Contexts

sociology for the public

Guest posts

Does Masturbation Teach Women to Orgasm in Partnered Sex? (Maybe, but It’s Not Clear)

by Paula England, Sophie Saydah, and Andrew Levine
In 1994, while attending a United Nations conference on AIDS, U.S. Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders was asked her opinion on promoting masturbation to discourage youth … Read More

CALL FOR PAPERS: Ethnographies of the Global South

by Victoria Reyes and Marco Garrido
Contexts is a quarterly magazine that makes cutting-edge social research accessible to general readers. The magazine is issuing a call for papers for its Winter 2021 … Read More

Are Social Scientists Next to be Imprisoned and Tortured? A call to unite and oppose the criminalization of social science

by David Lempert
Over the past several weeks, there have been a number of troubling events striking fear among many of us in the social sciences who study … Read More

There is No Green Book for Walking

by Jennifer D. Roberts
Why do African-Americans still need to cautiously navigate as pedestrians? Late last year, the movie “Green Book,” starring Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen was released. Read More

Rwanda, Genocide, and Gender-based Violence

by Nicole Fox
This month marks 25 years since the 1994 genocide that unfolded before the international community’s watchful eyes in the small East African country of Rwanda. Read More

Caravan, Invasion, Exodus: A Photo Essay

by Veronica Montes
It is near 5pm on Monday, November 5, 2018 when I arrived at the sports stadium Jesus Martinez “Palillo” in Mexico City. The first Central … Read More

Are Karl Marx’s Claims Accurate? Partially.

by Timothy M. Gill
This year marks the 200th birthday of Karl Marx. Activists continue to evoke his name in their struggles, academics continue to engage with his work … Read More

Racial Reckoning and White Empathy: Lessons from My Mother

by Judith Taylor
When you spend a good deal of time with a person as they make their way from this world to the next, you are bound … Read More

Contexts Symposium: After Charlottesville, Part Two

by Contexts Magazine
Editors’ Note: In observance of the first anniversary of the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Contexts is republishing our collection of essays written in … Read More

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

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.