2016-11-15 - Framing the Global Fellow Zsuzsa Gille recently discussed with us her book Paprika, Foie Gras, and Red Mud: The Politics of Materiality in the European Union, published by IU Press. In the book, Zsuzsa Gille examines three scandals that have shaken Hungary since joining the European Union: the 2004 ban on paprika due to contamination, the 2008 boycott of Hungarian...

2016-07-19 - Tom VanHeuvelen's paper ("Recovering the Missing Middle: A Mesocomparative Analysis of Within-Group Inequality") has won an Honorable Mention from the Inequality, Poverty and Mobility Section of ASA in the Best Student Paper competition.

2016-07-15 - Our own Professor Assata Zerai has accepted the position of Associate Chancellor for Diversity! This appointment recognizes Professor Zerai's campus-wide leadership in mentoring and promoting diversity on our campus. Please join us in congratulating her!

2016-07-15 - Rightist movements in Europe are on the rise, and Donald Trump has astoundingly hijacked the American conservatives’ platform. Yet at the same time thousands of miles farther in Iran, the radical right has had a hard time reaching out to the Iranian people. The irony is that while rightist politics has gained momentum in different parts of the world, the Iranian brand of right, especially since...

2016-06-13 - The following Sociology professors were elected to positions with the American Sociological Association. Please join us in congratulating them. Phyllis Baker was elected to the council for the Sociology of Development Section. Zsuzsa Gille was elected Chair of the Global and Transnational Sociology Section. Monica McDermott was elected to the ASA Council and Secretary/Treasurer of the Section of...

2016-06-04 - Rising income inequality has been brought front and center as an issue in this year’s presidential campaign. But do we really know what’s driving it, and the keys to closing the gap? Are popular explanations supported by research and data? Sociologist Kevin Leicht has focused much of his career on inequality and related issues, and suggests a rethink in “Getting Serious About Inequality,”...

2016-05-02 - By now, no one is debating the fact that economic inequality has grown substantially in the past few decades. It seems that almost every day there’s a new report showing that incomes and wealth continue to grow for the richest while everyone else struggles to make do. But when it comes to solutions, the conversation stalls. That may be because people are focusing on the...

2016-05-02 - It is often said that history is written by the victors. But it's probably more true to say it is written by the people who have the opportunity to write. One example of this is the study of black women, their lives and their experiences. Documents recording the lives of black women are often historically obscure, hidden away in vast library collections and unintentionally misleadingly titled or...

2016-04-29 - Life as Politics is a collection of essays and fieldwork articles originally published by Asef Bayat in a range of academic outlets between the years 2001 and 2009. It is a prophetic work. Published a year before the Arab uprisings, it tells much about how some of the Arab uprisings were launched through leaderless social nonmovements. The second edition of the book was updated and...

2016-03-09 - On February 29, Professor Sandefur spoke about her research on public experience with justice problems and civil legal aid at a meeting co-chaired by US Attorney General, Loretta Lynch and the Director of President Obama's Domestic Policy Council, Cecilia Munoz. The event was attended by cabinet-level representatives from over 20 federal departments, including the Departments of State, Labor, the...

2016-02-05 - Cynthia Buckley was selected to join a group of 20 leading scholars to help launch the German government's new interdisciplinary migration research center in Berlin. The group sought to provide guiding ideas about emerging issues in immigration to the EU.

2016-02-05 - Tim Liao collaborators have been awarded a grant (approx. $1 million Australian) to study the intergenerational transmission of joblessness. The proposed project seeks to understand the intergenerational transmission of joblessness and identify new ways in which the cycle of joblessness can be broken. The other PI’s are Irma Mooi-Reci and Mark Wooden at the University of Melbourne, Australia....

2016-02-05 - Monica McDermott has been awarded a grant from the Russell Sage Foundation ($150,000, with collaborators Eric Knowles from NYU and Jennifer Richeson from Northwestern). The grant title is "Inequality, Diversity and Working Class White Attitudes".

2016-02-05 - Assata Zerai (along with Brian Pianfetti in Civil and Environmental Engineering) has been awarded a $150,000 grant from the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders. The grant will be used to bring young African scholars to campus to study public management (with further emphasis on issues of health, water, sanitation, and gender)....

2016-01-27 - Five years ago this month, the Tunisians had brought down a dictator and the Egyptians were on their way to doing the same, beginning with massive demonstrations that grabbed the world’s attention. Protest and revolution would soon spread throughout the Middle East; it would be labeled as the “Arab Spring.” But five years later, there seems little but despair, with repressive rulers once again in...