American Sociological Review is coming to the Department of Sociology! Beginning with the February 2010 issue, ASR--the flagship journal of the American Sociogical Assocation--will be edited by the team of Tony N. Brown, Katharine Donato, Larry Isaac, and Holly McCammon. (Click here to read more in ASA Footnotes.)

The Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy is providing an innovative program in order to attempt to nurture creativity on campus.(Click here to read more on this in the latest issue of Vanderbilt View publication.)

 Tony Brown was quoted in an article in The Tennessean article (September 28, 2009) concerning the hot topic of racism discussed at Scarritt-Bennett's Diversity in Dialogue program. ( Click here to read article. )

Tony Brown, Mike Ezell, Emily Tanner-Smith, Chase Lesane-Brown wrote an article which was published in the Journal of Marriage and Family. It was recently featured in Newsweek (September 14, 2009) in a story titled, "See Baby Discriminate."( To read the story, click here. )

Gary Jensen was quoted in an article in USA Today article (September, 2009) concerning the incessant science/religion debate. ( Click here to read article. )

Congratulations to Emily Tanner-Smith - 2009 PhD graduate - who was awarded the 2009 Student Paper Award from the American Sociological Association (ASA) section on Alcohol, Drugs and Tobacco! The paper was titled "Pubertal Development and Adolescent Girls' Substance Use: Race Ethnicity, and Neighborhood Contexts of Vulnerability."

 Vanderbilt-Edited Work and Occupations among the Most Frequently Cited Journals! Work and Occupations is the eighth most frequently cited sociology journal out of 99 in the world ranked in 2008. The journal's "impact factor" ranked second highest out of 15 journals in the inter-disciplinary field of "industrial relations and labor." The scholarly quarterly is a leading, social scientific publication on work, employment and labor themes, and is edited bya team of Vanderbilt sociology faculty, graduate students and staff: Dan Cornfield, Editor; Pam Tichenor, Managing Editor; Damian Williams, Deputy Editor; Sarah Glymm, Book Review Editor; Yang Gao, Assistant Editor; and Jarrett Thibodeaux, Assistant Editor. The journal's international editorial board includes Vanderbilt Sociology professors, Bruce Barry, Larry Isaac, and Ronnie Steinberg. The journal has served as a resource for graduate instruction on peer review and critical thinking in the Vanderbilt graduate sociology seminar, Workshop on Sociological Criticism.

 Tony Brown was quoted in a series of Boston Herald stories on the arrest of Henry Louis Gates. ( Click here to read article. )

Sociology is a department building on existing strength.(Click here to read more in the latest issue of VU's Arts and Science magazine.)

 Professor Jennifer Lena and Professor Emeritus Pete Peterson, are "the first to tackle the development of many music genres across the United States during the 20th century" reads the article in the Vanderbilt View which features Lena and Peterson's article entitled "Classification of Culture: Types and Trajectories of Music Genres," published in the American Sociological Review, the top journal in the field of sociology. ( Look here to read the Vanderbilt release.)

Professor Mariano Sana, PhD, University of Pennsylvania, 2003, and Professor Lijun Song, PhD, Duke University, 2009, have joined the Vanderbilt Sociology Department faculty.

 Professor Tony Brown is the 2009 recipient of one of the Harambee Awards (Outstanding Faculty) given out at the Black Recognition Ceremony. The professors are nominated by students.

 Mary Karpos, Senior Lecturer, provided an op-ed column on female sexual predators to the Tennessean April 20, 2009. ( Click here to read article. )

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center for Health Policy at Meharry Medical College is announced on March 5, 2009. The project will involve faculty and graduate students from the Departments of Sociology and Economics at Vanderbilt, with the goal of increasing the number and diversity of scholars trained in the social sciences who are engaged in health services and health policy research. ( Click here to read the press release. ) ( Look here to read the Vanderbilt release.)

 Katharine Donato voiced her opinion in The Tennessean. Her article in the "Voices" column on March 7, 2009, concerns immigration. ( Click here to read article. )

Dan Cornfield, Professor of Sociology, had an op-ed column in the January 4, 2009, Tennessean and was quoted in a January 11, 2009, New York Times article; in both, he spoke against the proposed English-only amendment to the Metro Nashville Tennessee Charter.

 Jennifer Lena, Assistant Professor of Sociology, has just begun a two-year term on the Editorial Board of Social Forces.

