Facebook's wayback machine ("On this Day" app) reminded me this morning that I have been battling students using their cell phones in class for a long time now. I know some professors don't care if students use their phones in class. Fine by me; their class, their rules. And some are just unaware. Many Wake … Continue reading Battling the Cell Phone Menace in Class for a Decade Now
Wake Forest University's Commencement ceremony was particularly special this year because my oldest son graduated (with a B.S. in Finance, Summa Cum Laude, if I may brag on him just a bit). It is always exciting to be present to the symbolic transition of students from their pasts into their futures. All the more so … Continue reading Reason Requires That You Accept You May Be Wrong
Teaching Arlie Hochschild's The Managed Heart in my sociological theory class recently, I was looking for data on the percentage of flight attendants today who are male. I found a nice post on the issue by Mona Chalabi ("Dear Mona") on the FiveThirtyEight blog. Answer: In 1980, 14.3 percent of flight attendants were male; in … Continue reading Data on Gender Segregation in Occupations (2012)
I am excited to be teaching a new course in the fall semester, related to my new research project on American gun culture: Sociology 384: Special Topics Seminar - The Sociology of Guns. Course description follows the flier. COURSE DESCRIPTION Guns often have a spectacular presence in the American imagination, from George Zimmerman to Sandy Hook … Continue reading New Course for Fall 2015: The Sociology of Guns
There, I said it. I am a professor. The description does not exactly roll off my tongue. I am a professor. It somehow sounds pompous to me. So I generally avoid saying it. When I am traveling and a cab driver asks me what I do for a living, or at holiday parties when I … Continue reading I Am a Professor
The quickening of life due to technology is a blessing I depend on daily. But it is also a curse at times, especially at the end of the semester when it comes to grades. I submitted my fall grades today at 11:45am (they were due at noon!). By 4pm the first grade complaint had arrived … Continue reading Putting Grading and Grades in Perspective
Whether you write letters of recommendation or not – but especially if you write letters of recommendation – read Julie Schumacher’s Dear Committee Members. It is a novel written in the form of letters of recommendation by Jason T. Fitger, Professor of Creative Writing and English at Payne University. Although not a typical narrative, the … Continue reading Read Julie Schumacher’s Dear Committee Members: A Novel
I am participating in a faculty Writing Associates Seminar, in which we are learning to integrate writing more intelligently and productively into our courses. For an upcoming retreat, our seminar leader asked us to write a letter to our future students about what we hope they will get out of our class. I wrote the … Continue reading A Letter to My Future Students
In his famous book Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, Pierre Bourdieu reports findings from a French survey of cultural tastes fielded in 1967-68. Of particular note is a figure showing the distribution of preferences for three musical works by class fractions. Bourdieu reports that Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier" represents "legitimate taste" and … Continue reading Contemporary Application of Bourdieu’s Distinction in Musical Taste
OK, Wake Forest Sociological Theory students. You asked for it, you got it. Listen to the following three songs and complete the survey at the bottom of this blog post! http://youtu.be/ViwtNLUqkMY http://youtu.be/IBH97ma9YiI http://youtu.be/MYxAiK6VnXw http://www.wedgies.com/question/534d6951305268020000067f Thanks for participating!!!!
