University of Oregon Sociology Department

Publication news!

Assistant Prof Claire Herbert, and grad student Mae Sowards, with NAEH's Nicole Dubois, authored a series of research briefs for the National Alliance to End Homelessness. These briefs summarize a large body of peer-reviewed research, and can aid advocates and policy makers to push back on criminalization efforts in the wake of Grants Pass v Johnson (2024).

They are called "Criminalizing Homelessness Worsens the Crisis, Research Shows," "Criminalization of Homelessness Fails to Improve Individual and Public Safety" and "Criminalization of Homelessness Harms Individual and Public Health."

These can be found here: https://endhomelessness.org/resource/why-criminalization-doesnt-work-research-policy-insights/

Also, Prof Herbert, along with Jo Weaver (from Global Studies) and UO students Dylan Podrabsky and Mackenzie Ní Flainn wrote an article about homelessness, displacement, and public health logics in the Journal of Critical Public Health. It's called "Co-opting the ‘public’ in public health: homelessness and the specious logic of discretionary displacement in a mid-sized US city. " It is from the UO Homeless Policy and Health Project.

Here is the link to that final article: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09581596.2025.2455492

Why Criminalization Doesn't Work: Research & Policy Insights In summer 2024, the Supreme Court’s ruling in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson emboldened communities across the country to enact new measures that make sleeping in public spaces a legally punishable offense—effectively criminalizing homelessness. However, extensive research makes one […]

Two upcoming Global Justice events both with Prof Eman Abdelhadi:

Dr. Abdelhadi’s research examines how second-generation immigrant Muslim Americans reproduce cultural practices over time.

February 6, 2025 | 6:00-8:00 p.m. | Ford Alumni Center Ballroom

“Palestine and the Future of US Campus Activism”



February 7, 2025 |12:00-1:15 p.m. | 714 PLC and via zoom

Impossible Futures: Why Women Leave American Muslim Communities





Eman Abdelhadi is a scholar, organizer and writer based in Chicago. She is Assistant Professor of Sociology in the Department of Comparative Human Development at the University of Chicago. Her research has been cited by NPR, the Washington Post, the Associated Press, and other outlets. She co-wrote the revolutionary sci-fi novel Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune 2052-2072 (Common Notions Press 2022), and she writes a regular column on Palestine and politics for In These Times Magazine.

She is a long-time organizer in the movement for Palestinian liberation and is currently active through Faculty & Staff for Justice in Palestine at UChicago. She helped found the group Sociologists for Palestine, a group organizing within the American Sociological Association (ASA) to advance a resolution supporting a just peace in Israel-Palestine and has also been involved with the Uncommitted National Movement.

Kudos to Assistant Professor MacKenzie Christensen and her co-authors, who have a new article out in the American Sociological Review: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/00031224241307655

journals.sagepub.com

Happening next week! More info in the first comment.

If you want to learn more about the sociology minor or major, or just hang and craft with some cool people, here's an opportunity!

Grad student David Purucker has a new article! Read it here:

Membership is the Left’s Secret Weapon: Lessons from the Democratic Socialists of America Election night was a disaster for Democrats. But contrary to what some pundits will tell you, it was not a defeat for “the left” as a whole. Despite the rightward national shift, democratic socialists still found success in races across the country. The Democratic Socialists of America won all s...

Dawn Harfmann successfully defended her dissertation, Bridge-Building in the U.S. Energy Transition Movement: Navigating Social and Geographic Divides in a Contentious Environment!

Congratulations, Dr. Harfmann!

This panel will feature Indigenous leaders and allies speaking on the pivotal role of Indigenous science, culture, and political leadership in the removal of four dams along the Klamath River. Program to begin shortly after 5pm.

PANELISTS:
Ron Reed -Traditional Karuk fisherman and ceremonial leader
Jeff Mitchell - Chairman of the Klamath Tribes culture and heritage committee
Glen Spain - Northwest Regional Director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Association

RSVP online (appreciated but not required to attend). Please contact Megan Schneider with questions or for accommodations at [email protected].

Jason DeHaan successfully defended his well-written and thoughtfully executed dissertation, “Urban Village Zoning in San José, Ca: Exploring Zoning Locations and Neighborhood Change.” Congratulations to Dr DeHaan!

COLLOQUIUM: Friday 11/15, 12pm – 1pm

Location: PLC714

Zoom link: https://uoregon.zoom.us/j/92654236162

Speaker: Catherine (Katie) Bolzendahl, Director, School of Public Policy, Professor of Sociology, Oregon State University

Title: Different and Unequal? Gendered Political Participation in European Democracies” (work co-authored with Hilde Coffé, University of Bath)

Abstract:
How do women and men participate politically across European democracies? Examining participation across diverse activities, individual-level explanations, patterns over time, and cross-national differences, we provide an analysis of gender patterns in participation. We consider a diverse range of activities over ten rounds (2002-2020) of the European Social Survey (ESS) across 26 European democracies. We find strong evidence for a gender differentiation model of political participation – women participate as much or more than men in many areas, such as signing petitions, boycotting, and voting. In contrast, men contact politicians and work for parties more than women. Yet, if women held the same level of political interest as men, differences would shrink, with women demonstrating and posting online as much as men. Gender differences do not vary over time, but context matters, and women in European democracies with greater national levels of gender equality participate significantly more than in less gender-equal nations.

Questions? Please contact CJ Pascoe at [email protected]

Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, desktop, and room systems. Zoom Rooms is the original software-based conference room solution used around the world in board, confer...

THIS FRIDAY (Nov 8, 2024): Colloquium by ZOOM only.

Date & Time: Friday 11/8, 12pm – 1pm

Location: ZOOM ONLY

Zoom link: https://uoregon.zoom.us/j/92654236162

Brandon Folse, PhD Candidate, University of Oregon Department of Sociology, will present "Searching for Higher Ground: Watershed Migration and Cultural Curation in the Fallout of Disaster." This is research co-authored with Nick Theis and Dan Shtob.

Abstract:
Due to land loss from sea level rise, subsidence, and hurricanes, southern Louisiana residents face decisions about whether and how to move to live more securely. These (seemingly) biophysical processes are compounded by sociocultural evolution and technological progress, which often make rural people and communities feel devalued. Using these observations as a background, we ask: how do disaster-related migration strategies correspond to broader migration trends nationally and globally? And, how do local, place-based cultures influence and permeate these migration decisions and strategies? We rely on 32 interviews with those who are from coastal Louisiana and are connected to local seafood industries. Using the Intracoastal Canal as a line of risk demarcation, respondents were recruited as either stayers (those residing south of the canal) or migrants (those who moved north of the canal or elsewhere). We find that within both groups, many individuals and/or their family members participate in watershed migration and cultural curation, practices of moving up the bayou toward safer ground and bringing place-based practices along with this movement. We conclude by highlighting how the non-linear experiences of migrants are part of larger historical narratives and practices of change, migration, and cultural and physical survival.

Biography:
Brandon Folse is a PhD candidate in sociology at the University of Oregon. He holds BAs in history and English from Nicholls State University and an MA in Asian Studies from the University of Oregon. Brandon’s research interests include migration, stratification, family, and culture. His dissertation project seeks to understand mobility decisions in the context of frequent disasters and climate change in rural communities in coastal Louisiana.

Questions? Please contact CJ Pascoe at [email protected]

Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, desktop, and room systems. Zoom Rooms is the original software-based conference room solution used around the world in board, confer...