Contexts

sociology for the public

Contexts Blog

Staking Post-Racialism in Charlottesville

It must be said that Charlottesville is a self-consciously liberal bubble—a blue dot in a red state (barring Northern Virginia) in which students routinely volunteer … Read More

The importance of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy

The Trump administration’s decision to (sort of) rescind DACA, despite formally announcing in June that the policy will temporarily remain intact epitomizes the contentious nature … Read More

social pressure to appear masculine leads straight men to have unwanted sex

Heterosexual men’s experiences of unwanted sex are often overlooked. We tend to see sexual assault perpetrators as male and victims as female—and usually that is … Read More

what does studying college sex tell us about immigrant assimilation?

To study immigrants’ experiences in American society, researchers often compare first- or second-generation immigrants to those whose families have been in the US for a … Read More

Contexts Hall of Fame Award

Contexts is a labor of love, not just for the editors, but for our writers, editorial board members, and everyone else involved. There … Read More

College women: seen as a “slut” if they have sex on a hookup, “bitch” or “prude” if they don’t

Walking a tightrope in casual hookup situations, either they have sex and risk being seen as a “slut,” or decline to have sex and risk being seen as a “prude” or a “bitch.” Read More

Changing the World, One Website at a Time

Given our current age of “alternative facts” and “fake news,” moving sociological research into the hands of a wider audience has taken on added importance. Read More

“13 Reasons Why” and the Pressing Need for a Sociology of Suicide

Note: this article contains spoilers and detailed discussions of suicide and sexual assault. Recently, Netflix released a series based on the young adult novel 13 … Read More

Class Differences in Women’s Cohabitation in Early Adulthood

It is common for couples of every social class to cohabit sometime in early adulthood in the U.S., and most marry later. However, women from … Read More

Make ‘hockey is for everyone’ for everyone

Before you keep reading on, stop for a moment and think about what you see in the picture above. February was … Read More