Brandeis University
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY NEWSLETTER
September 2008 Volume 19
Edited by Peter Conrad and Judith Hanley
News from the Chair
Inside this issue:
News from the Chair
1
Downright Presidential
2
Department Celebrates
50th Anniversary at
Art Gallery
2
Last Faculty Notes from
George Ross
3
Speaking of Retirement...
3
Department Wins ASA
Teaching Enhancement
Fund Grant
3
The Hammed Shahidian
4
Undergraduates Present
Research at Conference
4
Faculty Notes
5
Newly Minted Degrees! 6
Current Graduate Student Activity
7
News from Department 8
PhD’s
Entering Grad Students 11
Colloquia
12
Senior Theses 2008
13
Greetings. This newsletter goes to press as we are basking in the afterglow of an enormously successful
reception for alumni, faculty, and graduate students held at the Gallery of the Guild of Boston Artists during
the ASA Boston meetings. Many thanks to those of you who attended and to those who made the evening
such a special event, especially Judy Hanley, party planner extraordinaire, and for help with sponsorship,
Provost Marty Krauss and the Office of Alumni Affairs. For those of you who weren’t able to attend, we
missed you. (link to photos: http://www.brandeis.edu/departments/sociology/photos.html ).
The department has had a lively intellectual year. The Purple Bag Colloquium Series provided a forum for
faculty, alums, and advanced graduate students to present and discuss their work-in-progress. We had
three “purple bags” in the fall and two in spring, with George Ross, Cameron MacDonald, Wendy Cadge,
Charles Kadushin, and Peter Conrad enlightening us about their research on the European Union elites,
the home as hospital, prayers for the sick, social network theory, and long-term perspectives on growing up
as an “active” child without a medical diagnosis. And as part of our regular colloquium series, two outstanding undergrads who went on to graduate degrees returned to give enthusiastically received presentations on homophobia in high school (Cherie Jo Pascoe, now at the University of California, Berkeley) and
feminist consumerism and fat activism (Judith Taylor, now at the University of Toronto).
The faculty and graduate students have continued to be successful in fundraising and publishing. Sara
Shostak received an NSF grant; Wendy Cadge was awarded a Louisville Institute grant and will take up
residence at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study; and joint Heller and Sociology PhD student, Hannah Thomas, received a pre-dissertation doctoral grant from HUD. Ken Sun and I have been awarded a
grant from the Global Brandeis Fund to bring luminary scholars to Brandeis to present research on Transnational Families and workshop with graduate students. Peter Conrad published, The Medicalization of
Society: On the Transformation of Human Conditions into Treatable Disorders.
The department has again been recognized university-wide for its teaching excellence. Wendy Cadge received the Michael L. Walzer Award for teaching and graduate student Miranda Waggoner was awarded
the Teaching Fellow award. Graduate students have been the beneficiaries of the newly team-taught proseminar run by Wendy Cadge, David Cunningham, and Sara Shostak, who collectively received an ASA
grant for innovations in teaching.
Virtually everyone is active in service to the university through program administration and interdisciplinary activity. Peter Conrad and
Gordie Fellman chair interdisciplinary programs (Health Science, and
Society Program and Peace and Conflict Studies respectively); David
Cunningham will become the Social Justice and Social Policy chair
this fall; Gila Hayim continues to serve on the coordinating committees of the Transition Year Program, Legal Studies, and Religious
Studies; Laura Miller serves on the program boards of Journalism,
Cultural Production, and along with George Ross, International and
Global Studies; and others serve on core faculties of Women’s and
Gender Studies and the Community-Engaged Learning Committee.
Shula Reinharz continues to direct the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute
and the Women's Studies Research Center. Brandeis could not manage without us!
Claire Reinelt, Karen V. Hansen, Pat Hill
Collins, Provost Marty Krauss, Elizabeth
Higginbotham
Downright Presidential
Three women alumni from our
department will be President of a
major sociological association
this year. Patricia Hill Collins (1984) will serve as President of the American
Sociological Association for 2008-2009. Judith Rollins (1983) is the incoming President of the Association of Black Sociologists, and Rosanna Hertz (BA
1975) is the President Elect of the Eastern Sociological Association. Congratulations and best wishes to all our sociological chief executives this year!
Department Celebrates 50th Anniversary at Art Gallery
The Sociology Department became a separate department in 1957 and we took the opportunity of having the 2008 American
Sociological Association meetings in Boston to celebrate 50 years of Brandeis Sociology. We invited all our alumni PhDs for
whom we had email addresses, all the BAs we could locate who had gone on to get PhDs in Sociology, all current graduate
students and former and current faculty. The event was held at the gallery of the Guild of Boston Artists on Newbury Street,
just a 10 minute walk for the main ASA hotel. It was a wonderful venue, and replete with drinks and hors d’oeuvres, it turned
out to be a fabulous event. Over 100 people showed up, ranging from Charles Smith (one of the first PhDs awarded, 1966)
and Judith Lasker (PhD with a 1969 BA) to a gaggle of our current graduate students. The incoming ASA President and department PhD (1984) Patricia Hill Collins joined us, despite her busy ASA schedule. In all, over 50 Brandeis PhDs attended, along
with over a dozen BA alums who were also PhDs in Sociology. This may have been the largest contingent of Brandeis trained
Sociologists to ever gather in one space (exceeding the number at the 1987 25th anniversary of the graduate program)! We all
give our thanks to Judy Hanley for the organizational work to support this great event.
For more event photos go to:
http://www.brandeis.edu/departments/sociology/album12.html
Page 2
Last Faculty Notes from George
Ross before his Brandeis
Retirement
There may be life after Brandeis, after all. With but one more teaching
term before leaving Brandeis I’ve begun full transhumance to Montreal.
Not commuting is a big blessing, although leaving the place I grew up
and settled is more complicated, and Montreal winters are very long,
even for someone who loves winters! But…the European Union has
jumped in to ease the transition. I've just been appointed an “ad personam Jean Monnet Professor” at the Université de Montréal, one of
only two in North America, which the EU blurb describes as Ad personam Jean Monnet Chairs are teaching and research posts with a
specialisation in European integration studies.
The title of ad personam Jean Monnet Chair is reserved for (i) distinguished professors who deliver evidence of a high-level international
teaching and publication record (that was achieved, at least in part, outside their country of residence) and/or (ii) professors with a distinguished background as former high-level practitioners in the field of European integration.
This has proven to me that even at my advanced age I can still be flattered, even if the honor exceeds the remuneration by quite a bit. Other
matters. Much publication, actual and anticipated: European Politics in Transition, of which I am a co-author, on the EU, has just come out
with a sixth edition (Houghton-Mifflin, Boston, 2008). With Jim Cronin of BC and Jim Shoch of Cal State Sacramento I am editing a book tentatively titled Future for the Left? (Duke University Press, forthcoming 2008), and I am in the frustrating middle of writing another book about
how high EU officials understand the current, now chronic, crisis of development in the European Union – a very short preliminary paper appeared in the Journal of Common Market Studies this past winter. I’m still nutty for skiing, although weeks in Alta, Utah and the French Alps
have made me snobbish about icy New England.
(George is retiring after over 35 years at Brandeis. He has contributed greatly to the department and university and we appreciate it. We
will honor him on March 21, 2009, with a conference, “Furures of the Left in an Age of Globalization” which will bring a number of interesting
speakers to campus. We wish George godspeed [or whatever he might believe in and whatever speed he can still muster!] for his new adventures and endeavors.—Eds.)
