The Public Face of Sociology

I thought others might find this article interesting, as it discusses some of the different ways of doing sociology. I've increasingly moved into the public sociology realm in the past 5 years or so. I wish more sociologists embraced this approach! 

The Public Face of Sociology

UAB is hiring 3 new sociology faculty

We’ve had several retirements in the past couple of years, plus one of our colleagues passed away from cancer last fall. We’re hiring!


Please pass along this info to others who may be interested: - 1 Junior Position, 1 Open Rank Position, and 1 Teaching Assistant Professor. See descriptions below. We’re interviewing at ASA.

I’d love to have applications from people that do health and technology research (just my own opinion of course)!

1. University of Alabama at Birmingham. The Department of Sociology invites applications for a tenure-track/tenured position to begin August 1, 2012 for an Assistant Professor. Teaching and research should fit with the Department’s emphasis on medical sociology. Courses taught may include gender, statistics and medical sociology, with preference given to candidates with research interests in one or more of the following areas: genetics, obesity, nutrition, outcomes research, technology or health disparities. The successful candidate must hold a Ph.D. in Sociology at the time of appointment and have a record that demonstrates a strong independent research agenda. UAB is a Carnegie designated RU/VH: Research University institution with a population of approximately 17,500 undergraduate and graduate students. The Department has established research links with faculty in UAB’s Medical School, which is ranked in the top 25 in the U.S., and to various clinical programs and research centers on campus. The Department offers Bachelor’s degrees in Sociology and Social Psychology, the MA in Sociology, and the Ph.D. in Medical Sociology. Metropolitan Birmingham is home to over 1 million people and is at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, with plentiful cultural and recreational opportunities. Applicants should send current curriculum vitae, a list of at least three references, and a cover letter summarizing interests and experiences to: Dr. William Cockerham, Chair, HHB 460, 1401 University Blvd., University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294-1152. The deadline for applications is October 1 or until the position is filled. We welcome applications from under-represented minorities and women. The University of Alabama at Birmingham is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action institution.

2. University of Alabama at Birmingham. The Department of Sociology invites applications for a tenure-track/tenured position to begin August 1, 2011. Rank is open, with preference given to candidates with a strong history of external funding and publication. Teaching and research should fit with the Department’s emphasis on medical sociology. The successful candidate must hold a Ph.D. in Sociology at the time of appointment. UAB is a Carnegie designated RU/VH: Research University institution with a population of approximately 17,500 undergraduate and graduate students. The Department has research links to faculty in the School of Medicine, which is ranked in the top 25 in the U.S. and to several clinical programs and research centers on campus. The Department offers Bachelor’s degrees in Sociology and Social Psychology, the MA in Sociology, and the Ph.D. in Medical Sociology. Metropolitan Birmingham is home to over 1 million people and is at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, with plentiful cultural and recreational opportunities. Applicants should send current curriculum vitae, a list of at least three references, and a cover letter summarizing interests and experiences to: Dr. William Cockerham, Chair, HHB 460, 1401 University Blvd., University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294-1152. The deadline for applications is October 1 or until the position is filled. We welcome applications from under-represented minorities and women. The University of Alabama at Birmingham is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action institution.

3. University of Alabama at Birmingham. The Department of Sociology invites applications for a non-tenure track position to begin January 1, 2012 or later for a Teaching Assistant Professor. Courses taught may include Intro, Social Problems, and Social Change. Other courses should fit with the Department’s emphasis on medical sociology. The successful candidate must hold a Ph.D. in Sociology at the time of appointment. UAB is a Carnegie designated RU/VH: Research University institution with a population of approximately 17,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The Department of Sociology and houses the Center for Social Medicine and is affiliated with the Lister Hill Center for Health Policy, the Center for Aging, and others. The Department offers Bachelor’s degrees in Sociology and Social Psychology, the MA in Sociology, and the Ph.D. in Medical Sociology. Metropolitan Birmingham is home to over 1 million people and is at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, with plentiful cultural and recreational opportunities. Applicants should send current curriculum vitae, a list of at least three references, and a cover letter summarizing interests and experiences to: Dr. William Cockerham, Chair, HHB 460, 1401 University Blvd., University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294-1152. The deadline for applications is October 15 or until the position is filled. We welcome applications from under-represented minorities and women. The University of Alabama at Birmingham is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action institution.

