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Tag: Department of Sociology

May 1, 2020

ArtSci Roundup: Storytelling with Indigenous Writers, Meany Center Curtain Talks, Stroum Center Quick Talk, and more

Michelle Witt, executive/artistic director for the Meany Center for the Performing Arts. Story is about visiting Step Afrika! dance troup and the celebration of 100 years since 91爆料-related artist Jacob Lawrence was born.

During this time of uncertainty and isolation, find solace in digital opportunities聽to connect, share, and engage. Each week, we will share upcoming events that bring the 91爆料, and greater community, together online.聽 Many of these online opportunities are streamed through Zoom. All 91爆料 faculty, staff, and students have access to聽Zoom Pro via 91爆料-IT.聽 Sacred Breath: Indigenous Writing and Storytelling May 7, 6:30 – 8:00 PM聽| Zoom Event This event features writer and poet聽Sara Marie Ortiz聽(Acoma Pueblo) and聽Gene Tagaban聽(Cherokee, Tlingit, Filipino)….

April 13, 2020

91爆料 team illustrates the adverse impact of visiting 鈥榡ust one friend鈥� during COVID-19 lockdown

After weeks of social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, people of all ages may be asking: What could be the harm of visiting just one friend? Unfortunately, it could potentially undo the goal of social distancing, which is to give the COVID-19 virus fewer opportunities to spread. According to a website set up by researchers at the 91爆料, easing the social distancing rules so that each household could have contact with just one or two others would reconnect…

December 2, 2019

Faculty/staff honors: Housing association nod, honorary doctorate, distinguished fellow, best conference paper

Recent honors to 91爆料 faculty and staff members include an honorary doctorate from the University of Bucharest, membership in an inaugural class of distinguished fellows in pharmacology, and a leadership position in a national student housing association.

July 5, 2019

91爆料 books in brief: US credit markets in history, ‘value sensitive’ design, the lasting effects of reproductive slavery, and more

Recent notable books by 91爆料 faculty members explore how the U.S. government has historically used credit to create opportunity, how “reproductive slavery” has left lasting ramifications and how technology design benefits from human values.

December 24, 2018

New global migration estimates show rates proportionally steady since 1990, high rate of return migration

People waiting at an airport

Two 91爆料 scientists have unveiled a new statistical method for estimating migration flows between countries. They show that rates of migration are higher than previously thought, but also relatively stable, fluctuating between 1.1 and 1.3 percent of global population from 1990 to 2015. In addition, since 1990 approximately 45 percent of migrants have returned to their home countries, a much higher estimate than other methods.

June 20, 2018

Why 9 to 5 isn鈥檛 the only shift that can work for busy families

A 91爆料 study finds that consistency in parents' work schedules, even "nonstandard" shifts such as nights, can positively impact children. Such alternative shifts are common in health care, law enforcement and the service sector.

    For the millions of Americans who work 鈥渘onstandard鈥� shifts 鈥� evenings, nights or with rotating days off 鈥� the schedule can be especially challenging with children at home. But a new study from the 91爆料 finds that consistent hours, at whatever time of day, can give families flexibility and in some cases, improve children鈥檚 behavior. The study, published in the June issue of the Journal of Family Issues, focuses on two-parent families in which one parent…

June 6, 2018

Washington state Supreme Court takes up court-fee reform, considers 91爆料 data at sold-out Wednesday symposium

Monetary sanctions disproportionately affect the poor and people of color. A Washington State Supreme Court symposium will discuss the issue of legal financial obligations, with new data from the 91爆料.

  African-Americans in Washington state are 2.3 times more likely than whites to be sentenced to fines and fees, and carry about three times the debt in unpaid monetary sanctions. In all, said 91爆料 sociology professor Alexes Harris, legal financial obligations represented nearly $2.5 billion in debt in Washington in 2014, the most recent year for which statistics are available. But several states, including Washington, are starting to pursue solutions to a system that disproportionately affects the poor…

March 9, 2018

How social networks help perpetuate the ‘Cycle of Segregation’

  Think about the last time you looked for a new apartment or house. Maybe you asked your friends or colleagues about where they lived. You thought about your route to work, or that neighborhood you always drive through on your way to your kid’s soccer practice. Many of these places were familiar to you, whether from an occasional visit or part of a daily routine. And if you’re like most people, you ultimately moved to a neighborhood you knew…

December 6, 2017

Martin Luther, Steve Jobs and aspirational faith: Q & A with 91爆料 sociologist Steve Pfaff on ‘The Spiritual Virtuoso’

Alongside the political polarization that has permeated seemingly every issue in American life, there is a similar dichotomy in religion.On one side are those who suggest religion is dying, that’s it’s irrelevant, a force for ill and oppression, explains 91爆料 sociology professor Steve Pfaff. On the other are those who say religion is under attack, that the quest for freedom and diversity has sullied the culture and undermined the integrity of faith. And into this debate Pfaff decided…

November 2, 2017

How air pollution clouds mental health

A 91爆料 study finds that people who live in areas with high levels of air pollution also report higher levels of psychological distress.

