Sociology News & Events

"Becoming sandwiched in later life: Consequences for individuals’ well-being and variation across welfare regimes," co-authored by Professor and Chair of Sociology Merril Silverstein, was published in The Journals of Gerontology.

They have taken advantage of opportunities to learn and help others, including work with the local organization Layla’s Got You.

The differences in state policies directly correlate to those years lost, said Jennifer Karas Montez, director of the Center for Aging and Policy Studies and author of several papers that describe the connection between politics and life expectancy.

Prema Kurien and Janet M. Wilmoth received awards, and several faculty colleagues were elected to roles in the American Sociological Association. 

"Health equity for people with intellectual and developmental disability requires vast improvements to data collection: Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic," co-authored by Associate Professor of Sociology Scott Landes, was published in Disability and Health Journal.

"Did Gender Egalitarianism Weaken Religiosity in Baby Boom Women? A Developmental-Historical Approach," co-authored by Professor of Sociology Merril Silverstein, was published in Sociology of Religion.

The research team led by Jennifer Karas Montez and Shannon Monnat hopes to better understand how state policies and local economic conditions impact health and mortality rates.

“I think about academics having to write grants all the time,” says Aaron Benanav, assistant professor of sociology, as an example. Those can be formulaic and would take far less time with the help of a machine. In programming, it’s helping engineers “write up basic outlines of code or sometimes like whole sections of code,” he says. 

Prema Kurien, professor of sociology, says there is a logical reason why immigrant groups exhibit higher rates of religiosity. “Immigration and relocation from a familiar context to something completely unfamiliar is a theologizing experience,” Kurien says. “It raises existential questions—things that people don’t think about when they are in their home country with a familiar community.”

"Explaining the U.S. rural disadvantage in COVID-19 case and Death rates during the Delta-Omicron surge: The role of politics, vaccinations, population health, and social determinants," co-authored by Professor of Sociology Shannon Monnat, was published in Social Science & Medicine.

Citing the work of organizations like Global Witness in conflict zones worldwide, Selina Gallo-Cruz, associate professor of sociology, points out that a significant part of the violence on this planet comes from the North's "extraction of natural resources through mining or deforestation—palm oil plantations are a big one—and mega-, mega-agricultural projects," all of which lead to "outbreaks of very violent conflict."

The awards support undergraduate research projects.

Takeda is leading the citizenship and civic engagement program on an interim basis, while Silverstein has taken the helm of the Sociology Department. 

Yingyi Ma, professor of sociology, says that around 2018-2019, American universities began to see a slight decrease in the number of Chinese students. “And then the pandemic hit,” Ma says. “And with the rising geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China...[it] made Chinese students hesitate to come to the United States to study.”

"Electoral Democracy and Working-Age Mortality," co-authored by University Professor Jennifer Karas Montez and social science Ph.D. student Kent Cheng, was published in The Milbank Quarterly.

One of the main qualifications people seem to be looking for in their new spiritual communities is something that is less exclusionary than the denominations they were raised in. But it’s precisely the more “dogmatic” denominations and religious sects that are better able to keep adherents, says Merril Silverstein, professor of sociology.

"Service-Connected Disability and Poverty Among US Veterans," co-authored by sociologists Andrew London, Scott Landes and Janet Wilmoth, was published in "The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Disability."

"Research in a Closed Political Context, COVID, and Across Languages: Methodological Lessons, Messages, and Ideas," co-authored by Darzhan Kazbekova, graduate research associate in the Center for Policy Design and Governance, and Rebecca Schewe, associate professor of sociology, was published in the International Journal of Qualitative Methods.

"Age differences in Allostatic Load among adults in the United States by rural-urban residence," co-authored by Professor of Sociology Shannon Monnat, was published in Social Science and Medicine - Population Health.