THE BULLETIN

by Leanne Cook
Sociology Major at Lees-McRae College

The 2004 NCSA meeting in Chapel Hill was a fun and informative event. My peers and I attended a session entitled "Surviving and Thriving in Graduate School" that provided useful information for both undergraduate students and graduate students. The session was led by: Shannon N. Davis, North Carolina State University; Gerald Lacky, UNC-Chapel Hill; William Tyson, Duke University; and Kristen Wallingford, Davidson College. This session had four components: picking a school that’s right for you, finding mentors, preparing your dissertation, and landing a job. My peers and I learned that which graduate school one decides to attend could impact the amount of success one has at the graduate level. Among the most important aspects of choosing a graduate school are visiting the school, getting familiar with the faculty, being realistic financially, and finding out what opportunities prior graduates have derived from that particular school. I found this part useful because picking a graduate school is something many of us are currently struggling with. The component of the session that focused on mentors also helped us to understand the importance of having a mentor. Yet another component that alleviated some of our fears about graduate school was the discussion on the dissertation. The prospect of presenting a project of such magnitude can be a turn off to students who fear failure. However, we learned that if you are interested in your topic and you work hard to obtain research a dissertation is very do-able. Furthermore, an important thing to remember while doing your dissertation is that your dissertation does not have to "save the world". Finally, the component on landing a job was a look into one’s future after graduate school. This part contained information about cover letters, vitas, and most importantly finding a job that is right for you without getting frustrated with the job-hunting process. Overall the session "Surviving and Thriving in Grad School" made my peers and me feel as though graduate school is not out of our reach and that while in graduate school there are unlimited opportunities for success and to meet peers and faculty who share an interest in the same field as we do. In addition to this session it was also nice for my peers and I to meet and communicate with sociologists who are paving the way for us to study sociology and pass on sociological concepts in the future.

Note: Lees-McRae College is a four-year, co-educational liberal arts college affiliated with the Presbyterian Church U.S.A., located in the town of Banner Elk, NC. The College is dedicated to service learning and offers majors in twenty-four fields.

Judith Blau discussed the blurring of boundaries between service learning, teaching and research by sharing her attempts to create a graduate program in social and economic justice and her work with "Sociologists without Borders." Drawing upon the work of Franz Fanon, Blau discussed the shift in perspective to human rights as "the ethical turn" which can create "solidarities across our differences."

Blau noted that undergraduates in her courses were eager to call for justice but were not willing to take part in confrontational activities such as picketing. Theses undergraduates described their approach as conversational, not confrontational. When the proposal for a master’s program in justice "fell flat," Blau turned to service learning at the undergraduate level.

Blau noted that the efforts of a few sociologists in the NGO Sociologists without Borders had succeeded in launching a resolution at ASA against the war in Iraq.

"The cost of doing public sociology is both positive and negative attention," concluded Blau.

In the discussion following her presentation, Don Tomashev-Devey remarked, "If you keep your head down, nobody will take a shot at it, but nobody will hear you either."

From Judith Blau and Sociologists without Borders: The discussion at Michael Burawoy's session went so well, that we opened up a space on the Sociologists without Borders webpage to continue a discussion about Public Sociology. We very much welcome your ideas, comments, and reflections. To participate and see various postings, go to the Discussion Forum at:www.sociologists withoutborders.org/

Workshop Helps Students Prepare for the Job Market

Jammie Price of UNCW conducted a workshop on "Preparing for the Job Market."

"My workshop  was very well attended," she said. "Approximately 50 people attended. We discussed identifying career goals, job searching, writing resumes and cover letters, interviewing, and job offers. Several audience members commented on how valuable this session was."

Click here to return to THE BULLETIN home page.

NCSA 2004 Membership Form is available as a PDF document.
Viewing this document requires Abode Acrobat Reader.

Contact Information:

The editor of THE BULLETIN is Lee Dodson, Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences at Rockingham Community College, P.O. Box 38, Wentworth, NC 27375-0038
336-342-4261, ext. 2155

dodsonl@rockinghamcc.edu

  The secretary/treasurer of the NCSA is Sue Pauley, Professor of Sociology at Wingate University, Campus Box 5007, Wingate, NC 28174. Questions about membership should be directed to Dr. Pauley.

supaul@wingate.edu

Members Discuss the Many Roles of Sociologists

More than 132 sociologists and students from across the state gathered in Chapel Hill last month for the annual meeting of the NC Sociological Association. The meeting’s theme, "Teaching, Research and Service: Blurring of the Boundaries," generated a half dozen sessions examining topics such as "Blurring Research with Teaching and Service," "Blurring Service with Teaching and Research," and "Blurring Teaching with Research and Service." In addition, other sessions addressed more practical concerns: "Preparing for the Job Market" and "Surviving and Thriving in Graduate School." A total of 62 faculty members and 70 students registered for the meeting.

"We all have to do everything--really well," said program chair and in-coming president Cathy Zimmer in her introduction to the meeting’s theme. "We must do all three (teaching, research, and service) well, but blur the boundaries."