Jennifer Lena was interviewed by the Vanderbilt Hustler. She was quoted in this article on February 22, 2009, concerning Facebook and copyright. ( Click here to read article. )

Laura Carpenter was interviewed in a CNN (January 22, 2009) story about a woman who holds a public sale on the internet for her virginity.. ( Click here to read article. )

Lyndsay Boggess one of our undergraduates (Class of 2000) has accepted an Assistant Professor position in the Department of Criminology at the Universiy of South Florida to begin in Fall 2009. She is currently completing her doctoral studies in the Department of Criminology, Law & Society at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). Lyndsay received her B.A. in Sociology and Psychology from Vanderbilt University in 2000; she completed her M.A. in Criminal Justice in 2003 from the George Washington University; she will receive her Ph.D. in June, 2009. Her dissertation research focuses on the reciprocal relationship between racial and ethnic composition and change in crime over time, and looks specifically at the effect of neighborhood change on inter- and intra- racial/ethnic youth violence and crime in schools.

Jennifer Lena was quoted in the Chicago Tribune article on January 25, 2009, concerning Obama's gestures and the American cultural divide. ( Click here to read article. )

Jenn Lena and Pete Peterson (Professor Emeritus), have the lead article in the October 2008 American Sociological Review: "Classification as Culture: Types and Trajectories of Music Genres." (Click here to read article.)

 Tony Brown, Associate Professor of Sociology, (and Faculty Head of House) is quoted in Time Magazine October 2008 issue featuring the new Vanderbilt Commons which is the new living/learning environment of freshman students and faculty. (Click here to read article.)

 Jennifer Lena has accepted a position as co-chair of the Culture Network of the Social Science History Association for a 3-year term, from October 2008-2011. She will serve with Frederick Wherry (Michigan) and Sarah Igo (Vanderbilt). The invitation to Lena and Wherry read, in part: "We believe that your excellent scholarship, commitments to mixed methodological approaches that span social science and humanist disciplines, and recent participation in Culture Network sessions and related activities, make you both equally superb candidates for the position."

Katharine Donato was quoted in Business Weekly (Aug 4, 2008) about the employment of immigrant workers on oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.

 Laura Carpenter, Assistant Professor of Sociology, received $114,808 from the National Science Foundation for her new project, News Media Coverage and the Construction of Public Health Problems.

Jennifer Lena has been elected Secretary-Treasurer for the Sociology of Culture section of the American Sociological Association (2008-2010).

 Richard Lloyd has been appointed a Consulting Editor for the American Journal of Sociology through 2009.

 Katharine Donato was appointed as a member of the Immigration Advisory Committee at the Russell Sage Foundation in January 2008.

 Jennifer Lena has been appointed as a member of the Informal Working Group on Festivals, National Endowment for the Arts (2008-2009).

 Gary Jensen has been appointed Editor of the Homicide Studies journal through 2011.

 Daniel Cornfield received the 2008 Harvie Branscomb Distinguished Professor Award from Vanderbilt University for distinguished accomplishments at furthering the aims of Vanderbilt University. He is now focusing his energy as founding director of the new transdisciplinary Vanderbilt Center for Nashville Studies. Cornfield has had great impact on a number of programs including: enhancing the reputation of our sociology department's research on labor issues while he served as chair; putting together an interdisciplinary, inter-university team to study Nashville's immigrant community and its social services needs while serving as acting director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies; and editing the scholarly journal Work and Occupations..

 Larry Isaac, Professor of Sociology, received a 2008 National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship to support his research on capitalist militias in the Gilded Age. Gary Jensen and Holly McCammon have been appointed to the Editorial Board of the American Sociological Review through 2010.

 Larry Isaac delivered the 2008 Presidential Address to the Southern Sociological Society entitled Movement of Movements: Culture Moves in the Long Civil Rights Struggle.

 Laura Carpenter is major contributor in article in The Tennessean concerning the concept of a birth control pill for men.

Tony Brown is the Faculty Head of House for the Hank Ingram House in the Vanderbilt Commons, which will open to first-year students in Fall 2008.Check out this video with Tony Brown's list of his 5 reasons to be Faculty Head of House( Click here to watch video.)

 Larry Isaac has received a 2008 National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship to support his research on capitalist militias in the Gilded Age.

 Holly McCammon has had her research on women's jury rights in the U.S. appeared in both the October 2007 issue of American Sociological Review and the January 2008 issue of American Journal of Sociology. Several current and former graduate students were co-authors on one or both articles (Soma Chaudhuri, Lyndi Hewitt, Courtney Muse, Harmony Newman, Carrie Smith, and Teresa Terrell).

 Steven Tepper and Bill Ivey have co-edited Engaging Art: The Next Great Transformation of America's Cultural Life (2007, Routledge Press). Additional contributors include Dan Cornfield and Jennifer Lena (faculty in the Department of Sociology at Vanderbilt), Richard Peterson (professor emeritus in the department), and Yang Gao (Ph.D. student in the department).

