Welcome to the latest NESA news. We have details about our upcoming fall 2008 NESA conference on Teaching & Learning, stories about exciting pedagogical innovations from Maine and Connecticut, and an electronic interview with our graduate student representative. So, read on to find out what it means to engage in service learning, to experience Route 66 through the eyes of sociology students, to ride along with a school bus driver, and to learn who’s reading the sociology of Seinfeld.
The 2008 Fall NESA Conference will be held on Saturday, November 1, 2008 at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, CT. Teaching & Learning in Sociology is the theme.
Transformations in teaching and learning are underway at colleges and universities around the region and in the world. This conference brings people together to share the latest scholarship and to discuss progress, innovations, and challenges in teaching and learning sociology. We welcome you to propose papers, workshops, speaker panels, and poster presentations in these areas: breakthroughs in pedagogy, technology in classrooms, student activism and public sociology, service-learning in higher education, experiential learning and internships, program and course assessment, teaching for critical thinking in sociology, and interdisciplinary studies.
You may identify additional variations on these themes. Undergraduate students are welcome to present or to co-present with sponsors. Please submit proposals with full title and 100 word abstracts via e-mail to Conference Organizer Bruce Day at dayb@ccsu.edu. Proposal deadline is October 1.
The NESA Awards Committee invites nominations for the Apple Award For Outstanding Contribution to Teaching Sociology. This award is typically presented annually at the Association's Fall Conference.
Outstanding contributions to teaching sociology may be evidenced through innovative teaching approaches and techniques, the development of noteworthy instructional materials, advances in curriculum development, or any other pedagogic activities that substantially advance the teaching of sociology.
Who Can Make Nominations?
Nominations may be submitted by any NESA member in good standing. Additionally, NESA members may sponsor nominations made by individuals or groups outside of the Association. Thus, any student, colleague, or department may nominate a candidate for the award if that nomination has the endorsement of a member in good standing. In such a case, the nomination is considered to come from the original nominator, not the sponsor.
Who Can Be Nominated?
Individual professors, writers, editors, or entire departments may be honored by the Apple Award. Any individual or group that has demonstrated substantial contributions to the teaching of sociology may be considered. Such contributions might be evidenced, for example, by the development of innovative teaching techniques, the advancement of quality teaching through scholarly presentations or publications, or by the development of curricula or programs that advance the teaching of sociology. In addition, individual professors who are substantially along in their career may be recognized for excellence in their own classroom teaching.
How Do I Nominate Someone?
Nominations for the Apple Award are accepted throughout the year. The Awards Committee will review nominations received by September 15 in consideration for the award to be presented the following November. In addition to identifying the name and institutional affiliation of the nominee, your written nomination should also:
* Describe who is making the nomination and the relationship between the nominator and the nominee.
* Describe the nominee's outstanding contribution to teaching sociology as specifically and as thoroughly as possible.
* Include any supporting material that may be useful to the committee, such as any tangible products of the contribution or, where appropriate, input from students.
Send your Apple Award Nominations no later than September 15th to:
NESA President Margaret Walsh, Keene State College, mwalsh@keene.edu
Conference organizer Bruce Day reflects in the following article on a collaborative model of experiential teaching and learning in sociology at CCSU.
The biggest challenge for a traveler wishing to drive the entire length of Route 66 is finding the time and opportunity to do so. Well over 2,000 miles of open road and hundreds of “must see”
stops in every state requires more than the typical two-week U.S. vacation permits. Undaunted, two professors have found a way to create the opportunity to travel Route 66 with sufficient time to take a close look at their surroundings. In the Sociology Department of Central Connecticut State University, Drs. Bruce Day and John Mitrano, have brought Route 66 into the lives of students who live hundreds of miles away from the Mother Road. Students earn summer credits with the structure and support of CCSU. The Route 66 Field Studies Program has sparked new interest in the journey from Chicago to Los Angeles and has focused renewed sociological focus on Route 66.
It all began in 2001 when Drs. Day and Mitrano discussed designing a summer course that would incorporate travel and experience as a replacement for the traditional classroom. “Many of our students are very concrete learners. They want to see examples and they want to be hands-on with their work. Using travel to go out into the field and discuss society was a very natural development in our teaching styles,” explains Mitrano. Day added, “We were also faced with a challenge. Just because a class is offered does not mean students will sign up. We needed a topic that would spark the student’s interest, and so I suggested we go west on Route 66.” Day and Mitrano began to research 66 and soon realized that it was a natural choice to fulfill their educational goals due to the diversity of historic sites, communities, and people that can be met along the road. Recognizing a great opportunity they created a curriculum to explore communities, commerce, and travel in the United States, as well as getting a broad look at small-town America by seeing the diversity of landscapes and communities.
