News

 Faculty members Karen A. Cerulo, Hana Shepherd and graduate alumna Vanina Leschziner just published "Rethinking Culture and Cognition" in the Annual Review of Sociology V47: 63-86. The article examines new work in cognitive science and cultural sociology published since DiMaggio's seminal 1997 piece "Culture and Cognition."

The Rutgers Sociology department is United for Justice. The tragic and senseless murder of George Floyd, preceded by Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and so many others before, has once again exposed the systemic racism and ongoing legacies of state violence disproportionately plaguing the Black community and people of color in this country and elsewhere. We recognize the pain that recent events -- the disproportionate share of COVID-related deaths among communities of color and the senseless

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We are sad to share the news that Robert Lang, a graduate of our program and a nationally recognized authority on urban growth, economic development and population dynamics, died on June 21. We send our sincere condolences to his family.

Faculty member Ali R. Chaudhary delivered a guest lecture on June 7th, 2021 entitled "Ascriptive Categories and Boundary-Making in Everyday life." His talk was presented via zoom at the European Research Centre on Migration, Ethnic Relations, and Multiculturalism based at Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

"Educational Place, Simultaneity, and Civic Participation in Asian America"
Ali R Chaudhary, Quan D Mai (2021) RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, April 2021, 7 (2) 111-128; DOI: https://doi.org/10.7758/RSF.2021.7.2.06

Article Abstract: Educational attainment is widely assumed to be positively correlated with civic participation in the United States. Yet Asian immigrants represent a civic paradox because they often report low rates of civic participation despite having

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Professor Karen A. Cerulo was a guest on “Thinking Aloud,” a radio show broadcast on BBC 4. Professor Cerulo was interviewed at length on May 5, 2021 about her study “Scents and Sensibilty: Olfaction, Sense-Making and Meaning Attribution.” The article was published in the American Sociological Review in 2018. You can hear the program at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000vq5r

Changhye Ahn's first QP project, "Acceptance of Prostitution: Support for Gender Equality and Prostitution Policy," won the first place at 2021 NYAAPOR-PANJAAPOR Young Public Opinion Stars Competition hosted by NY-PA-NJ Chapters of American Association of Public Opinion Research. The study analyzes the ways in which state policies on prostitution affect the relationship between individuals' support for gender equality and their views on prostitution, using the World Value Survey data from 39

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Niina Vuolajarvi has been recognized by the Rutgers School of Graduate Studies (SGS) for her groundbreaking research through an Outstanding Doctoral Student Award for 2021. The Outstanding Doctoral Student Award recognizes excellence in doctoral research and scholarship, with award criteria including outstanding achievements in academic research and scholarship, importance of research to a given field of study, and track record of academic and professional excellence.

Congratulations to doctoral candidate Jomaira Salas Pujols, who was recently awarded the prestigious Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship! After completing her Ford fellowship, Jomaira will join the Department of Sociology at Bard College.

Dr. Melissa Aronczyk, affiliated faculty, wrote a piece in The Washington Post where she provides an overview of her upcoming book “A Strategic Nature: Public Relations and the Politics of American Environmentalism,” co-authored with Maria Isabel Espinoza, a graduate student in our department.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/02/21/spin-doctors-have-shaped-environmentalism-debate-decades/

Sociology graduate student Maria Isabel Espinoza and Melissa Aronczyk (Rutgers School of Communication and Information) published an article in Big Data & Society that finds that “Data for good” initiatives around climate change are more about corporate PR and risk management than achieving global environmental sustainability goals.

“Big Data for Climate Action or Climate Action for Big Data?” Big Data & Society 8.1 (2021). https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2053951720982032

Join us for our Spring 2021 Colloquium Series, featuring:

Abigail Saguy, UCLA - "Come Out, Come Out Whoever You Are" Ann Morning, NYU - "Rethinking Race in Italy" Dana Fisher, University of Maryland - "American Resistance" Vesla Weaver, Johns Hopkins University - "The State from Below"

For more information and to join the colloquia via Zoom, download the Spring 2021 Colloquium Series PDF flyer or visit our events calendar.

Congratulations to Brooklynn Hitchens who defended her dissertation "Stress and Street Life: Black Women, Urban Inequality, and Coping in a Small Violent City” on July 21, 2020! Brooklynn’s committee members were, Lauren Krivo and the late Patrick Carr (co-advisors), Dana Britton, and Yasser Payne. Dr. Hitchens will be joining the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland as a post-doctoral scholar for the 2020-2021 academic year and then as a tenure track

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Congratulations to Norah MacKendrick, who is the winner of this year's Allan Schnaiberg Outstanding Publication Award, given out by the Environmental Sociology Section of the ASA, for her book Better Safe than Sorry: How Consumers Navigate Exposure to Everyday Toxics.

We are deeply saddened to share the news that Professor Patrick Carr died on April 16, following a nine-year battle with multiple myeloma.