Tech Talk: Diversity Discourse in Silicon Valley
Nearly a decade ago, Google released figures disclosing the diversity of its workforce (or perhaps more accurately, the lack thereof). The statistics were damning: less than 17% of Google’s technical...
View ArticleWho You Are and Where You Belong
[At Truman Academy] there are no losers, we’re all winners. …[Truman students] can move with confidence forward. And we hear from [other] educators that when they move to high school, our kids know who...
View ArticleAfter Affirmative Action: Reflections from Older Siblings
On June 29, 2023, the Supreme Court voted to strike down affirmative action in college admissions. Intended to address historical inequalities, affirmative action focused on increasing educational...
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Black Sociology: A Primer
This post is adapted from “Black Sociology: Race and Power Dynamics in Sociology,” published in June 2023 on BlackFeminisms. My work in Black feminist digital sociology draws on Black feminist thought...
View ArticleThe Privileged Professor
Although there’s a lot of kvetching about it in higher ed forums, working as a tenure-track professor is a pretty sweet gig. High occupational prestige. Pleasant working conditions. Summers and...
View ArticleNavigating the Path to Legal Status: An Undocumented Immigrant’s Story, Pt. 1
Part 1: “No Matter What Happens, Please Don’t Leave Me Here” In 1990, my parents brought our family across the Mexican/American border. I was two years old. The subsequent thirty-two years of my life...
View Articlenavigating the path to legal status: an undocumented immigrant’s story, pt. 2
Part 2: “Do You Have Any Sexually Transmitted Diseases? Are You Sure?” May 18, 2022 We arrived in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, later that day. Stepping out of the airport, a scorching and parched air greeted...
View ArticleNavigating the Path to Legal Status: An Undocumented Immigrant’s Story, Part 3
Part 3: “How Would I Get Past the Wall?” May 24, 2022 The much-anticipated day had finally arrived: it was time for my immigration interview. In the past, the interview used to be completed in a single...
View ArticleLatina, Immigrant, Mother: How Intersectional Recognition Shapes Care and...
The day was cold, dreary, and wet, as so many November days are in New England. The weather kept attendance low at an English class for immigrant parents in Somerville, Massachusetts, a small sanctuary...
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Lack of diversity on college campuses fuels naïve belief in meritocracy
Runaway income segregation and inequality call attention to the changing conditions of life on each side of the growing economic divide. But as social worlds diverge along socioeconomic fault lines, it...
View ArticleWhen Plans Fail
Are ambition and planning the keys to success for young people today? Popular media and many researchers would say yes. Such accounts depict navigating the transition to adulthood as a series of...
View ArticleFamilies We Keep
As recent events have made clear, LGBTQ+ adults in the United States still face significant barriers to full social acceptance. Research shows that this exclusion persists not only in the domain of...
View ArticleHow does anti-Asian bias contribute to school segregation in the United States?
This essay is reposted with permission from the School Diversity Notebook. Despite preponderous evidence of historical and contemporary anti-Asian bias and violence in the United States, limited...
View ArticleAirport Sociology
I returned to the United States from Thailand having just completed my seventh term leading Hands on Thailand (HoT), a study-abroad/service-learning sociology program I created back in 2014. Transiting...
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The Scholar Denied and Du Bois’s Legacy in Ghana
The following post is the first in a two-part series celebrating W.E.B. Du Bois and the ongoing efforts by contemporary scholars and activists to preserve and enhance his legacy. This week’s post...
View ArticleQ&A with Aldon Morris and Naomi Schneider
The following post is the second in a two-part series celebrating W.E.B. Du Bois and the ongoing efforts by contemporary scholars and activists to preserve and enhance his legacy. In this post, blog...
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What it’s like to be the target of a book ban
In this post, Arlene Stein reflects on the experience of having her book, Unbound: Transgender Men and the Remaking of Identity, targeted for possible removal from a public library. As a bonus, we...
View ArticleIntensive Motherwork: Racism and Black Women’s Mothering
As I chatted with Asia over a video call, it was evident how much she loved being a mother. Her face lit up as she described the accomplishments of her 17-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter; both...
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What The Golden Bachelor Gets Right About Older Adult Dating
Caution: Spoilers ahead! I study the dating experiences of single older adults. In recent months, this has meant that every person I know has reached out to tell me about this hot new show on ABC, The...
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Playing in the Dirt
I’m crouched down in a vegetable bed on one of the first true fall days of the 2023 growing season. The leaves have just started to turn, with only a few golden patches peeking out of the timber...
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Race, “That Ugly Word”
Recently, a Swedish friend asked what my latest book was about. Upon learning that it was a comparison of racial thinking in the United States and Italy, she responded, “Of course; race is such a...
View ArticleA Good Time to not Have Children
Although a growing share of Americans say they do not intend to have children in the future, childlessness is still a relatively uncommon family status. I was a few weeks away from defending my...
View ArticleWhy are French authorities acknowledging racial profiling but doing nothing...
I’ve spent much of my adult life studying racism in France. As a Black woman and scholar, I’ve experienced the romanticized Paris of Black American expatriation, epitomized by Josephine Baker, Richard...
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The Struggle for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Memory
In the video below, USC Professor Hajar Yazdiha, author of The Struggle for the People’s King: How Politics Transforms the Memory of the Civil Rights Movement, speaks with Contexts‘ blog editor Elena...
View ArticlePublic Practice and the Origins of Sociology: New Thoughts on an Old Issue
As sociology faculty nationwide counted down the days to winter break, heated debate again erupted on Academic Twitter (ahem, X). The point of contention? Praxis-oriented, justice-focused sociology....
View ArticleLetter to the Editors: Incarceration and Nonviolent Drug Offenses
To the Editors: In her essay, “The Drug War Turns 50,” Emily Campbell (2022) seriously misrepresents the situation when she writes, “Today, more than half of American prisoners are incarcerated for...
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Why did Motorville stay blue?
I first met Isaac in September of 2019. Though it was still early in the fall, the weather had already turned cold in his hometown of Motorville, Wisconsin. A middle-aged White man, Isaac worked a...
View ArticleDistinction Through Distancing
“Just recently martial arts has opened up, wearing masks and staying six feet away,” teenager Ryan told us. It was May 2020, the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Despite widespread...
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The Class Politics of Fine Dining
Some people still have stress dreams about high school exams. I still have stress dreams about working for David Bouley. Famed chef David Bouley passed away in February 2024. His New York Times...
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Who gets to speak for autism?
“Welcome to this warrior gang and we are bad motherfuckers!” exclaimed Jenny McCarthy to an audience of applauding parents. During an early autumn weekend in 2015, nearly 700 parents gathered at the...
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