Category: Fall 2021

SOC508 – Changing the Narrative for Native Hawaiian Wellbeing (Guest Edition)

Abstract

Aloha mai kākou, we take a local perspective today with special guests, Brandon from Kamehameha Schools and Lisa from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, who walk us through a new radical study aiming to change the traditionally deficits-based narrative about the Native Hawaiian people to one of strength and resiliency. Drawing from the Kūkulu Kumuhana dimensions of Native Hawaiian wellbeing, we discuss the ʻImi Pono Hawaiʻi Wellbeing Survey 2021, from which a number of local organizations have analyzed and published numerous briefs, including ones on COVID-19 impacts in Hawaiʻi and more. Be sure to check out our website for great links that support indigenous research as well as a vocabulary list of all the Hawaiian words used in the episode!

Keywords

Native Hawaiian Wellbeing, Kūkulu Kumuhana, Indigenous Frameworks, Culture, Data

Sources

Hawaiian words in the episode (in order of use):

Hawaiian online dictionary 

  • Aloha mai kākou – greetings to all of you
  • Mahalo – thank you; gratitude
  • E kala mai – forgive me; sorry; apologies
  • Moʻokūʻauhau – ancestry; genealogy
  • ʻImi pono – to seek out fullness/completeness/balance 
  • ʻOhana – family
  • Kaiaulu – community
  • Honua – world, environment
  • Ea – self-determination
  • ʻŌiwi – cultural identity and native intelligence
  • ʻĀina Momona – healthy and productive lands and people
  • Pilina – mutually sustaining relationships
  • Waiwai – ancestral abundance and collective wealth
  • Kupuna – elders
  • Ke Akua Mana – spirituality
  • Mōʻi – King; chief; ruler
  • He Ali’i Ka ‘Āina; He Kauwā ke Kanaka – The Land is Chief; Man is its Servant
  • Kai – ocean; salt water
  • Wai – fresh water
  • Kūkulu – to build; pile up; a pillar
  • Kumu – the source (e.g., teacher); basis; main stalk or root of plant
  • Haumāna – students
  • Hana – the work; activity
  • Kūkulu Kumuhana – “the pooling of strengths, emotional, psychological, and spiritual for a shared purpose. A unified, unifying purpose.” (Source).
  • Naʻau – intuition; feelings; gut instinct
  • Kākoʻo – agree; support
  • Moʻolelo – story; tale; myth
  • Mana – divine power, among other things. (Read the book!).
  • Hoʻoponopono – to correct; the name of a traditional healing process (conflict resolution) to resolve issues within ʻohana 
  • Heluhelu i ka puke – read a book!

SOC507 – Princess Performers (Guest Edition)

Abstract

Are you a Disney fan? Have you ever seen a princess in the flesh? Well, this week we are joined by Kristen Newvine of the Social Science Princess Project, who talks with us about this world of character performance. We use Goffman to understand how adopting the identities of Disney princesses can actually influence performers’ everyday non-princess lives– from how they talk to how they greet children at grocery stores to how they sing when they’re encountering setbacks. Tune in and have a magical day! 

Keywords

Princess, performers, Goffman, Disney, Identity theory, Identity

Transcript

You can find the transcript for this episode here. Big mahalo to the princess herself, Kristin Newvine, for transcribing this episode!!

Resources

SOC506 – Rolling with the Queen: Patricia Hill Collins & Black Feminist Thought

Abstract

We go deep into higher level theory with Black Feminist Thought (BFT as we like to call it) as presented by the one and only Dr. Patricia Hill Collins. We discuss the history of the Frankfurt school of thought and the genesis of Dr. Collins’ own ‘critical social theory.’ Her theory is steeped in American culture, history, and law, as she works to understand the experiences of Black American women. From standpoint epistemology to matrix of domination, we’ll break it all down for you so you’ll be ready to learn more!

Keywords

Black Feminist Thought, Critical Theory, Critical Social Theory

Sources

  1. SOC205 – The Matrices of Oppression: An Introduction to Intersectionality
  2. Patricia Hill Collins’ profile at University of Maryland
  3. A new perspective with Patricia Hill Collins, 100th president of the American Sociological Association
  4. Check out some of Patricia Hill Collins’ most notable work!
  5. The Magic School Bus
  6. William Shatner boldly went into space for real. Here’s what he saw (NPR)
  7. All the Fallout From Dave Chappelle’s Controversial New Special (The Cut)
  8. Unemployment rate drops to 5.2 percent in August 2021 (US Bureau of Labor Statistics)
  9. This Should Be a Boom Time for Restaurants. But Owners—and the Few Workers Remaining—Are Struggling (Time)
  10. The labor shortage is actually 3 mismatches between workers and employers (Business Insider)

SOC505 – Caste, Class, and Masculinities: Exploring the Jatt Community (Guest Edition)

Abstract

The Indian caste system is regularly brought up in sociology courses as an example of a social structure that prevents mobility. But what if that’s not always the case? We are joined by the soon-to-be-Dr. Navjotpal Kaur to discuss how class, land ownership, and masculinity influence which castes are dominant, specifically in the northern State of Punjab. Tune in to learn about how men in the Jatt caste perform their social identities, and how these performances impact communities in Punjab and Canada!

