Sociology news
Dr. Elaine Howard Ecklund lectures on Dec. 5, 2011
On Mon., Dec. 5, at 3:30 p.m., Dr. Elaine Howard Ecklund presented a lecture on “Science, Atheism and People of Faith: The Need for Dialogue” in the Commons Lecture Hall. Dr. Ecklund is Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of Graduate Studies at Rice University in Houston, TX.This event was sponsored by the Christian Perspectives in Science Seminar Series and the department of sociology and social work.
Dr. Ecklund joined the Rice University sociology faculty in fall 2008, where she is also director of the Program on Religion and Public Life in the Social Sciences Research Institute and a Rice scholar at the Baker Institute for Public Policy. Exploring mechanisms of institutional change draws together Ecklund's research. Specifically, she is interested in how individuals develop cognitive schema—ways of interpreting the world—that are at odds with institutions that constrain them. She then examines how individuals use such frameworks to bring changes to these larger institutions. Her research addresses this theoretical topic in the areas of religion, immigration, science, and civic life.
Ecklund received a 2004 PhD in sociology from Cornell University. In the past seven years she has authored twenty-five academic articles, including those in the Annual Review of Sociology, American Behavioral Scientist, and Social Forces, and two books --“Korean American Evangelicals New Models for Civic Life” as well as “Science Vs Religion: What Scientists Really Think,” both with Oxford University Press. In addition she has authored op-eds and essays for USA Today, the Washington Post, and The Scientist, among other popular outlets. Ecklund's research has received coverage in national and international media outlets including: USA Today, CNN.com, MSNBC.com, Times Higher Education, Chronicle of Higher Education, The Scientist, Nature and Xinhua News. Over the past five years Ecklund has completed the largest study to date about what scientists at top research universities think about religion. In the course of her work she surveyed nearly 1700 scientists and sat in their offices and labs to interview 275 of them.
Ronald Numbers, Hilldale Professor of the History of Science and Medicine at University of Wisconsin has this to say: “Since surveys of scientists' religious beliefs began nearly a century ago, no one has produced a study as deep and broad as Ecklund's. Surely Science vs. Religion will be the gold standard of such surveys for decades to come.”
Students present research results at a state conference
A testimony to the interconnectedness of sociology and social work, five students and a professor from both fields completed a content analysis evaluating how transracial adoption is portrayed in popular magazines. The research results were presented by Rebecca Dyer, Daniela Garcia, Shari Hasford, and Deborah Kennedy at the 2011 Michigan Sociological Association Annual Conference held at Grand Valley State University on Saturday, Oct. 29. The fifth collaborator, Logan Gingerich, graduated in the spring of 2011 and was unable to attend.
“Their presentation was professional, informational, and engaging,” remarked Professor Elisha Marr, a sociology professor who oversaw the project. The students used this opportunity to thank Professor Marr and Professor Rachel Venema, their research methods course instructor, for their guidance on this project. The project was completed as part of the social work research course in the spring of 2011.
Dr. Mary Pattillo lecture
On Wed., Nov. 3, at 3:30 p.m., the department of sociology and social work presented the 2011 Donald Bouma Lecture Series speaker, Dr. Mary Pattillo, Harold Washington Professor of Sociology and African American Studies at Northwestern University in Chicago. Dr. Pattillo lectured on “Race, Poverty and ‘Choice’ Policies” in the Commons Lecture Hall.
‘Choice’ has become the buzz word across the policy spectrum, and especially in housing, schools, and health care. Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein’s book Nudge lays out a case for “nudging” people toward choices that are in their best interest, but does not address inequalities that inevitably arise when relying on a choice framework. This talk questions the assumptions, ideology and philosophy that undergirds ‘choice,’ and presents preliminary data from two small qualitative studies – one on parents ‘choosing’ high schools for their children and the other on individuals using a Housing Choice Voucher to search for an apartment. Findings show that 1) many on the receiving end of these policies aren’t even aware that they have a choice, 2) there are socioeconomic differences in who chooses, racial inequalities are not overcome by such policies, and 3) there is a misalignment in what policy makers and the targets of these policies deem important.
Professor Pattillo's areas of interest include race and ethnicity (specifically the black middle class), urban sociology, and qualitative methods. Professor Pattillo uses the city of Chicago as her laboratory and strives to be an expert in Chicago history, politics, and social life. In her book, Black Picket Fences: Privilege and Peril Among the Black Middle Class (University of Chicago Press, 1999), Pattillo investigates the economic, spatial, and cultural forces that affect child-rearing and youth socialization in a black middle class neighborhood on Chicago's South Side. Black Picket Fences won the Oliver Cromwell Cox Best Book Award from the American Sociological Association.She is also author of Black on the Block: The Politics of Race and Class in the City and Imprisoning America: The Social Effects of Mass Incarceration. Current research projects include a study of how parents negotiate school choice and how families make housing choices in Chicago. Pattillo is also a member of the MacArthur Foundation-funded Research Network on How Housing Matters for Families and Children.
This event was part of the Donald Bouma Lecture Series.
“Always with us? The Movement to End Homelessness in the U.S.”
Homelessness is the most extreme manifestation of poverty in our society and is often treated as an inevitable, intractable feature of urban life in the U.S. Over the past decade, however, a conviction has developed that it is possible to end, not just manage, homelessness. Hundreds of cities across the nation have developed Plans to End Homelessness and in 2010 the Federal government for the first time released a plan to end homelessness in the country.
Bill Pitkin, Director of Domestic Programs for the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, oversees the planning, development, implementation, and evaluation of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’s domestic priority areas. He led the development of the foundation’s strategy for addressing chronic homelessness in Los Angeles and continues to have direct oversight over that strategic initiative. Prior to joining the Hilton Foundation, Pitkin was director of research and planning at United Way of Greater Los Angeles, where he oversaw the publication of research reports and led a strategic planning process resulting in that organization’s 10-year action plan to fight poverty in Los Angeles.
In a lecture on April 13, 2011, at 3:30 p.m. in the Meeter Center Lecture Hall, Bill Pitkin outlined the current dynamics and trends of homelessness and major policy and programmatic shifts in addressing homelessness in recent years. He covered national trends but also focused on the case of Los Angeles, the so-called "homelessness capital of the nation." Presented from the perspective and experience of one of the largest philanthropic institutions in the U.S. working to end homelessness, the talk provided lessons learned for effective public-private-nonprofit partnerships.