Speaking of Retirement….
While George is retiring from our department we are also beginning to see some of our first PhDs reach retirement. This should not be surprising since the first departmental PhDs (1966-67) should be reaching retirement age after three or four decades as academics. Ruth Harriet Jacobs (1969) retired from Clark University a number of years ago, although she’s still writing as a an “outrageous older woman.” Among
the department’s very first PhDs was Charles Smith (1966) who has recently retired from CUNY, Queens where he had a stint as chair and
dean, although he’s still an active scholar. As noted in Faculty Notes, Alex Liazos (1970) and Bob Emerson (1968) retired this year, but still
have active agendas to persue. Louise Lopman (1977) and Wini Breines (1979) have received emeritae status from Regis College and
Northeastern University respectively. As our own Janet Giele notes, retirement is really “semi-retirement” as many chose to keep on with the
scholarly activities that fueled their sociological imaginations before “retirement.” For many, it seems that retirement means mostly a cessation (or vast reduction) of teaching responsibilities and a freedom from academic administration and meetings. We wish continued success
to our alums as they reach their own various configurations of semi-retirement.
Department Wins ASA Teaching Enhancement Fund Grant
Wendy Cadge, David Cunningham and Sara Shostak were awarded a grant from the ASA’s Teaching Enhancement Fund for the 2007-08
academic year for a project titled, “Teaching Graduate and Undergraduate Research Methods: A Combined Initiative.” Designed to extend
their work with graduate students in the “Approaches to Social Research” class the project brought three graduate students into the undergraduate research methods course, “Methods of Social Inquiry,” during the spring semester 2008. Brian Fair spoke about his ethnographic
research with high school wrestlers; Clare Hammonds described the process of doing interviews with labor organizers; and Miranda
Waggoner spoke about a quantitative research project focused on teen mothers’ decisions about contraception. Graduate students Brian,
Clare and Miranda each visited a second class working with the students on the independent research projects they were conducting as a
part of the course. Evaluations completed by the graduate and undergraduate students suggest that they benefited from this engagement
and learned about teaching and about how research is actually conducted in the process. With the assistance of graduate student Jennifer
Girouard, Cadge, Cunningham and Shostak are writing an article about this pedagogical initiative they plan to submit to Teaching Sociology.
Page 3
The Hammed Shahidian Legacy
by Krishan Mehta (March 4, 2008)
In advance of International Women’s Day on March 8, the University of Toronto launched a
new Master of Arts program in Women and Gender Studies with a significant gift established in memory of Iranian feminist scholar Professor Hammed Shahidian.
U of T’s Women and Gender Studies Institute was established as a small undergraduate
program in the early 1970s at New College and is now the largest and most comprehensive
feminist academic research and teaching centre in Canada with more than 190 undergraduate and 50 graduate students, 27 collaborative academic units, and 15 faculty members.
“The development of new master’s degree program is quite timely given the array of current
and emerging feminist-oriented research and teaching initiatives at the university,” said
Professor Shahrzad Mojab, the institute’s director. “The program provides a distinct framework from which graduate students will be able to apply critical feminist thought to their
coursework and individual projects.”
The $250,000 donation will fund an endowed lecture series and graduate award at the institute. The provincial government
has matched $50,000 of the gift through the Graduate Student Endowment Fund, and the Faculty of Arts and Science will
match half of the annual payout. The lecture series will offer opportunities for students, scholars, and community activists from
around the world to come together to present new research and debate issues in feminist studies.
“My brother was passionate about human rights and gender equality,” said Nahid Shahidian, executor of his estate. “By establishing these two funds at the University of Toronto, Hammed’s legacy will have a lasting impact on future generations of feminist scholars and activists.”
“The establishment of a lecture series and scholarship attest to his commitment to the advancement of women’s studies,”
noted Mojab. Professor Vivek Goel, vice-president and provost, added, “This gift represents a great step forward in strengthening transnational equity and justice issues in our community. This is a great boost for Women and Gender Studies, especially
as we launch a new MA program.”
(Hammed received his PhD in Sociology from Brandeis (1990) and was Associate Professor and Department Chair at University of Illinois, Springfield at the time of death from cancer in October 2005 at 46. He wrote a number of important books and
articles on women and gender in Iran. For an appreciation and summary of his work, see the article in our 2005 Newsletter:
http://www.brandeis.edu/departments/sociology/documents/socnewsletter05.pdf)
Undergraduates Present Research Papers at Conference
On Saturday April 11, 2008, three undergraduates, Lindsay Markel '08, Madison Lyleroehr '09 (photo
right) and Zachary Seeskin '08 attended and presented their research at the New England Undergraduate Sociology Research Conference at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA. Each submitted her/his work which was accepted to the conference. Madison presented her paper,
“Breakaway: How the 'College Experience' May Affect Students' Sexual Opinions, Decisions, and Behaviors" on a panel about Sexuality and Sexual Assault on Campuses. Lindsay and Zachary presented
their papers on a Sociology of Education panel. Lindsay’s paper was titled, "Eliminating the Black/
White Achievement Gap: How KIPP Schools Raise Achievement and Offer an Alternative to the Counterculture of the Streets." Zachary’s paper was titled, "A Second Look at the STAR Data: Teacher Race
and Student Achievement by Grade." The students also attended other panels, spoke with students
from area schools, and learned more about how sociology is taught in different departments in New
England.
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annual round-table on the relation between social scence research and the edia. The first seminar, headed by WSRC Senior Sci-
Faculty Notes
Top left to right: George Ross, David Cunningham, Laura Miller, Peter Conrad, Karen Hansen, Carmen Sirianni, Gordie Fellman. Bottom left to right:
Judy Hanley, Gila Hayim, Wendy Cadge, Sara Shostak. Missing from photo:
Shula Reinharz
Wendy Cadge has a number papers recently published or forthcoming:
“De Facto Congregationalism and the Religious Organizations of Post-1965
Immigrants to the United States: A Revised Approach.” Journal of the
American Academy of Religion, 2008; “Hospital Chaplaincy in the United
States: A National Overview” with Jeremy Freese and Nicholas Christakis.
Southern Medical Journal, 2008; “Blessings, Strength, and Guidance:
Prayer Frames in a Hospital Prayer Book” with M. Daglian. Poetics, forthcoming; “How Denominational Resources Influence Debates about Homosexuality in Mainline Protestant Congregations” with Laura Olson and
Christopher Wildeman. Sociology of Religion 69(2); and “Facilitators and
Advocates: How Mainline Protestant Clergy Respond to Homosexuality”
with Christopher Wildemen. Sociological Perspectives 51: forthcoming.
She has received several grants/fellowships for the next year: Radcliffe
Fellow, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts (2008-2009); 2008-2009 Visiting Scholar, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (which she declined); and 2008-2009
Religious Institutions Grant, Louisville Institute. Project title: “Paging God:
Religion in the Halls of Medicine.” ($40,000). Wendy was also awarded for
her teaching with the 2008 Brandeis University, Michael Walzer '56 Award
for Excellence in Teaching.
