Dr. Sarah Shannon has been named a Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor, UGA’s highest recognition for excellence in instruction.  The official UGA news release about this is at https://news.uga.edu/five-faculty-members-named-meigs-distinguished-teaching-professors/.  Sarah is an innovative, inspiring, and highly successful teacher and mentor, and this recognition is well deserved.

Colorism, the practice whereby light skin is privileged over dark, has been widely acknowledged and studied among African Americans and Latinx populations. Though this research has grown exponentially in recent decades, less attention has been given to Asian Americans, for whom colorism is equally pervasive and deeply entrenched. This talk focuses on colorism among Asian American women and the twin pressures for light skin stemming from (1) the cultural importance given to light skin in most Asian ethnic communities and(2) the ubiquity of whiteness and white beauty in the United States.

From California to China, self-described “greening” efforts claiming to address inequality and the climate crisis proliferate. But why are such projects—undertaken in the name of ecological sustainability and climate resilience as well as quality of life—being carried out in such a wide range of places with very different histories, ecologies, and cultural repertoires for urban life?

We know remarkably little about the varying meanings justice-involved populations assign to their employment experiences, and how those meanings intersect with varying criminal involvement over time. Some perspectives assume that employment and crime are alternative choices that don’t easily co-exist, particularly as the individual moves down a pathway towards desistance. Other scholars view employment and income-generating crime as more-or-less interchangeable types of work, with effort allocated over time to that which provides greatest utility.

In this presentation, we will discuss the troubled past (and present) of fat stigma. We will consider the role of racism and sexism in its creation and perpetuation throughout the Western world. The presentation will highlight the role of the medical field in its more recent propagation.

This talk offers an historical sociology of militarized policing in the US and Britain, where the model of our current “civil police” was born. It explores the deep historical roots of militarized policing, its causes, and its inextricable connections with empire abroad and racial dynamics at home.

Thirty years into a purported culture war, evidence for the ideological polarization of popular tastes and lifestyles remains inconclusive. And yet, the degree to which ideological antipathy has spilled over into otherwise mundane realms of social life is central not only for key sociological insights about societal cohesion, but also for the existence of a functioning democratic society.

Boches, Daniel J. and Mark Cooney. 2022. “What Counts as ‘Violence?’ Semantic Divergence in   Cultural Conflicts.” Deviant Behavior.