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”
Category Archives: Sociology
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”
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”
Contemporary Application of Bourdieu’s Distinction in Musical Taste
In his famous book Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, Pierre Bourdieu reports findings from a French survey of cultural tastes fielded in 1967-68. Of particular note is a figure showing the distribution of preferences for three musical works by class fractions. Bourdieu reports that Bach’s “Well-Tempered Clavier” represents “legitimate taste” andContinueContinue reading “Contemporary Application of Bourdieu’s Distinction in Musical Taste”
Three Blog Posts on Initiation in the Contemporary Catholic Church
Oxford University Press was good enough to allow me to write three blog posts this Easter weekend with my thoughts on initiation in the contemporary Catholic Church. Here are links to the three posts: Initiation into America’s Original Megachurch (18 April 2014) Reinventing Rites of Passage in Contemporary America (19 April 2014) Easter Rites ofContinueContinue reading “Three Blog Posts on Initiation in the Contemporary Catholic Church”
Sociological Theory Student Survey Updating Bourdieu
OK, Wake Forest Sociological Theory students. You asked for it, you got it. Listen to the following three songs and complete the survey at the bottom of this blog post! http://youtu.be/ViwtNLUqkMY http://youtu.be/IBH97ma9YiI http://youtu.be/MYxAiK6VnXw http://www.wedgies.com/question/534d6951305268020000067f Thanks for participating!!!!