CCS Workshop ~ 2019-20

Please note: Workshop readings are automatically available to current participants only and require authentication (password). Off- campus CCS Fellows should contact the CCS Administrator to gain access as needed.

The CCS Workshop is held in the 2nd floor seminar room at 210 Prospect Street from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM, followed by lunch.  

Jongryul ChoiWorkshop 9/6: Jongryul Choi

Keimyung University, Korea. CCS Visiting Faculty Fellow

Alexander’s Thesis of Generalization of Values Reconsidered: Focusing on the 2008 Candlelight Vigils in South Korea

ShohamWorkshop 9/13: Rui Gao

Beijing Foreign Studies University, China. CCS Visiting Faculty Fellow

Both documents should be read; please read the paper first and then “Some Written Thoughts”

Cacophonous Memories of the War: Revision of the Official Narrative on the War of Resistance against Japan in Post-Mao China and its Limitations

Some Written Thoughts

Nelson ArteagaWorkshop 9/20: Nelson Arteaga Botello

Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO), México, CCS Visiting Faculty Fellow

Violence, democracy and the civil sphere Mexico: the 1994 election campaign

BrochWorkshop 9/27: Ian Sheinheit 

Lehman College, CUNY ~ CCS Faculty Fellow

Narrating Victories and Defeats: Polarized Media and ‘Horserace’ Coverage in Contemporary U.S. Presidential Elections

Lily IvanovaWorkshop 10/4: Lily Ivanova

University of British Columbia ~ CCS Visiting Predoctoral Fellow

Understanding Genocide: Advancing a Sociology of Thinking for Theory and Culture

HorganWorkshop 10/11: Peter Kivisto

Augustana College ~ CCS Faculty Fellow

Immigration Raids and the Liberalism of Fear: The Case of Postville, Iowa

Jess DawsonWorkshop 10/25: Jessica Dawson

United States Academy at West Point

Thank You for Your Service:
Sacrifice, Warriors and the Second Amendment in the American Rifleman 1975-2018

Ian MullinsWorkshop 11/1: Jean-François Côté

Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada

Structural or Dialectical Hermeneutics? Further Epistemological and Theoretical questions in Cultural Sociology

Iddo TavoryWorkshop 11/8: Iddo Tavory

New York University

Awards and Morality in Pro Bono Advertising

(with Sonia Prelat and Shelly Ronen)

There are two documents for this week. The main reading is a chapter of the book (The Elephant in the Field: Awards and Recognition) that will be the main focus. The supplemental document is an overview of the entire book, to give readers a sense of the whole.

Jacob DerechinWorkshop 11/15: Jacob Derechin

Yale University

Cultural Shockwaves

There are two documents for this week. In addition to the main reading there is supplemental document containing a gallery of images generated through this analysis.

Philip SmithWorkshop 12/6: Philip Smith

Yale University ~ CCS Director

Co Author ~ Dominik Zelinsky ~ University of Edinburgh; CCS Predoctoral Fellow

From Remarque to Rubbish: A Model of Literary Degradation (with Dominik Zelinski)

Abstract: For too long the sociology of the arts has emphasised social processes over symbolic and moral factors in explaining the rise and fall of artistic reputations. We offer a new approach that gives greater centrality to pollution dynamics. Specifically, we turn to the literary field, identify “literary degradation”, and show there are two pathways along which this degradation occurs – via a reclassification of the oeuvre, and of the author. The paper engages in a sustained analysis of the Danish writer known as Sven Hassel. Between the 1950s and 1970s he fell from his initial position as an acclaimed high-culture figure likened to Remarque or Hemingway and became seen as an unimportant writer of militaristic pulp. Hassel’s case allows us to analytically distinguish both of the pathways of degradation, identify some intermediate mechanisms, and show how these might be divergently activated in regional contexts. In his native Denmark, Sven Hassel became a shady persona non grata and the very presence of his works in public libraries was questioned. In the United Kingdom, where he sold over 15 million copies of his books, he remains remembered an author of slightly controversial violent novels for a largely uneducated male audience.

