December 3, 2009 – 11:17 am
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 [...]
October 29, 2009 – 11:33 am
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 [...]
October 21, 2009 – 12:25 pm
Sent to me by a collague:
http://www.econjobrumors.com/topic.php?id=5151
October 13, 2009 – 12:15 pm
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
October 7, 2009 – 10:07 pm
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 [...]
September 25, 2009 – 11:16 am
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.
September 21, 2009 – 11:03 am
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 [...]
September 17, 2009 – 1:54 pm
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 [...]
September 17, 2009 – 1:53 pm
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. [...]
September 17, 2009 – 1:49 pm
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 [...]
September 8, 2009 – 7:42 pm
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 [...]
August 28, 2009 – 10:04 am
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 [...]
August 26, 2009 – 9:29 pm
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 [...]
August 25, 2009 – 12:11 pm
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 [...]
