Family and Society

Soc 2433 at the College of Saint Scholastica

  • Pages

  • RSS Contexts blogs

    • immigrant workers: doing it all for you
      The New York Times reports that the number of foreign-born workers is on the rise in the U.S. Nearly one in six American workers is foreign-born, the highest proportion since the 1920s, according to a census analysis released Monday. Because of government barriers to immigration, the share of foreign-born workers dipped from a 20th-century high of 21 [...] […]
    • Phone Sex: Real and Imaginary (NSFW)
      In my Power and Sexuality class, I sometimes assign articles from a book called Whores and Other Feminists. All of the essays are written by current and former sex workers who identify as feminist. It’s pretty fascinating. So some of the phone sex operators talk about what they do while having “phone sex,” like chores and booking airline ti […]
    • SocImages Apparently Undermining Itself One Image at a Time
      If you were to view an article about the diversity of Saudi Arabian life, and it included the following images, what would you likely take away from the article? Elisabeth R. drew our attention to a recent study asking about the relationship between images and text. It found that, when images that confirmed a reader’s stereotypes about a place were pai […]
    • Gay marriage in the US by space and time
      What works I cropped what you see above from an infographic that is part of GOOD magazine’s infographic section called Transparency. If you haven’t checked it out, I highly recommend it. This was the strongest part of the graphic. It does a masterful job of elegantly illustrating a relationship both in space and time. [...]
    • Calling out Vile Homophobia
      Big shout to co-Contexts blogger Kari Lerum at Sexuality and Society for bringing attention to a vile piece of legislation in the Ugandan Parliament that would allow the “crime of homosexuality” to be punishable by death.  As academics we are trained to take detached, analytical approaches to events in the social world.  Understandably, we don […]
    • Global Warming Reparations
      Nothing beats a nice clean visual presentation to hammer home a point. Point here…we are some energy hoggin’ you-know-whatters but we’re not alone.  To be fair, it would probably be more appropriate to collapse the global emissions of all the EU nations into one bubble rather than breaking it down by individual country.   Are you as [...] […]
    • Clowns to the Left of Me, Jokers to the Right—Dude, Where’s My Stimulus?
      Years ago, I once had a conversation with an economist who freely admitted that there was no unified macroeconomic theory.  What works versus what doesn’t work in a particular sociopolitical context is really just so much spitballing.  This never surprised me given the complex realities of global capitalism. I’ve been genuinely perplexed by Barac […]
    • Weekends Are for Porn (Not News)
      Just in case you’ve ever wanted evidence that people do more online searches for porn on weekends (especially Friday nights!): Thanks to Larry. UPDATE: Reader Dangger sent us a comparison of searches for porn and news: (Via.) (View original at http://contexts.org/socimages)
    • Weber’s Monopoly on Violence
      Perry H. sent in this cartoon: The cartoon, of course, reminds us of the power of words.  Calling something “terrorism” is a way to make it seem illegitimate.   And, often, what makes violence illegitimate is not something inherent in the violence itself, but your perspective on it. The cartoon also reminds us of Max Weber’s insight that th […]
    • Finally A Women’s Movement Men Can Get Behind
      Last week Barbara Ehrenreich wrote a scorching critique of the uproar over pushing regular mammography back till 50-years-old, in light of the muted response to the Stupak amendment excluding abortion from both state and public health insurance programs. “So welcome to the Women’s Movement 2.0,” she writes “pink-ribbon culture has replaced […]

Archive for February, 2009

PowerPoints – Race and Ethnicity

Posted by Sr. Edith Bogue on 21 February, 2009

Here are the two PowerPoint presentations from class regarding ethnicity and race

PowerPoint #1 – Race and Ethnicity (Monday Feb 16)

PowerPoint #2 – Inequality (Friday Feb 20)

Posted in PowerPoint | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

Class Fri Feb 20 – Video

Posted by Sr. Edith Bogue on 21 February, 2009

This is the short video clip that we discussed in class on Friday Feb 20.

Posted in Class Notes, Video | Leave a Comment »

Article on White Privilege

Posted by Sr. Edith Bogue on 18 February, 2009

Some of you might like to read the full text of Peggy McIntosh’s article, White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack

If I can find the text or recording of her presentation at UMD several years ago, I will post a link here for that as well.

Posted in Class Notes | Tagged: | 1 Comment »

Missed Classes

Posted by Sr. Edith Bogue on 16 February, 2009

Reasons Famous People Gave

Reasons Famous People Gave

I’m always glad when students let me know that they’re missing class.  I care about what’s going on in your lives, and it helps me to plan for class.

While participation and preparation contribute to your grade in this class, each of you decides for yourself if missing class is unavoidable and necessary.   Each student will have 3 low or missed quiz scores dropped from the grading procedure to allow for the impact of minor illness or other events.

Recently, I’ve been getting messages that close with “let me know what I will miss /missed” or “tell me what I need to do to make up the class.”

Unfortunately, it’s not possible for me to do this for you.

On the days that you have to miss class, for whatever reason, it is your responsibility

  • to arrange for someone to take notes,
  • to get someone to pick up any handouts,
  • to have someone convey announcements about schedule changes,
  • in turn in any papers or materials that are due.

I do try to post information on this blog – not only for those who miss class, but to make it handy for you to verify your notes or check the schedule if you don’t have it with you. That’s my best contribution to helping those who must miss class.

So – when you send me the message to let me know you won’t be in class, I encourage you to also e-mail a friend in the class to make arrangements for finding out what happened.

In the rare situations in which a student has an extended serious illness or family situation, I do my best to help the student to make and carry out plans to get caught up with the material.

The syllabus policy, stated above, relates to the much more common situation of minor illnesses and the other affairs of daily life.

Posted in Class Notes | Leave a Comment »

Learning Objectives – Chapter 6

Posted by Sr. Edith Bogue on 14 February, 2009

After studying Chapter 6, you should understand the following:

  1. In what ways is the United States becoming increasingly diverse?
  2. What are current trends in immigration to the United States?
  3. What is the difference in the terms race, ethnicity, and minority group?
  4. What is racial prejudice, racial discrimination, and racism?
  5. About what proportion of the U.S. population is Hispanic? African-American? Asian? Native American?  Is the proportion of each group growing or shrinking?
  6. What are some of the salient characteristics of each of these groups, according to recent data and research?
  7. How does race and ethnicity influence family relationships?
  8. (From class discussion) What is meant by privilege, and what are some examples?

Posted in Textbook | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

PowerPoint – Social Class

Posted by Sr. Edith Bogue on 13 February, 2009

PowerPoint from class presentation on Social Class

Posted in Class Notes, PowerPoint | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

Constructing Masculinity

Posted by Sr. Edith Bogue on 6 February, 2009

PowerPoint presentation from class on Friday6 February.

Posted in Class Notes | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

Constructing Femininity – Class presentation/discussion

Posted by Sr. Edith Bogue on 4 February, 2009

Posted in Class Notes, Examples, Video | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »