Sociology News & Events

University Professor Madonna Harrington Meyer discusses grandparents who are taking on tasks that have, until recently, generally been the purview of parents. So, in addition to the sublime pleasures of grandparenting, many grandparents are now also feeling high levels of stress and strain as grandparenting intensifies.

"Initially created to give children a break from the dirty smokestacks of NYC, the Fresh Air Fund now emphasizes giving children from underserved communities a break from drugs, violence, or gangs," writes University Professor Madonna Harrington Meyer.

"My mom told the seven of us to go outside and play," University Professor Madonna Harrington Meyer recalled. "Today’s mom says, ‘Get in the van and I’ll drive you from Spanish camp to violin lessons.’ The idea is to cultivate your child, give them every possible advantage, and it clearly spills over to the intensification of grandparenting." Harrington Meyer was interviewed for the New York Times article "When Grandparents Help Hold It All Together." 

The prestigious distinction—a four-year, renewable appointment—is granted to faculty who excel in their fields and who have made extraordinary scholarly contributions as judged by their peers nationally and internationally. “Professor Harrington Meyer’s work is focused on some of the most persistent, difficult and relevant issues facing our society. Her research and teaching challenge us to think through and find solutions that better our communities,” says Vice Chancellor and Provost Michele Wheatly. 

"Many students are scared away already by the new policies even before going through the visa hurdles," says Yingyi Ma, associate professor of sociology.

According to University Professor Harrington Meyer, grandmothers often share child-rearing duties and ease the childcare burden of working parents, a role that has only been increasing.

According to Shannon Monnat, Lerner Chair for Public Health Promotion, the recent decline in life expectancy "is due almost entirely" to increases in overdoses and suicides. "Although the declines are small, they are unprecedented, and they are signals that there is a serious well-being crisis in the U.S."

The highly competitive Public Intellectual Program Fellowship provides support for scholars who specialize in China and directly engage with public and policy communities. It has been awarded to Yingyi Ma, associate professor of sociology and director of Syracuse University’s Asian/Asian American Studies program.

Children today face three serious mental health crises: death from drugs, alcohol and suicide, says Shannon Monnat, associate professor of sociology and Lerner Chair for Public Health Promotion. "They’re much bigger societal issues that need to be addressed quickly or they’re going to manifest into something much more serious and then we’re going to be in big trouble not just now but decades to come."

"Opioids are far more deadly than any drugs that are entering through the U.S.-Mexico border,” says Shannon Monnat, associate professor of sociology and Lerner Chair for Public Health Promotion.

Shannon Monnat, Lerner Chair for Public Health Promotion, argues that in both rural and urban communities, two key factors—economic distress and supply of opioids—predict the rate of opioid deaths. "I really do want to push back against this cliché that addiction does not discriminate," Monnat says. "The physiological processes that underlie addiction themselves may not discriminate, but the factors that put people in communities at higher risk are are not spatially random."

"Opioids are a symptom and a symbol of far deeper issues in the U.S.," says Shannon Monnat, associate professor of sociology and Lerner Chair for Public Health Promotion. She points to deteriorating economic conditions, a lack of investment in schools, a quick-fix culture and a toxic mix of "pain, despair, disconnection and lack of opportunity" as upstream problems that have fed into the nation's current drug crisis.