Peter Conrad has several papers in press or forthcoming: “From Lydia Pinkham to Queen Levitra: DTCA and Medicalization” (with Valerie Leiter),
Sociology of Health and Illness, 2008: (30: 825-38); “Path Dependence, Medicalization and the Social Consequences of Genetics” (with Sara
Shostak and Allan Horwitz), American Journal of Sociology, forthcoming; and “Medicalization, Pharmaceuticals and Public Risk Scares: The Case of
Menopause and HRT,” (with Cheryl Stults), for The Risks of Prescription Drugs, (Columbia University Press, forthcoming) edited by Donald Light. The
eighth edition of his text/reader Sociology of Health and Illness: Critical Perspectives (Worth, 2009) was published this August. Peter is on sabbatical this Fall semester and will begin his new research project, “Sixth Grade Mis-fits: ADHD, Behavioral Difference and Life Success.”
David Cunningham’s article "Truth, Reconciliation, and the Ku Klux Klan" will be published in the journal Southern Cultures later this year. He has
also co-authored a chapter, "'’What If She's From the FBI?’ The Effects of Covert Social Control on Social Movements and their Participants," with
John Noakes for Mathieu DeFlem's edited volume Surveillance and Governance: Crime Control and Beyond." His paper with Brandeis PhD Ben Phillips, "Contexts for Mobilization: Spatial Settings and Klan Presence in North Carolina, 1964-1966," was published in the November 2007 issue of the
American Journal of Sociology.
Gordie Fellman will be on sabbatical 08-09, in Mexico. In the last weekend of June, he spoke at World Fellowship in New Hampshire. It is a long time
leftish family summer camp with much political and cultural programming. Gordie did two sessions, one on "New Masculinity: The Beginning of the
End of War," and one on "War: the Cases for and Against." During this past year, Gordie joined student Aaron Voldman, a founder of the Student
Peace Alliance with already over 70 chapters, in a peace event at the UN.
Janet Z. Giele decided a little over a year ago to say she was “semi-retired” instead of just plain “retired,” a status that she gained in 2004. The other
part of her “semi” life has been taken up with writing and research projects and continuation as committee chair for several Heller doctoral students
who are one by one finishing their dissertations. Currently, her three main writing projects are The Craft of Life Course Studies (co-edited with Glen
Elder) to be published by Guilford Press, American Family Policy, a textbook to be published by Allyn and Bacon, and her back burner hobby, which is
a guidebook to doctoral students on how to finish their dissertations. In the meantime, her research on the mid-life roles of college-educated
women “Homemaker or Career Woman: Life Course Factors and Racial Influences among Middle Class Americans” will appear in the Summer 2008
issue of The Journal of Comparative Family Studies. She also lead a workshop on Family Policy at the 2008 Annual Meetings in Boston.
While being chair of the department, Karen V. Hansen has been engaged in various research projects and co-taught a Women’s and Gender Studies
methods course with the remarkable Joyce Antler (American Studies). She has published an article with Mignon Duffy (PhD ’03) using historical plat
maps to generate GIS maps in Great Plains Research Journal: “Mapping the Dispossession: Scandinavian Homesteading at Fort Totten, 19001930.” She and long-time associate Anita Garey (University of Connecticut) have signed a book contract with Rutgers to publish an anthology, The
Emotional Eye of Families and Work. She has also presented papers at the usual round of the Eastern Sociological Society, the ASA, the Carework
Conference, and a mini-conference at the University of Minnesota on American Life Courses in Historical Perspective. Her article, “The Powers of
Parental Observation: Constructing Networks of Care,” will appear in Who’s Watching? Practices of Surveillance Among Contemporary Families
(Vanderbilt University Press).
Laura Miller presented a paper called “Digital Technology and the Role of the Book: A Social Revolution?” as a panelist at Fresno State's Colloquium
on the Future of the Book in the Digital Age. This September she will begin as Book Review Editor for Contexts.
Shula Reinharz published a 125-page catalogue with a lead essay, “Cultural Specificity and Feminist Art” for “Tiger by the Tail! Women Artists of India
Transforming Culture,” an ambitious and very well received exhibit at the Women’s Studies Research Center. The show concluded with a two-week
trip for the WSRC board, which she led, to Northern India. This year Shula received a half-million dollar grant to hold an annual round-table
Page 5
on the relation between social science research and the media. The first seminar, headed by WSRC Senior Scientist Roz Barnett, will take place in
fall 2008. She also launched the Gender, Culture, Religion and the Law Project in the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, which brought two female Nobel
Laureates to campus, and held an extraordinary international conference on the conflict between civil and religious legal systems, and its impact on
women’s lives. Shula continues to write weekly columns for the Jewish Advocate (anyone who would like to be on the email distribution list, should let
her know: reinharz@brandeis.edu). Some of her columns have been picked up by (the New York) Jewish Week. She also been invited to contribute to
Safe Democracy and to The Jerusalem Report. With an Israeli colleague, she launched a website called “Putting Women on the Map,” dealing with
recognizing women’s place in Israel’s history. She has also written an overview of the status of Jewish women in the United States, for the Jewish
People Planning and Policy Institute.
George Ross will retire from the department and Brandeis after one more semester of teaching. See his note earlier in this newsletter.
Sara Shostak co-edited the AJS special issue on genetics and social structure (with Peter Bearman and Molly Martin) which will be published this Fall
and includes, “Path Dependence, Medicalization and the Social Consequences of Genetics” with Peter Conrad and Allan Horwitz. She also received
a major grant from the National Science Foundation, Sociology Program. This project will describe identity formation processes among people with
epilepsy, and their family members, by identifying core and peripheral components and processes within narratives of their life experiences. The
data for the proposed project are transcripts of interviews with people who have epilepsy, or their immediate family members. The unique data are
arrayed in two temporal cohorts, one set from 1975-1978 (originally collected by Conrad and Schneider) and another from 2005-2006 (collected by
Sara and her colleague), which allows for comparison of how individuals’ descriptions of living with epilepsy and their understandings of the root
causes of that condition may have changed over thirty years time. Her recent publications include: Shostak, S. and E. Rehel. 2007. “Changing the
Subject: Science, Subjectivity, and the Structure of ‘Ethical Problems’” Pp. 323-346 in Advances in Medical Sociology: Sociological Perspectives on
Bioethical Issues, edited by Barbara Katz Rothman, Elizabeth Armstrong, and Rebecca Tiger. Oxford: Elsevier/JAI Press; and Shostak, S. 2007.
“Translation at Work: Genetically Modified Mouse Models and Molecularization in the Environmental Health Sciences.” Science, Technology, and
Human Values 32(3): 315-338.
