Author Archives: andrewperrin

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

what are the key findings in your subfield?

Hey gang – as I think about final lecture/discussion preparations for my theory classes next week, I’d like to be able to talk about theorizing some key findings in sociology. What are some of the key findings in your area? Interesting and provocative theses are useful too, but data-based findings would be the best. Thanks [...]

perils of astroturf

Earlier this week I (and, as it turns out, many other North Carolinians) received a postcard from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina:
(The rest of the mailing is after the break.)
I, like many others, was infuriated that a nonprofit–which, apparently BCBSNC is–was using either my premium dollars or my tax dollars, or a [...]

puzzling sign from campaign ‘09

anonymous econ grads behaving badly

Sent to me by a collague:
http://www.econjobrumors.com/topic.php?id=5151

if it’s on amazon it must be true…

Yes, we sent in the manuscript, yes it’s on its way–if Amazon says it it must be true!
http://www.amazon.com/Guilt-Defense-Legacies-National-Socialism/dp/0674036034

science as a vocation v2.0

Princeton postdoc Amin Ghaziani writes of his decision to have his undergraduate class, “Queer Theory and Politics,” demonstrate against the National Organization for Marriage and then reflect upon and analyze the demonstration for class. The writeups–in the CBSM Newsletter and in Gay and Lesbian Studies–are thoughtful, informed, and thorough. Together they demonstrate that this exercise [...]

frontiers of polling and interpretation

Today’s NYT features, on the front page nonetheless, a story under the headline “Poll Finds Frustration on War and Health Plan.” Note that on the website they’ve changed the title to “In Poll, Public Wary of Obama on War and Health.” There are several interesting, problematic elements to the poll and the way it’s presented.

summer reading for first-year students

I’m on the committee to select the book UNC will recommend that incoming students read and then discuss during orientation. The selection has been controversial before, and sometimes not, and I enjoyed the committee last time. However, I’m concerned that too often we pick pretty straightforward narrative journalism about some case that doesn’t really challenge [...]

ask a scatterbrain: writing an annual review piece

I’ve been asked to write an article for the Annual Review of Sociology. In fact I was asked to do it last year, but had to postpone because I couldn’t get around to it–which is what’s worrying me this time around too. It’s a daunting task to digest and organize (not to mention find!) all [...]

medical ghost writing: why do these people keep their jobs?

Several recent reports (e.g., this one) have detailed the relatively common practice of drug companies writing full studies of the safety and efficacy of their drugs, then paying medical faculty to approve the pre-written item and seek its publication in major journals. This strikes me as straightforward academic dishonesty, not even particularly nuanced or complicated. [...]

is the right’s criticism of obama racist?

There’s been a lot of discussion recently of whether the increasingly ugly criticism of Obama and the health care proposals is racist in character or just generically ugly. Jimmy Carter, of course, famously said that Joe Wilson’s outburst was racist, which in turn required Obama and press secretary Gibbs to underscore that they don’t think [...]

fifteen minutes turns weird

Last week I wrote about the strange public career of an article I was part of. Now for the next chapter – John Tierney blogged about it in his NYT science blog about, of all things, who was first to reach the North Pole! The connection is tenuous, to say the least, and frankly it [...]

fifteen minutes: one way research goes public

A relatively minor project I was part of in 2004, led by Monica Prasad and in collaboration with several UNC and Northwestern graduate students, has been making press waves recently. The article identifies a mode of political reasoning we labeled inferred justification. One of the co-authors, Steve Hoffman, is now at SUNY Buffalo, and the [...]

murder by structure and latour

I’ve been making my way through Latour’s Reassembling the Social in preparation for teaching it to my graduate theory class on the advice of scatterbrains. (Note to self: consider reading books before assigning them?) Meanwhile, I’m also working through my large pile of back journals and came across Andrew Papachristos’ “Murder by Structure” in AJS [...]

spring comes twice to chapel hill

Classes started today. I’m teaching theory and theory – to be specific, graduate theory and undergraduate theory. It’s all very exciting – the sense of new beginnings, interesting new works to teach, and fresh young faces around.
Chapel Hill is very beautiful in spring and fall, and there’s a spring-like feel to the arrival of the [...]