Give Theory A Chance

In this episode we are joined by Dr. Katie Gaddini, who is currently a visiting scholar at Stanford University, and an Associate Professor of Sociology at University College London (UCL). Katie is also a great example of public sociology. She is the co-host of Blessed & Stressed: Religion & Politics Across the Pond podcast, which I recommend! She has been featured in popular outlets including the NY Times, Bloomberg, the BBC, NPR, the Guardian, TIME magazine, The Atlantic, Huffington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, The Hill, The Conversation, LA Review of Books, and more!

The focus of our conversation is Katie’s recently published 2nd book Esther’s Army: The Christian Women Who Power the American Right, which I also highly recommend. We discuss some of the methodological decisions Katie made along the way, some of the theoretical inspirations and connections that got left on the cutting room floor, some key findings from the project, and learn that Katie has no plans of running for political office, which I would have recommended!

In this episode we are joined by Chris Conner, Assistant Professor of Sociology at University of Missouri-Columbia. Chris discusses his research on the electronic music scene and gay dating apps and life lessons that can be taken from the respective projects.

In this episode we are joined once again by Dr. Christopher R. Matthews from the School of Science and Technology at Nottingham Trent University. In this wide-ranging conversation Christopher discusses the co-production of knowledge, radical honesty in the methods section, finding inspiration in the work of Simone Weil , and conceiving of research as sacred.

In this episode we are joined by Alicia M. Walker, Associate Professor of Sociology at Missouri State and Arielle Kuperberg, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Alicia and Arielle discuss their co-authored book Bound by BDSM: Unexpected Lessons in Building a Happier Life, reflect on some of the methodological and writing choices they made along the way, and share some life lessons from the study.

In this episode we are joined by Stefano Bloch, Associate Professor in the School of Geography & Development at the University of Arizona and author of Going All City: Struggle and Survival in LA’s Graffiti Subculture. Stefano discusses and shares some lessons from his recently published article “Crime as Relational Concept in Political Geography”.

Daniel Chambliss joins us to discuss The Mundanity of Excellence: An Ethnographic Report on the Stratification of Swimmers, first published in Sociological Theory in 1989. This episode is the debut of a new format in which guests share life lessons that can be taken from their favorite social theory, or in this case, their own research.

In this episode, Dr. Seth Abrutyn, Professor of Sociology at the University of British Columbia, co-author of Life under Pressure: The Social Roots of Youth Suicide and What to Do About Them, and 2024 winner of the Lewis A. Coser Award for Theoretical Agenda Setting returns to the podcast to discuss Daniel Chambliss’s “The Mundanity of Excellence: An Ethnographic Report on the Stratification of Swimmers” (1988).

In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Rahsaan Mahadeo, Assistant Professor in African American and African Studies at the University of Minnesota and  author of Funk the Clock: Transgressing Time While Young, Perceptive, and Black. In our conversation, Rahsaan introduces us to the ideas of Denise Ferreira da Silva and helps us understand the radical possibilities of engaging with her work. Rahsaan also reflects on the lack of engagement with da Silva in sociology in the United States and how her ideas directly call into question many of the core assumptions the discipline rests on.

Also of note, this episode has a co-host! Special thanks to Dr. Christine Goding-Doty, Assistant Professor of Culture and Media at The New School and previous guest on Give Theory a Chance, for being part of the conversation.

In this episode we are joined by Jonathan Wynn, Professor of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Jon joins us to discuss The Set Up, his debut work of fiction that both thrills and educates. Jon shares his experience writing a work of fiction, reflects on how theorists including W.E.B. Du Bois and Erving Goffman (as well as George R.R. Martin and the Magic Tree House book series) inspired and found their way into his novel, and reminds us of the rich and under-appreciated history of sociologists writing fiction.

In this episode, Dr. Daniel Silver, Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto Scarborough and author of Scenescapes: how qualities of place shape social life (2020), joins us to discuss and read from Talcott Parsons’ On Institutions and Social Evolution, edited by Leon H. Mayhew. In our conversation, Dan helps me understand the logic of Parsons and convinces me of the joy of engaging with his ambitious theorizing. We also discuss the central place Parsons occupied in the discipline, his rather strange and rapid fall from grace, and how this frees the reader to engage with his ideas and arguments.