So plans were made for one of the most complex college courses these two professors would ever plan. Transportation was the biggest issue to settle. How do you drive a group of students from Connecticut all the way West to the Pacific Ocean? The answer is; the same way kids get driven around their own communities: the mini-van. The first year they rented a 34-foot Recreational Vehicle to save money by camping at some of the stops. They soon realized this was more work than necessary. In 2004, 2005, and 2007 they made the switch to mini vans and stayed in many of the older motels still in operation on Route 66. Travel has been smooth ever since.
The course work for the students requires them to become involved with Route 66 in a number of ways. Students must take the initiative to talk with people they meet during their travels down the Mother Road by conducting interviews along the road. The interviews capture the thoughts and ideas of four different groups connected with Route 66; people who live along 66, business owners on 66, preservationists of 66, and fellow travelers of 66. Through these interviews the students are able to connect stories of the past with situations they experience in their present day travels on Route 66. “Each year we have met more and more people on the road and the students have had the opportunity to meet some interesting folks” said Mitrano. “Our students have interviewed or met Michael Wallis, Bob Waldmire, Angel Delgadillo even Juan Delgadillo in our first year. It was during the second year, summer 2004, that Juan passed away during our trip, before we reached Seligman. The 2004 students hadn’t met Juan, but they could feel the sadness and see it at the closed Snowcap. It was an unfortunate but very valuable learning experience, as the students got a real understanding of how important some of these people are to the Route 66 community.”
The rest of the course work is actually quite simple as it is not much different from what any traveler would do while crossing the country. Students are instructed to think about what they photograph and what it represents to them, and they keep a journal of reflections on the many experiences they have from Chicago to Los Angeles. But, mostly the trip is about leaving the classroom and experiencing society. They apply what they have learned in the classroom to daily experience.
The work of the students has also played a much larger role in contributing to research about Route 66. Students have gathered over one hundred interviews to date, more than 3000 photographs, and numerous documents and pamphlets of information about sites on Route 66. The students’ research has already been presented at national conferences of the Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Social Imagery, the Oral History Association, the Eastern Sociological Society, the Popular Culture and American Culture Associations, as well as the International Visual Sociology Association. We hope to hear more from them at a future NESA conference as well. “It’s exciting for us and our students to think that our work together is contributing to a broader knowledge of society and of this unique and fascinating community we call Route 66” said Day.
Once again the professors are setting the schedule and making the many reservations for the next trip. “This year is particularly important, “ noted Mitrano, “because our curriculum and teaching strategies are being developed for publication through the National Park Service. The Park Service has been a great partner in our work and now we are looking to further solidify that partnership by entering into this joint project. We are very excited about the potential of having our hard work institutionalized for other educators to use.”
For more information about the “Route 66 Field Studies Program” or to learn how they pay for gas contact Bruce Day (dayb@ccsu.edu) or John Mitrano at Central Connecticut State University, 1615 Stanley Street, New Britain, CT 06053.
Selected Student Reflections from the Road
Melinda Rumpf ( 2003)
Route 66 shows that the car can connect people to other places and people, but the interstates tear those connections apart because of America’s need for speed and the rise of isolation. There are so many ways I have grown from this trip-mentally, emotionally, intellectually, even physically. I’ve seen landmarks and animals and plant life I may never see again. I took a risk by going cross-country with 14 strangers and I’m so proud that I successfully met that challenge. I’ve learned pieces of American history and culture. I’ve learned how other states view Connecticut and how European tourists view America.
Lauren Costello (2004)
Travel is a great way to examine sociology. Instead of reading about things in class we actually got to experience everything for ourselves. It helped me develop new ways to look at the everyday experiences I have and analyze and relate them to sociology. Despite the work, the students generally agree that traveling Route 66 is a transformative experience – a once in a lifetime opportunity – that they are not soon to forget.
Rachel Cota (2005)
I think that this road is important to people because, to the people who travel it and live elsewhere, it signifies the way America used to be. To the people who live and work on the road it signifies a community with a tight bond where everyone feels that they are important and belong.
Diana Esposito (2005)
Everyone wants to feel part of something significant and communal, and people who seriously invest their time into Route 66 can feel like they are part of a community of people with like-minded values when it comes to the road, whether those values seek to prove the road’s cultural significance or to preserve and promote the road or to pass-on and celebrate its history.