Carmen Sirianni finished his book, Investing in Democracy: Engaging Citizens through Collaborative Governance, which will be published by the
Brookings Institution Press in January. He also has published (or in press) several articles: “The Civic Mission of a Federal Agency in an Age of Networked Governance,” American Behavioral Scientist, forthcoming (winter, 2009), special issue on Democracy in the Age of Networked Governance;
“Neighborhood Planning as Collaborative Democratic Design: the Case of Seattle,” Journal of the American Planning Association 73:4 (December
2007), 373-87; “Environmental Organizations,” in Lester M. Salamon, ed., The State of Nonprofit America, second edition (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2008) with Stephanie Sofer; and “City Government as Enabler of Youth Civic Engagement,” in Policies for Youth Civic Engagement, edited by James Youniss and Peter Levine, forthcoming (Vanderbilt University Press, 2008) written with graduate student Diana Schor. Carmen has been coordinating a 20-member collaborative governance/civic engagement group within the urban policy committee of the Obama campaign, and also serves on the energy and environmental policy committee. He also served on the nonpartisan Service Nation Policy Working Group
that developed a package of proposals for strengthening national service, featured at the Service Nation Summit and Presidential Forum in September, sponsored by Time magazine and CNN and endorsed by several hundred national and community service groups around the country. He has
served as the academic advisor to the Community Action for a Renewed Environment Program at EPA for the past several years, and presented the
lessons of EPA civic capacity building and agency mission at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta in January. He was also keynote speaker for
the Neighborhood Planning Forum in Seattle, designed for city council, department heads, and neighborhood activists to reach consensus on the
next state of participatory planning in the city. His article on this is posted on the city council website, as well as that of the citywide council of
neighborhood associations, and this and further contributions are the academic appendix to the City Auditor’s report on the topic. He has also accepted a position on the editorial board of the Journal of the American Planning Association. With graduate student Jennifer Girouard, he is editing a
book, Civic Innovation: Deliberative, Relational, and Network Approaches, for Vanderbilt University Press.
Newly Minted Degrees!
SOCIOLOGY PhD
Betina Freidin (February 08 graduate)
Acupuncture Worlds in Argentina: Contested Knowledge, Legitimation Processes, and Everyday Practices
Rachel L. Rochenmacher (May 08 graduate)
“Teach Us, Don’t Tell Us:” Young Adult Children of Interfaith Marriages Choose their Religions and Ethnicities
MA in SOCIOLOGY
Erin Marie Rehal (August 07 graduate)
MA in SOCIOLOGY & WOMEN’S AND GENDER STUDIES
Christann Desiree Spiegel (August 07 graduate)
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entist Roz Barnett, will take place in fall 2008. She also launched the Gender, Culture, Religion and the Law Project in the Hadas-
Current Graduate Student Activity
Alison Better received a University Prize Instructorship to teach a course in the Spring of
2009, tentatively titled “Queering Gender, Gendering Bodies.” She will continue to teach
first-year writing courses (University Writing Seminars) at Brandeis, including “Transgressing
Categories: Gender, Sexuality and the Body” in the Fall semester.
Brian Fair presented, “Morgellons Syndrome: From Delusion to Disease?” at the 2008 SSSP
meetings.
Rachel Kulick, in collaboration with Amy Bach, a doctorate student in education, and the
Youth Channel in NYC, received a large collaborative grant for a new project, “Youth Channel All-City: Building a Municipal Infrastructure for Media Education, Production, and Distribution,” as part of the Necessary Knowledge for a Democratic Public Sphere Program,
Bridging Media Research, Media Reform, and Media Justice. This spring she also received a
Provost Award for Dissertation Expenses. She presented “Youth Channel All-City: Building a
Municipal Infrastructure for Media Education, Production, and Distribution” at Social Science
Research Council Conference, Philadelphia, PA (February, 2008).
Emily Kolker presented “The Obligation to Tell and the Duty to Protect: Managing Genetic
Risk Identity for Children,” at the 2008 SSSP meeting.
Clare Hammonds, Kristen Lanzano, Diana Shor,
Brian Fair and Hannah Thomas (L to R) entered
our graduate programs in Fall 2007.
Thomas Mackie presented “The Health Maintenance Organization: From Solution to Social
Problem,” at the 2008 SSSP meeting.
Erin Maurer (MA, 2005) has been accepted to the PhD program in Sociology at The Graduate Center - City University of New York to begin this fall.
Megan Renfrew is a co-author on an article in press in Social Science and Medicine: Lutfey, K., Campbell, S., Renfrew, M., Marceau, D. Roland, M.,
and McKinlay, J. “How are patient characteristics relevant for clinical decisions in diabetes? Results from a cross-national experiment.”
Caitlin Slodden served as research assistant and administrator on the 8th edition of Peter Conrad’s Sociology of Health and Illness (2009). She presented “Language and Undocumented Immigration as a Social Problem” at the 2008 SSSP meeting.
Cheryl Stults has co-authored “Medicalization, Pharmaceuticals, and Public Risk Scares: The Case of Menopause and HRT" with Peter Conrad. It is
forthcoming in SSRC volume entitled "The Risks of Prescription Drugs" ed. Donald Light (Columbia University Press). Cheryl received the 2007
Graduate Student Paper Award from the Health, Health Policy, and Health Services Division- Society for the Study of Social Problems for her paper,
"Chronic Pain on the Internet: A Comparison of Arthritis and Fibromyalgia" and received the Berkowitz Dissertation Research Grant Award from the
Brandeis Sociology Department. She presented “Women’s Continuation of Hormone Therapy Following the Women’s Health Initiative: Importance of
Quality of Life,” at the 2008 SSSP meeting and "Antidepressant Suicidality in Youths and the Process of a Risk Scare," at the 2008 ASA meeting.
Ken Chih-Yan Sun presented “The Changing Meaning of ‘Home’: How Chinesse Immigrants Negotiate Boundaries between ‘Us’ and ‘Them’” and
“Negotiating the Meaning of Family in the Transnational Field: A Case of Taiwanese Immigrants and their Families,” at the 2008 SSSP meeting and
“Working like a Man: Masculinity and a Photojournalist,” at the 2008 ASA meeting.
Hannah Thomas presented “Challenging the Dominant Framework in the Foreclosure Literature: A Case Study of Foreclosures in Boston,” at the
2008 SSSP Meeting.
Miranda Waggoner joined the Joint PhD program in Sociology and Social Policy (with the Heller School) and is also currently serving as the Administrative Coordinator for the Brandeis “Journey of Humankind Project: The Spencer Wells Event. “ In Summer 2007 she taught “Sociology of US Families” at Brandeis Summer School. She published a review of “Sanctioning Pregnancy” by Harriet Gross and Helen Pattison, Journal of Health Psychology 13: 441. Miranda received the 2008 Graduate Consortium in Women’s Studies at MIT Writing Prize. She presented “Emergence of a Gendered Profession: The Work of Lactation Consultants and New Expert Knowledge” at the 2008 ASA Meeting and “Peanut Panic: The Social Construction of a Public Health Phenomenon,” at the 2008 SSSP meeting.
Rebekah Zincavage has published two papers: Dodson, L & Zincavage RM "’It's like a family:’ Caring labor, exploitation and race in the long-term
care industry,” Gender and Society December 2007 Volume 21, No. 6 and Bishop C., Weinberg D.B., Gittel J., Leutz W., Dossa A., Pfefferle S., Zincavage R.M. “Nursing assistant’s job commitment: effect of nursing home organizational factors and impact on resident well- being.” The Gerontologist,
forthcoming 2008. She has also published several entries in S. Moskowitz (Ed.) Encyclopedia of Global Health. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc: Neff D.R. & Zincavage R.M. (2008): “Health Insurance Portability and Accountability,” “Prescription Drugs Abuse,” “Medicaid,” and
“Medicare.” She presented several papers at conferences: “Contested Meanings and Politics of Marriage: Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage” at 2008
SSSP meeting; Bishop C., Leutz W. & Zincavage R.M. “Engaging Workers in Improving Nursing Home Care: A Case Study” at The Gerontological Society of America 60th Annual Scientific Meeting. San Francisco, CA November 2007; Bishop C., Leutz W. & Zincavage R.M. “A Labor-Management Partnership for Transition to Person-Centered Care: A Case Study” at 2007 Carework Conference. New York, NY. August 2007; and Zincavage R.M. & Neff
D.R. “Making Work Pay: The Consequences of Moving Social Assistance and Poverty Relief into the Tax Code” at 2007 SSSP.
