post submitted by Prof Hyslop

SOAN Professor Jon Hyslop has a chapter in a new book, 1916 in Global Context: An Anti-Imperial Moment, edited by colleagues from the University of Galway in Ireland. The book deals with the transnational impact of the Dublin Easter Rising. The photo below shows editor Róisín Healy presenting a copy of the book to the President of Ireland, Michael Higgins (who happens to be a sociologist). Hyslop’s chapter, “Johannesburg’s Green Flag: The Contemporaneity of the Easter Rising and the 1922 Rand Rebellion,” looks at links between Ireland and southern Africa. He argues that there are two major modes in which the study of global history has been pursued: a long tradition of comparison and a more recent trend toward the exploration of connections. However, there may be a third mode of analytical linkage between events, which one might name as the study of contemporaneity. This consists in the identification of ways in which spatially separated events are the products of a shared global conjuncture of social forces, political cultures and institutions. Distinct events manifest common characteristics which are part of a much wider, structural global pattern. And in turn, these commonalities enable participants in events in different parts of the world to recognize, or creatively misrecognize, each other as representing similar political projects. In the social and military conflicts which battered both societies between the 1890s and the 1920s, Ireland and South Africa were significant reference points on each others’ mental political maps.

Editor Róisín Healy presenting a copy of *1916 in Global Context* to the President of Ireland, Michael Higgins.

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Congratulations to SOAN’s Professor Janel Benson and Sociology alum Anastassia Bougakova ’16, who recently published a coauthored article in the journal, Advances in Child Development and Behavior.  The article, entitled, “Kin Networks and Mobility in the Transition to Adulthood,” is based on collaborative research that Prof Benson and Anastassia conducted using a longitudinal study of young women’s educational experiences in the Philadelphia area.  They argue for the importance of studying extended family networks (beyond parents) for understanding the impact of kin support for the transition from adolescence to early adulthood.

Anastassia double-majored in Sociology and English and was awarded High Honors in Sociology for her thesis on the experiences of LGTBQ students at Colgate.  Since graduating, Anastassia has worked as an Associate at Notch Partners.

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On a snowy December day, it’s a good time to think about summer.  Several students majoring in Anthropology or Sociology spent Summer 2017 conducting research, often right alongside SOAN faculty.  The most recent issue of the Colgate Scene features a cover story on Professor Kristin DeLucia’s research in San Miguel Xaltocan, Mexico—the story features details of Anthropology majors Cameron Pauly, Hannah Post, and Audrey Swift (all class of 2019) working on an archaeological dig central to Prof. DeLucia’s research.  The article also includes many great photos of the site and the team’s work, so make sure to check out the gallery of images.

Earlier this semester, Colgate also featured the work of Sociology major Tim Englehart ’18, who spent the summer researching the impact of college on students’ altruistic behavior, including volunteerism.  Tim worked under the supervision of Professor Janel Benson, and is now continuing his research this year as part of the honors program in Sociology.  Click through the link to read about Tim’s project and reflections in his own words.

Finally, Vanessa Escobar and Jolene Patrina (both class of 2019) worked with Professor Elana Shever over the summer and supported her ongoing research project on the cultural and political significance of dinosaurs in contemporary life.  Vanessa and Jolene wrote this reflection on their work with Prof. Shever, and we hope that all SOAN students consider their advice to pursue summer research experiences with our faculty:

This summer we worked with Professor Shever with her ongoing research, which is entering its later stages as she begins a rough draft of her book. Most of the work we did was focused on transcribing audio files from the field and finding themes amongst data she had collected over the several years of fieldwork. On a day-to-day basis we worked from 9 to 5 and did all our work on a computer. From this, we realized the best part of this summer job was the exposure to new software.

Being introduced to several software programs and using most of them throughout these past weeks is great preparation for future jobs involving research and technology. Additionally, we had independence and free time to direct our projects ourselves and dictated what we would focus on any given day. When it came time to make a poster based on our summer research findings, we realized how enjoyable it is to make a poster however you want, with no strict guidelines, and when you don’t have classwork diverting your attention or even stressing you out. We found it very exciting to work with the data and do our own analysis of this research as well.