Submitted by Bruce Day
2007 students with mural artist Doug
Quarles (and his work) in Tucumcari, New Mexico.
2007 students at the National Park Service Southwest head
quarters in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
2007 Students at the Painted Desert National Park in Arizona.
Continuing with the wheels theme…this article is based on a “ride-along” with my local school bus driver, a fascinating woman who mothers while working, as described here. Her daily routine reminds me of the need for more minutes in the day and community support for parenting.
The engine of the school bus roars rather than hums, greeting me before I turn the corner into the parking lot of the local Stop & Shop supermarket. The bus looks more imposing than usual here in the early morning light. It is 6:30 and I have been awake for exactly 15 minutes. I regret skipping my morning coffee now. Three children greet me – they are scattered in the front rows, the boys talking animatedly and the girl pulling a book from her backpack. They have not yet settled on which seat is whose, and the smallest boy coyly invites me to sit across from him. Camie is the bus driver, and these riders are her children. In one hour and 45 minutes the bus will stop at the bottom of my driveway and my own elementary school-aged children will climb up and zip off to school. At the moment they are still sleeping (I imagine).
Camie begins to drive right away. This morning we start four minutes late (my fault, even though I ran). Camie is both mindful of the time and forgiving of my tardiness. She says, “I’m either early or I’m late – never on time.” She assures me that we are well within normal range for the first stop on the middle school run. “I’ll catch up – don’t worry,” she promises, but I worry still. What if I single-handedly make 40 children late for the first bell of the day?
“Time is not money!” writes the economist Nancy Folbre on the opening page of Family Time a book that analyzes how family care is organized in societies. “If anything, it is MORE important than money.” (Folbre and Bittman, 2004) The time people devote to caring for loved ones is usually private time carved out away from the world of work. A plethora of books describe the reasons why some mothers leave paid employment to care for children full time. Research explores all the ways other mothers “juggle” paid work and family care in the United States. They weigh in on whether fathers are devoting more or less time to family in the twenty-first century. Certainly most parents of young children – whether they are employed or “stay at home” -- have time and money on the brain. New parents hear the warnings of older parents to enjoy every minute because: 1) they grow up too fast, 2) the days are long but the years are short, 4) you’ll have an empty nest soon enough. Simultaneously, new parents face the sticker shock of new babies and question how it will be possible to 1) pay for diapers, 2) pay for preschool, 3) pay for college -- in addition to paying for food, clothing, and shelter. And if all this isn’t confusing enough, there is plenty in the advice genre informing parents that they are already failing miserably. All this, and not a penny saved for retirement.
I became interested in our bus driver Camie’s situation when I noticed that her small son joined her on the bus every day, not as a temporary or unique arrangement. The school children seemed to know him and treat him as a friend. What does his presence on the bus represent for him and his mother (the driver) and for our labor market more generally? According to a report from the New Hampshire Women’s Policy Institute, women make up the majority of workers earning less than $15,000. The hourly wages for school bus drivers are higher than many female-dominated occupations, including cashiers ($7), waitresses ($9), and home health aides ($10).
Job advertisements for bus drivers are not always explicit about offering mother-friendly work, but word-of-mouth has increased the proportion of mothers driving buses. The perception is that this is a viable option for women with young children because mothers and child(ren) are physically together on the same bus eliminating the expense and worry of locating other day care options.
Camie’s two older children who are also riding with us today are in second and fourth grade. I ask how they get up on time to leave for “work.” One claims that he’s not really awake at all and another says he likes to be woken up with an alarm clock but then he admits that he relies on his siblings to get him up and out of bed. A Bob the Builder blanket come along for the ride for the four year old boy. They also bring different small toys every day like matchbox cars – “blue-y and white-y” – and together we play a little game by passing them back and forth careful not to drop them.
Camie feels confident at the steering wheel and she likes the solid footing the bus provides: “You’ll hear every bus driver say I would rather drive this in the winter than my own car.” She goes on to list a few other positive attributes of bus driving: she spends about six hours total on the bus, but the time is broken up into the morning, mid-day, and afternoon runs, giving her some time to go home for short breaks on some days.
The schedule does not make it easy for her older children who normally get on and off their own buses in the next town. They are dismissed at 3:05 and she finishes up closer to 4 o’clock.