Shelia

Self-Promotion: Shameless and Otherwise

There have been some interesting articles and blog posts recently about how academics, and others, promote their work, themselves, etc. Here is another worthy read in this area. I hope that women, in particular, will read this and think about the impacts of how we promote (or don't promote more often than not) ourselves and our work.

http://speculative-diction.blogspot.com/2011/08/shameful-self-promotion-vs-meritocracy.html

Thoughts on this topic?

Full Professor!

I received official notification on Tuesday that I have been promoted to Full Professor. I wanted to post the letter from President Garrison on the blog but can't figure out how to insert a pdf file into the blog. Oh well.

Several people have asked me if I feel any different since receiving the notice. I don't yet. I think it hasn't set in yet. Perhaps it is because I am so busy with so many different things that I haven't had a chance to even reflect on it yet.

My chair sent out a notice to the faculty in my department. All but 2 of my colleagues either stopped by or sent emails to congratulate me. I posted it on Facebook and lots of friends have congratulated me. Some of my grad students brought me flowers yesterday. Bo and Callen did too. My office smells so great with the flowers! What a celebratory week!

A colleague asked me how I planned to celebrate. He knows I love going to the beach. Relaxing for a few days at the beach is a great idea but I haven't found a time to go relax at the beach yet. Hard to do this when you have a grant proposal due in about 6 weeks! Hopefully I'll find some time soon to take a few days and contemplate this phase of my academic career.

Thanks to all my friends, family members, and colleagues for the emails, notes, and comments. I couldn't have made it this far without the support and friendship that I've received from each of you!

Here's to the next phase of my career, fun celebrations, and wonderful family, friends, and colleagues!

Postdoctoral Fellowship in Social Impacts of Technology at UAB

Please pass along this info to those who may be interested. Thanks!

Dr. Shelia Cotten, a professor in the Sociology and Social Work department at the University of Alabama, Birmingham (UAB), is seeking to hire a Postdoctoral Fellow for a 1-2 year postdoc position. The position is available immediately but the start date is somewhat negotiable. The postdoc will work with Dr. Cotten to analyze data from existing research projects and to collect survey, interview, and observational data on upcoming research projects. Projects focus on technology usage across the life course and the social impacts of this usage, thus experience studying either specific age groups, and/or the impacts of technology use, would be preferable but is not required. Dr. Cotten, with funding from the National Science Foundation, is leading the largest study of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) XO laptop dissemination in the United States. She also has a large NIA grant studying the impacts on quality of life of training older adults in assisted and independent living communities to use computers and the Internet.


A doctoral degree in Sociology, Psychology, Communication, New Media, or a related field is required before beginning the postdoctoral fellowship. Candidates must have (1) strong quantitative and/or qualitative analysis skills, (2) experience writing manuscripts, and (3) good organizational and time management skills. Prior publication and grant writing experience will enhance the application.

The Postdoctoral Fellow is a 12 month, full-time appointment, with salary up to $45,000 depending upon qualifications. Benefits are also provided. See http://www.postdocs.uab.edu/ for more information on postdoc benefits at UAB. Funding may be available to support travel for conference presentations.

Submit the following application materials as attachments via email to Dr. Shelia Cotten - cotten@uab.edu. Please use the following email subject line: Technology Postdoc Position.

- Cover letter describing training, skills, research interests and how they fit with those described in the position advertisement, and why you’re interested in this position.

- Names and contact information for three references

- An up to date curriculum vitae

For those candidates who apply before August 12, 2010, please note whether you will be attending the American Sociological Association annual meeting in Atlanta in case Dr. Cotten would like to meet with you there.

Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until a suitable candidate is selected.

UAB is a Carnegie designated RU/VH: Research University institution with a population of approximately 17,000 undergraduate and graduate students. UAB’s Medical School is in the top 25 in the U.S. The Department of Sociology and Social Work houses the Center for Social Medicine and is affiliated with the Lister Hill Center for Health Policy, the Center for Aging, and others. The Department offers Bachelor’s degrees in Sociology, Social Work, and Social Psychology, the MA in Sociology, and the Ph.D. in Medical Sociology. Metropolitan Birmingham is home to over 1 million people and is at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, with plentiful cultural and recreational opportunities.

