Sociology | University Categories | CAS in the Media

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Workplace violence remains ‘extremely rare,’ say Vancouver-area experts

February 7, 2014

“This could be just a blip,” WSU sociologist Clay Mosher said after two workplace shootings and one drug-related shooting in two days in Vancouver left three people dead and three injured.

“You could see this many things in this many days…. Then you could see nothing for quite some time,” said Mosher, who analyzes crime trends and teaches criminology at WSU Vancouver. It’s possible that our society is growing accustomed to hearing about random gun violence breaking out anywhere and everywhere.

Mormon church explains polygamy in early days

December 17, 2013

A new essay by the Mormon church about the practice of plural marriage published days after a judge struck down key parts of Utah’s polygamy law is something of a revelation to millions of Mormons worldwide, says Armand Mauss, retired professor of sociology and religious studies at WSU. Mauss estimates that less than 10 percent of rank-and-file Mormons would previously have known everything in the article.

The acknowledgement that as many as one-third of Mormons lived in polygamous households by 1870 contradicts a widely held belief that polygamy was practiced by only 2 or 3 percent of Mormons, Mauss said. The new article and previous scholarly research show that polygamy was a formative institution among Mormons during that time, Mauss said.

Hispanic population helps redefine New Orleans region

December 2, 2013

New Orleans—which sometimes bills itself as the Gateway to the Americas—has deep ties to Latin America that stretch back to the turn of the 20th century. But New Orleans never became a teeming hub of Hispanic immigration like its fellow port cities of Houston, Miami and Los Angeles. And for most of the 20th century, the metropolitan region’s Hispanic population grew slowly. A small but diverse population of Cubans, Salvadorans, Hondurans and Brazilians eventually took root.

Elizabeth Fussell, associate professor of sociology, has done extensive research on the city’s post-Katrina influx of Hispanic people.

Read more in the New Orleans Advocate.

NSF grant to study corporate influence on government

November 12, 2013

Sociologist and new member of CAS faculty Mikhail Balaev has received a two-year National Science Foundation award to study political and corporate ties in the American government. The grant will enable him to collect and analyze data related to the professional affiliations of presidential appointees since 1978 in order to create a network model of the ties between corporations and executive government.

Balaev is a macro-sociologist with broad academic interests in economic and political sociology. Growing up in Soviet Russia, he witnessed the massive socio-economic change brought by the collapse of the Soviet Union, which inspired his interest in sociology.

Advancing social justice: Renowned sociologist, criminologist to speak, accept Wilson Award Oct. 17

October 13, 2013

Sociologist and criminologist Robert J. Sampson, one of the nation’s top scholars in studies of urban inequality, social structures and civic engagement, will present “Neighborhood Inequality and the New Social Transformation of the American City” on Thursday, Oct. 17, at 7 p.m. in the CUB Junior Ballroom. WSU will honor him with the William Julius Wilson Award for the Advancement of Social Justice as capstone to the 2013 William Julius Wilson Symposium.

“Rob Sampson is one of this country’s most imaginative, persistent, and tough-minded researchers into social life and the human condition. He is a most worthy recipient of the award,” said James Short, WSU emeritus professor of sociology.