2008 Yale Urban Ethnography Conference
Yale University · Peabody Museum · Davies Auditorium
April 24 - 26, 2008
Urban Ethnography: Its Traditions and Its Future
Welcome to the 2008 Yale Urban Ethnography Project Conference, April 24-26. Our aim for this conference is simple: to continue to develop a community of participant observers who are working in the traditions of DuBois, Park, Thomas, Blumer, Hughes, Drake and Cayton, Gans, Goffman, and Becker, among others. Over these two days, we hope to provide a forum that will bring fieldworkers of different generations together. While the promise of sociological fieldwork continually branches outward in new directions with varying philosophical and methodological approaches, we hope that coming together in this way will fortify and guide us as we think about the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead.
Conference Organizers: Elijah Anderson, Paige Black, Waverly Duck, Esther Kim, and Taly Noam.
Event Locations: Friday (All Day) and Saturday Morning events will be held at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History-Third Floor Auditorium, 170 Whitney Avenue, unless otherwise noted. Saturday Afternoon events, including all panels between 1:30 pm and 7:00 pm, and the Closing Reception at 7:00 pm, will be held at Davies Auditorium, Becton Center, 15 Prospect Street. Shuttle Service between venues will be provided.
Registration and Attendance: PLEASE NOTE: FRIDAY REGISTRATION IS CLOSED. Saturday Afternoon panels between 1:30 pm and 7:00 pm and the Closing Reception at Davies Auditorium are open to the public. No advance registration is required to attend.
For more information on this event, please email Paige Black or Taly Noam.
Updated Monday, April 14, 2008 at 1:20 PM EDT
Participants · Abstracts · Directions & Travel Info
Thursday, April 24
7:00 pm–9:00 pm Welcome Reception
Omni Hotel-Harbor Room, 155 Temple Street
Friday, April 25
8:30 am–9:00 am Continental Breakfast
9:00 am–9:15 am Sociology at Yale University
Karl Ulrich Mayer, Chair, Sociology Department, Yale University
Charles H. Long, Deputy Provost, Yale University
9:15 am–9:30 am Welcome & Introduction
Elijah Anderson, Yale University
Raymond Gunn, The College of Wooster
9:30 am–10:45 am ‘Chicago School’ Roots: A Conversation
Gerald D. Jaynes, Moderator, Yale University
David E. Apter, Yale University
Herbert J. Gans, Columbia University
Ruth Horowitz, New York University
William Kornblum, The City University of New York
James F. Short, Jr., Washington State University
Gerald D. Suttles, Indiana University
Robert Washington, Bryn Mawr College
10:45 am–11:00 am Break
11:00 am–12:00 pm Immigrant Life and Culture
Robert C. Smith, Moderator, The City University of New York
Peter Adler, Discussant, University of Denver
Walled Territory: The Everyday Lives of Undocumented Restaurant Employees
Esther Chihye Kim, Yale University
Baseball, Snakes and Nativists: An Ethnographic Experience with Mexican Day Laborers
Carol Cleaveland, George Mason University
12:00 pm–1:30 pm
Luncheon Keynote Address:
Urban Ethnography and Research Integrity: Empirical and Theoretical Dimensions
Lorine A. Hughes, University of Nebraska at Omaha
James F. Short, Jr., Washington State University
Philip Kasinitz, Discussant, The City University of New York
1:30 pm–3:00 pm Urban Culture and Entertainment
David Grazian, Moderator, University of Pennsylvania
Movie-Going and Seating: A Note on Film Consumption
Lakshmi Srinivas, University of Massachusetts Boston
Gambling as a Way of Life
Jacob Avery, University of Pennsylvania
Rap Dreams
Jooyoung Lee, University of California, Los Angeles
3:00 pm–3:15 pm Break
3:15 pm–4:45 pm Urban Cultural Patterns
Diane Vaughan, Moderator, Columbia University
Ethnography of Love
Heli Vaaranen, Family Federation of Finland
A Place at the ‘Pet Shop’: Status and Sociability among Brooklyn Rooftop Pigeon Flyers
