Tuesday, April 14 2026, 11:30am - 1pm Sanford Hall, Room 313 Join UGA Sociology on April 14 as we welcome Dr. Jan E. Stets, Distinguished Professor of Sociology (University of California, Riverside) for her talk titled: "Morality in Social Life" Sponsored by the Sociology Graduate Student Society Abstract We live in a very polarized society. How do we understand morality today when opposing groups equally claim the moral high ground? Taking a broad sociological view, I argue that we need to understand morality at all levels of the social structure. We need to see it at the micro level, within individuals and their interactions. We need to see it the meso level, in the groups, organizations, and communities we belong to. And, we need to see it at the macro level, in the institutions, such as science, religion, law, and education that we establish to manage our lives. If we miss morality at these various levels of the social reality, we become inattentive to how it flows through a society. I begin to make the case for such an approach by discussing morality at these different levels. Biography Jan E. Stets is a Distinguished Professor of Sociology. She is a sociological social psychologist and Director of the Social Psychology Research Laboratory at UCR. Professor Stets is a micro-theorist. She works in the areas of self and identity, emotions, and morality. She uses identity theory to understand individuals’ self-views, emotions, and moral sensibilities. She is the author of 14 books, 100 articles and book chapters, and numerous grants. Recent books include the Handbook of Social Psychology, Volume 1: Micro Perspectives and Handbook of Social Psychology, Volume 2: Meso and Macro Perspectives (with Karen A. Hegtvedt and Long Doan, Springer, 2025), Advancing Identity Theory, Measurement, and Research (with Ashley V. Reichelmann and K. Jill Kiecolt, Springer, 2023), and Identity Theory: Revised and Expanded, Second Edition (with Peter J. Burke, Oxford University Press, 2023). The Sociology of Emotions (with Jonathan H. Turner, Cambridge University Press, 2005) has been translated into Japanese, Croatian, Polish, and Chinese. Her book, Handbook of the Sociology of Emotions (with Jonathan H. Turner, Springer Press, 2006), received the 2008 Outstanding Recent Contribution Award from the ASA Section on Emotions. In 2010, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the ASA Emotions Section. In 2015, she received the Distinguished Contribution to Sociological Perspectives Award from the Pacific Sociological Association for her article “Self-Esteem and Identities (with Peter J. Burke). In 2020, she received the Cooley-Mead Lifetime Achievement Award from the ASA Social Psychology Section. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She is past co-chair of the Department of Sociology at UCR, past director of Sociology Program at the National Science Foundation, past co-editor of the ASA journal, Social Psychology Quarterly, and past chair of the ASA Section on Social Psychology, the ASA Section on Emotions, and the ASA Section on Altruism, Morality, and Social Solidarity. Departmental Host or Contact: Zara Jillani Type of Event: Colloquia
