Colloquia

As a nascent sociologist, how does one find their area of expertise? Is it necessary to narrow one’s interests or forsake creative preoccupations to be a credible sociologist? Being a discipline that centers on culture, human social interactions, and various aspects of everyday life, sociology offers a broad bandwidth of topics for scientific inquiry and instruction. All one must do is follow their sociological “character arc.” Discussing her…

Sociology of Entrepreneurship and Cooperative Enterprise: When the Adventure Finds You
Join Amairini Sanchez as she discusses how a system of hybridity between the functions of the immigration system and criminal justice system have become enmeshed. This has led to an overcriminalization effect that has disproportionately affected noncitizens due to the risk of facing both criminal justice sanctions and immigration penalties.  Sanchez has investigated how states outline their relationship with federal immigration law in their…

Disentangling the Crimmigration Structure: The Role of System Hybridity in Criminal Justice Punishment
Join Dr. Barbara Combs for a discussion on how her Bodies Out of Place (BOP) Theory helps dismantle racism. Racism is complex. In some ways, it is also contradictory. There are structural and historical components of racialized oppression that remain largely unseen to the eye. This is not because they do not exist, but because the racialized social order is so inextricably woven into the fabric of society that it renders it nearly imperceptible…

BOP Theory Lecture and Q&A with Dr. Barbara Combs
Join us for a discussion of W.E.B. Du Bois' theory of double consciousness and social psychological work on identity as well as the experiences of Black STEM students.  The purpose of the study is to understand how social network factors within organizations shape how Black STEM students use identity management strategies to cope with experiences of racialization with Historically White Colleges and Universities (HWCUs) and how these…

Parallel Identity Processes, Social Networks, and Mixed Emotions Colloquium
As a part of our annual tradition, we will view the documentary "Below Baldwin: How an Expansion Project Unearthed a University's Legacy of Slavery". Following the film, there will be a discussion with community organizer Imani Scott Blackwell led by Dr. Vanessa Gonlin. On November 17, 2015, construction on Baldwin Hall on the University of Georgia campus came to a halt when workers uncovered human remains on the site. DNA tests revealed what…

Below Baldwin- Film Screening and Discussion
During the last weeks, Germany is discussing the first elected right-wing district administrator in Sonneberg in Thuringia. Numerous right-wing-populist and right-wing extremist parties in Europe are celebrating electoral successes. The lecture will first give an overview of current developments, election campaigns and results. Secondly, changes in the European Public sphere, above all effects of digitalization and therewith interwoven…

"The rise of right-wing-populism in Europe: Insights from party research and political sociology"
In this talk, Dr. Acosta explores the strategies that mixed-race (and racially minoritized) stepfamilies led by lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer parents use to make themselves intelligible as family to others. Based on interview data with parents from more than 40 families before and after the SCOTUS Obergefell ruling, Dr. Acosta highlights how these families’ strategies vary not only based on their racial composition, but also on the…

Everyone Thinks We Look Alike: Seeking Recognition in LGBTQ-Parented Stepfamilies
This talk will highlight and discuss the importance of intersectionality when examining racism at a HPWI (historically, predominately white institution). Black undergraduate women experience both racism and sexism simultaneously, or what Black feminists call gendered racism. HPWI’s are white-centric spaces but are also sites for patriarchy and male domination. Higher education scholars and race scholars must shift the discourse intersectionality…

"THE RACIAL AND GENDERED DYNAMICS OF POWER ON CAMPUS: BLACK WOMEN CREATING COUNTER-SPACES AS RESISTANCE"
In February, 2020, when COVID-19 infections had started to spread globally, the World Health Organization warned against an accompanying “massive infodemic.” In the months that followed misinformation and conspiracies regarding COVID spread like wildfire and critically impacted healthcare provision all across the world. These misinformation and conspiracies also led to widespread calls to urgently tackle the growing anti-science attitudes and,…

What is Anti-Science? Science, Scientists, and COVID-19 Misinformation and Conspiracies
Young Americans expect to form egalitarian partnerships in which both partners work for pay and perform unpaid housework and childcare. Yet, working couples’ realities often deviate from this ideal, with women trading off paid work to take on unpaid family care. Will contemporary young professionals in different-gender relationships repeat this pattern, or will they follow different trajectories as they launch and build careers, maintain…

"EQUAL PARTNERS? HOW DUAL PROFESSIONAL COUPLES MAKE CAREER, RELATIONSHIP, AND FAMILY DECISIONS"
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