Our conversation is interrupted by her greetings to students – “Morning Chris” “Morning Susan” -- and a smile, wave, and small talk with parents who are waiting with some of the younger riders – she knows everyone’s names. I ask what she does when she is ill: “I suck it up. [pause] I can call in and let them know and they will get a sub. One day I’ve been out the whole year.” It’s almost June and considering the number of schoolchildren walking in and out of the bus with colds and viruses each day it is a remarkable health record. How about when your own kids are sick, I ask? She replies, “I give them a bucket and say ‘hop on’.” Although this quip is delivered with a shrug and a smile, I think about the studies I have been reading lately about the dilemmas women face at work.
Sociologist Anita Garey in Weaving Work and Motherhood finds that flexibility is what employed mothers count on to respond to “unforeseen events” ranging from illness to school activities (1999: 82). So, here is a job that is described by both Camie and her female supervisor as “family-friendly and flexible.” Now, most working mothers have similar stories. Sick children and work obligations occasionally collide. Truly flexible jobs are hard to find. One of the persistent worries of employed parents is anticipating the things you may discover early on a weekday morning. Summer is here. Some of you may be spending time with children (others or your own) in the coming weeks. Take time to observe families interacting at work and play. Demanding days bring creative solutions. How can we do better for each other?
Submitted by Margaret Walsh
Students from different disciplines at Saint Joseph’s College of Maine have been participating in Service Learning for more than a decade. Both local social service organizations, such as the Windham Family Resource Center and the SJC community benefit from each other. The goal of Service Learning is aimed at connecting classroom material to students’ experiences outside of the class by writing reflection papers, research papers, presenting their findings and sharing their experience with others. Organizations, on the other hand, benefit from various kinds of student support.
During the fall of 2007, students in Professor Hoop’s Social Policy and Social Problems classes chose a placement among different agencies and organizations, and then committed to one or two hours per week. Over the course of a semester, students were asked to write reflection papers that asked them to think about issues related to the agencies and organizations they were working in through the material we were using in the classes. In the Social Policy class, students were placed at sites such Family Crisis Services – a place which helps victims of domestic violence, and the League of Young Voters – a multi-issue political grassroots organizations. In the Social Problems class, students were placed at sites such as the Preble Street Resource Center, which houses a homeless shelter, food bank and soup kitchen.
Through reflection papers, students comment on what they have learned at their placements. A junior in the Social Policy class who worked at the Family Crisis Services Program said, “I was able to see first-hand some of the domestic issues that I knew had existed, but previously I had only seen or heard of on TV or the newspapers. When you see or hear the stories of domestic violence on such a personal basis, it really hits you harder…I was able to get a much clearer picture of the reality of some of these social problems and issues that we as a society are facing today, the severe impacts that they have, an how simple it is to make a huge difference in people’s lives.” Another junior in Social Problems class, spoke about working at the Preble Street Resource Center. She said, “One thing I have learned while volunteering at the food pantry is to not judge others. I started at the center with this idea that all of the people who came through were going to look one way. I was wrong. There are people from all walks of life who need the support of this center.” These are two students among many who have gained a sense of community responsibility and engagement in their placements. In addition, students learn how to connect the field of Sociology to the everyday lives of people outside the classroom.
Submitted by Katrina Hoop
Alina Yekelchik is NESA’s graduate student representative. She works as a Research Coordinator for the School of the 21st Century program at Yale University, and she paused to answer a few questions via email.
Favorite Sociologist: Howard Becker
Favorite film: Guys and Dolls
Favorite food: Does chocolate count as a food?
Favorite sport: A new Hockey fan, Go Rangers
Where are you originally from? Belarus (a former republic of USSR)
Cats or dogs? Neither (never had pets growing up, but would love to have a dog one day)
What does NESA mean to you? An opportunity to learn and grow as a person as well as a scholar. NESA also provides a direct opportunity to meet sociologists in the field and to network.
Favorite sociological text: From Nuerons to Neighborhoods by Jack Shonhoff
Favorite sociology course taken: Sociology of the Individual, a course that took me on a literary journey from Mead and Buber to Einstein by Walter Isaackson. One of the most interesting journeys I have ever taken.
What book are you currently reading? Seinology, The Sociology of Seinfeld by Tim Delaney
Are you involved in politics? No
Involved in your community? Currently moving and will be looking for new opportunities to contribute.
Summer plans? To move and be the best maid-of-honor to my cousin and go to Six Flags.
Hope for the coming year? To learn, to grow and to get into a doctoral program!
The 35th New England Undergraduate Sociology Research Conference will be held in April 2009. Watch for more information about place and date to be posted on our web site.
We are eager to publish your articles. If you have specific story ideas or contributions for NESA’s Heritage Corner, please send them to mwalsh@keene.edu