Michael Burawoy, Professor of Sociology at UC Berkeley and President of the American Sociological Association, addressed a plenary session on "Public Sociology." Burawoy told those assembled that while the collective consciousness of sociologists has shifted to the left since 1968, the world has drifted farther to the right.

"We are a part of the world we’re studying," he noted. "What is our relationship to that world? We should debate that relationship: Knowledge for whom? Knowledge for what? We must engage in a discussion of the means to achieve our ends as well as having a conversation about those ends."

Burawoy divided sociology into four compartments: professional (academic/instrumental), policy (extra-academic/instrumental), critical (academic/reflexive), and public (extra-academic/reflexive). While noting the interdependence between professional and public sociology, Burawoy maintained that the vibrancy of each type depends on the vibrancy of all.

He pointed out that the special quality of sociology as a discipline is that it represents the interests of humanity and international civil society. As a part of civil society, sociologists may take part in compromises involving professional self-interest, policy intervention, and critical debate.

"It is in the enlightened interest of Professional/public sociology to give space to the critical/public sociology," he concluded.

Burawoy, Brady, Nielsen, and Tittle take questions from the audience following the plenary address on "Public Sociology."

Following Burawoy’s address, David Brady (Duke University), Francois Nielsen (UNC Chapel Hill), and Charles Tittle (NCSU) offered responses.

"He’s preaching to the choir," quipped Brady. "Sociologists would love to have a broader audience." Brady went on to point out why he thought Burawoy’s program may fail: it presents no clear guidelines for practice, it offers no clear incentive or rewards for public sociology, it does not sufficiently "problematize" civil society, and it needs some concrete measure of success.

Nielsen discussed his views on the issue of temperament in the public sociology debate. "Public sociology is not for everyone," he stated. Burawoy is trying to derive an "ought" from an "is" and has not recognized that the genealogy of public sociology is more public and less Marxist.

Tittle contended that Burawoy’s views were based on strong but false assumptions and were incompatible with good, professional sociology. Among these false assumptions, he listed the following: That what is socially just is clear and apparent to all who study sociology, that sociology has good knowledge about social problems that we can share with the world, and that sociologists should shift from the generation of knowledge to advocacy. Doing public sociology, he noted, gets in the way of professional sociology.

"When we claim we know what we don’t," said Tittle, " we undermine our credibility."

Ronald C. Wimberley Honored for "Contributions to Sociology"

The North Carolina Sociological Association is pleased to present its Award for Distinguished Contributions to Sociology to Ronald C. Wimberley of North Carolina State University.

Ron’s contributions are many. While he has made notable contributions to the sociology of religion and agriculture and to disciplinary associations, in six of which he has held elected offices, what we find most striking in Ron’s career is his significant contributions to public service. There are many scholars among sociologists, but few match Ron’s record of service. His career is distinguished by his interpretation of sociological issues to major policy-making bodies in the service to our country, the South, North Carolina, and our people.

In the tradition of Carle Zimmerman, Carl Taylor, and Horace Hamilton, all of North Carolina State University, he worked closely with the USDA to design policies to improve the quality of life of rural people. Notable are his work with the U.S. House of Representatives to establish the Southern Rural Development Commission; his leadership in developing and proposing privatization plans for the transformation of collective farming in Russia; his developing the Public Use Farm Census which has significantly advanced the quality and quantity of information on farming and farm life, and his long service on the USDA and Department of Commerce Advisory Committee on Agricultural Statistics. His work with the USDA has won him the respect of policy-makers at the highest levels of our government, including Congressional recognition and the USDA’s highest honor, the Honor Award. Policies that have been enacted there from have promoted "the greatest good to the greatest number of people." So reads the inscription on the George Washington Carver Public Service Award, bestowed on Ron by Tuskegee Institute at Ron’s induction into the George Washington Carver Hall of Fame for his work on poverty in the Black Belt and elsewhere in the South. This work has led to congressional and other initiatives by governmental agencies, foundations, and local communities.

Ron’s service goes beyond agriculture and poverty. In the late 1970s he did research leading to the production of "The Child Abuse Inventory Manual" (with Joel Milner) which has enabled social service workers to identify potential child abusers. This child abuse index has been widely used for screening and therapy, not only in the United States but internationally, having been translated into 27 languages. The index scores very high on citations, having been used in more than 240 studies by other scientists.

Through Ron’s service he has advanced the visibility of sociology as a significant contributor to policy-making. In our judgment, the purpose of an award is to promote the giver symbolically by honoring a person whose work embodies its goals and values. Ron has been an exemplary emissary of sociology to state, regional, national and international policy-making bodies. The NCSA is pleased to award Ron its Award for Distinguished Contributions to Sociology.

Note: Ida Simpson presented the award to Ron Wimberley and wrote the above citation.