Dana Zarhin presented “The Global Exposure of Trafficking in Women in Israel: The Power of Outside Claims and Demand-Makers,” at the 2008
SSSP meeting.
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News from Department PhD’s
Linda C. Andrist (1993) was promoted to Professor last summer and appointed Director of the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program at the MGH
Institute for Health Profession. She is also adjunct faculty in the Department of Sociology at Suffolk University where she taught a course in the new
Women's Health program. She will be on leave this fall to help prepare for accreditation for the new DNP new program. New publications include:
Andrist, L.C, Barry E., McGregor, C, Schuster, P, Smoller, S. “The birth of the specialty in women's health.” Alexander, I (Ed). Comprehensive Women's
Health Care. In Press; Andrist, L.C. (2008); “The implications of objectification theory for women's health: Menstrual suppression and cesarean delivery on maternal request.” Health Care for Women International, 29 (5). In Press; Andrist, L.C. (2008). “Contraception.” In W. A. Darity, Jr., International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2nd edition. Vol 2 Cohabitation to Ethics in Experimentation (pp 114-115). Detroit: Macmillan Reference.
James Ault (1981) is a documentary filmmaker and author. His new project, funded by Pew Charitable Trusts is “Toward a New Christianity: The Rise
of African Christianity” and in the pilot stage “Northampton’s Living History Community Heritage Project.” See his website: www.jamesault.com/
Sadhana Bery (2004) has been appointed to a tenure-track post as Assistant Professor of Sociology at U-Mass-Dartmouth, beginning Fall 08.
Wini Breines’ (1979) book The Trouble Between Use: An Uneasy History of White and Black Women in the Feminist
Movement (Oxford, 2007) has been published in paperback.
Phil Brown (1979) recently published several pieces with his Contested Illnesses Research Group including, “Is It Safe?
New Ethics for Reporting Personal Exposures to Environmental Chemicals” (Julia Green Brody, Rachel Morello-Frosch,
Phil Brown, Ruthann A. Rudel, Rebecca Gasior Altman, Margaret Frye, Cheryl C. Osimo, Carla Perez, and Liesel M. Seryak). American Journal of Public Health, 2007 97: 1547-1554. and “School Custodians and Green Cleaners: New Approaches to Labor-Environmental Coalitions” (Laura Senier, Brian Mayer, Phil Brown, and Rachel Morello-Frosch), Organization and Environment 2007 20:304-324. Another article, “Pollution Comes Home and Gets Personal: Women’s Experience of Household Chemical Exposure.” (Rebecca Gasior Altman, Rachel Morello-Frosch, Julia Green Brody, Ruthann
Rudel, Phil Brown, and Mara Averick) will appear in a few months in Journal of Health and Social Behavior. In addition,
the group is developing the concept of “policy ethnography.” See: “Field Analysis and Policy Ethnography: New Directions for Studying Health Social Movements” (Phil Brown, Rachel Morello-Frosch, Stephen Zavestoski, Laura Senier, Rebecca Altman, Elizabeth Hoover, Sabrina McCormick, Brian Mayer, and Crystal Adams) in Mayer Zald, Jane BanaszakHoll, and Sandra Levitsky, eds., Social Movements and the Development of Health Institutions. (in press). Based on several years of organizing the Providence Environmental Justice Forum, Phil helped launch the Environmental Justice
League of Rhode Island in late 2007. Their CARE grant application to EPA was successful, providing $100,000 for staff
and office space. They are working a lot on issues of school siting on contaminated land, as well as statewide brownfields development concerns.
Graham Cassano (1991) is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Oakland University (Michigan) and Associate Editor of Critical Sociology.
Deborah Cohan (2005) will has accepted a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Sociology position at Regis College in Weston, MA beginning Fall
2008. Additionally, she will continue to teach in the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Program at Harvard and continue to serve as an expert consultant
for cases of domestic violence, rape, assault, and sexual harassment. She spent 2007-2008 as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Connecticut College
and also taught at Harvard.
Patricia Hill Collins (1984) is serving as President of the American Sociological Association (2008-2009).
Todd Crosset (1992) published several articles in the past year: Crosset (2007) “Capturing racism: An analysis of racial projects within the Lisa
Simpson vs. University of Colorado football rape case.” International Journal of the History of Sport, Volume 24 (2): 172 – 196; Crosset and Masteralexis (2008) “The changing collective definition of collegiate sport and the potential demise of Title IX”. The Journal of College and University Law
Vol 34 (3): 671-94; Longley, Crosset, Jefferson (forthcoming) “The Migration of African Americans to the Canadian Football League during the mid20th Century: An Escape from Discrimination?” International Journal of the History of Sport; Davis and Crosset (forthcoming) “Using Social Movement
Theory to Study Outcomes in Sport-Related Social Movements”. International Review of Sport Sociology.
CJ Churchill (2000) published "The Social Psychology of Shame in Psychoanalytic Training" in volume 2 of the online, peer-reviewed journal The Candidate: Perspectives from an Evolving Psychoanalytic Community. He presented his paper "Taking License: Sociological Implications of the New York
State Psychoanalytic License" on which he is senior co-author with Phillida B. Rosnick, director of training at the New York Freudian Society, in December at The Future of Psychoanalytic Education conference and at the annual meeting of ESS in February.
Monisha Das Gupta (1999) was the co-winner of the 2008 Book Award from the ASA Section of Asia and Asian America for her book Unruly Immigrants: Rights, Activism, and Transnational South Asian Politics in the United States (Duke University Press, 2006).
Jean Elson (2000) continues as a faculty member in the University of New Hampshire Department of Sociology. In connection with her public sociology, Jeany’s research was quoted in several popular media outlets, including USA Today, Cosmopolitan, Details, Men’s Health, and Women’s Health.
Jeany was honored with the UNH 2008 V-Warrior award for opening students’ minds by teaching feminism within the context of medical sociology.
She has also been selected to serve as a UNH McNair Scholar mentor. Jeany organized the “Globalization, Immigration, and Health” panel at the
SSSP meetings, and is in-coming Membership Chair for the SSSP.
After 39 years in the UCLA Sociology Department Bob Emerson (1968) officially retired this June. He will continue teaching an undergraduate fieldwork course at UCLA for the next several years, and to pursue research and writing on trouble and social control. His article "Responding to Roommate Troubles: Reconsidering Informal Dyadic Control" will be published in Law & Society Review this fall. He tells us he
also has “grandiose plans” for putting out several more articles on roommate troubles and pulling together a book on
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trouble and informal control, beginning in the fall. In the meanwhile with his colleague Jack Katz he continues to
edit a series of ethnographic monographs with the University of Chicago Press called Fieldwork Encounters and
Discoveries.
