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Past Events

Events from Fall 2023:

September 12: Job Talk Session

Peter Harvey, Harvard University

Paths of Prejudice: How Relationships and Discrimination Develop in the Classroom

Jeffrey Swindle, Harvard University

The Process of Human Rights Enculturation: International Organizations, Information Brokers, and Gender Violence

 

September 21: (Thursday, in CGIS S050)

Francesca Polletta, Professor of Sociology, University of California, Irvine

Inspiring Change: How to Account for Movements’ Cultural Impacts

Co-sponsored with the Politics & Social Change Workshop

 

September 26: Job Talk Session

Elena Ayala-Hurtado, Harvard University

'This Isn’t Quite What I Expected:’ Insecurity among Young College Graduates in the United States and Spain

Derek Robey, Harvard University

The Long Arc of a Nation: Perceived Trajectories of Racism in the United States and Canada

 

October 10:

Giselinde Kuipers, Professor of Sociology, KU Leuven

Beauty as Taste and Duty: Value and Privilege in the 21st Century Beauty Regime

 

October 24: Culture and Social Change

  • Juliet Schor, Professor of Sociology, Boston College
  • Caleb Scoville, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Tufts University

 

November 7: Meritocracy and Morality in Education and Science

  • Shai Dromi, Associate Senior Lecturer of Sociology, Harvard University
  • Samuel Stabler, Associate Teaching Professor of Sociology, Penn State
  • Jeffrey Guhin, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles

 

December 5: Studying Cultural Ebbs and Flows with Big Data

  • Sebastian Munoz-Najar Galvez, Bluhm Family Assistant Professor of Data Science and Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education
  • Laura Nelson, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of British Columbia

 

Events from Spring 2023:

January 31:

NOTE: this session will be held at a different time: from 1-2:30 PM EST

Ann Swidler, Professor of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley

Interpretation, Explanation, and Theories of Meaning

 

February 14: Children: Education, Socialization and Human Rights

  • Caitlin Daniel, Lecturer, University of California, Berkeley
  • Peter Harvey, IAI Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University
  • Isabel Jijon, Harvard College Fellow, Harvard University

 

February 28: Diversity in Higher Education and the Fashion Industry

  • Luuc Brans, PhD Candidate, Boston University
  • Anthony Jack, Assistant Professor of Education, Harvard University

 

March 7: Rethinking Agency and Processes of Change

  • Madison Renner, PhD Candidate, Harvard University
  • Elena Ayala-Hurtado, PhD Candidate, Harvard University
  • Derek Robey, PhD Candidate, Harvard University
  • Mari Sanchez, PhD Candidate, Harvard University
  • Shira Zilberstein, PhD Candidate, Harvard University

 

March 28: Cultural Tastes and Cosmopolitanism

  • Clayton Childress, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Toronto
  • Takeshi Matsui, Professor of Marketing, Hitotsubashi University

 

April 11: Work & Organizations

  • Rachel Kim, PhD Candidate, Harvard University
  • Mary Ann Glynn, Associate of Sociology, Harvard University
  • Elizabeth Sheprow, PhD Candidate, Harvard University

 

April 25: Social Movements, Civil Society, and Political Change

  • Elizabeth McKenna, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
  • Stephanie Ternullo, Postdoctoral Fellow in Government, Harvard University

 

Events from Fall 2022:

September 20: In-person ONLY 'Welcome Back' Meet & Greet

Come to 450 WJH to connect with the on-campus workshop community while enjoying lunch and refreshments!