May Days

The first 4 months of the year flew by! It seems that time just flies faster and faster the older I get. I know part of it this semester was due to the fact that I travelled rather extensively, much moreso than usual. I'm glad that May is here and travel is over for a while at least!

I've had a productive week thus far. My colleagues and I got an article together in a very short while and submitted to a journal on Monday. Amazing what great people can do when they set their minds to it! I also had 2 articles that were R&Rs (revise and resubmits) that I had hoped to have out a month ago, but with all the travel it just didn't happen. I'm happy to report that they have both been resubmitted this week! Let's hope they both get accepted!

I can tell that all my travel is having impacts on Callen. She has been really clingy for the past few weeks, and also not going to sleep well at night. It seems later and later every night before she gets to sleep. I hope this stage passes soon as she needs her rest! She was even grumpy this morning when she got up, which is unusual for her.

I'm hoping the rest of the month is as productive as this week has been! Here's to May days that relax, refresh, and rejuvenate...

I Know I Shouldn't Be...

so bummed but I really am. Yesterday I had 2 manuscript rejections arrive! Not just 1, but 2! What is really annoying is that one of them had been under review for 4 months! And, then the editor makes a decision based on 1 review! Typically manuscripts are reviewed by 2-3 reviewers. Ugh. The review wasn't even that bad but the editor rejected the manuscript.

On the positive side, it looks like my husband's department may not be eliminated (at least yet). However, it looks like all county employees will be getting a 20% salary cut! Ouch. I don't know about you but we don't have an extra 20% of his salary just laying around that we can 'cut'. As it is now, we don't buy extravagant items, do big, luxurious trips, etc. I am grateful that he has a job (for now) but I am just amazed at how poorly the county we live in is run that they can allow the county to be in such a poor economic situation that they threaten the livelihood of all their employees.

This same county just the other day realized that they had not been billing some organizations appropriately for their sewer usage, including UAB! They informed UAB that it owes over a MILLION dollars! As a county, how do you make an error of this magnitude?

Let's hope today is a better day...

I feel it . . .

coming. What do I feel you may be wondering. I feel the frenzy of the beginning of the semester - classes beginning, projects that you just knew you'd be able to get out the door before 'summer ended/classes began', new things developing, and so on. . . It never fails to amaze me how quickly those sweet months, that seem beforehand like an infinite amount of time to accomplish things, between the end of spring semester and the beginning of fall semester pass.

I always have a long list of things I hope to accomplish during the summer. I know the list is always too long, but maybe I keep hoping I'll get faster with projects the older I get. Not sure this is ever going to happen, however.

Here's to savoring the last day before classes start. Oh, and completing my syllabus, meeting with students, editing a manuscript or two, revising an IRB amendment, and so on and so on and so on. . . I think you get the picture : ).

Juggling Becomes More Important

the longer I'm in academia. I have this whiteboard in my office where I keep a list of my various research projects and the 'next steps/status' of each of them. Yesterday I spent some time with my whiteboard - updating, reflecting upon the projects, etc. I have 10+ projects listed on my board. 10+ projects! I knew I was beginning to feel a little overwhelmed lately, but didn't necessarily attribute it to the 10+ projects that I have ongoing.

I told one of my research assistants the other week that I feel distanced from most of the data I'm involved with of late. With 10+ projects there is no way I can be the one who is actually analyzing the data. I miss this part of the research process as my intuition and prior experience often guide me in looking at the data, thinking about the best way to proceed, etc. Don't get me wrong, I have GREAT RAs - but I still miss getting my hands 'dirty' in the data and getting a better sense of what it all means at that level.

I think one of the things I realized yesterday is that I can't take on any new projects right now (especially as it looks like I will be getting another grant early next year which will take up a lot of my time), or at least not any that require much involvement on my part. Hopefully by not taking on more things, I can get many of the 8+ manuscripts that I'm a primary or secondary author on that are in various stages of progress out the door.

So, here's to knowing our limits and learning to say 'no' although we may want to say 'yes'...

Oh The Joys

of working at home. With all my travels over the past month, this is the first day I've had to work at home in quite a while. I hope to get some writing done on a manuscript that has been pushed to the back burner for way too long.