Mindy Fried (1996) is in her 5th year as Co-Principal of Arbor Consulting Partners, a social science research consulting group (www.arborcp.com). A few of her current projects include: evaluating SmART Schools, an artsfocused whole school reform initiative in California, evaluating a university-community collaboration (Boston University School of Public Health and community/agency partners) aimed at improving the health of Boston public housing residents, evaluating a workforce development initiative in Maine; and evaluating a campaign led by Physicians
Bob Emerson
for Human Rights aimed at mobilizing health care professionals to educate policymakers about the AIDS pandemic
in Africa. This past year, she conducted a community-based, participatory research project with parents at Boston Latin School, aimed at assessing
the strengths and weaknesses of the school. They held a community forum in which nearly 200 parents attended. In preparation, Mindy trained
parents in research methods, taught them how to facilitate focus groups and take comprehensive focus group notes, and how to analyze qualitative
data. A group of parents wrote the final report that was submitted to the Administration and will be incorporated into her strategic plan. In an attempt to capture the applied nature of her work, Mindy wrote "The Evaluator in the Field as an Outsider Within", which was published in the Public
Sociology column of "Footnotes", a publication of the American Sociological Association, Volume 36, No. 3, March, 2008. http://www.asanet.org/
footnotes/mar08/fn6.html
Betina Freidin (2008) is an Associate Researcher (tenure) at the National Council for Science and Technology, Argentina and a Lecturer of Research
Methods at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Here recent publications include: Betina Freidin, “Acupuncture in Argentina”, in Hinrichs, T.J.
and L.Barnes (Eds.) Chinese Medicine and Healing: An Illustrated History. Cambridge: Harvard University Press (under contract, forthcoming); Betina
Freidin and Stefan Timmermans. 2008. “Complementary and Alternative Medicine for Children’s Asthma: Satisfaction, Care Provider Responsiveness, and Networks of Care,” Qualitative Health Research, 18:43-55; and Stefan Timmermans and Betina Freidin. 2007. “Caretaking as Articulation
Work: The Effects of Taking Up Responsibility for a Child with Asthma on Labor Force Participation,” Social Science and Medicine, 65(7): 1351-1363.
She has also presented papers at the ASA (2008) “Critical Insiders: Practicing Medical Acupuncture and ‘Essentializing’ Medical Practice”, the SSSP
(2008) “Immigrant Acupuncturists in Argentina: Negotiating and Accommodating Expertise in the Western Periphery,” and at the Fourth International
Conference for Qualitative Inquiry (2008) “Occupational Identity Work and Work Strategies among nonphysician Acupuncturists in Argentina.”
Mary Godwyn (2000) is an Assistant Professor at Babson College. Her last two publications were "Using Emotional Labor to Create and Maintain
Relationships in Service and Sales Interactions" in Symbolic Interaction and "Women's Business Centers in the United States: Effective Entrepreneurship Training and Policy Implementation,” (with Nan Langowitz and Norean Sharpe) in Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship. Mary was
the 2008 winner of the “Dark Side of Capitalism Case Competition,” sponsored by the Critical Management Studies Interest Group and the Management Education Division of the Academy of Management; she presented the case at the AOM annual meeting this August. Her course, Minority
Voices in Entrepreneurship: Democratization of Influence and Resources, was selected as a new undergraduate elective course and awarded funding by Babson's Committee for a Diverse Community. Mary is currently working on a book (with Donna Stoddard, D.B.A.) on minority women entrepreneurs.
Harry Greenspan (1986) is still teaching at the University of Michigan, working in the area of Holocaust and Genocide studies, as well as teaching
courses on ethical choice in corporate contexts (particularly the pharmaceutical industry). He is the founder of Justice in Michigan health policy
group with a focus on the fight against FDA preemption (viz., FDA approval of a drug fully shields its manufacturer from civil liability) - what the New
York Times called "a perverse legal doctrine." He would be interested to hear from other alums working in the area of health policy, particularly regarding pharma (hgreensp@umich.edu; justiceinmich@gmail.com).
Douglas Harper (1976) just returned from a teaching/research gig in Rome (spring semester). His current project is on the "visual rhetoric of fascism"
and involves photographing hundreds of buildings, streets, murals, mosaics (that continue to carry the message of that era in Italy. He hopes to use
these photos in interviews with Italians to consider their current meaning(s). He finished two books recently, both with co-authors (both sociologists
from other-than-the US) and revised Good Company, which developed from his dissertation. He has published some articles and chapters and had
some photo exhibitions but most of his effort has been on the books. He remains very active in the IVSA (International Visual Sociology Association)
and often works in Europe. The books are: Douglas Harper and Patrizia Faccioli. Being Italian: Food and Social Life. 2008, forthcoming: University of
Chicago Press (tentative title); Caroline Knowles and Douglas Harper, Hong Kong: Migration Lives in the Postcolonial World. 2008, forthcoming: University of Chicago Press; and Good Company: A Tramp Life. 2006. Boulder: Paradigm (revised and expanded third edition). After twelve years of
being chair here, he is no chair longer! That made 17 years in a row of chairing, he says it is quite something for someone who never particularly
wanted to be in that role.
Heather Jacobson (2006) has a book coming out in November with Vanderbilt University Press, Culture Keeping: White Mothers, International Adoption, and the Negotiation of Family Difference. She also presented, “Adoption, Medicine and the Management of Health Risk in International Placements,” at the 2008 SSSP meeting.
Mathew Johnson (2003) has accepted a post as Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Environmental Studies Program at Siena College. He has received several grants including: 255k from Corporation for National and Community Service to implement an AmeriCorps VISTA program at Siena that includes 9 VISTA positions, an annual statewide training conference, and positioning Siena to be an umbrella agency for the distribution, organization, and implementation of CNCS resources in Up-State NY; and 107k from New York Campus Compact for the creation of a regional
consortium on service learning among higher education institutions of the Capital Region. This grant includes funding to be distributed to faculty for
development in academic service learning. He has also recently been selected by the national office of Campus Compact as an Engaged Scholar.
Christa Kelleher (2003) serves as Research Director for the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy, McCormack Graduate School of Policy
Studies,
University of Massachusetts Boston. Christa also teaches in the Graduate Certificate Program for Women in Politics and Public Policy as well
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as the Master of Science in Public Affairs Program.
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Valerie Leiter (2001) has been promoted to Associate Professor with tenure at Simmons College. She is finishing the second year of a five-year study
of transition to adulthood among youth with disabilities funded by the William T. Grant Foundation Scholars program. Valerie has a paper forthcoming
in Sociology of Health & Illness with Peter Conrad, "From Lydia Pinkham to Queen Levitra: Medicalization and Direct-to-Consumer Advertising," and is
on the planning committee for the Third US-UK Medical Sociology Conference which was held in July 2008.
Alex Liazos (1970) retired in May 2007 after 40 years of teaching sociology (36 at Regis College). He is now enjoying spending much time with his
three young grandchildren. He is also active in various civic organizations in Watertown focusing on affordable housing and disability rights.
After a busy fall semester writing and editing a book on the risks of prescription drugs, Donald Light (1970) was invited to England as the Leverhulme
Trust visiting professor in sociology and social policy. Based in Liverpool, he met and chatted with colleagues at several universities while sampling
pints of local brew. He continues his work on increasing vaccines for low-income countries that does not make them dependent on charity. Recent
publications include: “Managed Care: Its Origins and Prospects.” In Perspectives in Medical Sociology, 4th Edition. Phil Brown, ed. (Long Grove,
Illinois: Waveland Press): 382-99; “Misleading Congress on Drug Development.” Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law 2007; 32: 895-913. Reply to critique 33(2):325-27; and “Is the G8 putting profits before the world’s poorest children?” The Lancet 2007; 370: 297-98.
