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.

In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Neil McLaughlin, Professor of Sociology at McMaster University and author of Erich Fromm and the Global Public Sociology (2023).

*In addition to the aforementioned book, Neil has published a significant number of articles on Fromm. Check out the some of the recent ones + one mentioned in this episode:

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 Georg Simmel’s Sociology: Inquiries into the Construction of Social Forms (first published in 1908).

Be sure to check out Dan’s co-authored essay on Simmel’s three concepts of form and his co-authored article tracing Simmel’s influence within American sociology since 1975.

In this episode, Jabez Turner interviews Dr. William Turner, Assistant Professor of African & African-American Studies at SUNY Brockport, about W.E.B. Du Bois. Dr. Turner reflects on the importance of Du Bois in his own intellectual development, discusses the marginalization of Du Bois within sociology, and explains how the rigor and depth of Du Bois’s scholarship continues to a valuable model across disciplines.

Dr. Christine Goding-Doty, Assistant Professor in Digital Media in the department of Culture and Media at the New School, introduces us to Aimé Césaire and reads from his foundational essay “Discourse on Colonialism” (1950).

Follow along HERE.

-Kyle-