 | Assistant Professor to join investigation in virtual communities
Dr Simone Browne joins Humanities, Art, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory this fall
Dr Simone Browne has recently joined HASTAC (the Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory), a group of MacArthur-funded scholars working on issues related to virtual communities and harnessing communication technologies for classroom use.
She will be working with other scholars in piloting a class activity exploring issues of race, gender, and presentation of self in the virtual world in fall, 2008. |
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Undergraduates awarded prestigious Hibbs Scholarship
Kelly Burns, Deva Cats-Baril and Lisa Newhouse received Hibbs Scholarship for 2008-9
Sociology undergraduates Kelly Burns, Deva Cats-Baril and Lisa Newhouse have each been awarded a Hibbs Scholarship in the amount of $1,000 for the 2008-2009 academic year. The Dr Bailey R Collins/Ellene Collins Ward/Mary Sue Collins Hibbs Scholarship Fund was created through a bequest from the estate of Mrs Hibbs in memory of her brother, her sister and herself. Because of Mrs Hibbs' generosity, the scholarship was able to be established in several undergraduate departments in the College of Liberal Arts. |
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Professor elected as Chair of ASA section
Professor Christine Williams elected Chairperson of Organizations, Occupations, and Work Section of American Sociological Association
Dr Christine Williams was recently elected to Chair the Organizations, Occupations, and Work Section of the American Sociological Association. This section is one of the largest at ASA, with over 1,000 members. The section aims to advance theory and research on topics like discrimination in the workplace, organizations and technological change, and job segregation. The section holds annual meetings, publishes a newsletter, and maintains a website and list-serve for its members. OOW also presents awards to recognize and honor outstanding research by its members. |
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Professor Marc Musick's new book out
Volunteers: A Social Profile
Making use of a broad range of survey information to offer a detailed portrait of the volunteer in America, Volunteers: A Social Profile, co-authored by Marc Musick and John Wilson (Duke University), provides an important resource for everyone who works with volunteers or is interested in their role in contemporary society. Musick and Wilson address issues of volunteer motivation by focusing on individuals' subjective states, their available resources, and the influence of gender and race.
"A much needed book for both scholars and practitioners. It covers a wide range of topics dealing with volunteering...A major contribution." --Virginia Hodgkinson, Center for Voluntary Organizations and Service |
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With age comes a sense of peace and calm, Population Research Center study shows
Professors Ross and Mirowsky publish findings Social Science and Medicine
Aging brings a sense of peace and calm, according to a new study from the Population Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin. Starting at about age 60, participants reported more feelings of ease and contentment than their younger counterparts.
Catherine Ross and John Mirowsky, professors of sociology, have published the findings in "Age and the Balance of Emotions" in the May 19 issue of Social Science and Medicine. The research was funded in part by the National Institute on Aging.
The findings reveal aging is associated with more positive than negative emotions, and more passive than active emotions, Ross said.
Previous research on emotions associated with aging focused on negative emotions, such as depression. However, a second dimension underlying emotions is an active versus passive dimension, which is less studied, but may be important in explaining how emotions shift as people age, according to the researchers.
"The passive/positive combination reveals that contentment, calm and ease are some of the most common emotions people feel as they age," Ross said. "Emotions that are both active and negative, such as anxiety and anger, are especially unlikely among the elderly."
The study examined 1,450 responses to the 1996 U.S. General Social Survey conducted by the National Opinion Research Center, which included English-speaking people aged 18 and older. The gender distribution of the sample was 56 percent female and 44 percent male, and the racial distribution was 81 percent white, 14 percent African American and 5 percent other races.
Participants responded to statements such as "On how many days in the past seven days have you...felt that you couldn't shake the blues, felt sad, felt lonely, felt anxious and tense, felt worried, felt so restless that you couldn't sit long in a chair, felt angry at someone, felt mad at someone, felt outraged at something somebody had done, felt calm, felt at ease, felt contented, felt happy, felt overjoyed by something, felt excited about or interested in something, felt proud, felt embarrassed, felt ashamed."
The researchers then grouped the emotions in four categories: active, passive, positive and negative.
Secondary findings reveal women had more negative than positive emotions, and more passive than active emotions than men. Also, participants with higher income and education levels had significantly more positive emotions than those with lower income and education levels. |