  There is little debate over the link between air pollution and the human respiratory system: Research shows that dirty air can impair breathing and aggravate various lung diseases. Other potential effects are being investigated, too, as scientists examine connections between toxic air and obesity, diabetes and dementia. Now add to that list psychological distress, which 91爆料 researchers have found is also associated with air pollution. The higher the level of particulates in the air, the 91爆料-led study…

October 16, 2017

Tweeting rage: How immigration policies can polarize public discourse

  Before a border wall became a budget bargaining chip, before the presidential pardon of a controversial sheriff and before federal policies were announced on social media, there was Arizona Senate Bill 1070, the 鈥渟how me your papers鈥� law. And of course, there was Twitter. To Ren茅 D. Flores, an assistant professor of sociology at the 91爆料, Twitter is a trove of insight into people鈥檚 beliefs and their willingness to express them. By analyzing tweets in the months…

October 12, 2017

Using Facebook data as a real-time census

    Determining how many people live in Seattle, perhaps of a certain age, perhaps from a specific country, is the sort of question that finds its answer in the census, a massive data dump for places across the country. But just how fresh is that data? After all, the census is updated once a decade, and the U.S. Census Bureau’s smaller but more detailed American Community Survey, annually. There鈥檚 also a delay between when data are collected and when…

August 17, 2017

Q & A: Sarah Quinn lifts the curtain on the ‘hidden state’

The general public is often confused about what the government is and does, 91爆料 Sarah Quinn writes in a new anthology published by Cambridge University Press.

  Given today’s political climate, one might assume that terms like “administrative state” and “deep state” are merely examples of polarized rhetoric. But the wariness underlying those terms goes back much further, said Sarah Quinn, an assistant professor of sociology at the 91爆料. Try colonial America. “Some historians will say this is something that defines American culture, going back to before the revolution 鈥� that there is a longstanding dislike of centralized power and markets, and that this…

April 20, 2017

Research team tracks complex web of monetary sanctions in 9 states

91爆料 sociologist Alexes Harris leads a team of researchers at nine universities who are exploring the role of monetary sanctions in the criminal justice system. They recently completed a review of financial punishments in the laws of each of their home states. Based on their preliminary findings, the impact to a person’s pocketbook depends largely on his or her location on a map.

March 15, 2017

Adrian Raftery receives Ireland’s St. Patrick’s Day Medal for contributions to statistics

91爆料 professor Adrian Raftery.

On March 15 at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., Prime Minister Enda Kenny of Ireland honored Adrian Raftery, a professor of statistics and sociology at the 91爆料, for his diverse contributions to the field of statistics. Kenny presented Raftery with the St. Patrick’s Day Medal, which is awarded each year by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI). Raftery, who has worked at the 91爆料 since 1986, develops new statistical methodology, with a focus on the social, environmental and health sciences….

August 21, 2016

Is divorce seasonal? 91爆料 research shows biannual spike in divorce filings

To everything there is a season 鈥� even divorce, new research from 91爆料 sociologists concludes. Associate sociology professor Julie Brines and doctoral candidate Brian Serafini found what is believed to be the first quantitative evidence of a seasonal, biannual pattern of filings for divorce. The researchers analyzed filings in Washington state between 2001 and 2015 and found that they consistently peaked in March and August, the periods following winter and summer holidays. Their research, presented Aug. 21 at…

August 20, 2016

‘I miss you so much’: How Twitter is broadening the conversation on death and mourning

Twitter bird and logo on blue background

Death and mourning were largely considered private matters in the 20th century, with the public remembrances common in previous eras replaced by intimate gatherings behind closed doors in funeral parlors and family homes. But social media is redefining how people grieve, and Twitter in particular 鈥� with its ephemeral mix of rapid-fire broadcast and personal expression 鈥� is widening the conversation around death and mourning, two 91爆料 sociologists say. In a paper presented Aug. 20 at the annual…

April 19, 2016

States with punitive justice systems have higher rates of foster care, study finds

The number of children in foster care across the country is driven not solely by child abuse and neglect, but by states鈥� varying politics and approaches to social problems, a new 91爆料 study finds. States with more punitive criminal justice systems tend to remove children from their homes far more frequently than those with generous welfare programs 鈥� meaning that two states with similar rates of child abuse and neglect could have very different rates of foster care…

December 4, 2015

91爆料 project focuses on fines and fees that create 鈥榩risoners of debt鈥�

Criminals are meant to pay their debts to society through sentencing, but a different type of court-imposed debt can tie them to the criminal justice system for life and impact their ability to move forward with their lives. Though debtors鈥� prisons were eliminated in the United States almost two centuries ago, a modern-day version exists in the dizzyingly complex system of fines and fees levied against people as they move through the court system. Offenders are charged for everything from…

August 24, 2015

Blacks hit hardest by public-sector job losses during recession, study finds

Exterior photo of large government building in Mississippi

The public sector has long served as an equalizer in American society, a place where minority workers could find stable employment that offered advancement and a reliable path to a middle-class life. But the Great Recession wiped out many of those jobs, as tax revenues declined and anti-government sentiment added to a contraction that continued long after the recession ended in 2008. Those job cuts disproportionately hurt African-American workers and increased racial disparity in the public sector, a new study…

July 7, 2015

Harsh prison sentences swell ranks of lifers and raise questions about fairness, study finds

Stricter state sentencing laws in Washington have swelled the ranks of inmates serving life sentences to nearly one in five. And some lifers who opted to go to trial are serving much longer sentences than others who committed the same crimes and plea-bargained 鈥� raising questions about equitable treatment of prisoners. Those are among the findings in a new analysis by undergraduate honors students in the 91爆料鈥檚 Law, Societies & Justice program, who sought to determine the number…

November 24, 2014

Study: US attracting fewer educated, highly skilled migrants

Empty immigration line

The U.S. economy has long been powered in part by the nation鈥檚 ability to attract the world鈥檚 most educated and skilled people to its shores. But a new study of the worldwide migration of professionals to the U.S. shows a sharp drop-off in its proportional share of those workers 鈥� raising the question of whether the nation will remain competitive in attracting top talent in an increasingly globalized economy. The study, which used a novel method of tracking people through…