R. Ruth Linden (1989) is the author of several books on the ethnography, culture and politics of the AIDS crises and the Holocaust. She came to
Stanford to direct curriculum reform in 1999. She is also a lecturer in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at UC San Francisco.
Louise Levesque Lopman (1977) is Professor Emerita of Sociology, Regis College, where she twice chaired the Department, and established and
directed the Women’s Studies Program. She was a Visiting Scholar at the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women, and is a Resident
Scholar at the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis. Louise’s current project, El Salvador Not For Sale: Women Maquila (Sweatshop) Workers’ Response to Corporate Globalization, draws its perspective and methodology from her book, Claiming Reality: Phenomenology and Women’s
Experience (Rowman & Littlefield). The project centers on the impact of the neoliberal economic model on Salvadoran women’s lives, and is based
on her in-depth interviews in El Salvador and her experience as an International Observer during the Salvadoran presidential elections. Among her
recent publications are two essays, “Women Combatants and the Emergence of Gender Awareness in Postconflict El Salvador” (March 2008) and
“Women and ‘Free’ Trade: The Undemocratic Nature of Neoliberalism and Trade Liberalization” (March 2007).
Jonathan Martin (2001) received tenure in the Sociology Department at Framingham State College. He presented the paper "Pedagogy of the Alienated: Can Freirian Teaching Reach Working Class Students?" at the Fall New England Sociological Association Conference and subsequently published it as an article in the journal Equity and Excellence in Education (Feb. 2008). During his upcoming sabbatical he will be conducting research
on the difficulties contemporary U.S. progressive third parties face in trying to win elections at the pivotal state level.
PJ McGann (1995) has been elected Vice-President Elect of the Society for the Study of Social Problems and will serve as Vice President 2009-10.
Debi Osnowitz (2005) will be at Clark University the coming year, as a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Sociology. In December, she
published “Individual Needs Versus Collective Interests: Network Dynamics in the Freelance Editorial Association” in Qualitative Sociology. She also
presented a paper at the meeting of the Society for the Study of Social Problems—“Contesting Time: Contract Professionals and the Implicit Critique
of the Standard Job,” coauthored with Kevin Henson—and a paper at the meeting of the American Sociological Association—“Embedded in the Tax
Code: The Ongoing Contest Over Contract Employment,” coauthored with George Gonos.
Ameetha Palanki (1994) is Chief Academic Officer responsible for the educational strategy behind Edgenuity. Prior to Edgenuity, she was the director
of Product Content and Product Strategy for WebLearning, where she authored the educational taxonomy that enabled the personalization of webbased content. She has published numerous articles on strategies for educational improvement.
Karl Pillemer (1985) has published a number of papers recently: Pillemer, Karl, J. Jill Suitor, Steven Mock, Myra Sabir, and Jori Sechrist. (2007).
Capturing the Complexity of Intergenerational Relations: Exploring Ambivalence within Later-Life Families." Journal of Social Issues, 63: 775791; Chen, Cory K, Myra Sabir, Sheryl Zimmerman, J. Jill Suitor, and Karl Pillemer. (2007). "The importance of family relationships with nursing facility staff for family caregiver burden and depression." Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 62, 253-260; Suitor, J. Jill, Jori Sechrist, and
Karl Pillemer. (2007). "Within-Family Differences in Mothers' Support to Adult Children in Black and White Families." Research on Aging, 29: 410435; and Robison, Julie, Leslie Curry, Cynthia Gruman, Martha Porter, Charles R. Henderson, Jr., and Karl Pillemer. (2007). "Partners in Caregiving in
a Special Care Environment: Cooperative Communication Between Staff and Families on Dementia Units." The Gerontologist, 47: 504-515.
Victoria Pitts-Taylor (1999) gave an invited lecture at a symposium on Women's Bodies and Biotechnologies at Ehwa Women's University in Seoul,
South Korea in April 2008 and an invited lecture at a conference on "High-Tension Aesthetics" at University of Copenhagen in May 2008. Both lectures examined cosmetic surgery in relation to theories of governmentality and technologies of the self, drawn from her research for Surgery Junkies
(Rutgers University Press, 2007). She has recently begun a 3-year term as co-Editor of the journal Women's Studies Quarterly and in the fall begins
her 10th year on the faculty at City University of New York (Queens College and Graduate Center).
Brad Rose (1994) is president of Brad Rose Consulting, Inc., 20 Cornell Rd. Wellesley, Massachusetts. Brad provides program evaluation and organization development consulting services to community-based organizations, national non-profit organizations, state agencies, philanthropies, and
educational institutions. During the last year, Brad evaluated programs for: Americans for the Arts, the Massachusetts Department of Education,
Harvard Forest, Worcester Public Schools, ACCESS Boston, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. For the latter, Brad recently conducted a program
review of the foundation’s Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship program (MMUF), a 20 year-old program that operates at 33 American colleges
and universities, 39 United Negro College Fund member institutions, and 2 South African universities. The program supports minority students, and
others with a demonstrated commitment to eradicating racial disparities, in pursuing PhDs in the arts and sciences. Brad Rose may be reached at
www.bradroseconsulting.com or bradrose1@comcast.net.
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Henry Rubin (1996) has just completed his first year of a tenure-track position at Quincy College on the south shore of Boston. He will also be returning to Brandeis to teach a course on sexuality this fall.
Ruben Rumbaut (1978) has several articles forthcoming: “Demographic Transformations, Structural Contexts, and Transitions to Adulthood.” In
Marilyn Aguirre-Molina, Luisa Borrell, and William A. Vega, eds., Social and Structural Factors Affectingthe Health of Latino Males in the United
States. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2008; “Reaping What You Sew: Immigration, Youth, and Reactive Ethnicity.” Applied Developmental
Science [Special Issue: Civic Engagement in Immigrants], 2008; “A Language Graveyard? The Evolution of Language Competencies, Preferences and
Use among Young Adult Children of Immigrants.” In Terrence G. Wiley, Jin Sook Lee, and Russell Rumberger, eds., The Education of Language Minority Immigrants in the United States. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters, 2008; “Immigration’s Complexities, Assimilation’s Discontents.” Contexts
2008; and Cecilia Menjívar and Rubén G. Rumbaut, “Rights of Racial and Ethnic Minorities and Migrants: Between Rhetoricand Reality.” In Judith
Blau, David Brunsma, Alberto Moncada, and Catherine Zimmer, eds., The Leading Rogue State: The United States and Human Rights, Paradigm
Publishers, 2008.
Formally retired from academic life, Helen L. Stewart (1980) now lives with her family in Santa Rosa, California. Her last “mainstream” position was
as Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Rider University in New Jersey. For the past 15 years Helen’s principal focus has been a deeper
understanding of metaphysics, including working with ethical applications of intuition for business and for frontier science. She believes that intuition
is simply another liberal art, both natural gift and teachable skill, available on demand to any who simply pay attention. Currently Helen lectures and
consults principally in France, Austria and Aruba. She is also an intuitive consultant for several American corporations. For this work she blends all of
her personal experience, formal academic and other professional training, and deeper “knowing” in what she hopes has
become a seamless response regarding issues such as new product development, identity and brand, mergers, acquisitions and partnerships, and a wide range of human resource issues. All of this is done intuitively. Contact information:
hstewart@umsonline.edu
Judith Stacey’s (1979) response to James Dobson’s distortion of her and others research on gay and lesbian parenting
effects on children can be seen on You Tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaCCe9XVSRo).