Sandra SimonsenWorkshop 12/13: Sandra Simonsen

Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel ~ CCS Visiting Graduate Student

Bacteria, Garbage and Pigs: Interpreting the Symbolic Meanings of Metaphors in Jewish Ultra-Orthodox Propaganda

Abstract:  Present paper focuses on the symbolic meanings of metaphors and their potential social effects. Specifically, it examines the case of the Jewish Ultra-Orthodox “Ḥardakim” poster campaign distributed throughout Ultra-Orthodox communities in Israel in 2013. The overall aim of the campaign was to prevent Ultra-Orthodox men from serving in the Israeli army. In light of cultural sociology’s strong program and social group theory, the paper interprets the symbolic meanings of the main metaphors in the campaign in order to reconstruct the lifeworld of this religious group. On that basis, it offers a discussion of how metaphors were strategically utilized in order to draw social boundaries, uphold social norms and sanction group members who deviate from those. The paper’s empirical contribution is a case study of how symbolic meanings of metaphors as a part of propagandistic communication targets and exploits social identities in order to mobilize collective emotions thereby provoking certain actions. It contributes theoretically by arguing that deeming norm-deviant group members internal threats is an efficient propaganda tool for maintaining intragroup behavioral codes.

Andrea VoyerWorkshop 1/17: Andrea Voyer

Stockholm University, Sweden ~ CCS Faculty Fellow

No Time for Bowling: The cultural and economic logic of parental involvement

Emily CampbellWorkshop 1/24: Emily Campbell

College of the Holy Cross ~ CCS Research Affiliate

Silence of the Many: Exclusionary Drift in Post Racial America

Rachel ShermanWorkshop 1/31: Rachel Sherman

The New School ~ CCS Faculty Fellow

Uncommon Sense about Class Entitlement: Wealthy Progressives Challenge Meritocracy and Moral Worth

Dorothy WuWorkshop 2/7: Dorothy Wu

Yale University ~ CCS Junior Fellow

Can Pop Culture Allay Resentment? Japan’s Influence in China Today

Anne TaylorWorkshop 2/14: Anne Taylor

Yale University ~ CCS Junior Fellow

Populism, Poetry, and Political Organizing: Performances of Fusion with Bernie Sanders’ Imagined Civil Sphere

Ben CarringtonWorkshop 2/21: Ben Carrington

University of Southern California, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

Who’s Afraid of Cultural Studies? Recovering the Sociological Imagination, From C. Wright Mills to Stuart Hall

Anne Warfield Rawls and Jason TurowetzWorkshop 2/28: Anne Warfield Rawls

Bentley University and University of Siegen

Jason Turowetz

University of Siegen

On Meaning: the Meaning of a Particular Social Fact – “Suicide” – as discussed by Parsons, Garfinkel, Goffman and Sacks in 1964

Alford Young, Jr.Workshop 3/6: Alford Young, Jr.

University of Michigan

Extending the Dialogue on Ambition and Attainment: Interrogating the Character and Development of Imaginations about Mobility (with Carla O’Connor, University of Michigan)

Abstract: During the latter part of the twentieth century, research in social mobility has almost exclusively relied on the concepts of aspirations and expectations in the effort to assess subjective orientations to future prospects and desires.  This paper advances sociological approaches to mobility research by responding to some methodological and conceptual limitations inherent in this approach.  A new interpretive framework is proposed that includes an extended vocabulary for delineating and assessing the distinct mental constructs that comprise subjective orientations to mobility.  This framework also helps in deciphering the agency-related consequences of an absence of any of these constructs in an individual’s orientation to mobility.  The utility of this vocabulary is illustrated by applying it to some case examples from two fieldwork projects.  The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of the vocabulary for advancing understandings of subjectivity in the mobility process.

Ruthie BraunsteinWorkshop 3/27: Ruth Braunstein

University of Connecticut ~  CCS Faculty Fellow

The Moral Meaning of Taxes

Giselinde KuipersWorkshop 4/3: Giselinde Kuipers ~ CANCELLED

University of Leuven, Belgium

Beauty as Taste and Duty

Simon CottleWorkshop 4/10: Simon Cottle ~ CANCELLED

Cardiff University, United Kingdom ~ CCS Faculty Fellow

Victors, Vanquished and Victims: Visualizing Atrocity from the Ancient Past to the Global Present

Bernadette Nadya JaworskyWorkshop 4/17: Bernadette Nadya Jaworsky ~ CANCELLED

Masaryk University, Czech Republic ~ CCS Faculty Fellow

“Build that wall!” Narrating the U.S.-Mexico Border