Are antibias diversity trainings effective? Associate Professor of Sociology Reggie Byron and others weigh in on the efficacy of these widely used trainings and some of their limitations in this recent Acorns–CNBC Grownews article.

Megan Piel  ’20 presented her sociology capstone paper titled “Watching Horror Films: A Qualitative Sociological Study of Fear” at the Southern Sociological Society on April 8.  The conference was held online.

Madeline Yu Carrola (’19) had a peer-reviewed article titled “Activists in Red Capes: Women’s Use of The Handmaid’s Taleto Fight for Reproductive Justice” published in The Journal for Undergraduate Ethnography. The article is based on her 2018 sociology capstone project.

Professor of Sociology Sandi Nenga  has been appointed to a three-year term on the editorial board of Sociological Studies of Children and Youth  (UK: Emerald).

Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology Naomi Reed was invited to submit an article produced from her research on the Sugar Land 95 to the food edition of Anthropology News. The piece, titled “The Darker the History, the Sweeter the Truth: How a White-Identified City Struggles to Commemorate the Black Lives and Deaths That Produced Its Sugar and Built Its Wealth,” can be found here.

Associate Professor of Sociology Reggie Byron was invited to offer feedback on an equal employment opportunity policy memo written by the leadership at the Center for Employment Equity after being solicited by incoming U.S. President Biden and his campaign. Byron’s name (and Southwestern’s) is listed in the acknowledgments along with those of seven other scholars from research universities who are noted for having a “deep knowledge of the enforcement process and EEOC [Equal Employment Opportunity Commission] data quality.”

Professor of Anthropology Mel Johnson, Associate Professor of Education Alicia Moore , and Professor of Philosophy Phil Hopkins  were panelists for the Georgetown Public Library event “Confronting Racism: A Community Conversation.” The event offered three sessions centered around three selected texts aimed at children, young adults, and adults. Moore participated in the panel discussing New Kid by Jerry Craft, a graphic novel about the struggle to fit in with a world that doesn’t look like you. Hopkins participated in the panel discussing The Hate U Give  by Angie Thomas, which details the impact of police violence on communities of color. Johnson participated in the panel on Ibram X. Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist,  a best-selling book on how to fight racism and inequality.

Professor of Sociology Sandi Nenga presented her paper “Processes of Cultural Capital in a College Readiness Program Aimed at Latinx, First-Generation Students” at the 2020 American Sociological Association meetings on August 8 (held online).

Megan Piel  ’20 participated in the American Sociological Association’s 2020 Undergraduate Honors Program (held online) on August 8. She presented her paper “Religion, Gender, and Attitudes towards the LGBTQ+ Community,” which was originally written for the Research Methods class in sociology.