Colloquia

This presentation synthesizes the findings from two separate but related research efforts examining the tactics employed by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) in the 20th century to inculcate settlers in the United States with pyrophobic values. By examining USFS fire suppression rhetoric from 1905-present, as well as carrying out a systematic analysis of Smokey Bear campaign materials, these combined research efforts reveal how settler colonial…

Join the Department of Sociology for a Speaker Event with our newest Doctor!  Alyssa Brown, Ph.D. Nov 1, 3:00-4:00 at the Miller Learning Center, Room 214.

Join us on Friday 10/13 at 3PM as Sarah Groh explores the health care utilization and health behaviors of lesbian women.  Given the barriers to health care along dimensions of gender, race, and class within a political climate that targets LGBTQ+ health care specifically, understanding how these barriers affect health decisions and health care utilization has important policy implications for the lives of lesbian women.  

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…

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…

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…

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…

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 many local residents already knew to…

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…

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…