Colloquia

Sociology Department Colloquium Series
Blumer Room - 402 Social Sciences Building
MONDAYS, 2:00 - 3:30 PM
[unless otherwise noted]

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Blumer Room - 402 Barrows Hall
  Monday, February 8, 2-3:30pm in 402 Barrows Hall Culling the Masses: The Democratic Origins of Racist Immigration Policy in the Americas Professor Fizgerald will present his recently co-authored (with David Cook-Martín) book. Culling the Masses (Harvard University Press 2014) questions the widely held view that in the long run democracy and racism cannot coexist. The authors show that democracies were the first countries in the Americas to select immigrants by race, and undemocratic states the first to outlaw discrimination. Through analysis of legal records from twenty-two countries between 1790 and 2010, the authors present a history of the rise and fall of racial selection in the Western Hemisphere.Biography:
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Blumer Room - 402 Barrows Hall
  Survey research in the digital age: The past, present, and very bright future The digital age has transformed how researchers are able to study social behavior.  Contrary to claims about the demise of the survey, in this talk, I will argue that the digital age actually increases the value of surveys.  I will use the traditional total survey error framework to organize the landscape, and then I’ll highlight three broad areas for development: changes in who we ask, changes in how we ask, and changes in how we link surveys to other sources of data.  The talk will conclude with some predictions for the future.  This talk represents one chapter from a book I’m currently writing about social research in the digital age.
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Blumer Room - 402 Barrows Hall
  Monday, December 7, 2-3:30pm in 402 Barrows
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Blumer Room - 402 Barrows Hall
  Monday, Nov 30, 2-3:30pm in Barrows 402 The Social Foundations of Positivism: The Case of Late Nineteenth Century Italy
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Blumer Room - 402 Barrows Hall
  Akos Rona-Tas, Monday, November 23, 2-3:30pm in Barrows 402 Knowing What We Don’t: Food Risk Analysis in the United States and the European Union
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Blumer Room - 402 Barrows Hall
  Monday, Nov 16, 2-3:30pm in 402 Barrows Hall   Elements for a social inquiry into capitalization
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Blumer Room - 402 Barrows Hall
  November 9, 2015, 2:00-3:00pm Barrows, 402 Strange Bedfellows: Informal Relationships and Political Preference Formation Within Boardinghouses, 1825-1841
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Blumer Room - 402 Barrows Hall
  A Permanent Punishment for the Poor In this presentation I discuss the criminal sentencing practice of monetary sanctions, which are now regularly imposed to people convicted of felonies across the United States.  I present data from a mixed-method study in Washington State to illustrate the “punishment continuum,” i.e., variations in the assessment and monitoring of fiscal sentences within the state.  I highlight the role of contemporary criminal justice bureaucrats and of American values in the assessment and application of legal policy. From this analysis, we see how the system of monetary sanctions is a mechanism used to require offenders to express their remorse and accountability for their offending.  And, if one is unable to make sufficient or regular payments, monetary sanctions serve as a permanent punishment with dramatic consequences for individuals’ emotions, re-entry into their communities, and future life chances.  
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Blumer Room - 402 Barrows Hall
  Monday, October 26, 2-3:30pm in 402 Barrows   Anthropology at War: Robert H. Lowie and the Transformation of the Culture Concept, 1904-1954
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Blumer Room - 402 Barrows Hall
  Monday, October 19, 2-3:30pm in 420 Barrows Hall Paying for the Party: How College Maintains Inequality