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January 2015 Volume 43 • Number 1 • January 2015 High School Sociology Front and Center inside Once Again at NCSS Nearly 80 teachers attend ASA high school sociology symposium in Boston; ASA high school planning program and advisory panel hard at work on draft standards document in 2015. 3 Sexual Assault on Jean H. Shin, Beth Floyd, and maximize outreach and impact, sociology attended, many of whom Campus Margaret Weigers Vitullo, ASA decided on a new approach. attended multiple sessions. The four Determining the numbers American Sociological Association While the previous two years’ high sessions were listed as follows: school conferences attempted to of incidences is complicated n November 21, 2014, in Boston, Session 1 and only the beginning of MA, ASA sponsored an all-day bring high school teachers to sociol- O “Reading/Writing in the dealing with assaults. symposium for high school teachers ogy, it was agreed that ASA would Sociology Classroom to Engage of sociology at the 2014 National try bringing sociology to the high Critical and Creative Thinking.” Council for the Social Studies school teachers at the NCSS Annual Sociologists at the Presenters: Chris Salituro, 5 (NCSS) Annual Conference. This Conference. The new approach was Census Stevenson High School; Hayley was the fourth event of this kind quite successful in 2013 and even Taking a walk on the applied Lotspeich, Wheaton North High that ASA has sponsored, starting in more so in 2014. side, sociologists at the U.S. Featured in the NCSS Conference School Census Bureau help make 2011. In 2013, after consultations with the ASA High School Planning News, the day-long event was Session 2 the most reliable estimates. divided into four linked sessions Program Advisory Panel and also “Research and Teaching in Urban that took place on November 21 with Susan Griffin, NCSS Executive Sociology.” 5 Improve Undergrad Director, and David Bailor, NCSS at the Hynes Convention Center. Learning Through Meetings Director, about how to Nearly 80 high school teachers of Continued on Page 6 Presentations Hands-on experiences, such as presenting at regional meetings can improve understanding and bolster Sociology and Criminal Justice: Teaching Sociology confidence. Few Differences in Learning and with Wikipedia Designing and Eryk Salvaggio and Jami Mathewson, 9 Implementing an Online Career Outcomes Wiki Education Foundation Master’s Degree Mary S. Senter, Central Michigan their major as “sociology and ur two previous articles An applied sociology University, and Roberta Spalter-Roth criminal justice” more likely than O(September/October 2014, December 2014) examined the ben- degree at University of accalaureates including sociol- those with a “no concentration” eficial outcomes of ASA’s Wikipedia Alabama-Birmingham was a ogy majors graduating in 2012 major to find meaningful employ- B initiative, including improvement worthwhile process. faced a difficult job market, and ment? And, were students with a in student research, writing, critical sociology departments along with combined major less likely to learn thinking, collaborative efforts, and other humanities and social science and use key sociological concepts information literacy skills. And while disciplines faced competition for and skills? Data from the first and From the Executive Officer .................2 Wikipedia has had a positive impact majors from more vocational and second waves of the second “bach- Science Policy .........................................3 on these sociology students, they professional degrees. Departments elor’s and beyond” survey, funded have also had a positive impact on Announcements ................................. 12 may respond by offering concentra- by the National Science Foundation Wikipedia. Students have expanded Obituaries .............................................. 14 tions within the sociology major, and under the direction of Roberta the breadth of sociology coverage and with the most common being crime, Spalter-Roth, helped answer these are closing that content gap. The ini- law, and society. When sociology questions. We compared the seniors tiative has also brought more women departments developed this new (49%) who in spring 2012 described onto Wikipedia, and diversifying the concentration, some chairs noted a their major as sociology alone to the editor base helps broaden the repre- decrease in sociology majors while 12 percent of seniors who reported sented topics and perspectives. criminal justice majors increase a combined major of sociology and Before May 2014, if you (Spalter-Roth, Van Vooren, and criminal justice. researched “social cleansing” on Kisielewski, 2013). Students may This research did not find that Wikipedia, you would have found assume that the concentration joint criminology and sociology a sparse page with 192 words. The will give them an employment majors were advantaged in the labor three sources identified three South advantage. market. Nor did it find major differ- Were students who described Continued on Page 4 Continued on Page 8 footnotes • January 2015 To view