Keywords

Caste, class, masculinity, stratification, identity

Sources

We discussed vaccine passports, which you can read about here!

Check your boobs: it’s breast cancer awareness month

Abstract

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, the time when everything turns pink! We here at The Social Breakdown wanted to remind everyone with breasts (pssst– we ALL have ‘em!) to do all the needed check ups: self-exams, ultrasounds, and mammograms! Our team has been especially hit hard by breast cancer. So, for us and for you, please get yourself checked out and remind your loved ones to do so, too!

Keywords

Boobs, moobs, breasts, cancer, health

Sources

  • Breast cancer is insanely common! There is a 1 in 8 chance that a woman in America will develop breast cancer. 
  • Here’s how to do a breast self-exam!

SOC504 – Money and Morals: Judging Creativity in Art

Abstract

Did you know that contemporary and modern art aren’t the same thing? Come learn with us about the contemporary art world, how artists judge and value their own art and creative journey, and how artists represent or negotiate their creative vision. We invited Dr. Hannah Wohl, who recently published Bound by Creativity: How Contemporary Art is Created and Judged with University of Chicago Press to talk about her ethnographic work with contemporary artists. Dive with us into the art world and maybe spark that creativity to become an artist yourself!

Keywords

Contemporary Art, Creativity, Popular Culture, Aesthetic Judgments

Sources

Follow Hannah!

  1. Bound by Creativity: How Contemporary Art Is Created and Judged by Hannah Wohl
  2. SOC414 – “I just see blue’: What is art? (Guest episode)
  3. Banksy
  4. Damien Hirst
  5. Oscar Murillo
  6. Jean-Michel Basquiat
  7. For $84,000, An Artist Returned Two Blank Canvasses Titled ‘Take The Money And Run’
  8. Gary Alan Fine
  9. Wendy Griswold
  10. Katherine Bernhardt
  11. Contemporary art fairs
  12. B. Wurtz 
  13. Found objects
  14. Art Worlds by Howard S. Becker
  15. Talking Prices: Symbolic Meanings of Prices on the Market for Contemporary Art by Olav Velthuis
  16. Talking Art: The Culture of Practice and the Practice of Culture in MFA Education by Gary Alan Fine
  17. Still Life: Ecologies of the Modern Imagination at the Art Museum by Fernando Domínguez Rubio
  18. Buyers of Maurizio Cattelan’s $120,000 Banana Defend the Work as ‘the Unicorn of the Art World,’ Comparing It to Warhol’s Soup Cans
  19. “Art markets in crisis: how personal bonds and market subcultures mediate the effects of COVID-19” by Larissa Buchholz, Gary Alan Fine, and Hannah Wohl
  20. NFT art: what is it, how it works and what it means for the creative industry
  21. #FreeBritney: Understanding the Fan-led Britney Spears Movement

SOC503 – Social Problems and Social Causes: We have an episode on it

Abstract

The gang is back! We tackle a foundational topic in sociology: social problems! Social problems relate to numerous other concepts that we’ve discussed – inequality, stratification, the social construction of reality, and all the “-isms.” Social problems are social in their causes, consequences, and solutions and though, social problems are often discussed at the macro societal level, its symptoms often manifest in everyday micro life. Join us as we talk through some big hit social problems – COVID-19, unemployment, crime and deviance, education, racism, ageism, and more!

Keywords

Social problems, inequality, stratification, theory

Sources

  1. The Social Construction of Reality by Berger and Luckmann (1966)
  2. We have an episode on it!
    1. SOC215 – Social Stratification, Capitalism, and Inequality: All the Sad Things
    2. SOC307 – The Social Construction of Rock n’ Roll
    3. SOC208 – Left Handed Devils: The Social Construction of Deviance
    4. SOC315 – The Political Spectacle: Symbols in Politics
    5. SOC207 – Three Schools of Thought: Conflict Theory, Structural Functionalism, and Symbolic Interactionism
  3. OnlyFans Reverses Its Decision to Ban Explicit Content

SOC502 – Gentrification: Movement in Neighborhoods (Guest Edition)

Abstract

Our first guest of the season is one we’re all fans of: Dr. Tanya Golash-Boza!! Tanya joins us to talk about a new project that explores the gentrification of her hometown located in the outskirts of Washington D.C. How do we measure gentrification? And what markers do local residents perceive as signs of gentrification? (Expensive ramen shops, we’re looking at you!) Join us as we make sense of how structures promote “killing a neighborhood [to] make a profit.”

Keywords

Gentrification, Culture, Economics, Housing, Neighborhoods

Sources