The American Sociological Association is putting out a newsletter geared toward undergraduate sociology majors.  Titled, “The Independent Variable,” the fall edition of the newsletter can be found here.

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Professor Mary Moran has been very busy this semester on sabbatical, but using much of that time to share her studies of Liberian culture amidst the focus on Liberia and the Ebola outbreak.  Read this fantastic NPR story on Liberian burial rituals which quotes Mary Moran extensively.

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Lilyan Jones is a 2013 Colgate graduate and studied with the SOAN (anthropology) and NAST departments.   She was recently awarded the 2014-2015 Ann Ray Internship from SAR – School for Advanced Research.  The School for Advanced Research, Indian Arts Research Center (IARC) offers two nine-month internships to individuals who are recent college graduates, current graduate students, or junior museum professionals interested in furthering their professional museum experience and enhancing their intellectual capacity for contributing to the expanding field and discourse of museum studies.  Read more about Lilyan’s internship and the School for Advanced Research HERE.

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According to a new global poll by Ipsos Mori, Americans greatly overestimate the US unemployment rate.  They thought it was 32% when it is actually 6%.  They also vastly overestimated the teen pregnancy rate – the average answer was 24% when it is really 3%.  Respondents also hugely overestimated the percentage of immigrants, Muslims, and senior citizens in the country.

It turns out that we are not alone.  Respondents in Canada, Australia, Japan, South Korea, and nine European countries overestimated those same numbers.  Sadly, though, we did worse than most.  The US ranked only behind the Italians in a measure Ipsos calls the Index of Ignorance.

Submitted by Professor Carolyn Hsu

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