 

October 4: Graduate Student Presentations

Leah Gose, PhD Candidate, Harvard University

Looking Beyond Location: How Organizations Shape the (In)Accessibility of Social Safety Net Services

Catharina O'Donnell, PhD Candidate, Harvard University

How Progressive and Conservative​​​​​ Organizations Mobilize Their Members

Derek Robey, PhD Candidate, Harvard University

"Being on the Right Side of History" - Schema of Racism and Race Among White Residents of the US and Canada

 

October 18: Bringing the Body into Scholarship on Work & Organizations

Panelists:

  • Ashley Mears, Professor of Sociology, Boston University
  • Ellis Monk, Associate Professor of Sociology, Harvard University
  • Njoke Thomas, Assistant Professor of Management and Organization, Boston College's Carroll School of Management

 

November 1: Fascism, Populism, and Nationalism

Panelists:

  • Mabel Berezin, Distinguished Professor of Arts & Sciences in Sociology, Cornell University
  • Philip Gorski, Professor of Sociology, Yale University
  • Samuel Perry, Associate Professor of Sociology, The University of Oklahoma

 

November 15: White-Collar Work, Culture, and Inequality

Panelists:

  • Erin Cech, Associate Professor of Sociology and Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan
  • Carolyn Chen, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley
  • Megan Tobias Neely, Assistant Professor of Organization, Copenhagen Business School

 

November 29: Rigor and Innovation in Qualitative Methods: Interviews, Ethnographies, and Archives

Co-sponsored with the Sociology Qualitative Working Group

Panelists:

  • Japonica Brown-Saracino, Professor of Sociology and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Boston University
  • Andrew Deener, Professor of Sociology, University of Connecticut
  • Marco Garrido, Associate Professor of Sociology, The University of Chicago
  • Lynette Spillman, Professor of Sociology, University of Notre Dame

Moderated by:

  • Shira Zilberstein, PhD Candidate, Harvard University
  • Derek Robey, PhD Candidate, Harvard University

 

Events from Spring 2022:

February 1: Virtual ONLY Expertise and Contesting Knowledge Claims

  • Panelists:
    • Mariana Cracium, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Tulane University
    • Steven Epstein, Professor of Sociology, John C. Shaffer Professor in the Humanities, co-founder of the Sexualities Project, Northwestern University
    • Gil Eyal, Professor of Sociology, Columbia University

 

March 1: Virtual ONLY Culture, Stigma, and Racism

Joint session with Harvard Sociology's Race & Ethnicity Workshop

  • Panelists:
    • Waverly Duck, Associate Professor fo Sociology, University of Pittsburgh
    • Anne Rawls, Professor of Sociology and Research Professor of Socioinformatics, Bentley University
    • Iddo Tavory, Associate Professor of Sociology, New York University
    • Stefan Timmermans, Professor of Sociology, ISG Professor, UCLA
    • Van Tran, Associate Professor of Sociology, CUNY

 

March 22: Virtual ONLY Conversation with Luc Boltanski and Arnaud Esquerre on value, capitalism, and politization

With the support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States.

Joint session with the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies’ Seminar on Social Exclusion and Inclusion and the WCFIA Comparative Inequality and Inclusion Cluster.

Discussants:

  • Shai Dromi, Lecturer on Sociology, Harvard University
  • Bo Yun Park, Postdoctoral Scholar, Social Science Data Lab (D-Lab), University of California, Berkeley

 

April 12: Virtual ONLY New Directions in the Sociology of Morality

  • Panelists:
    • Shai Dromi, Lecturer on Sociology, Harvard University
    • Steve Hitlin, Professor of Sociology, The University of Iowa
    • Aliza Luft, Assistant Professor of Sociology, UCLA

 

April 26: Examining Identity in the 21st Century

  • Panelists:
    • Michel Anteby, Professor of Management & Organizations, Boston University Questrom School of Business
    • Victoria Asbury, Doctoral candidate, Department of Sociology, Harvard University
    • Elena-Ayala Hurtado, Doctoral candidate, Department of Sociology, Harvard University

 

May 3: Harvard Sociology's Graduate Student Presentations

  • Nicole Letourneau, Doctoral candidate, Department of Sociology, Harvard University
  • Mari Sanchez, Doctoral candidate, Department of Sociology, Harvard University
  • Shira Zilberstein, Doctoral candidate, Department of Sociology, Harvard University