 Richard Pitt has been elected to the Executive Board of the American Men's Studies Association, the national organization for the study of men and masculinities . (2007-2010).

 Tony Brown has been appointed to the Editorial Board of Social Psychology Quarterly (2007).

 Jennifer Lena was quoted in the July 9, 2007 issue of Billboard Magazine on the lack of commercial, feminist rappers in contemporary music.

 Tony Brown was honored as the Distinguished Faculty of the Game Award during the Mississippi vs. Vanderbilt football game (9/15/07).

 Richard Lloyd has been awarded a 2007 Chancellor's Award in recognition of his book Neo-Bohemia: Art and Commerce in the Postindustrial City.

 Jennifer C. Lena was quoted in the July 9, 2007 issue of Billboard Magazine on the lack of commercial, feminist rappers in contemporary music.

 Richard Pitt visited the Indiana University of Pennsylvania as a Visiting Scholar. While there, he lectured on images of bisexuality in the media; spoke as a panelist in a discussion on "the intersection of race, sexual orientation, gender, religion, and violence;" and guest lectured in sociology of masculinity and sociology of gender courses. (2007).

 Jennifer Lena gave a recent talk at the Nashville Public Library--part of the "Thinking Outside of the (Lunch) Box" Series, co-sponsored by Vanderbilt University and the Nashville Public Library.

Shaul Kelner and his Tourism, Culture & Place class were featured in an article in The Tennessean on 3/15/07.

Richard Pitt is quoted in the January, 2007 issue of Details Magazine in a feature article titled "Meet the New Bachelor" where he discussed the impact of divorce on the 21st century American bachelor.

 Laura Carpenter is featured in an article in the Vanderbilt Register. They discuss what she wrote in the recently published Journal of Aging Studies.

 Richard Lloyd has been appointed to the Editorial Board of City and Community.

 Laura Carpenter's newly published book entitled Virginity Lost gets reviewed.

 Dan Cornfield visited Cardiff University as a Montague Burton Fellow. He conducted a faculty seminar on historical and contemporary realignments of the U.S. labor movement and a doctoral seminar on scholarly peer review and publishing, March 2006.

 Richard Lloyd has been named co-editor (with Joshua Gamson) of the culture reviews section of Contexts (the ASA journal).

 Shaul Kelner received a 2006 CAS Venture Fund Grant for Creativity in Curricular and Pedagogical Approaches. With it, he plans to develop a field-trip based course that uses tours of the Nashville area to teach the Sociology of Tourism.

 Richard Lloyd's book, Neo Bohemia: Art and Commerce in the Postindustrial City, appeared in November, 2005. For a sampling of reviews, go to Salon; In These Times; Nashville Scene; Chicago Reader; Chicago Journal, Eye Weekly, and City Magazine. There are podcasts of Richard's interviews with Carol Coletta on "Smart City," and with Steve Edwards on Chicago Public Radio's "Eight Forty-Eight." This book has also been selected as one of Planetizen's Top 10 Books for 2006.

 Larry Isaac has been elected President-Elect of the Southern Sociological Society; he will be President-elect for 2006-2007 and then President in 2007-2008.

 Richard Pitt was quoted in the July 23, 2006 issue of The Tennessean in an article on family reunions.

 Jennifer Lena is quoted during an interview giving her perspective on rap music in another newspaper article in the Richmond Times Dispatch after a high school student was brutally and fatally stabbed at a hotel dance party in January, 2006. Afterwards, many have implicated that rap music had influenced the murder.

 Jennifer Lena is cited in The New York Times in the "Education Life" column in January, 2006, where the author presents many current "Pop Ph.D.'s" and their dissertation research and title.

 Jennifer Lena gave a lecture at the University of Georgia in December entitled "Voyeurism, Authenticity and the Gaze: Rap Music Videos as Cultural Tourism."

Richard Peterson, professor emeritus, has been attributed with the most cited piece from Annual Reviews in economics and business regarding his research.

 Gary Jensen received the Joe B. Wyatt Distinguished University Professor Award in Spring 2005. This award was created to honor Chancellor Wyatt upon his retirement in 2000. This award is given each year and is intended to recognize accomplishments that span multiple academic disciplines.

 Holly McCammon received a National Science Foundation Grant for 2004-2006 for her project entitled, "Dismantling the Patriarchal State: Women's Rights Activism, 19th-Century Married Women's Property Acts, and 20th-Century Jury Rights Laws."



 Yang Gao, a fourth year PhD student, will hold a Social Science Dissertation Fellowship from the College of Arts & Science for 2009-10. The SSDF will support Yang's research on how Chinese university students view, make sense of, and critique US televison shows.