Visit NCSA Journal, SOCIATION TODAY On-Line

     SOCIATION TODAY is the first web-based journal sponsored by a professional society.
   The goal of the journal is to publish electronically short articles with one or two tables which will be accessible to professionals, students, and the general population, said Robert Wortham, a member of the editorial board.
     George Conklin of NCCU   serves as the journal's first editor. Other members of the board include Richard Dixon (UNCW), Chien Ju Huang (NCCU), Ken Land (Duke University), Miles Simpson (NCCU), and Ron Wimberley (NCSU).
     Please feel free to submit articles to the editor and take time to browse the current issue: www.ncsociology.org/journal/

Conklin, Dixon, Land, and Simpson serve as members of the board for the NCSA's electronic journal, SOCIATION TODAY.

Let Us Know!

Members of the NCSA are encouraged to contact any member of the NCSA Executive Council to suggest state sociological issues they would like the organization to address. Contact Cathy Zimmer, NCSA president.

NCCCSPA Will Meet in Asheville Nov. 18-20

The North Carolina Community College Sociology and Psychology Association will hold its annual meeting in Asheville, NC on Nov. 18-20, 2004. All sociologists and students are invited to attend and participate, announced NCCCSPA president Caroline Whitehead at the NCSA meeting in Chapel Hill. For more information about the organization or its annual meeting, please contact Caroline Whitehead at Craven Community College (252-638-7305).

Two Students Win Himes Award

Each year at its annual meeting, the NCSA presents the Himes Award to outstanding student papers in sociology. This year the NCSA gave two awards, one to the best paper by a graduate student and one to the best paper by an undergraduate.

Philip Kim, a graduate student at UNC Chapel Hill, won the Himes Award for his paper entitled "When Information Is Not Enough: Views of Americans towards Racial Profiling." His graduate advisor is Ted Mouw.

Jennifer Coyne receives congratulations from Graham Spann.

Jennifer Coyne, an undergraduate at Duke University, won the Himes Award for her paper on "Pop Music as a Reflection of Shifts in Societal Views towards Sex." Coyne wrote the paper for a class she took with Ida Simpson.

Bach Will Serve as NCSA President-Elect

Rebecca Bach of Duke University is the new president-elect of the NCSA. Bach will serve as the program chair for next year’s annual meeting. Former NCSA president Rick Dixon passed the gavel to incoming president Catherine Zimmer. (This year’s president, Beth Davison is out of the country.) He also commended outgoing members of the NCSA Executive Council: Teresa Scheid, Angela Lewellyn Jones, and Carolyn Whitehead.

Newly elected members of the NCSA Executive Council are Shelly Brown, Lori Heiger, and Bill Smith. They will serve a three-year term.

Session Explores Teaching and Public Sociology

Bob Wortham and Leslie Hossfeld presented their experiences with "Blurring Teaching With Research and Service." Both presenters demonstrated the blurring of boundaries between research, service and teaching and discussed how to do effective public sociology.

Leslie Hossfeld (UNCP) began the session with a presentation of two public sociology projects she has been working on that blur the boundaries between teaching, research and service and teaches others about Sociology. The first project is found on http://www. povertyeast.org provides data on poverty for 41 eastern North Carolina counties. The site is pitched to non-academic audiences and is used as a research tool for community organizers, students, local and state agencies. The second project is found at http://www.povertyeast. org/jobs and is a current community-based research project involving students at UNCP and community organizers in Robeson County.

Using both qualitative and quantitative data, we examine the impact of the loss of 10,000 jobs in Robeson County since 1993 and how individuals, families and community have been affected. The project involves a trip to Washington, DC with 200 displaced workers, and a research and policy component presented to congress in a Congressional Briefing on 30 March followed by a national press conference.

In the second part of the session, Robert Wortham provided several examples of how instructors can integrate theory and methods in all courses beginning with the introductory course. He indicated that this was particularly important for him since he does not teach the undergraduate statistics or methods course. Wortham indicated one of his major teaching goals in each course involves enabling students to experience the sociologist's craft. It is important that students learn to think within different theoretical paradigms and be able to evaluate knowledge claims empirically. Students are often reminded that statistics is not "rocket science." We as teachers tend to make it hard. Wortham went on to describe how his approach to teaching sociology is grounded in the framework that Du Bois initiated at Atlanta University a hundred years ago. Du Bois encouraged students to read primary sources, acquire a general knowledge of statistics and know how to work with collected data as well as gathering data. Therefore, Wortham indicated that by the third week of his introductory sociology class, students are not just aware of Durkheim's study on suicide. They are given an opportunity to evaluate Durkheim's claims using correlation and regression analysis and contemporary US data. He makes extensive use of the MicroCase program and data sets. This program is user-friendly, and can be used for class demonstrations and homework assignments. Likewise, with the demography class, Wortham provided examples of how an Internet-based lab could easily be attached to the standard demography class. Wortham routinely has students downloading local and international data from such sites as the US Census Bureau, Population Reference Bureau, State Data Center, State Center for Health Statistics, the World Health Organization and marketing groups like CACI.

The session concluded with a brief question and answer period. Each presentation evoked numerous audience responses, and a productive exchange of ideas among peers was enjoyed.