Undergraduate News
Mildred Priest Frank Memorial Prize Awarded to Katherine Giaccone
May 4, 2012 The 2012 Mildred Priest Frank Memorial Prize has been awarded to Katherine Giaccone. Her Senior Thesis concerns corporate board interlock and the way that this can promote the uptake of corporate social responsibility. Running against the grain of conventional sociological wisdom it suggests that sometimes interlocking directorates can be a good thing. The award committee of Professors Smith, Hunter and Wildeman were impressed by the huge effort put into hand-building a database, a sophisticated network analysis of corporate board interlock and a research finding that has realistic policy implications. In addition they were impressed by Giaccone's performance in coursework within the Major and the way that her ethically motivated topic resonated with Mildred Priest Frank's own love of people.
Senior Conference 2012
April 26, 2012 The Senior Conference today saw the graduating class present their original senior thesis work. Topics and methods were varied and an included moral panics in the Swedish media; a network analysis of corporate board interlock; and how high school students in Nebraska select a college. In the evening a banquet celebrated a year of solidarity and scholarly achievement. Conference Image Gallery >>
Spring 2012 Habitus Published
April 20, 2012 The Spring 2012 edition of Habitus was launched today at a party hosted by the editors Amanda Shadiack and Jenny Dai. It is on the theme of "Institutions". You can find it here >>.
Habitus Winter Edition Published
October 12, 2011 The Winter 2011 edition of Habitus is now available. The editorial team has been expanded to include Amanda Shadiack and Cristina Poindexter. The theme is “Movements”. Essays by Yale undergraduates consider a wide range of themes such as the the global spread of Yoga, anti-vice crusades, the ‘occupy’ movement and the role of critical theory in explanation.
Graduating Seniors Head off to Diverse Futures, Rising Seniors in the Field.
May 23, 2011 After commencement today our Graduating Sociology Majors went off to various exciting and diverse futures. These included working for a major global corporation in Chicago, entering medical school in New York city, going to graduate school in Sociology, and heading off to Cambridge University in England on a Fellowship to develop the senior thesis into a book. Meanwhile some rising seniors will be spending the summer on fieldwork. Ben Robbins is in Nebraska interviewing high school students and their parents about college selection, Mary Toothman is at an alternative community in Tennessee looking at its understandings of health and illness, and Kathleen Powers is in Algeria exploring at the role of iconic process and graffiti writing in revolutionary protest.
Isabel Jijon awarded Mildred Priest Frank Prize
May 20, 2011 The Mildred Priest Frank Prize for this year went to Isabel Jijon. Her thesis, supervised by Professor Smith, was an interview study looking at the impact of soccer in a remote valley in Ecuador. Although poor and isolated this valley has produced a number of professional players who have performed on the global and national stage. The thesis charts the impact of this success on both the cultural and economic life of the valley. The thesis combined theory and data to show that soccer had significant impacts on the way that globalization was experienced, and in particular how definitions of time, place and community were shifted. Notably star players and the World Cup were vectors through which the global and the local engaged in dialogue. Aside from academic excellence a criterion for this prize is also to demonstrate a 'love of people'. Jijon's thesis managed to accomplish this by listening to what people had to say and showing a deep understanding of their life situation as one of complex passions and identities.
Nate Glasser awarded Hegel Prize
May 18, 2011 At a reception at the Peabody Museum yesterday, graduating Senior Nate Glasser collected the Yale Club of New Haven Richard Hegel Senior Essay Prize, for the best Senior Essay in Yale College dealing with New Haven. This prize honors Dick Hegel, who is a past president of the YCNH and a longtime member and supporter of the Club. He is also New Haven's City Historian. Nate's thesis, supervised by Professors Anderson and Smith, was about riding the bus. Taking a symbolic interactionist perspective Nate explored how the bus works as a social system. During his time at Yale Nate rode the bus for hundreds of hours, often in the course of going to and from his volunteering activity at local high schools. He kept fieldnotes and talked with drivers and passengers. His thesis importantly documents the ways that ordinary people from diverse and often disadvantaged backgrounds get along. They maintain the 'project of the bus' as it moves along its route and offer each other an environment that is safe and civil. Aside from academics, reviewers were impressed by Nate's commitment to New Haven and his ability to bridge the university and the city more widely.
Habitus Launches Inaugural Issue
April 24, 2011 The first edition of Habitus is now available online. The theme is The Forum. Edited by Majors Kathleen Powers, Carl Chen and Amy Tsang, Habitus features undergraduate work on sociological themes from around the university.
