This week, Ellen and Penn get together to discuss one of their favorite gestures in a breakaway episode: The middle finger! Using work by Jack Katz, they explore why we flip the bird, what a “well-flipped” finger looks like, and the history behind flicking people off. It’s phallic, offensive, and Ellen thinks it’s funny to do in family photos.   Did you know you can reach the sources we cite in the episode at www.thesocialbreakdown.com? Yup, check it out!

Breakaway Episode 2: The Middle Finger

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Are you a newly minted or almost PhD graduate? Have academic job prospects been stressing you out? Look no further - we may have the solution for you! The academic job market isn't looking too hot right now, so here we are with a PhD's Guide to getting a non-academic job! We draw from our personal experiences of navigating the non-academic job market and give you all the practical deets on what search terms to use, what job sites to scour, how to revamp your CV into a resume that's not 15 pages long, and much more!! Tune in to see if there's a non-academic job in your future!

(Re-release) SOC409 - The PhD's Guide to Getting a Non-Academic Job

With all this talk about Tik Tok, we wanted to bring you an oldie-but-goodie from 2018 about Context Collapse, an interesting phenomenon that occurs often on social media when various segments of your social network (friends, family, acquaintances, employers, and complete strangers) are muddled together into one big audience. How does a social media user as yourself negotiate the multiple imagined audiences of the social network? From self-presentation tactics such as censorship and compartmentalization, we discuss the complex ways we navigate the online social life.

(Re-release) Breakaway Episode 4: Context Collapse

We're honoring the queen of sociology, Dr. Patricia Hill Collins, on this last week of Women's History Month by going deep into higher level theory via Black Feminist Thought (BFT as we like to call it). 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!

(Re-release) SOC506 - Rolling with the Queen: Patricia Hill Collins & Black Feminist Thought

We’re getting theoretical this week and tackling Orientalism, a concept and book by the fantastic Dr. Edward Said. If you’re taking a higher-level sociology, anthropology, history, or poli sci class, chances are you’re gonna hear “orientalism” thrown around! What is heck is it? (Hint: It ain’t a rug, a fast-food take out place, or the way to describe how someone looks!) What is its connection to imperialism and colonialism? And how has it influenced scholarship and research in the past and present? Tune in to learn more and be sure to give us a rating!

(Rerelease) SOC211 – “It Ain’t a Rug!”: Edward Said’s Orientalism

Is health a privilege or a right? As a society, how do we come to understand health and its social origins and outcomes? Though medicine has been understood as a social science that dates back to Hippocrates–the Hippocratic Oath–medical sociology is not even 70 years old yet! The climb to intellectual legitimacy and sound research is recent. When it comes to matters of stress, food, doctor-patient interactions, racism and sexism, medical sociologists have a lot to say and a lot to do…come join us as The Social Breakdown begins its journey in everything health!

Breakaway Episode 2: The Middle Finger

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