the online version, visit <www.asanet.org/footnotes/jan15/index.html> 1 American Sociological Association footnotes.asanet.org from the executive officer The Policy Relevance of Sociology n December 1, 2014, the both for the future of the field and recommend interventions based court hearings than those released OChronicle of Higher Education for making progress on large-scale on empirical data. ASA will link on parole or with bonds, allowing published an article by Orlando human system problems ranging the SSG with sociologists and their more cost-effective use of limited Patterson titled “How Sociologists from poverty to climate change. research. resources. Made Themselves While I agree with many The ASA’s amicus brief summa- Impact Irrelevant.” On the aspects of this argument, I rizing research regarding outcomes Chronicle website 133 also think it is worthwhile for children with same-sex parents These are simply examples. Most people commented on to consider evidence of is another example of sociology sociologists will produce many the piece, with comments the impact of sociology being used to shape public policy. others. These “anecdotes”, however, posted on a variety of other listservs specifically. After submitting our brief in the do not determine the extent of and blogs as well, including Julia DOMA and Proposition 8 cases in the impact of sociology—or social Visibility McQuillan’s guest post on ASA’s the U.S. Supreme Court, we have science, more generally; that is blog, Speak for Sociology. Clearly Looking at visibility in the media, positively responded to numer- under-studied and complicated. No Patterson’s article (or at least the and considering only the American ous requests to re-submit the brief, one knows for sure, for example, title) struck a chord with many Sociological Association (ASA), it and we have done so strategically how many social scientists work- people. is fair to say that sociology’s impact in 6 out of the 12 federal appellate ing as career professionals within has grown rather remarkably in districts in the United States, as government at the federal, state, and Relevance just the past four years. In 2014 the well as in the Constitutional Court local levels are providing empirical If relevance is having a relation- ASA press office received 480 media of Colombia, South America. The evidence—from others’ research ship to the topic at hand, sociology inquiries—a 23 percent increase courts determine the constitutional- and their own—to help guide policy appears quite relevant to today’s since 2010. As was reported ity of current laws denying marriage makers in their day-to-day-work. public policy debates. In 2010 previously in Footnotes, in just the to same-sex couples, but those What is their individual and collec- Bjorn Wittrock, Principal of the month of August 2014, the U.S. decisions have to be made in light of tive impact? As the authors of The Swedish Collegium for Advanced press mentioned the ASA (mostly solid sociological research demon- Impact of the Social Sciences point Study, stated it clearly: “[N]o public with regard to the scholarly work of strating that children with same-sex out, in the physical sciences, impact policy can be developed, no market sociologists) in 1,233 articles. On parents do just as well as children tends to be measured in patents, interaction can occur, and no state- the single day of August 19, the last with different-sex parents. new products, or new companies ment in the public sphere can be day of the 2014 Annual Meeting, Another example that comes that arise from discoveries in basic made, that does not refer explicitly the U.S. print media mentioned to mind took place in 2000, science, technology, or biomedicine. or implicitly to the findings and research at the ASA meeting 452 when Christopher Stone (current Even within biomedicine, a new concepts of the social and human times. In 2013, sociologists were President of the Open Society disease cure/prevention isn’t neces- sciences.” This quote opens a newly quoted 124 times in the New York Foundation and former president sarily impactful even if scientifically released book, The Impact of the Times alone, according to Contexts of the Vera Institute of Justice) and proven to be effective. It may take Social Sciences: How Academics and Blog via Philip Cohen. I met with the Director of the U.S. the other sciences to figure out Their Research Make a Difference whether and how it can be trans- Use Immigration and Naturalization (Bastow, Dunleavy and Tinkler Services (INS) about the extensive lated into better health. As a result But visibility does not necessar- 2014), that empirically measures social science research on the pre- of less definitive ideas of how to ily equate use, as Kenneth Prewitt, the extent and manner in which the trial release of criminal defendants measure the influence of the social former director of the U.S. Census social sciences have had an impact without money bail (i.e., on their sciences compared to other sci- Bureau and former President of beyond the academy in the United own recognizance).
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