Gregory Wilpert (1994) recently published his first book, Changing Venezuela by Taking Power: the History and Policies of
the Chavez Government (Verso Books, 2007). In early 2008 he moved back to New York City with his wife and 9-year old
daughter, after having lived in Caracas, Venezuela for the past eight years and continues to work as a freelance writer and
part-time professor and also edits the website www.venezuelanalysis.com.
Jennifer Zoltanski (2006) will be a Visiting Assistant Professor at Wheaton College beginning this Fall.
2008 Entering Graduate Students
Sociology PhD program:
Casey Clevenger, BA 2003 from University of Washington, MA 2008 in Public Policy-Women’s Studies from George Washington University, Washington, DC.
Nicole Fox, BA 2005 from University of California, Davis, MA 2008 in Global Gender Studies, State University of New York, Buffalo.
Vanessa Muňoz, BA 2002 from Emory University, MA 2007 in Sociology from University of Maryland.
Joint PhD program - NEJS and Sociology:
Joshua Cypess, BA 1995 from Princeton University, from 19962000 graduate studies at Yeshiva University, NY, NY.
Emiliy Sigalow, will begin program in Jan. 2009, BA 2002 from
Swarthmore College, candidate for MA at Ben Gurion University
of the Negev.
Joint PhD program - Sociology and The Heller School:
Tom Mackie, BA 2002 from Wesleyan University, MA 2005 in
International Health from Boston University.
Yasmin Zaidi, BA 1971 from Lahore College for Women, MPhil
2006 in Anthropology from Quaid-E-Azam University in Islamabad.
Sociology MA program:
Siok Hwee Low, BA 2003 from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, majored in Communications Studies.
Elena Wilson, BA 2001 from Westfield State College, majored
in Mass Communications.
Sociology and WGS MA program:
Elizabeth Michelle Morgan, BA 2007, from Pepperdine University, majored in sociology.
Heidi Rademacher, BA from Northeastern Illinois University,
majored in music education, minored in sociology.
Monica
Timbo,
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11 BA 2003 from Fourah Bay College, University of
Sierra Leone, majored in history.
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Left to right: Vanessa Munoz, Joshua Cypess, Siok Hwee Low, Nicole Fox, Yasmin
Zaidi, Michelle Morgan, Casey Clevenger, Monica Timbo, Heidi Rademacher
(missing from photo: Tom Mackie, Elena Wilson)
Department Colloquia for Fall 2007 and Spring 2008
Judith Taylor (Brandeis BA ‘93)
PhD University of California at Santa Barbara
Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Toronto
“Feminist Consumerism and Fat Activists: A Comparative Study of Grass-Roots Activism and the Dove “Real Beauty” Campaign
Can corporations do the work of social movements? Have scholars of movements over-estimated the significance of the grassroots in the
creation of social change? In her talk, Taylor compared two campaigns that each contend with hegemonic beauty standards, one orchestrated by Pretty, Porky and Pissed Off, a grassroots group in Toronto’s performance art scene, the other produced by Dove, a subsidiary of
Unilever, a multinational corporation.
Myra Hird
Professor and Queen’s National Scholar, Sociology Department, Queen’s University
“Notes from a Failed Feminist: The Ontology and Epistemology of Sexual Difference”
Author of the books Questioning Sociology: A Canadian Perspective and Psychosomatic: Feminism and the Neurological Body
C.J. Pascoe (Brandeis B.A. ‘96)
Postdoctoral Scholar with the Digital Youth Project at the Institute for the Study of Social Change at the University of
California, Berkeley
“’Guys are just homophobic:’ Heterosexuality and Homophobia in High School”
Author of the recently published book Dude, You’re a Fag: Adolescent Masculinity and the Fag Discourse a pathbreaking study of schoolboys renegotiating class, gender and ethnicity.
Matt Wray
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Health and Society Scholar, Harvard School of Public Health
“Interviewing the Dead: Suicide and the Social Autopsy”
This talk focused on the limitations of the psychological autopsy as a method for illuminating risk factors and guiding
suicide prevention efforts. The psychological autopsy, developed in the 1930s and formalized in the 1960s, is a methodology unique to the
study suicide and involves clinical and diagnostic interviews with loved ones and family members of completed suicides, aimed at constructing a postmortem profile. An alternative method of investigation —the social autopsy—is examined, with an emphasis on the multiple methods required. The talk was supported with data from an ongoing social autopsy of suicides in Las Vegas, the city with the highest suicide
rate in the U.S.
Marsha Saxton
Disability Studies Professor, University of California, Berkeley and Public Policy Researcher at the World Institute on Disability, Oakland, CA
“Improving Communication with Medical Providers: Hot Tips for Patients and Doctors from People with Disabilities”
Recipient of the Irving Kenneth Zola Award sponsored by the Irving Kenneth Zola Fund and the Department of Sociology
PURPLE BAG COLLOQUIA: This series seeks to give faculty and advanced graduate students an opportunity to discuss work-in-progress.
Wendy Cadge
Assistant Professor
“Blessings, Strength and Guidance: Prayer Frames in a Hospital Prayer Book:”
Charles Kadushin
Professor Emeritus Sociology, Graduate Center, CUNY; Distinguished Scholar, Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies and Visiting Research
Professor, Department of Sociology at Brandeis University
“The ‘Small World’ Revisited: Developments in Social Network Theory”
Peter Conrad
Harry Coplan Professor of Social Sciences, Department of Sociology and
Chair, Health: Science, Society and Policy Program
“After Medicalization: Missing Chapters and New Projects”
Cameron Macdonald
Assistant Professor, Sociology Department and Scholar, Institute for Clinical & Translational Research, School of Medicine and Public Health,
University of Wisconsin, Madison
“The Home as Hospital: Families Manage High-Tech Home Care”
George Ross
Hillquit Professor of Labor and Social Thought and Director, Center for German and European Studies
“Elites in the European Union and What They Think about the Crisis of the E.U.”
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Undergraduate Senior Theses for 2008
Left to right: Jon Lange, Sarah Rubinton, Shoshana Froman,
Jane Schlapkohl, Kimberlee Bachman, and Jonathan Eskow
Kimberlee Bachman
Protests at Gallaudet: A Mirror into the Deaf Community
Jonathan Eskow
Underage Drinking: The Mechanisms Behind Underage College Students’ Decisions to Abstain from Alcohol
Shoshana Froman
I’m Not a Bad Guy, I Just Play One Sometimes: Dominant Men and the Expression of Hegemonic Masculinity
Sarah Gaby
Environmental Injustice in Vieques: Making the Case for Justice
Jonathan Lange
Shaping Scientists: The Negotiation of Undergraduates’ Scientific Identities in Research Laboratories
Sara Rubinton
Academic Cheating: Social Pressures Influencing Individual Behavior
Jane Schlapkohl
Women’s Perspectives on the Use of Epidurals during Childbirth
You can find this newsletter at our website:
brandeis.edu/departments/sociology/
—Send us your news and other professional announcements: conrad@brandeis.edu.
—Please forward this link to colleagues who may have lost touch with us.
—Consider sending us a copy of your recent book for our display area.
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Brandeis University
1958
2008
Brandeis University
Department of Sociology—MS 071
415 South Street
PO Box 9110
Waltham, MA 02454