presenter on individual submission: Help or Hurt? Unsolicited Job Information and Receivers’ Psychological Distress

Robert Crosnoe
Section on Sociology of Education Business Meeting
Unit: Meetings
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 20 – 11:30am – 12:10pm
Session Submission Role: Participant

Molly Dondero
Table 08. Language
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on International Migration / Section on International Migration Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 20 – 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Presenter on individual submission: Language Use at Work and Earnings of Immigrants in the United States

Jeong Ha Hyun
Regular Session. Religion: Conflict and Resolution I
Unit: Religion
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 20 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Presenter on individual submission: The Mode of Modern State Power Operations on Religious Minorities: Violence against Coptic Christians in Egypt

Melissa H. Humphries
Table 08. Immigrant Children, Education, and Their Outcomes
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Sociology of Education / Section on Sociology of Education Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 20 – 10:30am – 11:30am
Presenter on individual submission: The Political Socialization of Adolescent Children of Immigrants: The Roles of Schooling and Family

Chandra Muller
Regular Session. Gender in Science and Academia
Unit: Gender and Work
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 20 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Non-Presenter on individual submission: Inequality in Academic Salaries: How Gender Matters in the University
Section on Sociology of Education Business Meeting
Unit: Meetings
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 20 – 11:30am – 12:10pm
Session Submission Role: Participant
Table 08. Immigrant Children, Education, and Their Outcomes
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Sociology of Education / Section on Sociology of Education Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 20 – 10:30am – 11:30am
Non-Presenter on individual submission: The Political Socialization of Adolescent Children of Immigrants: The Roles of Schooling and Family

Kate C. Prickett
Regular Session. Interactions between Work and Family
Unit: Family and Work
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 20 – 12:30pm – 2:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: (Un)Employment and Parental Time Use: Does Education Matter?

Kelly Raley
Regular Session. Gender in Science and Academia
Unit: Gender and Work
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 20 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Non-Presenter on individual submission: Inequality in Academic Salaries: How Gender Matters in the University

Catherine Riegle-Crumb
Regular Session. Patterns and Consequences of College Sorting
Unit: Higher Education, Sociology of.
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 20 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Session Submission Role: Discussant

Sharmila Rudrappa
Table 09. South Asian and Muslim American Identities
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on International Migration / Section on International Migration Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 20 – 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Session Submission Role: Table Presider

Dara Renee Shifrer
Regular Session. Gender in Science and Academia
Unit: Gender and Work
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 20 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Non-Presenter on individual submission: Inequality in Academic Salaries: How Gender Matters in the University

Ori Swed
Regular Session. Militarization and Governance
Unit: Peace and Conflict
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 20 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: The Arab Spring and the Role of the Military: Coercion and Diffusion through Arms Sales

Mieke Beth Thomeer
Table 08. Racial and Ethnic Relations and Health
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Medical Sociology / Section on Medical Sociology Roundtables
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 20 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Non-Presenter on individual submission: Race and Gender Differences in Nursing Home Admissions and Discharges

M. Christine Wheatley
Regular Session. Political Sociology I: Immigration, Trafficking, and Deportation: The Politics of Voluntary and Involuntary Migration
Unit: Political Sociology
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 20 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Presenter on individual submission: Removal as Disposal? Deportation and the Value of Non-citizen Life
Section on International Migration Business Meeting
Unit: Meetings
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 20 – 1:30pm – 2:10pm
Session Submission Role: Participant

Christine L. Williams
Author Meets Critics Session. Longing and Belonging: Parents, Children, and Consumer Culture (University of California Press, 2009) by Allison J. Pugh
Unit: Author Meets Critics
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 20 – 12:30pm – 2:10pm
Session Submission Role: Critic
Regular Session. Consumer Identities
Unit: Consumers and Consumption
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 20 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Session Submission Role: Session Organizer

Alumni

Erin R. Hamilton (PhD, 2008)
Table 03. Issues in Migration
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Sociology of Development / Section on Sociology of Development Roundtables (one-hour)
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 20 – 8:30am – 9:30am
Non-Presenter on individual submission: Migration and the Expansion of Micro-credit in Cambodia

Ryan Kelly Masters (PhD, 2011)
Regular Session. Mortality
Unit: Mortality
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 20 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Temporal Changes in Socio-economic Gradients of “Preventable” Mortality: A Test of Fundamental Cause Theory

