Contexts

sociology for the public

Guest posts

“Woman, Life, Freedom” and the Progressive Academe

On September 13, 2022, a 22-two-year-old Kurdish woman named Jina (Mahsa) Amini was arrested by “Morality Police” in Tehran, Iran, with the charge of defying … Read More

Another mass killing in a gay bar

Journalists don’t contact me when new bars open, when they set new fundraising records, or when their events send queer joy spilling into the streets. Read More

Climate Change, Redlining, and Our Institutions’ Blue Roofs

Dilapidated homes, unoccupied with boarded windows. Overgrown patches of land, acres of empty parking lots with vines slowly reclaiming the space. Big box … Read More

Home-Working’s Covid Comeback

Working from home was on a long, downward slide until the 1980s, when sectoral shifts and information technologies triggered a reversal. For a couple of … Read More

Intellectual Humility

Intellectual humility is a call for people to read broadly, to seek out knowledge from the periphery and center it in their research, writing, and teaching. Read More

The Onus Is on Us—And It Shouldn’t Be.

Systemic inequality is buoyed by the idea that the underclass—whether they are women or a disadvantaged racial/ethnic group or economic class—holds the greatest responsibility for correcting inequalities. The problem of the underclass receiving the bill for solidarity applies basically anywhere we find a recognizable, lesser privileged group. Read More

We all play a part in creating mass shooters

Tom Driggers, cc The United States does not care for people’s lives and will forget about Uvalde and Highland … Read More

The Knowledge Polity: Teaching and Research in the Social Sciences

Pew Nguyen, Pexels cc A notable feature of academic life is its open-ended nature and the freedom to pursue … Read More

Sociology and the Racialized Moral Panic Over ‘CRT’

Over the past year and a half, politicians and media commentators have amplified a growing movement opposing education focused on racism and racial discrimination in … Read More

This is Our Time! Training Students to Fight Climate Change

Photo by Li-An Lim on Unsplash I teach many classes in environmental sociology and they are all … Read More