Office Hours

Today we are joined by Belinda Wheaton. Belinda is a Principle Research Fellow in Sport and Leisure Cultures at the University of Brighton, UK. Belinda has published extensively on informal sports including articles, multiple edited volumes, and the recently published The Cultural Politics of Lifestyle Sports. We discuss why lifestyle sports are worthy of academic […]

In this episode, political scientist Chad Lavin discusses his new book, Eating Anxiety: The Perils of Food Politics. Chad’s work explores how our experiences with food shape popular ideas about identity, authenticity, and responsibility. He speaks with us about the political meanings of diet in a globalized society, and some limitations of the local food […]

Today we are joined by Tristan Bridges. Tristan is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at The College at Brockport, State University of New York. Tristan researches and blogs on issues related to gender, sexuality, inequality, and space at Inequality by (Interior) Design and Feminist Reflections, the newest Community Page at The Society Pages. We discuss Tristan’s […]

In this episode, we talk with John D. Skrentny, Professor of Sociology and Co-Director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies (CCIS) at UC-San Diego. His work focuses on public policy, law and inequality. Today we discuss his recent book After Civil Rights: Racial Realism in the New American Workplace.  Download Office Hours #94

In this episode, guest host Richie LeDonne speaks with Peter McGraw, a marketing and psychology professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, and journalist Joel Warner on their new book, The Humor Code. We talk about their travels around the world in search of what makes things funny, how comedians create humor, and how laughs are […]

In this episode we talk with Osagie Obasogie, Professor of Law at University of California – Hastings. We talk about his book Blinded by Sight: Seeing Race Through the Eyes of the Blind. In this book he asks: how do blind people understand race? By engaging in qualitative research with individuals who have been totally blind since […]

This week we talk with Lane Kenworthy, Professor of Sociology and Political Science at the University of Arizona. Lane studies causes and consequences of poverty, inequality, economic growth, and social policy in the United States and other affluent countries, and recently published Social Democratic America, a look at the current state of inequality in the U.S. and what […]

Three sociologists, an anthropologist and a political scientist walk into a bar…and the result is a new book on the state, and emerging new forms, of civic participation in contemporary America.  While we seem to be living an age marked by political apathy and growing distrust for government and political institutions, there also seems to […]

This week we are joined by Matt Wray, a professor at Temple University, where he teaches sociology of race, culture, and health. Matt has researched suicide rates in Las Vegas, the city with the highest metropolitan suicide rate in the U.S. He is currently at work on a book about the “Suicide Belt” in the […]

This week we are joined by Samira Kawash to discuss her book Candy: A Century of Panic and Pleasure. Samira is a professor emerita at Rutgers University. During our conversation we discuss the important but ignored place candy has occupied in the American conscious, the many shifting meanings attached to the sugary treats, and what […]

In this episode, we talk with Colter Ellis, Assistant Professor of Sociology and the Center for Rural Studies at Sam Houston University. Professor Ellis recently published a piece in The Sociological Quarterly that examines cattle producers’ work in conventional U.S. beef production. We talk through his ethnographic project into how cattle producers express emotional connection […]

Today we are joined by Kathryn Henne. Kathryn is a Research Fellow at the Regulatory Institutions Network, a research center housed at the Australian National University and also a fellow of the Research School of Asia and the Pacific. Kathryn joins us to talk about her article “The ‘Science’ of Fair Play in Sport: Gender […]

Nicholas Kristof’s recent critique of sociology, political science, and the humanities for effectively isolating themselves from larger and more public discussions of social issues has resulted in a myriad of academic responses. In this episode of the office hours we share the audio of a recent panel of faculty at the University of Minnesota including […]

Today we are joined by David Schalliol. David is currently in the sociology program at the University of Chicago. His work focuses on the processes that facilitate social organization and disorganization in urban context. David is the author of the photography book Isolated Building Studies. His recently published, photography filled essay “Debt and Darkness in Detroit” can […]

In this episode, we talk with Brian Southwell about his new book, Social Networks and Popular Understanding of Science and Health: Sharing Disparities. Dr. Southwell is a Senior Research Scientist at the nonprofit research institute  RTI International. He is also a faculty member at both the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University. He writes about human engagement […]

Zombies have taken a special place in our cultural imaginary—appearing in countless cult classics, B-grade horror movies, best selling literary novels (and retellings of best-selling literary novels), record breaking television shows, and are the inspiration for themed parades and pub crawls around the globe. In this episode, Jennifer Rutherford, sociologist, literary scholar, and Deputy Director […]

In this episode we talk with Benjamin Fleury-Steiner and Jamie Longazel about their new book, The Pains of Mass Imprisonment. Benjamin Fleury-Steiner is Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at the University of Delaware. For more than a decade, he has taught graduate and undergraduate courses on inequality, mass imprisonment, and the death penalty. Jamie Longazel is an assistant professor […]

In this episode, we talk with Emily Baxter, creator of the documentary project “We Are All Criminals,” where participants recall crimes they committed for which they were never caught. Emily is also the Director of Public Policy and Advocacy at the Council on Crime and Justice. In her work, she is responsible for development and implementation of the organizations’ […]

In this episode, we talk with Lucia Trimbur about her excellent new book Come Out Swinging: The Changing World of Boxing in Gleason’s Gym. Lucia is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at John Jay College, the City University of New York (CUNY) and Doctoral Faculty in Criminal Justice at CUNY’s Graduate Center. Her work has […]

Sociological Images has achieved remarkable success by virtually any metric. Not only is it the most viewed Community Page on The Society Pages, but the website also receives around 500,000 visits every month, is ‘liked’ by almost 30,000 people on Facebook, followed by over 15,000 on Twitter, and has had work appear in notable news […]