Jennifer Karas Montez (PhD, 2011)
Regular Session. Health Policy
Unit: Health Policy
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 20 – 12:30pm – 2:10pm
Non-Presenter on individual submission: Socio-economic Inequalities in Health Among Older Adults: Implications for the Retirement Age Debate

Anna Strassmann Mueller (PhD, 2011)
Regular Session. Gender in Science and Academia
Unit: Gender and Work
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 20 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: Inequality in Academic Salaries: How Gender Matters in the University

Hyeyoung Woo (PhD, 2008)
Table 15. Stress, Coping, Social Status and Health
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Medical Sociology / Section on Medical Sociology Roundtables
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 20 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Presenter on individual submission: Predictive Strength of Self-rated Health on Mortality Risk Across Racial and Ethnic Groups

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Austin, University of Texas at Austin Sociology

2012 UT Austin Sociology graduates ready to change the world

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It is always poignant to say goodbye to our good friends at graduation, but we are very happy to celebrate their success.  Special thanks to Dr. Chris Pieper for his reflections on his time at UT – placements included in the photo details below.

I have taught at three universities since becoming a doctoral candidate at Texas in 2007 — Southwestern University, the College of William and Mary, and Baylor University. At each one, I found that my UT training had prepared me well for nearly every kind of classroom, intellectual, and departmental challenge. Many of these lessons were learned from my UT classmates through countless hours of conversation and bonding outside of the classroom. The great Gideon Sjoberg told me when I started the program in 2004 that this would be the case, and, of course, he was right, though I was skeptical at first. The importance of close relationships with fellow students cannot be overstressed, and UT is peerless in cultivating a climate that makes this possible and easy.

There have been innumerable occasions post-UT when I’ve realized that something good I just did in class or said to a student or wrote came directly from an experience in the department. I was too busy to appreciate these gifts at the time, sadly, but like many things in life, they become more obvious with time and perspective. For me, so many of these blessings came through involvement in “Power, History, and Society” — the affinity group for political sociology and comparative/historical students. Leadership and involvement in PHS gave me preview of what being a departmental citizen is like: building an academic community through service and love of knowledge. I hope this tradition is continued in the department in a variety of forms.

I miss Austin constantly, but it is now only 95 miles away — a distant but familiar companion I can always return to. Austin is like a family member now; I can’t imagine ever living too long or too far from it. But her memories and embrace are with me no matter where I go. Just like UT and the amazing sociology department I was fortunate enough to be part of for 7 years.

Gender and Sexuality, Sociology of Gender, University of Texas at Austin Sociology

The Power of the Erotic & a Utopian Future by Brandon Andrew Robinson

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In gearing up for the annual American Sociological Association conference this summer in Denver, I have been pondering this year’s theme – “Real Utopias.” This topic, according to the ASA program, is trying to bridge together the empirical and theoretical realities of life with the vision of “… a fantasy world of perfect harmony and social justice.” In dealing with this tension between the practical and the dream, the ASA meeting calls for “… developing a sociology of the possible, not just of the actual.” But what would this type of sociology look like? And where do we even begin to find the tools to forge this novel way of conceptualizing a better tomorrow? I believe one possible undertaking can happen by turning to the root of the erotic in our own personal lives so that we can strive collectively for this utopian future.

In my endeavor to understand the power of the erotic and how it can assist in achieving a better world, I first turned to one of the earliest sociologists Max Weber. In his “Religious Rejections of the World and Their Directions,” Weber (1946) explored how discipline deals with the irrationality of the erotic sphere. Weber called sexual love “… the greatest irrational force…” that is in constant tension with rationality and discipline (343). Rationality produces legally constituted marriage as the only rational form of romantic economic arrangement, and as seen in The Protestant Ethic (1930), sex is just a calling from God to reproduce. Society has to regulate sexual intercourse to marriage because eroticism can easily produce frenzies that are non-routinized and, hence, irrational. Since rationality and discipline are impersonable and emotionless, society has to control the erotic because it signifies love and emotions. As Weber notes, a person engaging in an erotic relation is “… freed from the cold skeleton hands of rational orders, just as completely as from the banality of everyday routine” (p. 347). The erotic relation, to Weber, “… embodie[s] creative power…” (p. 347) and is hence constructed as a “…loss of self-control…” by the rational cosmos of the societal order (p. 349). Because the erotic relation is predicated on love, emotion, and so forth, it stands in direct opposition to the rational social order and is hence disciplined as being irrational unless done within marriage and only for procreation. Weber, however, saw a great deal of power in the erotic relation as it frees people from the rational, mundane order of life, allowing for a more utopian future outside of the disciplined world of today.

