Mary Blair-Loy quoted in NY Times–parenting and work in time of Covid

Professor Mary Blair-Loy was quoted in an April 28 story in the New York Times. The article looked at how the Covid 19 lockdown has exposed the fiction that child care and working are separable. The article’s first hyperlink (on undivided loyalty) is to Blair-Loy’s book landmark book, Competing Devotions.

You can find the article here https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/27/upshot/coronavirus-exposes-workplace-truths.html

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PhD alum publishes in Nature: Social media hype surrounding hydroxychloroquine

In an editorial published in the journal Nature, alumna Joan Donovan (PhD 2015, Sociology and Science Studies) shows how misinformation about hydroxychloroquine was spread on social media, and she argues why media companies must flatten the curve of unsubstantiated science.

Donovan is the research director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her article can be found at https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01107-z

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A note to students and friends of the Department of Sociology

Thank you for visiting our department website.

As you know, the situation with the coronavirus (COVID-19) is evolving rapidly across the United States. Please see coronavirus.ucsd.edu for the most up-to-date campus information on courses and policies affecting our university.

All Sociology Department faculty, lecturers, graduate students, and staff are now working remotely, and all Spring and Summer 2020 Sociology courses will be offered online.

While our physical facilities are closed, we do hope that you will reach out to us online with any questions or concerns you may have.

We wish you and your loved ones safety and good health.

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Extraordinary Contributor, Prof. Blair-Loy

In a 2019 empirical analysis of the multi-disciplinary work-family literature, Prof. Mary Blair-Loy was named a “Top Ten Extraordinary Contributor” in the “Landmark Contributions” category and a “Top 50 Contributor” in the overall contributions category. View Prof. Blair-Loy’s study here:  https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13668803.2019.1596881.
Photo by Erik Jepsen

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Graduate Students in Max Planck Institute, Germany

Two of our graduate students, Daniel Driscoll and Davide Carpano, are currently abroad in Germany at the Max Planck Institute. Both grad students are having a great time during their travels and Daniel Driscoll said: “It’s been very nice here in Germany. The intellectual environment at Max Planck Institute (MPI) is great for getting work done and connecting with others.” We are all very excited for them here at the Sociology Department, and cannot wait to hear more from both Daniel and Davide.

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PhD Alumna Sabrina Strings’ Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia by

Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia by our PhD alumna Sabrina Strings was just released!

It explores how fat phobia in the West finds its roots not in health concerns, but in the triangle slave trade and Protestantism.

How the female body has been racialized for over two hundred years.

There is an obesity epidemic in this country and poor black women are particularly stigmatized as “diseased” and a burden on the public health care system. This is only the most recent incarnation of the fear of fat black women, which Sabrina Strings shows took root more than two hundred years ago.

Strings weaves together an eye-opening historical narrative ranging from the Renaissance to the current moment, analyzing important works of art, newspaper and magazine articles, and scientific literature and medical journals—where fat bodies were once praised—showing that fat phobia, as it relates to black women, did not originate with medical findings, but with the Enlightenment era belief that fatness was evidence of “savagery” and racial inferiority.

The author argues that the contemporary ideal of slenderness is, at its very core, racialized and racist. Indeed, it was not until the early twentieth century, when racialized attitudes against fatness were already entrenched in the culture, that the medical establishment began its crusade against obesity.

 

An important and original work, Fearing the Black Body argues convincingly that fat phobia isn’t about health at all, but rather a means of using the body to validate race, class, and gender prejudice.

The book has been featured on three “must read” lists:

Ms. Magazine’s “2019 Reads for the Rest of Us”

Bitch Media’s “15 Nonfiction Books Feminists Should read this Spring”

#ColorlinesReads: Get Some Perspective With These 5 Books

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UCSD Sociology Professor John Skrentny Referenced in “Voice of San Diego” Article

John Skrentny, a Professor of Sociology and UCSD faculty member, was recently referenced in a Voice of San Diego article regarding the Trump administration’s decision to repeal an Obama administration rule allowing spouses of H-4 visa holders to legally work in the United States, and its potential impacts on the economy of San Diego. The article referencing Professor Skrentny can be found here.

You can also view Professor Skrentny’s personal website here.

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UCSD Sociology Professor Amy Binder Referenced in “The Chronicle of Higher Education” Article

Amy Binder, a Professor of Sociology and UCSD faculty member, was recently referenced in an article for The Chronicle of Higher Education focusing on the California Campus Republican platform and its impact on college culture. The article referencing Professor Binder can be found here.

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2018 Graduate Student Workshop

The UCSD Sociology Department Graduate Student Workshop was held Friday May 18th. This year’s workshops included discussions related to theory, methods, and sociological sub-disciplines, as well as reflections on the past, present, and future of sociology and what makes something sociology (or not).

Throughout the workshop, participants had engaging and interactive discussions both with faculty from the sociology department and with other graduate students. Graduate students from all disciplines were welcome to participate in this year’s workshop as they discussed a variety of theoretical and methodological topics.

The organizing committee would like to thank all attendees for their participation in the graduate workshop, and looks forward to welcoming everyone back to next year’s workshop.

For more photographs of the event and information about the workshop, please visit the workshop site.

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Graduate Student Lauren Olsen Wins ASA Award

Lauren Olsen, PhD candidate at the UCSD Department of Sociology, has won the 2018 Louise Johnson Scholar Award of the ASA Medical Sociology Section. Selection for the Louise Johnson Scholar Award is based on academic merit and the quality of an accepted ASA paper related to medical sociology.

The Louise Johnson Scholar fund was established in memory of Louise Johnson, a pioneering medical sociologist whose mentorship and scholarship the American Sociological Association is pleased to honor. As the Scholar recipient, Olsen will receive travel funds up to $500 to present at the annual ASA meetings in Chicago and attend section events. Her award will be presented at the section awards ceremony at ASA.

Congratulations Lauren!

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