Contexts

sociology for the public

Contexts Blog

Do Immigrants Have More Conservative Sexual Attitudes Than Other College Students?

by Sammy Wu, Emma Mishel, Paula England, and Kristine Wang
Sociologists have long been interested in immigrant assimilation. They have usually focused on how well immigrants are able to learn English, earn educational degrees, find … Read More

“Freedom”: A Call for Papers

by Rashawn Ray and Fabio Rojas
Structure and freedom are inevitably linked. Social structures may shift, leading to new possibilities for action. Barriers and constraints may disappear, encouraging people … Read More

What is the Sexual Life Cycle of Those Who Ever Have a Same-Sex Partner?

by Emma Mishel and Paula England
A growing proportion of Americans have had a same-sex sex partner at some point during their life, especially among women (as we show here … Read More

Three Facts about Immigration Control from Social Science

by Genesis Torres and Kim Ebert
Spend a day in the South Texas Family Residential Center (STFRC), and you’ll realize the extent of the criminalization of immigration. Its name may conjure … Read More

Is Unauthorized Immigration an Economic Drain on American Communities? Research Says No.

by Helen B. Marrow, Will Tyson, Susan C. Pearce, Martha Crowley, and Kim Ebert
In October 2017, the Tar River Times, a newspaper with a small print circulation in Tarboro, North Carolina—the hometown of both immigration sociologist Helen … Read More

Auditing Macroeconomic Data Production

by Andrew Kerner and Charles Crabtree
A recent report from the Wall Street Journal suggests that the World Bank allowed politics to influence their assessments of business climates around the … Read More

A New Black Holiday, or Why W.E.B. Du Bois’s 150th Birthday Matters

by Marcus Anthony Hunter
In the weeks and years following the conclusion of World War II, Du Bois had traveled the globe advocating for nuclear disarmament and sending peacegrams … Read More

Can Hollywood Separate Gold from White?

by Matthew W. Hughey
Confederate statues and their demise have been top-of-mind lately. But every spring, a different statue captures our attention—it’s 13.5” tall, weighs 8.5 pounds, and is … Read More

Call for Papers: Asian America(ns)

by Rashawn Ray and Fabio Rojas
Call for Papers Contexts: Understanding People in their Social Worlds is issuing a call for papers for its Fall 2018 issue, … Read More

Segregation in Social Networks on Facebook

by Bas Hofstra
On the morning of November 9th 2016, many democratic-oriented Americans updated their Facebook timelines, unhappy and frustrated about a rather unexpected outcome in the U.S. presidential election. People were … Read More

About Contexts

Contexts is a quarterly magazine that makes cutting-edge social research accessible to general readers. We're the public face of sociology.

It is a publication of the American Sociological Association, edited by Amin Ghaziani and Seth Abrutyn (University of British Columbia), with Letta Page.