One of the things I love about academia is the autonomy. I can work at home, the beach, or anywhere else that I so choose as long as I have the resources I need -- usually a computer and Internet connection -- to do my research, grade papers, etc. Of course, I have to be in the office and/or department at various times to teach and for meetings; however, I treasure the time that I can spend at home, the beach, etc. working. I don't think I would be happy in an 8-5 job where I had to be in an office each day.

Here's to many more days of working at home!

Who Schedules This Many Meetings on a Friday?

I was looking at Eszter's blog (http://www.esztersblog.com) the other day and saw that she had a busy, busy day of meeting after meeting. I've noticed my days are getting more and more like this. Although, if you recall, when I decided to try to be more proactive than reactive, I noted that I would try to compress meetings together rather than having them be scattered about, etc.

I looked at my calendar for tomorrow and noticed that I have 4 meetings (which is actually fewer than I've had on my other meeting days the past 2 weeks)! They start at 9 AM and the last one runs from 3-5 (a faculty meeting from 3-5 on a Friday - OUCH! There better be a happy hour after such a meeting!). I definitely need to be better about the 'days' I use for meetings.

As I was telling one of my grad students the other day when he questioned me about why I seem to have so many meetings of late, I think the longer you're in academia the more meetings you seem to have -- whether they're with students, research collaborators, committees, etc., they begin to add up after a while!

Here's to fewer meetings next week - especially on Friday!

Reunions

This weekend was my 20 year college reunion. I can't believe it has been 20 years since I graduated from my undergrad college, Wake Forest! I didn't make it to the reunion this time -- too much going on with work, too far, and a myriad of other reasons.

I did make it to the 15 year reunion, which was fun. Most of my fellow graduates had kids and were very successful in their jobs. At that time I was in my first academic tenure track job and still trying to figure out my niche in academia. Five years later I definitely feel more settled in my career and I too have a child. I wonder how many of my fellow graduates have young kids at this point in their lives. I know many of the people that I went to high school with have kids that are almost grown by this point.

Reunions are a nice time to reflect on where you are and where you still hope to go with your life. I miss having not gone to Wake this weekend for my reunion -- to see old friends who I rarely keep in touch with anymore, to see how the campus has changed, and to take time to reflect on where I've been and where I hope to go in the next 20 years.

Here's to reunions and to having time to reflect on our lives!

So Many Things of Interest . . . So Little Time . . .

I think one of the reasons that I became a sociologist is because the social world fascinates me. There are so many things of interest to me that I would like to study and that need to be studied that it is hard to say "no" when you see opportunities. I wonder though how well we do things when we over commit ourselves.

Some of my graduate students have such great ideas of things they want to study; it is hard to remind them to keep their feet grounded until they finish their dissertations when it is hard for me to not branch out as I think of and see new things I'd like to investigate.

I mentioned in an earlier post that it is harder and harder to find time to think and write the longer I'm in academia. I think part of this is because we become more and more involved in 'new' projects. A friend of mine once remarked that he felt almost like a small business owner, as he tried to manage all his projects and the associated tasks and other people involved. I understand what he means.

So, I'll keep pursuing my interests but also try to be mindful that I have limited time and resources with which to pursue new projects (as best I can anyway!). If you have suggestions for how to manage time and projects, please feel free to post a comment.

Here's to pursuing our interests, managing our time, and doing it all in some semblance of order . . .

The Luxury of Working at Home and Other Simple Pleasures

One of the things I enjoy most about academia is being able to work where I choose, for the most part. I'm trying to work at home 2 days per week this semester; so far I've only managed one day per week at home working. It seems the longer I'm in academia, the more meetings I have and the less time I have to think and write. Why is that?

Fall semesters always seem busier than spring semesters to me for some reason. Maybe it is because they start just after ASAs (our national sociology conference) and then the holidays hit, you're trying to get ready for visits with family, shopping, etc.

I sometimes wonder if a simpler life would be better. My brother has said for years that he wants to move to Alaska and live in a simple cabin. I'm sure that's not for me, but I wonder if there are ways that we could simplify our lives . . . maybe I'll try to think about that today, in between reading articles for my grad class, finding receipts for reimbursement, rescheduling meetings, etc. . . . at least I'll be doing them from the quiet comfort of my home...