Accordingly, in her piece “The Uses of the Erotic,” Audre Lorde (2007, [1984]) also sees the erotic as a creative power source that can allow one to explore inner possibilities in pursuing genuine social change. She argues that the erotic is a resource in each person, “… which arises from our deepest and non-rational knowledge”  (p. 88). Society tells us to condemn and vilify this resource; however, for Lorde, this resource is a source of power that helps us feel as we do our work, instead of just always routinely and emotionlessly trudging through life. This creative power is born from love, but capitalism has devalued it and constructed it as dangerous. Since the erotic is born of love though, it can help us in understanding others and lessen the threat of differences between strangers and ourselves. For this matter, we must begin to recognize our erotic feelings, so that we can share these deep feelings with others and then re-bridge the gaps that have divided us. As Lorde writes, “Recognizing the power of the erotic within our lives can give us the energy to pursue genuine change within our world, rather than merely settling for a shift of characters in the same weary drama” (p. 91).  The erotic, for Lorde and similarly for Weber, is a non-rational, creative source of power within each of us that needs to be freed so we can feel life and then develop love and empathy for ourselves, and more importantly, for others.

Moving to an intriguing application of the erotic, Richard Fung (1991) examines the power of the erotic in his analysis of race within gay male pornographies. Fung traces the ways in which Asian men are depicted as submissive sexual actors and basically as props for the pleasure of white men. His descriptions of these various pornographies and their racist ideologies are unnerving; yet, in his conclusion, Fung talks about the power of the erotic in certain moments of these films. In these moments, Fung believes that these racist ideologies are suspended or eclipsed by the power of the erotic. For him, these “genuine” moments typically happen when he sees the bodies caressing one another. The actors stop pretending to be in their racist roles, and, instead, the porn actors “… appear neither as simulated whites nor as symbolic others” (p. 161). The power of the erotic interrupts or supersedes racism within these ephemeral moments, where the creative source of feeling takes over from the racist roles being presented.

Weber, Lorde, and Fung – all seem to find great life-changing power within the erotic. This life source challenges the routinized, disciplined ways of society. It pushes us to love and feel, and in that, it advances us towards a new form of intimacy with strangers. It also has the capability to transcend (at least temporarily) hegemonic ideologies, granting new ways of relating between the other and the self. How then can we tap into this source of the erotic in each of ourselves in order to form a collective strategy to achieve a more perfect future? The erotic appears to have the potential to bring about more equitable ways of relating and new visions for the possibilities of sociology. However, we all must begin to feel the erotic inside of us, and then we can start imagining and striving for this harmonic future that the ASA theme has called on all of us sociologists to delve in and investigate this year.

References
Fung, Richard. 1991. “Looking for My Penis: The Eroticized Asian in Gay Video Porn.” Pp. 145-168 in How Do I Look? Queer Film and Video, edited by Bad Object-Choices. Seattle: Bay Press.

Lorde, Audre. 2007 [1984]. “The Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power.” Pp. 87-91 in Sexualities and Communication in Everyday Life: A Reader, edited by Karen E. Lovaas and Mercilee M. Jenkins. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc.

Weber, Max. 1930. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. New York: Routledge.

Weber, Max. 1946. “Religious Rejections of the World and Their Directions.” Pp. 323-359 in From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, edited by H. Gerth and C. W. Mills. New York: Oxford University Press.

—
Brandon Andrew Robinson is a doctoral student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin. His research interests include sexualities, queer spatialities, and intersectionality. His newest project will be examining how the Internet impacts sexual behavior and desire for men who have sex with men.

Demography, University of Texas at Austin Sociology

Remembering Sarah McKinnon

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Sarah McKinnon was a bright light at UT Austin, a talented Demographer and a devoted mother who passed away at the tragically young age of 37. She will be sorely missed by her family and friends and is remembered below in a memorial given by Dr. Joe Potter at the Population Association of America’s annual meeting in San Franciso, California this May. Sarah’s family will hold a memorial for her on June 24th at the turtle pond by the Main building at UT. Please join in celebrating her life.