Colin Jerolmack, The City University of New York
Small Town Life: A Study in Race Relations
Marlese Durr, Wright State University
4:45 pm–5:00 pm Break
5:00 pm–6:45 pm Religious Life and Culture
Arthur Paris, Moderator, Syracuse University
The Mosque and Black Islam: An Ethnographic Study of Muslims in the Inner City
Victoria Lee, Yale University
Urban Immortalities: Toward an Ethnography of Race and Spirituality among African-American Hebrews
John L. Jackson, Jr., University of Pennsylvania
Megachurches and Self-Help: Identifying and Solving Personal Problems
Jimmie Bany, University of California, Irvine
Michelle Peria, University of California, Irvine
David A. Snow, University of California, Irvine
James E. Stobaugh, University of California, Irvine
6:45 pm–8:30 pm Reception and Dinner for Presenters and RSVP Guests
Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History-Great Hall (Dinosaur Room), 170 Whitney Avenue
Keynote Address:
Compression: Of Life and Methodology
Paul Willis, Keele University, United Kingdom
Jeffrey C. Alexander, Discussant, Yale University
Saturday, April 26
8:15 am–8:45 am Continental Breakfast
8:45 am–9:00 am Introduction
Jack Katz, University of California, Los Angeles
9:00 am–10:15 am Ethnography: Methodology and Substance
Randall Collins, Moderator, University of Pennsylvania
Patti Adler, Discussant, University of Colorado
Ethnography, Interaction, and Ordinary Trouble
Robert M. Emerson, University of California, Los Angeles
The Ethnographic Ethos and the Qualitative Enterprise
Peter R. Grahame, Pennsylvania State University
Ethnography, Work, and Organizations
Charles Bosk, University of Pennsylvania
10:15 am–10:30 am Break
10:30 am–12:00 pm Neighborhood and Group Relations
William Kornblum, Moderator, The City University of New York
Kai Erikson, Discussant, Yale University
Sanctifying Neighborhood Identity
Andrew Deener, University of California, Los Angeles
Jack Katz, University of California, Los Angeles
Maggie Kusenbach, University of South Florida
Anup Sheth, University of California, Los Angeles
Iddo Tavory, University of California, Los Angeles
Remembering New Haven's Youth in the Fifties
Victor M. Lidz, Drexel University College of Medicine
12:00 pm–1:00 pm
Luncheon Presentation:
Precious Places Community History Project: A Collaborative Documentary Project Organized by Scribe Video Center with 43 Community Groups in the Philadelphia Area.
Vida Bajc, Moderator, University of Pennsylvania
Louis Massiah, Founder and Executive Director, Scribe Video Center
1:00 pm–1:30 pm Shuttle Service To Davies Auditorium
1:30 pm–3:30 pm Urban Poor Young Black Men
Elijah Anderson, Moderator, Yale University
Beef: Explaining the Micro-Dynamics of Gun Violence in Philadelphia
Alice Goffman, Princeton University
The Making of a Drug Gang
Waverly Duck, Yale University
Playpen, StatePen, UPenn: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Survival!
Robert Alsbrooks, Miracle Corners of the World
Ethnography and Time
Sudhir A. Venkatesh, Columbia University
3:30 pm–3:45 pm Break
3:45 pm–4:45 pm Poverty and the Unhoused
Philippe Bourgois, Moderator, University of Pennsylvania
Eviction and the Reproduction of Inner-City Poverty
Matthew Desmond, University of Wisconsin-Madison
The Crackhouse, the Visual Page and Other Urban Ethnographic Research Strategies
Terry Williams, The New School
4:45 pm–5:00 pm Break
5:00 pm–7:00 pm The Future of Urban Ethnography: A Conversation
Elijah Anderson, Moderator, Yale University
Scott N. Brooks, University of California, Riverside
Mitchell Duneier, Princeton University
Nikki Jones, University of California, Santa Barbara
Katherine Newman, Princeton University
Carol B. Stack, Professor Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley
Paul Willis, Keele University, United Kingdom
William Julius Wilson, Harvard University
7:00 pm–8:30 pm Closing Reception
Davies Auditorium, Becton Center, 15 Prospect Street