Although neither of us major in anthropology, we both had some interest in the field and spent a lot of time in the computer room discussing our findings and having fun devoting so much time to research that didn’t end after we wrote a paper on it like it would during the school year. We were immersed in the investigation and got to know Professor Shever’s field sites and informants on a deeper level without having to travel there.

We bonded in the lab, but we were highly encouraged by Professor Shever to leave the SOAN computer room to get some sun and breathe the fresh air outside. The summertime in Hamilton aided these interactions, because usually the weather was pleasant and the campus was beautifully desolate. Without students constantly roaming the school and without the piles of snow and mud, we got to experience a peaceful, almost meditative campus environment. Additionally, the SOAN workspace, its professors and students, and the campus-wide activities, such as ice cream socials and lunch at Merrill House, were almost ideal for bonds to be built on a small scale within the department and on a bigger scale with the friends we previously had or met around the whole campus.

Ultimately, summer research at Colgate with the wonderful SOAN department was an amazing experience for us both. We got to experience Colgate in a new and less stressful way while still engaging with academics. We encourage anyone who gets the opportunity to work at Colgate for a summer.

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This post submitted by Prof Alicia Simmons.

I am a social psychologist studying the intersections of media, race, and politics in the United States. My scholarship focuses on the nature of Americans’ racial attitudes toward blacks and their opinions about public policies that obviously or tacitly invoke race. I further explore how these attitudes are created, triggered, altered, and reinforced by exposure to the news media. One branch of my research uses surveys and experiments to investigate the nature and causes of racial attitudes and racialized policy preferences.

My latest publication, “Cultivating Support for Punitive Criminal Justice Policies: News Sectors and the Moderating Effects of Audience Characteristics,” appears in Social Forces. It proposes and tests a model describing how news exposure might shape support for punitive criminal justice policies. Instrumental theories of punitiveness propose that opinions are the result of individuals’ perceptions of crime. In contrast, expressive theories suggest that punitiveness is a socioemotional response to the unsettling processes of modernity; in other words, people support punitive crime control measures as a way to reestablish social order in a world undergoing transformation. I argue that news exposure might affect instrumental and expressive concerns, and thus audience members’ punitiveness. I further propose that this process varies based on audience members’ characteristics. Using data from an original, nationally representative survey, I replicate previous research demonstrating that expressive concerns outweigh instrumental concerns in predicting punitiveness. I further show that local, cable, and radio news exposure are positively associated with punitiveness, and print newspaper and Internet news exposure are negatively associated with punitiveness. Moreover, I demonstrate that these relationships hinge on audience members’ characteristics. Although news exposure shapes whites’ punitiveness, it has no impact on non-whites’ attitudes. In addition, news exposure generally decreases punitiveness among liberals while increasing it among conservatives. I discuss the results in the context of the social construction of reality, highlighting the interplay between experienced and vicarious sources of knowledge, and in terms of selective exposure, emphasizing that audience members’ news outlet choices have profound implications for their worldviews.

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This wonderful article titled “Xaltocan Found Traces that Would Have Celebrated the New Fire” appeared in the newspaper Cronica from Mexico.  Professor of Archaeology Kristin DeLucia spent 8 weeks in the town of Xaltocan, located in the municipality of Nextlalpan, State of Mexico, where she worked on excavations this summer. The article appears originally in Spanish and features De Lucia who is entering her second year of teaching this fall.   The Colgate Scene is doing an article on this project as well.  Below is the original article which you can read in Spanish, and the translated version enjoy!!

The Spanish Newspaper version is here.

The English translated version is here.

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Tim Englehart is a Sociology major from Newburyport, MA.  He has been working hard this summer in the 4th floor Alumni Hall resource room doing research with Professor Janel Benson.  Tim is looking at patterns in student volunteerism at Colgate and across selective liberal arts colleges and universities.

Read about Tim’s research here.