Sarah McKinnon died three weeks ago of cancer at age 37. Between 2001 and 2009, I had the privilege of being her advisor, colleague and friend while she was a graduate student and researcher at the University of Texas in Austin. Sarah grew up in western Massachusetts, was valedictorian of her high school class, spent a semester at UMass-Amherst, and then went to El Paso to join her mother and attend the University of Texas in El Paso where her mother was teaching Epidemiology. Sarah made the best of a less than challenging academic situation, and graduated at the top of her class. She then went on to get an MPH from the UT School of Public Health, studying both at the main campus in Houston and later at the satellite campus in El Paso. She then worked for a year in El Paso where in addition to other duties she served as a translator for doctor for low-income patients. From El Paso she went to Atlanta where she had a year-long internship at CDC in Maternal and Child Health.

When she applied to enter the graduate program at UT-Austin, I quickly recognized that we had many interests in common and that her background and skills would be wonderful assets for several of the projects I was involved with or had in mind. I begged her to accept our offer of admission.

While in Austin, Sarah studied, taught, worked as a programmer, and was involved with four main research areas:

1. Sarah was a pillar of the Border Contraceptive Access Study—a project based on the natural experiment that cross-border procurement of oral contraception provided in a border setting. Sarah brought much energy, deep familiarity with the low-income population of El Paso, and wonderful skills with data collection and management to this enterprise. She was also responsible for a great deal of the analysis and programming that was involved in many of the papers from that study, and was an author of three of them. And almost singlehandedly she prepared the documentation, and completed that the data cleaning that was a prerequisite for a public release of the data we collected.

2. Sarah was also an active, energetic, and wonderful collaborator with the group at UT Austin working on issues of racial and ethnic disparities in US health outcomes. Working with Parker Frisbie, Bob Hummer, and others, Sarah co-published several chapters that summarized current patterns of US health disparities, with a particular focus on infant and child outcomes. In Bob’s words: “Her work in this area was characterized by great expertise with data and methods and keen insights on the explanations underlying the disparities. And of course, Sarah’s great energy and sense of humor characterized her involvement with this research group as well.”

3. While at UT, Sarah became interested in Brazilian demography, learned some Portuguese, and took advantage of the last tier of Mellon money to spend a few months in Brazil. Together, we tackled the question of how to use the large trove of Brazilian census microdata that had been assembled at UT for the purpose of analyzing the growth of Protestantism in Brazil and its possible effects on reproductive and other behaviors. Sarah was the first author of a nice paper published in Population Studies in 2008 on “Adolescent Fertility and Religion in Rio de Janeiro”.

4. For her dissertation topic, Sarah eventually chose to learn and apply some of the Bayesian spatial statistics methods that my colleagues Renato Assuncao and Carl Schmertmann were proficient with to the task of estimating child mortality rates for all 5000 plus municipalities in Brazil. This was a daunting task that required learning a new type of statistics, mastering the use of Monte Carlo Markov Chain programs, and as well as modifying the underlying technology of Brass estimation for this purpose. But Sarah did it all, going to short courses on Winbugs at other universities, bugging Carl and Renato for help making Winbugs do what it had to do, and producing and interpreting the results. It is a pity that Sarah, Renato and Carl and I were not able to send a paper based on this work off to a journal before Sarah’s passing, but getting that done is now on our shoulders.

Shortly before she defended her dissertation, Sarah was hired by the CDC/Division of Reproductive Health in 2009 as a Statistical Data Analyst/Programmer. Sarah’s position was originally envisioned as providing programming support to CDC epidemiologists in the Maternal and Infant Health Branch, assisting them with the organization and management of complex analysis data files for various projects. Within months of being hired, Sarah became an expert on U.S. birth and death certificate files, hospital discharge data, and longitudinally linked vital statistic and administrative databases for mothers and children.

In the words of her CDC colleagues: “Sarah brought a unique mix of analytic and programming skills to the Division, and was a brilliant analyst in her own right. She not only supported projects as was originally envisioned, but she also enriched the analytic projects in which she participated. Her CDC colleagues quickly realized Sarah’s great potential. Only a year into her stint with CDC, she began participating as an advisor in numerous DRH studies.”

It is very sad for me to stand before you reading these words. Sarah was an extremely smart, dedicated, and efficient demographer, and a lovely person. I owe a great debt to her for all that she did for the projects I was involved in, and for the opportunity to work alongside her analyzing demographic data. She had a promising career in front of her, and I expected to be her colleague for many years to come. I, and many others at the PRC, CDC, and PAA will miss her greatly. When I last saw her at her mother’s home in Tampa on March 25th, she said she was sorry she would not be at PAA this year, and I am glad that we all have this opportunity to remember her tonight.

