Despite being intensely sociable, ethnographic research is also deeply isolating. Although fieldworkers may feel lonely, we contend that they are not (or should not be) alone. At the 10th anniversary of Urban Ethnography Lab at the University of Texas at Austin, we reflect on the ethnographic training cultivated there. We detail objectives,…

I argue that what-makes-it-possible questions are a distinct and important kind of sociological research question. What is social phenomenon "P" made possible or enabled by? Results won't be about "P's" causes and causal relationships, but about its enablers and enabling relationships. I examine the character of…

This article suggests three orientations within sociology toward issues of morality and character development. The first stems from Durkheim, one where sociological tools diagnose the operation of any society and its constituent parts, including typifications of the individual. This tradition holds that sociologists can help diagnose…

In this article, I examine the effects of an environmental sociology travel study program in Zion National Park (United States) on 11 students during the summers of 2018 and 2019. I outline the program, and then I use students' reflections in their posttrip final papers to illustrate the effects of the program on their sense of environmental…

Teaching during a global pandemic has prompted many discussions about how faculty can best support students and create classrooms where deep learning and engagement occur. In this conversation, we argue there is a role for empathy in college classrooms. We present data from interviews with faculty at a small, Midwestern, teaching-focused…

This paper explores experience that is both misconstrued and under theorized in adult education. Human experience is expressed in the public sphere as the motivation for social and political change. The connections among experience, the public sphere, and democracy are identified. The allies in exploring the role of experience in education are…

The sociologies of quantification, university rankings, and infrastructure are a loosely connected set of scholarly endeavors. Research in these areas typically examines production of certain types of quantification, their effects, and institutionalization. Despite these commonalities, scholars have noted a lack of conceptual coherence, debates on…

Recent debates about qualitative methods have discussed the relative limitations and contributions of interviews in comparison to surveys and participant observation. These discussions have rarely considered how ethnographers themselves use interviews as part of their work. We suggest that Lizardo's discussion of three modes of culture…

This teaching note presents an assignment in which students write an op-ed on a course-related issue and submit it to a newspaper. I argue that an op-ed assignment dovetails with pedagogical goals around democratic citizenship and public sociology. I explain the project's objectives, instructions, and timeline. I present evidence from three…

This article critiques the lack of literature on community college student leadership development and highlights the importance of community colleges as producers of social justice leaders and promoters of positive social change. This article examines how community college educators in the field of sociology prepare their students for success in…

Given the profound social implications of climate change, this subject is increasingly important for a broad range of sociology classes. Sociology instructors who address the subject of climate change face a dilemma. Presenting too grim of a portrait risks fostering psychological distress and withdrawal from action to address climate change,…

Allowing learners to move across learning contexts in novel ways, digital tools play an increasingly central role for the formation of learning trajectories and identities. They thus presumably also affect dynamics of social sorting in education. Against this background, this article introduces a conceptual framework for unravelling dynamics of…

Sustainable development as a subject area and learning objective increasingly finds its way into the curriculum from pre-school to university level, and education and learning are emphasized as key drivers for sustainable development. At the same time, the sustainable development discourse has since its inception been met with critique, not least…

In Goffman's terms, qualitative interviews are social encounters with their own realities. Hence, the 'situational critique' holds that interviews cannot produce knowledge about the world beyond these encounters, and that other methods, ethnography in particular, render lived life more accurately. The situational critique cannot be dismissed; yet…

Leadership in 'International Schools' is a very underreported and under-theorized area of education. Even relatively recently, it was being asserted (Hayden & Thompson, 2013, p. 4) that most people are 'completely unaware of their existence.' In particular, the area of leadership of these schools have been neglected by research investigation,…