By Stacy Palen Titan’s orbit is growing, which is unexpected! This article might be appropriate when discussing orbits, outer planet moons, or resonances. Below are some questions to ask your students based on this article. 1) What did astronomers EXPECT to find out about Titan’s orbit, before undertaking this study?... Continue reading

By Karen Sternheimer The recent economic downturn has impacted millions of Americans. As of this writing, about 30 million Americans are collecting unemployment benefits. Those earning less than $40,000 have endured the greatest job losses; according to the Federal Reserve,... Continue reading

By Jonathan Wynn A non-trivial aspect of the wave of protests over the last few months has been focused on public monuments. The Theodore Roosevelt statue at the National History Museum will be replaced because of its representation of racism... Continue reading

By Jessica Poling There is no doubt that the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests following the murder of George Floyd will be one of the defining features of the year 2020. Following the Black Lives Matter protests of 2014 in... Continue reading

By Michelle Corbin, Albert Fu, Colby King, and Joseph Cohen Michelle Corbin is an Associate Professor of Sociology Worcester State University; Albert Fu is a Professor of Sociology in the Department of Anthropology & Sociology at Kutztown University; Joseph Cohen... Continue reading

By Stacy Palen Typically, in a F2F class, I use the workbook one day per week. In general, I do this on Friday. For each workbook activity, I’ll usually spend about five to ten minutes introducing the topic and pointing out places where students might get stuck or need a... Continue reading

What if oceans hold the answers to the complex questions surrounding the climate crisis we are facing? Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, a marine biologist, maintains that they do, and explains how the ocean’s vast “healing power” should be the cornerstone of climate policies in this June 8, 2020 Scientific American op-ed. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, "To Save the Climate, Look to the Oceans," Scientific American, 8 June 2020 Johnson sets up her argument in response to “standard views” about the ocean, both in popular culture and in conversations about climate change. Describe these “they say” arguments: How is the ocean typically talked... Continue reading

By Karen Sternheimer The recent COVID crisis has drawn our attention to the risks health care providers take in treating patients. Ambulance personnel are on the front lines, often the first responders in treating injuries and illnesses. As this recent... Continue reading

By Myron Strong In season two of The Real Housewives of Atlanta, a now iconic scene is featured where co-star Sheree Whitfield demanded to know “who gone check me boo?” Her powerful retort came in response to her blatantly disrespectful... Continue reading

By Stacy Palen As I think about what I usually do in lecture, in order to try to capture some of it for the online experience, a few book-related things come to mind. There are a few things I do for each chapter, as general practice: I provide students with... Continue reading

By Karen Sternheimer These days, much of my “television” watching is on YouTube. I’m not unique—according to Google’s CEO (Google’s parent company owns YouTube), about 2 billion logged-in users use the site each month. As of 2018, there were an... Continue reading

Should countries attempt to get dibs on a COVID-19 vaccine for their own citizens, even if it comes at the expense of more vulnerable populations in other countries? Ana Santos Rutschman, a law professor who specializes in health law and emerging health technologies, asks this question in her June 25, 2020 essay published in The Conversation. Her analysis of how governments are jockeying to sign pre-purchase agreements with vaccine manufacturers demonstrates the danger of nationalist policies for global health. Ana Santos Rutschman–"How ‘Vaccine Nationalism’ Could Block Vulnerable Populations’ Access to COVID-19 Vaccines," The Conversation, 17 June 2020 Rutschman introduces the... Continue reading

By Liana Renée Tuller, Research Fellow at Northeastern University's Brudnick Center on Conflict and Violence Numerous newspaper and magazine articles, health advisories, blogs, radio segments, and op-eds have dubbed COVID-19 a “collective trauma.” What does that mean? And, if our... Continue reading

By Stacy Palen As I adapt to teaching online this fall, I find that the one thing I really need students to know how to do on their own is read the textbook. I’ve always assumed they knew this skill because I remember being in high school, checking out the... Continue reading

By Jonathan Wynn This summer, I’ve been obsessing over Wind of Change—a podcast about the CIA’s possible involvement in the titular 1990s global mega hit by the German rock band, The Scorpions. The story unravels the sometimes-shadowy threads between music... Continue reading

By Jenny Enos, Sociology Doctoral Student, Rutgers University More than three months into the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become abundantly clear that the virus has impacted the U.S. along racial and class lines. Previous posts on the blog have already... Continue reading

By Jessica Poling It is an understatement to say that the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted our social lives and how we interact with others. Mandated to self-isolate, in-person interactions have been replaced with countless Zoom meetings, Facetime calls, and... Continue reading

By Myron Strong Our knowledge is limited based on our cultural experiences. Traveling is a great way to expand not only our knowledge, but our capacity for compassion, understanding, and hope. In a career that is built on being busy,... Continue reading

By Stacy Palen No one knows what this fall semester is going to look like, and it stresses me out! We might be back in normal face-to-face classes, but we might be back at half-capacity. Or we might be all online. Or we might start face-to-face, and then the second... Continue reading

“Money drives the world,” Nick Maggiulli argues, yet in the U.S., black households have far less capital than white households. Why is that? Maggiulli, a data scientist and blogger who specializes in personal finance, shows that this racial wealth gap is deeply rooted in systemic discrimination. In this June 4, 2020 essay, Maggiulli uses the U.S. Federal Reserve’s 2016 Survey of Consumer Finances to illustrate the persistent economic inequity that exists between white and black households. Nick Maggiulli, "Give Black Households More Economic Power," Marker, 4 June 2020 What is the racial wealth gap? How do researchers measure it, and... Continue reading

By Karen Sternheimer Last December, my neighborhood experienced a power outage for about 12 hours. It was quite an inconvenience: I had no Internet access, particularly after my cell phone battery died. Our heat wouldn’t turn on and it got... Continue reading

By Myron Strong Over the past few months, the term “new normal” has been used as we adapt to some new norms and ways of life as a result of the pandemic. While these norms are the result of various... Continue reading

By Todd Schoepflin I love baseball. It’s always been in my life. In childhood it was playing Little League baseball, watching Major League Baseball games, and playing the All Star Baseball board game. As I got older it became attending... Continue reading

By Stacy Palen Sometimes, “learning by doing” requires the use of a model or a simulation. It’s not possible for students to go into space far above Earth’s North Pole, or to change the mass of a planet and see how it affects the behavior of the central star. There... Continue reading

By Colby King and Jackson Tumlin (sociology student, University of South Carolina Upstate) I am always working to make my Sociology of Work and Organizations class meaningful to students by, among other things, getting them to connect with people who... Continue reading