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

Developing Course Goals and Objectives

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Sociology Assistant Instructor David Glisch-Sanchez offered an informative session Monday on how to assess student learning in the classroom.

First, there are different types of learning, from memorization and understanding to evaluation and creating something new based on knowledge gained. It is important for teachers to design activities and measurement criteria that target a variety of these types of learning.

Second, there is also variety in terms of objects learned, from facts and concepts to self-reflection and critique of one’s approach toward the facts and concepts themselves. There are many pedagogical tools, from choice-based exams to open-ended research projects, that can assess these levels of knowledge acquired through the course, each with their own pros and cons.

David also talked about the importance of specifying and clarifying course objectives at the beginning of and throughout the course. Regardless of what assessment criteria teachers use, it is important expectations be set and made explicit if not as ultimate learning goals, then as check-points for students.

‘What do I know?’ ‘What do I want to know?’ and ‘What did I learn?’ are three useful general questions teachers should pose to students, and keep in mind as they continue to improve their courses.

Below are some resources toward this end teachers can consult:

‘Helping Students Do Well in Class: GAMES’ by Dr Marilla D Svinicki

Exam Writing Guidelines from Instructional Assessment Resources, UT-Austin

Developing Course Goals and Objectives by David Glisch-Sanchez

University of Texas at Austin Sociology

Mad Men: ‘Looking Back’ at Gender, Race, and Class by Pamela Neumann

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Mad Men has returned–and with it, the love/hate relationship with Don Draper and the rest of the ad executives of Madison Avenue, whose lives are increasingly impacted by the many events of the tumultuous 1960s. In the midst of this artistic recreation of one of the most overly romanticized periods in recent U.S. history, both the subtle and extreme inequalities of race, class, and gender explode off the screen. Contrary to those of us cultivating the sociological imagination, the popular cultural imagination tends to view these instances of racism, sexism, and classism as relics of some distant era, a subject for armchair historical curiosity and little else. While the Trayvon Martin case and Occupy Wall Street have each in their own ways brought aspects of race and class back onto the popular radar, it remains to be seen if or how feminism (and issues concerning women in general) will figure in political debates during this presidential election year.

A period television drama might seem like an unlikely site from which to seek to spur such conversation. However, its portrayal of the issues facing working women is much more than a rose-tinted glance towards the past. Particularly in Joanie’s character this season, we see the struggles facing women who want both a family and a career—struggles that are far from resolved in the contemporary U.S. A poignant scene from the premier on Sunday night shows Joan visiting the office before her scheduled return with her newborn in tow, eager to resume her duties as a highly influential woman in the firm. Fearing that her job may be in jeopardy, she tears up in Mr. Price’s office, telling him that she loves her baby, but constantly thinks about what’s happening there and wishes she could return already.

This is no anachronistic exchange or dilemma. Although progress has been made since the 1960s, the choices facing women who become mothers and want to maintain their careers are still far from adequate. State laws and corporate policies do vary, but the federal mandate established by the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 provides certain employees with just 12 weeks of annual unpaid leave for all public institutions and businesses with over 50 employees. The United States is now one of only 4 countries worldwide with no mandatory parental leave policy.

As I have studied the literature on urban poverty in the United States in one of my seminars this semester,  one theme that consistently emerges is the serious consequences for men (in terms of their sense of self-respect, behavior, and family dynamics) when they aren’t employed (Bourgois 1995; Anderson 1999). Meanwhile, within this same body of work, comparatively little attention has been paid to how women in particular experience un(der)employment either in periods of economic downturn or (temporarily or permanently) following childbirth.  There is an implicit assumption that the value of (paid or unpaid) work outside the home for women must somehow be less important or different. But is this true? If we want to find out, not the fictional Joanie but her very real counterparts deserve more sustained attention.

Image Credits
1. AMC Made Men

References
Bourgois, Philippe. 1995. In Search of Respect: Selling crack in El Barrio. Cambridge University Press.

Anderson, Elijah. 1999. Code of the Street. New York: W.W. Norton and Company.

—

Pamela Neumann is a PhD student in the Department of Sociology and a regular Mad Men watcher.