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SOAN is incredibly proud of our student award winners in the Class of 2017, including our Award for Excellence in Anthropology, Award for Excellence in Sociology, and the Ramshaw Service Award.  Our Awards for Excellence in each discipline recognize the students who attained the highest scholarly achievement in their majors; this year the award for Anthropology was earned by Hope Di Paolo, and Julia Taibl earned the award in Sociology.  Our Ramshaw Service Award is named after SOAN Professor Emeritus Warren Ramshaw, and the award recognizes our students who have excelled both in academics as well as through community service.  This year Sociology majors Sally Langan and Alison LePard were awarded the Ramshaw Service Award.  In addition to these awards, several other SOAN majors and minors also bagged important campus awards this year, and we are very proud of them all.

Congratulations to all our seniors and best wishes for postgraduate life!

SOAN students winning awards include (l to r) Chelsea Mohr (Upstate Institute Award), Alison LePard (Ramshaw Service Award), Sally Langan (Ramshaw Service Award), Hope Di Paolo (Award for Excellence in Anthropology), and Julia Taibl (Award for Excellence in Sociology, not pictured).

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Dear SOAN students and friends,

This week, following the “active shooter” Campus Alert, has been difficult for our community.

While the administration has taken preliminary action, many of our students voice despair, exhaustion and concern that this will be “swept under the rug” or forgotten in the excitement of graduation and the lull of summer. We feel compelled to issue this commitment to you and to ourselves as a community.

We all have obligations to each other and to society. As those trained to think and act critically about issues of injustice and inequality, we are deeply troubled that certain bodies were imperiled, that whole communities were multiply traumatized, often in ways that others cannot fully grasp. Although we are encouraged that President Casey and many others are responding swiftly and concretely, we are once again reminded that our institution has a lot of urgent work to do. This event was not the result of one or a few individuals. We must work together to dismantle white supremacy on our campus. Colgate’s sociologists and anthropologists pledge to press our teaching, our curriculum, and our other activities on campus to this task, in every way we can imagine.

We ask that our administrators continue with, and scale up their efforts to address real change on this campus.  We ask that Colgate faculty and students continue to interrogate and resist injustice, violence, exclusion and dehumanization in the spaces we occupy across campus and in our communities. All of us have a responsibility to work against arrangements that divide community members from each other and enforce intersecting hierarchies of oppression.

In solidarity,

Members of the SOAN Department

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Many congratulations to SOAN Administrative Assistant Karen Austin, who was recognized with Colgate’s Oak Award last week at the annual Green Summit.  The Oak Award is given to those members of the Colgate community who are outstanding champions for the cause of sustainability.  When presenting the award, student Dominic Wilkins read the following citation for Karen: “This Oak Award goes to an outstanding member of Colgate’s staff who has dedicated a lot of time and effort to sustainability over the last year. This person serves on Colgate’s Sustainability Council and as a Chair of the Administrative Assistants Best Practices Group. They have been a leader in sustainability among the Administrative Assistants and the greater Colgate community. Please join me in recognizing the 2016-2017 Staff Oak Award Winner, Ms. Karen Austin.”

Congratulations, Karen, and thanks for all you do to green the SOAN Department and Colgate!

Karen Austin, winner of the Oak Award, for “outstanding contribution to sustainability” at Colgate.

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On Thursday, March 23, eight Sociology majors in the Honors Thesis Workshop (SOC 495) presented their research projects via a poster session held in the SOAN Lounge.  The students have been working with Prof Carolyn Hsu on their projects since the Fall 2016 semester in a year-long honors seminar, and each was on hand to speak with interested attendees.  Participants in the seminar include: Emi Foster, Angela Jang, Sally Langan, Alison LePard, Sydney Parker, Kayla Robinson, Zoe Smith, and Chandler Wood.  The posters are still up and available for viewing in the SOAN Lounge, on the fourth floor of Alumni Hall, so please stop by and take a look!

Students in the Sociology Honors Seminar (2017): Zoe Smith, Emi Foster, Chandler Wood, Sydney Parker, Angela Jang, Alison LePard, Sally Langan, and Kayla Robinson.

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