Everyday Sociology Blog

The High School: An Analysis of Yearbooks

By Karen Sternheimer

Michael Messner’s new book, The High School: Sports, Spirit & Citizens, 1903-2024 is a great example of how artifacts of everyday life can become data for sociological analysis. As a scholar of gender and sports, Messner realized that yearbooks serve as a window to view past constructions of both sports and gender.

His own high school, Salinas High School, seemed like a natural fit, as he had about 30 years of books—not just his own, because his father served as a coach for nearly 30 years and other family members attended, he had decades of books. The book blends the author’s memories (and occasionally his niece’s reflections, who attended more recently) with content analysis of the number of pages spent on boys’ sports compared with girls’ sports.

Teaching and Learning during Catastrophe

By Stacy Torres

The unease that greets me each morning, as I brace myself for the latest chaos erupting in higher education, listening to the radio and eating my oatmeal, feels both new and strangely familiar. I recognize this dread and the chronic fear of further attacks from living through September 11, 2001, in New York City.

But now that terror comes from my own government, with a torrent of executive orders and memos banning DEI, freezing communication, canceling research funding opportunities, terminating active grants, and capping NIH indirect research costs. The recent ICE detentions of Tufts doctoral student Rumeysa Ozturk and Palestinian activist and legal permanent resident Mahmoud Khalil at Columbia University, my alma mater, sends another chill through me as I consider the repercussions of such intimidation for dissent and free speech.

To Go or Not to Go: Why Student Choice Matters in the Class Attendance Debate

By Monica Radu

Does attendance really matter?

It’s a question I ask myself a lot, especially on days when it feels like I’m lecturing to an empty classroom.

The topic of optional class attendance at colleges and universities often sparks heated debates. At its heart, this isn’t just about policies, it’s about agency, the ability of students to make meaningful choices about their education. In higher education, agency shapes how students engage with their learning environments, whether in a lecture hall, a small classroom, or a virtual meeting space.

Why Many Americans Don't Feel Worse About a UnitedHealthcare CEO's Murder

By Stacy Torres

Confession time. I’m having difficulty mustering much sympathy for the brazen and targeted murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, shot outside a Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan as he walked to a shareholders meeting.

And apparently, I’m not alone. The intrigue-filled assassination has drawn the ire of Americans fuming at a health insurance industry that prioritizes profits over people’s lives. Social media reactions have ranged from dark, sarcastic humor to outright cheers, compelling UnitedHealthcare to turn off comments on a Facebook post about the murder when 41,000 of 46,000 reactions were laughing emojis. One user wrote, "My thoughts & prayers were out of network." I couldn’t help but chuckle grimly.

Abbott Elementary and the Rise of School-aganda

By Alyssa Lyons

I was sitting on the couch with my partner trying to decompress after an unusually long day. To unwind, we decided to watch Abbott Elementary. As a sociologist of education, I knew it was on brand, but I couldn’t help being drawn into the world of Abbott. I’ve spent a lot of time researching educational inequalities within schooling, and the show’s premise was both intriguing and novel.

Abbott Elementary is a feel-good mockumentary created by actress Quinta Brunson who also plays second grade teacher Janine Teagues in the show. Inspired by her mother’s career as a public-school teacher in Philadelphia, Brunson wanted to reflect the experiences of teachers in the city public school system. The mockumentary style show focuses on the experiences of predominantly BIPOC teachers, staff, administrators, and students in a fictional public elementary school in Philadelphia.

The Case for Heartbreak Workplace Support

By Stacy Torres

Recovering from my own recent romantic breakups, I drew comfort from seeing one of the hardest working women in Hollywood take a break.

This spring as I walked to my office across the street from San Francisco’s Chase Center, Jennifer Lopez’s sparkling visage peered confidently from a giant advertisement for an upcoming show. Hours later, she canceled her summer tour amid poor ticket sales and rumors of marital problems with husband Ben Affleck, "taking time off to be with her children, family and close friends," according to Live Nation’s announcement. By summer’s end, J.Lo had filed for divorce on their two-year anniversary.

Most of us nurse our mangled hearts in private—for me, preferably while swaddled in a warm blanket—not under a celebrity microscope. But we should also have access to leave and other workplace support during relationship crisis or dissolution.

Revisiting the Sacred and Profane: An Architectural Tour of European Cathedrals

By Karen Sternheimer

Popular travel host Rick Steves loves to visit cathedrals on his show to admire their art and architecture. And he’s not alone; on a recent trip to Europe, I found myself informally touring several cathedrals and houses of worship in France and Germany. Beyond appreciating the dramatic columns, striking stained glass, and sculptures that were often part of these edifices, I found myself thinking about the sociological implications of such spaces, namely Durkheim’s dichotomy between the “sacred” and “profane.”

Gender Under Construction

By Lisa Smith, Douglas College, Department of Sociology and Menstrual Cycle Research Group 

In May 2023, Phyllis arrived at Broadway-City Hall Station--a transit hub not too far from downtown Vancouver, Canada. Phyllis is one of two tunnel-boring machines (Elsie is the other one) hard at work as ­­­part of a major public transit upgrade that will expand the existing network considerably. Tunneling under the city streets was a must; enter Phyllis and Elsie.

Smartwatches at Work

By Karen Sternheimer

I’ve had a smartwatch for nearly four years now. Most of the time I don’t notice it, except for when it "taps” me on the wrist to let me know I have a call, text, reminder, or some other notification. But it has become an important factor understanding my biometrics, aspects of myself that I was previously seldom aware of. The watch provides information about my heart rate, breathing, activity levels, how well I sleep, as well as metrics like my heart rate variability, heart rate recovery rate, and way more measures than I care to list here.

My university, like many employers, incentivizes workers with wellness programs that might include fitness programs and smartwatches. We can be reimbursed about $200 a year for participating in fitness activities or use it towards purchasing a smartwatch. The data recorded by the watch is not available to my employer, but there are some concerns that employers that give employees watches might track their health information, and even more troubling, their whereabouts using GPS tracking on the device.

Role Conflict: Social Contact with your Doctor

By Karen Sternheimer

Sociologists are very interested in the social roles that we take on as part of our daily lives. Our roles provide us with social scripts—ways of behaving in particular situations that are consistent with these roles.

Take going to the doctor’s office. As a patient, you will likely be asked to wait when you arrive, provide personal information about your bodily functions and your insurance. When you are called into an examination room, you might be asked to remove parts of your clothing, answer more personal questions, and undergo medical measurements.