In the past two academic years, six PhD students in sociology have held dissertation fellowships on campus: George Sanders (Warren Center for the Humanities, 2007-08), Heather Talley (Warren Center for the Humanities, 2007-08), Courtney Muse (SSDF, 2007-08), Harmony Newman (SSDF/VCNS, 2008-09), and Emily Tanner-Smith (SSDF, 2008-09).

 Harmony Newman, one of our graduate students, was contacted (June, 2007) and quoted about the field of Social Sciences on MSN Encarta. Here is the link: http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/Departments/AdultLearning/?article=SizingSocialScience.

 Melanie Kowalski , an undergraduate sociology major, has been awarded a 2006 Vanderbilt Undergraduate Summer Research Program (VUSRP) award. Under the supervision of Professor Jennifer Lena, she will work on a research project entitled, "Surrogate Consumers and the Production of Meaning: Press Kits and the Radio and Record Industries." The VUSRP extends from June to August, 2006, and Melanie will be expected to participate in Fellows meetings, and present her research findings. Melanie and Professor Lena expect to produce a publishable article by the early Fall term. The award carries with it a $4,000 stipend.

 Sophomore sociology major Ari Wisch coauthored a paper on Nashville immigrants with sociology professor Dan Cornfield that has been accepted for presentation at the 2006 convention of the American Sociological Association. The paper is entitled, "Settling In: Residential Strategies and Segregation Among African, Asian, Hispanic and Middle Eastern Immigrants in Nashville, Tennessee."

 Senior Star Wallin a double major in sociology and public policy studies, was selected to be a member of USA TODAY's 2006 All-USA College Academic Team. In 2005, she was honored by being named a Truman Scholar (Harry S. Truman Foundation), a Udall Scholar (Morris K. Udall Foundation), and a winner in Glamour Magazine's Top 10 College Women Competition. Star also is a Vanderbilt Ingram Scholar and worked with Jane Goodall 2005 summer in Tanzania as a coordinator of a youth empowerment program.

 Graduate student Teresa Terrell received a National Science Foundation Dissertation Grant for 2006-2007 for her research on "Community Participation in Neighborhood Organizations: An Investigation of Local Participation in Two Inner-City Neighborhoods."

 2005 VU graduate, Amy Beth Cooter , won first place in the 2005 sociology honorary society Alpha Kappa Delta's national Undergraduate Student Paper Competition for her paper. The paper will be published in AKD's journal, Sociological Inquiry. The award carries with it a $600 stipend and travel expenses to the 2005 annual convention of the American Sociological Association in Philadelphia.

 Ranae Evenson won an Honorable Mention in the 2005 Graduate Student Paper Award competition of the Health Division of the Society for the Study of Social Problems paper, "Co-Occurring Physical Health Problems and Psychiatric Disorders in the General Population."

 Graduate School 2005 Summer Research Fellowships from the College were won by Soma Chaudhuri, Lyndi Hewitt, and George Sanders.

 Graduate student Steve Lee had been selected to be a Fellow the 2005 summer at the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities. Steve is also one of the Editors of the scholarly quarterly, Work and Occupations.

 Graduate student Ashley Thompson had received a Dissertation Enhancement Grant from the Graduate School for 2005.

 Julianne Johnston, as a junior and undergraduate sociology major, had her research paper accepted by the 2004 Honors Program of the American Sociological Association for presentation at the 99th ASA annual meetings in San Francisco.

 Former graduate student Koji Ueno (Ph.D. 2004) and former graduate student Melissa Sloan (Ph.D. 2005) both won the 2004 Odum Award for Outstanding Graduate Student Paper from the Southern Sociological Society.

 Former graduate student Melissa Sloan received a National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Grant from the National Science Foundation for 2004-2005. Melissa was also Deputy Editor of the scholarly quarterly, Work and Occupations.

 A Graduate School Summer Research Award was won by Laurie Woods in 2004.

 Graduate student Lyndi Hewitt had published an article with Professor Holly McCammon in the journal Mobilization. Their paper is titled, "Explaining Suffrage Mobilization: Balance, Neutralization, and Range in Collective Action Frames, 1892-1919."

 Former graduate student Melissa Sloan published an article in Work and Occupations, February, 2004, entitled, "The Effects of Occupational Characteristics on the Experience and Expression of Anger in the Workplace."

 Graduate student Ken Spring was recently interviewed on Bravo for a documentary called "More that Music: Songs."
DEPARTMENTAL NEWS

 Vanderbilt Sociology One of Top (Graduate) Chair Producing Departments. Footnotes, vol. 30, number 2, February 2002

Sociology Ranks 3rd in Faculty Productivity. Vanderbilt Register, August 28, 2000.