My writing accountability partner recently turned me on to Google Ngram. The search engine lets you you electronically comb through millions of books in Google’s database for certain words or phrases. (You can read about the technical details on Google or Wikipedia.) I searched for the phrase “concealed carry” as a case-insensitive phrase and theContinueContinue reading “Concealed Carry Fun with Google Ngram”
Author Archives: David Yamane
Lecture on How People Become Catholic at College of the Holy Cross
I was fortunate recently to be asked by my old friend Tom Landy to deliver one of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA. My talk, “How Do People Become Catholic?” was based on my book, Becoming Catholic: Finding Rome in the American ReligiousContinueContinue reading “Lecture on How People Become Catholic at College of the Holy Cross”
Mencken and Froese on the Sources and Strength of America’s Gun Culture
As I noted in my last post, scholars associated with the 2014 Baylor Religion Survey held a session at the recent annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion unveiling their data. (Of course, this is more of a tease since the data will not be publicly available for a year orContinueContinue reading “Mencken and Froese on the Sources and Strength of America’s Gun Culture”
Faith and Firearms in the 2014 Baylor Religion Survey
Having begun my sojourn from the sociology of religion to the study of American gun culture a couple of years ago, I was excited to make a “homecoming” of sorts by attending the annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion in Indianapolis this past weekend. I was there to present myContinueContinue reading “Faith and Firearms in the 2014 Baylor Religion Survey”
Poverty and Racial Attitudes
One of the most significant books I read as an undergraduate was Racial Attitudes in America: Trends and Interpretations, by sociologists Howard Schuman, Charlotte Steeh, and Lawrence Bobo (1985). (A revised edition was published in 1998 by Harvard University Press.) In fact, my first ever academic conference presentation (at the Western Anthropology/Sociology Undergraduate Research Conference atContinueContinue reading “Poverty and Racial Attitudes”
Read Julie Schumacher’s Dear Committee Members: A Novel
Whether you write letters of recommendation or not – but especially if you write letters of recommendation – read Julie Schumacher’s Dear Committee Members. It is a novel written in the form of letters of recommendation by Jason T. Fitger, Professor of Creative Writing and English at Payne University. Although not a typical narrative, theContinueContinue reading “Read Julie Schumacher’s Dear Committee Members: A Novel”
Scrutinizing Claims About Guns in Homes as a “Risk Factor” for Homicide in the Home
Getting into the sociology of guns has been both fascinating and frustrating. The fascination comes from deeply immersing myself in something entirely new to me. The frustration comes in attempting to understand the reality of guns in a scholarly – that is, objective and nuanced – manner. In the sociology of guns, the line demarcatingContinueContinue reading “Scrutinizing Claims About Guns in Homes as a “Risk Factor” for Homicide in the Home”
A Letter to My Future Students
I am participating in a faculty Writing Associates Seminar, in which we are learning to integrate writing more intelligently and productively into our courses. For an upcoming retreat, our seminar leader asked us to write a letter to our future students about what we hope they will get out of our class. I wrote theContinueContinue reading “A Letter to My Future Students”
Oral Arguments in the Supreme Court
On my Gun Culture 2.0 blog recently I wrote about attending a talk by an attorney who had argued recently before the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS). One of the most interesting things I have done in my time in Washington, DC is to go see oral arguments in the SCOTUS. Back inContinueContinue reading “Oral Arguments in the Supreme Court”
Official Catholic View of Use of Lethal Force in Self-Defense
Miguel at the Gun Free Zone blog posted recently about a new book by a Texas police officer called Jesus Christ on Killing. I expect to see evangelical Christians taking this position, but Miguel brings to light some interesting passages from the Catechism of the Catholic Church that I had not previously read: The seldomContinueContinue reading “Official Catholic View of Use of Lethal Force in Self-Defense”