Sociology Department News
Dina Okamoto was elected to the ASA Council, Member-at-Large.
The ASA Council is the governing body of the American Sociological Association, which is dedicated to advancing sociology as a scientific discipline and profession serving the public good. With over 14,000 members, ASA encompasses sociologists who are faculty members at colleges and universities, researchers, practitioners, and students. Working at the national and international levels, the Association aims to articulate policy and implement programs likely to have the broadest possible impact for sociology now and in the future. The ASA Council is responsible for the formulation of policy and the general direction of the affairs of the Association.
Bruce Haynes was elected to the publications committee of the Urban and Community Section of the ASA.
Vicki Smith and Brian Halpin have been awarded a UCD Center for Poverty Research Graduate Student Research Fellowship
The fellowship will support Brian's work interviewing low-wage workers for a larger study of the employability strategies of people stuck in low-wage labor markets. The research will take place in the Napa/Sonoma area.
Vicki Smith is the 2012-13 Chair of the ASA Economic Sociology Section
The Economic Sociology Section is the 8th largest of the ASA's 52 sections. Vicki served as Chair-Elect for this position in 2011-12. She will be working with a contingent of UCD economic sociologists--both faculty and graduate students--to produce the section newsletters and organize the section round tables at the 2013 New York City meetings. UCD has a long affiliation with the subfield of economic sociology: colleagues Nicole Biggart and Fred Block were some of the movers and shakers behind the formation of this section in 2000; Biggart was also elected to chair it (2004-05).
Robin Pleau's article shortlisted for the Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award for Excellence in Work-Family Research.
Robin Pleau's article, "Gender Differences in Postretirement Employment" published in Research on Aging, was shortlisted for this yearly award. The award is given to the author(s) of the best research paper published in 2010. The finalists are selected via a rigorous process. A committee of over 35 leading scholars, from five countries, examined over 2500 articles published in 77 leading English-language journals from around the world. A three-stage process led to the final selections. No external nominations were solicited or accepted. Robin's papers and ten others were chosen for the shortlist.
Cara Chiaraluce awarded the Cross- UC Medical Humanities Fellowship for 2012-2013
Fellows pursue individualized research projects relating to the theme of "language and de/humanization in a medical setting." During the academic year, she also will be participating in themed monthly discussion groups with multi-disciplinary scholars held at the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.
Daniel Herda awarded a Dissertation-Year Fellowship for 2012-2013
Daniel Herda has received a UC Davis Dissertation Fellowship for his research on racial discrimination experiences. The first of his three studies examines the degree to which such hostile interracial encounters can engender negative attitudes among reported victims. The second focuses on how neighborhood racial composition influences the likelihood of experiencing discrimination among young respondents. The final study examines the mental health and behavioral consequences of adolescents' discrimination fears and parents' discrimination experiences to determine whether discrimination can be detrimental even in the absence of actual experience.
David Orzechowicz selected for 2012-2013 Professors for the Future program
Professors for the Future is a year-long competitive fellowship program designed to recognize and develop the leadership skills of outstanding graduate students and postdoctoral scholars who have demonstrated their commitment to professionalism, integrity, and academic service. This unique program sponsored by the Office of Graduate Studies focuses on the future challenges of graduate education, postdoctoral training, and the academy. Professors for the Future (PFTF) is designed to prepare UC Davis doctoral students and postdoctoral scholars for an increasingly competitive marketplace and a rapidly changing university environment. PFTF Fellows receive a $3,000 stipend.
Raoul S. Lievanos forthcoming publication
"Certainty, Fairness, and Balance: State Resonance and Environmental Justice Policy Implementation," will appear in the June 2012 (Vol. 27, No. 2) issue of Sociological Forum. The publication draws on research Lievanos completed for his qualifying paper in the sociology department and elaborates on recent arguments put forth by Lievanos and co-authors Jonathan K. London and Julie Sze in Technoscience and Environmental Justice: Expert Cultures in a Grassroots Movement, edited by G. Ottinger and B. R. Cohen (MIT Press, 2011).
Jennifer Haylett forthcoming publication
"One Woman Helping Another: Egg Donation as a Case of Relational Work" has been accepted for publication in the June 2012 special relational work issue of the journal Politics and Society.
Diane Wolf keynote speaker
Diane Wolf will be the keynote speaker at a special event for the University of Colorado's Holocaust Awareness Week January 23-27). Her talk "Hidden Children of the Holocaust," is based on her book, "Beyond Anne Frank: Jewish Families in Postwar Holland" for which she interviewed 70 former "hidden children." The talk will discuss the ways in which genocide strained relationships between Jewish parents and their children who were placed in hiding. Read more: http://www.coloradodaily.com/ci_19791273#axzz1kJOfDT7d
Sociology Colloquia March 1, John Hipp: Living in your own "Private Idaho": Egohoods as a New Measure of Neighborhood
Defining "neighborhoods" is a bedeviling challenge faced by all studies of neighborhood effects and ecological models of social processes. Although scholars frequently lament the inadequacies of the various existing definitions of "neighborhood", we argue that previous strategies relying on non-overlapping boundaries such as block groups and tracts are fundamentally flawed. The approach taken here instead builds on insights of the mental mapping literature, the social networks literature, the daily activities pattern literature, and the travel to crime literature to propose a new definition of neighborhoods: egohoods. These egohoods are conceptualized as waves washing across the surface of cities, as opposed to independent units with non-overlapping boundaries. This approach is illustrated using crime data from seven cities, and the results show that measures aggregated to our egohoods explain about twice as much of the variation in crime across the social environment than do models with measures aggregated to block groups or tracts. Results also suggest that measuring inequality in egohoods provides dramatically stronger effects on crime rates than when using the non-overlapping boundary approach, highlighting the important new insights that can be obtained by utilizing our egohood approach.
Diane Wolf selected to editorial board
Diane Wolf has been invited to join the editorial board of a new book series, "Studies of Jews in Society," sponsored by the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry and published by University of Nebraska Press.
Special Inaugural Sociology Colloquium: A talk by Evelyn Nakano Glenn, UC-Berkeley
"Precarious Citizenship and the Fight for Public Education" A talk by Evelyn Nakano Glenn, Professor of Ethnic and Asian American Studies & former President of the American Sociological Association (2010) will be held on Thursday, December 8, 2011, 10:30-12:00 in the Andrews Conference Room, SS&H 2203 RSVP: mudge@ucdavis.edu
CNN coverage focuses on Professors Bob Faris and Diane Felmlee's research on bullying
CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360° recently partnered with UC Davis sociologists Robert Faris and Diane Felmlee to engage in a systematic social network analysis of school bullying and aggression. The results of the study have been the focus of a weeklong series of events on CNN, including a Town Hall meeting, interviews with Faris and Felmlee, articles on the CNN website, and taped segments summarizing the findings of the Faris and Felmlee’s research.