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

Dr. Christine Williams on the realities of the retail labor market

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Sinikka Elliott, Christine Williams, Angela Stroud, Cati Connell and Dana Britton at ASA


Dr. Williams was honored with the Distinguished Feminist Lecturer Award in 2011 at the American Sociological Association Annual Meeting in Las Vegas

Christine Williams blogs about challenges facing retail workers in this months section of ASA Organizations, Occupations, and Work: “Upgrading Jobs in the Retail Industry”. You can read more about her research in an article Dr. Williams and UT Austin Alumna, Dr. Catherine Connell co authored “Looking Good and Sounding Right: Aesthetic Labor and Social Inequality in the Retail Industry,” in the Journal of Work and Occupations.

Austin, Uncategorized, University of Texas at Austin Sociology

2012 Recruiting Events – what a pleasure

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Our 2012 Recruiting events at the Scholtz Garten, the plush SAC Conference room and our dear old Burdine were enjoyed by all. I have to say that listening to everyone talk enthusiastically about their research and our community makes me very glad to be in such good company. Please take a moment to enjoy our 2012 recruiting movie. Hope to see many of you in Fall 2012!

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

A Foucauldian Critique of the Murder of Trayvon Martin by Lady Anima Adjepong

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The recent murder of Trayvon Martin, a seventeen-year-old black boy is an opportunity to explore the dimensions of disciplinary power as Michel Foucault characterizes them. On February 26, 2012, a white neighbourhood watch volunteer, George Zimmerman murdered Martin in an Orlando, FL neighbourhood. According to news sources Martin was on his way home carrying a bag of Skittles he had purchased at a nearby 7-11. Zimmerman called police to say he had seen a “suspicious person.” He confronted Martin and shot him, claiming self-defence. Martin was unarmed. Florida State police have not arrested Zimmerman, stating that there is not enough evidence to disprove his claim of self-defence. I argue that Martin’s murder and the state police’s hesitance to arrest Zimmerman are exemplary of the success of disciplinary power.

The three instruments that ensure the success of disciplinary power are hierarchical observation, normalizing judgment and the examination. Each of these instruments worked together to result in Zimmerman’s overzealous trigger finger.

Euro-American civil society inscribes black bodies as criminal and outside of the social contract. This society consequently disciplines its members to police these bodies and defend the social contract. Zimmerman’s policing for civil society resulted in his shooting of Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman’s suspicion of Martin can be understood as part of a relation of surveillance that enables the discreet functioning of disciplinary power.

When Zimmerman recognizes Martin as a “suspicious person” his response, shooting and killing him, aligns with the disciplinary mechanism of punishing non-conformity. Martin’s presence in the neighbourhood did not conform to acceptable socially prescribed locations for blacks. Zimmerman thus undertook the corrective of disciplinary punishment by confronting and shooting Martin, thereby correcting the infraction that Martin’s presence entailed. The norm in U.S. American society inscribes criminality on the black body; the norm also requires that black bodies be incarcerated or disappeared (whichever gets rid of them faster). The power of the norm (Foucault 184) and its attendant violence is very much at play in Zimmerman’s response to Martin. Martin’s black body, inscribed with criminality must be confronted and disappeared, in order to re-establish homogeneity in the neighbourhood.

Finally, by recognizing Martin as “suspicious,” calling the police, then shooting and killing him, Zimmerman passes the examination with flying colours; he acts on the knowledge that produces the reality of blackness as criminal. Zimmerman’s actions are evident of his constitution as “effect and object of power [and knowledge]” (Foucault 192). Martin’s murder, and the police’s refusal to arrest Zimmerman is evidence of the disciplinary power of civil society that constructs blackness as its prey.

Police defence of Zimmerman’s murderous shooting as self-defence against an unarmed 140-pound teenager confirms Frank Wilderson’s assessment that “there is something organic to civil society that makes it essential to the destruction of the black body” (Prison Slave, 18). Despite the public outrage about the handling of the case, and the incoherence of the logic that a 240-pound man needs to shoot a teenager half his size in self-defence, it appears that legal action cannot be taken against Zimmerman.

References

Foucault, Michel. 1977. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Translated by Alan Sheridan. New York, NY: Random House Publishing

Wilderson, FB. 2003. “The Prison Slave as Hegemony’s (Silent) Scandal.” Social Justice. Retrieved February 15, 2012 (http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/29768181).

—

Lady Anima Adjepong is a doctoral student at the University of Texas. Her research interests are in gender, sports, race, and class. After receiving her bachelor’s in Comparative Literature at Princeton University, Lady worked in research consulting in Washington, DC. When the political climate in the nation’s capital got to be too intense for her, she moved to Austin, where the people are hippies and politics is on the back burner. In the rare moments when she has spare time, she tries to play rugby.