 

 

Events from Fall 2021:

Sept 14: Worth and the Current Crisis of American Society

Joint session with the Weatherhead Center's Cluster on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion

  • Purely Entertainment Versus Social Activism: The Challenges of Fostering Recognition and Inclusion in Hollywood and Comedy
    • Nicole Letourneau, Derek Robey, Michele Lamont
  • Imagining Plausible Futures: Braiding Cultural Repertoires when Facing Uncertainty
    • Shira Zilberstein, Michele Lamont, Mari Sanchez
  • How American College Students Understand Social Resilience during Covid and the Movement for Racial Justice: Toward a Processual Approach
    • Mari Sanchez, Michele Lamont, Shira Zilberstein

*Sept 15: From the Job’s Worth to the Person’s Price: The Transformation of Organizational Pay Practices since 1950

Laura Adler, Doctoral Student in Sociology, Harvard University

*Joint session with Harvard's Economic Sociology Seminar on Wednesday from 4-5:30 PM. This special event is only open to the on-campus Harvard community and will be held in 1550 WJH.

Sept 28: 'What we do' or 'Who we are'? Personal Essentialism and the Persistence of Gender Inequality

Allison Daminger, Doctoral Student in Sociology, Harvard University

Oct 12 Virtual ONLY: Race, Beauty, and Bodily Capital in a Comparative Perspective

Joint session with Harvard Sociology's Race & Ethnicity Workshop

  • Panelists:
    • Giselinde Kuipers, Research Professor of Sociology, KULeuven, Belgium
    • Alka Menon, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Yale University
    • Ellis Monk, Associate Professor of Sociology, Harvard University

Oct 26:

  • Nostalgic Colorblindness and Projective Anti-Racism: Divergent Racial Schema in White Residents in the United States and Canada
    • Derek Robey, Doctoral Student in Sociology, Harvard University
  • Crafting the Message: the Data Science Behind U.S. Presidential Elections
    • Bo Yun Park, Postdoctoral Researcher, UC Berkeley D-Lab

Nov 23: Virtual ONLY Contemporary Art and Evaluation Panel

  • Panelists:
    • Larissa Buchholz, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies, Northwestern University
    • James Riley, Assistant Professor of Business Administration, Organizational Behavior Unit, Harvard Business School
    • Hannah Wohl, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara

Nov 30: Virtual ONLY New Research on the Intersection of Culture and Organizations

  • Panelists:
    • Curtis Chan, Assistant Professor of Management & Organizations, Boston College Carroll School of Management
    • Ryann Manning, Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior and HR Management, Rotman School of Management
    • Lauren Rivera, Professor of Management & Organizations and Professor of Sociology (courtesy), Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University

 

Events from Fall 2020:

October 6, 2020

Contemporary Public Sphere Panel

  • Ari Adut, Associate Professor of Sociology, The University of Texas at Austin
  • Eve Ewing, Assistant Professor in the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration
  • Doug Hartmann, Professor and Chair of Sociology, University of Minnesota
  • Evan Stewart, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Massachusetts Boston
  • Iddo Tavory, Associate Professor of Sociology, New York University

 

November 3, 2020

Elite Culture Panel

  • Patricia Banks, Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology; faculty member of Africana Studies and the Program in Entrepreneurship, Organizations, and Society.
  • Bruno Cousin, FNSP Assistant Professor of Sociology, Sciences Po; researcher at the Centre for European studies and comparative politics and at the “Cities are back in town” programme of the Urban School, France. 
  • Justin Farrell, Associate Professor of Sociology, Yale University; Faculty Fellow, Yale Institution for Social and Policy Studies
  • Rachel Sherman, Professor of Sociology, The New School for Social Research