New Undergrad Publication Requests Submissions
December 31st, 2010 HABITUS, a new publication of undergraduate work in the social sciences, with a central focus on sociology, is currently seeking academic papers, essays, pieces on social theory, film and book reviews as well as images for their inaugural issue. For more details, or to submit, please click here, or email yalehabitus@gmail.com. Please submit by by JAN 28th for consideration.
Senior Conference and Dinner Image Gallery Online
May 18th, 2010 Visit the gallery by clicking this link.
Cara McClellan and Anna Jo Bodurtha Smith Win 2010 Mildred Priest Frank Prize
May 17th, 2010 Congratulations to Cara McClellan and Anna Jo Bodurtha Smith, this year's winners of the Mildred Priest Frank Prize. The Mildred Priest Frank Memorial Prize was established by Adam R. Rose, ’81, in honor of his maternal grandmother. It is awarded each year to the graduating senior whose work in the Department of Sociology reflects the standards of excellence and love of people that characterize Mildred Priest Frank.
Anna Jo's senior essay "Politics, Proximity, and the Adoption of Public Preschool from 1965-2005" uses sophisticated quantitative methods, in combination with qualitative material from archival sources, to show that conventional explanations that see adoption of preschool grounded in economic or governance interests fall short of accounting for the timing and pace of the process. Rather, these interests are strongly mediated by politics and social connections between political actors. Her research was supported by the Adam Rose '81 Fund for Undergraduate Research and by a Yale College Dean's Research Fellowship in Humanities and Social Sciences. Anna Jo has served as co-coordinator of the Dwight Hall Executive Committee, and works at All Our Kin, a non-profit devoted to improving access to and the quality of childcare in New Haven.
Cara McClellan's senior essay "Teacher/Police: How Inner-City Students Perceive the Connection between the Education System and the Criminal Justice System," based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork with disadvantaged youth in New Haven, argues that schools that deploy zero tolerance policies to enforce discipline create a school-to-prison pipeline. The code of the street that enables youth to survive in neighborhoods with concentrated poverty that are abandoned by the police leads schools and teacher to writing them off. Cara argues that rather than writing them off, schools should work to activate capacity for social control by fostering community among disadvantaged students. During her time at Yale, Cara taught poetry workshops and helped forge connections between New Haven high schools students and the Yale community. She is the Editor-in-chief of Sphere Magazine, a Peer Liaison and coordinates the campaign for Teach for America on campus. Cara also received support for her research from the Adam Rose ’81 Fund for Undergraduate Research.
Andrew Udelsman Wins 2010 Richard Hegel Senior Essay Prize
May 17th, 2010 Congratulations to sociology major Andrew Udelsman, winner of this year's Yale Club of New Haven Richard Hegel Senior Essay Prize for his senior essay "Surviving the Forest: Ethnography of New Haven's Tent City." Dick Hegel, whom the prize honors, is a past president of the YCNH and a longtime member and supporter of the Club. He is also New Haven's City Historian, and is a veritable trove of information about the City and its history, about Yale and about the Yale Club. Andrew's essay investigates a group of formerly homeless people that have taken up residence in one of New Haven's parks. He describes both how they ended up living in their present condition and the factors that prevent them from leaving. The essay concludes that while life in Tent City is not easy, its residents have legitimate reasons for living there and it would be a mistake to forcibly evict them. Having lived in the New Haven area for many years, Andrew has been active in the community as a student mentor, soccer coach, and medical interpreter.
Kayle Vinson and Isabel Jijon are recognized with Fellowship and Travel Grant Awards
April 29th, 2010 Sociology major Kayle Vinson holds a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship in support of her research. Sociology major Isabel Jijon received a summer travel grant from the Council for Latin American and Iberian Studies. Congratulations to both!
Thomas Meyer Awarded Yale Research Fellowship
April 28nd, 2010 Congratulation to sociology major Thomas Meyer, who is the a recipient of a 2010 Yale College Dean's Research Fellowship in the Humanities and Social Sciences. The fellowship will support his research project on code-switching among American soldiers engaged in counterinsurgent warfare.
Applicatons Open for the Justice Carlos R. Moreno Prize
April 22, 2010 Established in the fall of 2009, the Justice Carlos R. Moreno Prize will be awarded to the best senior essay on the Latino/a experience in the U.S. A faculty committee chaired by Professor Stephen Pitti will select the winner who will be announced during graduation ceremonies. To apply for the Prize, please download the application form: Word doc, or PDF and submit with two hard copies of your senior essay to Dean Rosalinda Garcia by Monday, May 3, 2010 at the Yale College Dean's Office. Only senior essays completed in the fall of 2009 and spring 2010 are eligible.
Header Photos Courtesy of Alondra Nelson