December 1, 2020

Alumni Book Panel: Race, Class, and Social Inequality

  • Matthew Clair, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Stanford University
  • Cassi Pittman Claytor, Climo Junior Professor; Acting Co-Director of African & African American Studies Minor, Case Western Reserve University
  • Discussants: Lawrence Bobo and Michele Lamont

 

Events from Spring 2020:

January 28

Rosemary Taylor, Associate Professor of Sociology, Tufts University

Putting a Price on Suffering: The Meaning of Compensation

 

February 11

Nina Gheihman, Doctoral Student in Sociology, Harvard University

Veganized: How Cultural Entrepreneurs Mainstreamed a Movement

Elliot Stoller, Doctoral Student in Sociology, Harvard University

Quantification and Bureaucracy: Social Categories, Regulatory Issue Areas, and the Federal Regulatory State

 

February 25

Phillipa Chong, Assistant Professor of Sociology, McMaster University

Inside the Critics' Circle: Book Reviewing in Uncertain Times

 

 

Events from Fall 2019

September 10 

Jared Schachner, Doctoral Student in Sociology, Harvard University

How Educational Choice Reshapes Residential Segregation's Causes and Consequences: Evidence from Los Angeles County

 

September 24

Anna Skarpelis, Postdoctoral Fellow, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs

Racial Architectures: A Comparative Cultural Sociological Way of Tracking Racially Supremacist State Practice Over Time

 

October 8

Paige Sweet, Postdoctoral Fellow, Inequality in America Initiative, Harvard University

Paradoxes of Survivorhood: Becoming Legible after Domestic Violence

 

October 22

Gad Yair, Professor or Sociology, Hebrew University

Ice and Fire: Culture, Intellectual Style and Emotions in German and Israeli Science

Tom Wooten, Doctoral Student in Sociology, Harvard University

The Effort Paradox: An Ethnography of Trying and Failing to Get Ahead in the Transition to Adulthood

 

November 5

Bernice Pescosolido, Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Indiana University

Sameness and Suicide: Challenging the Sociological Malaise in Suicide Research

 

November 19

Kristina Simonsen, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Aarhus University

Moralized Political Messages and Attitudes Toward Immigrants

Maleah Fekete, Doctoral Student in Sociology, Harvard University

The Changing Bargain Between the Sexes: Romance Reading in 1980 and 2016

 

Events from Spring 2019

February 12 

Nancy Ammerman, Professor of Sociology of Religion, Boston University

Rediscovering Religion: Toward a Practice Approach to Lived Religion.

 

February 26

William Sewell, Jr., Frank P. Hixon Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Political Science and History, University of Chicago

A Concrete History of Abstraction: Explaining the Emergence of Civic Equality in Eighteenth-Century France.

 

March 12

Holly Hummer, Doctoral Student in Sociology, Harvard University

To Follow the Prescribed Pathway? How Women in Graduate School Make Job Decisions.

 

Sandra Portocarrero, Doctoral Student in Sociology, Columbia University

How Does an Organization Foster the Creation of a Stigmatized Identity? Ethnographic Evidence from an Elite University in Lima, Peru.

 

April 2

Kobe De Keere, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Amsterdam

The Confessional Jobseeker: Moralizing Occupational Gatekeeping in the Cultural and Corporate Field.

 

Stefan Beljean, Doctoral Student in Sociology, Harvard University

Learning to Compete: Status Reproduction and Upper-Middle-Class Youth in the United States and Germany.

 

April 16

Randall Collins, Dorothy Swaine Thomas Professor or Sociology, University of Pennsylvania

Three Bases of Stratification in Everyday Life: EE, EDOM, and Charismatic Solidarity.

 

April 30

Elena Ayala-Hurtado, Doctoral Student in Sociology, Harvard University

Denouncing/ Embracing the Fraudulent Fairytale: Spanish University Graduates’ Imagined Future Narratives.

 

Derek Robey, Doctoral Student in Sociology, Harvard University

What's in a Name? Renaming Projects and Recognition in the United States and Canada.