Snakegrrl Sociology

Sociology professor Beverly Yuen Thompson has researched and written a book and eight academic articles on the digital nomad lifestyle. In this video, she defines the digital nomad lifestyle and summarizes her top 10 critiques of the digital nomad lifestyle. These critiques are rooted in the academic field of critical tourism studies that provides a critical perspective on the industry of tourism with the objective of promoting human rights, sustainability practices, and cosmopolitanism.

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In this video, author and researcher Dr. Melissa Lavin is interviewed about her ethnographic research on strip clubs. She is interviewed by sociology professors Beverly Yuen Thompson and Akello Stone. You can see my course write-up for move coverage of these articles listed below. https://deviantsociology.wordpress.com/2021/03/12/dr-melissa-lavin-on-sociology-of-strip-clubs/ReferencesLavin, Melissa F. (2016). She Got Herself There: Narrative Resistance in the Drug Discourse of Strippers. Deviant Behavior Vol. 38, No. 3, pp. 294-305Lavin, Melissa F. (2013). Rule-Making and Rule-Breaking: Strip Club Social Control Regarding Alcohol and Other Drugs. Deviant Behavior 34, 361-383.Lavin, Melissa F. (2014). If You Want It, You Can Get It Right Here: Space and Drug Use in Strip Clubs. Humanity & Society 38, 2, 132-157.

In this episode, I overview the academic anthology Resilience: Queer Professors from the Working Class, edited by Kenneth Oldfield and Richard Greggory Johnson III. Each chapter overviews a personal growing-up story of folks who ended up being professors.

Are you a sociology student or researcher interested in using interviewing and ethnographic methods to gather data about a social problem or phenomenon? This video is a step-by-step overview of the basic details about how to conduct interviews. I am a qualitative research who has published academic papers on a variety of subcultural topics for over twenty years, using this process as my primary methodology. I also talk about a class assignment that professors could consider using in their course to apply these lessons learned.

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In this episode, Dr. Beverly Yuen Thompson overviews the book Leaving Academia: A Practical Guide, written by Christopher Caterine. This book provides a step-by-step guide of factors to consider for an audience comprised of early PhDs as well as PhD candidates, who may need to consider employment in the corporate sector. This book and video talks about the realities of the academic job market which only allows in 13% of PhDs into tenure track permanent positions, while grooming most graduate students for this idealized objective. Once people graduate with a PhD and are seeking those elusive tenure track positions, they may realize the futility of such a path and may need to re-package their experience for jobs in the corporate or non-profit workplace.

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Kevin Guyan is the author of Queer Data: Using Gender, Sex and Sexuality Data for Action. In this video, sociology professor Beverly Yuen Thompson does a close read of the book and talks about the main points and how it can be useful for people thinking about data design for both qualitative and quantitative methods. This video is great for any level of sociology student, practitioner, or interested person; especially those thinking about research methods. This book specifically examines topics regarding data collection in the United Kingdom regarding including LGBTQ people as well as examining data collection methods with a critical lens.

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In this interview, Dr. Anita Tijerina Revilla shares her research and personal educational experience with colleague and friend Dr. Beverly Yuen Thompson. Spanning a body of research on the Latinx educational pipeline, Dr. Revilla reflects on subjects such as the educational institution and elitism, inequality, student activism, immigrant and LGBTQ social movements, spirit murder, and loving mentorship.

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References

Revilla, A. & Luna, N. (2013). Understanding latina/o school pushout: Experiences of students who left school before graduating. Journal of Latinos and Education, 12(1): 22-37.

Revilla, A. (2012). What happens in Vegas, Does not stay in Vegas: Youth leadership in the Immigrant rights movement in Las Vegas, 2006. Aztlan: Journal of Chicano Studies, 37(1): 87-115.

Revilla, A. (2010). Are all Raza womyn queer?: An exploration of sexual identities in a Chicana/Latina student organization. National Women’s Studies Association Journal. 21(3), 46-62.

Revilla, A. (2010). Raza Womyn—making it safe to be Queer: Student organizations as retention tools in higher education. Black Women, Gender and Families Journal, 4(1), 1-25.

Revilla, A. (2005). Community organizing and direct activism: Raza Womyn mujerstoria. Villanova Law Review, 50, 799-821.

Revilla, A. & Rangel-Medina, E. (2011). Las Vegas activist crew and the immigrant rights movement: How we transformed “Sin City.” In M. Avila, A. Revilla, and J. Figueroa (Eds.), Marching Students: Chicana/o Identity and the Politics of Education 1968 and the Present. (41 pp.) Reno, NV: University of Nevada Press.

Paulo Freire’s book, The Pedagogy of the Oppressed is overviewed by Dr. Beverly Yuen Thompson in this video. His four chapters focusing on the Oppressor-Oppressed social context; the banking model of education; “the word” of language and education; and praxis are the focuses of each of the four chapters in the book. Beverly assigns this book in her sociology courses in order to see what insights this theory can provide for those of us currently living inside the educational institution. Is there any liberatory potential in the future o f the educational institution?

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n this video, I overview the book “Tourism in Malaysia: An Empirical Study on Socio-Economic and Environmental Impacts,” written by A.H.M. Zehadul Karim, et al., in 2016. This is an academic study about the impacts of tourism in Malaysia and includes a literature review on tourism studies, quantitative and qualitative data based on surveys, focus groups and interviews with residents and tourists. I provide a close reading, overviewing each chapter, as listed below.

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Book link: https://irep.iium.edu.my/52605/1/BOOK_TOURISM%20IN%20MALAYSIA%202016.pdf

In this overview of the book Black American Refugee, written by Tiffanie Drayton, I provide a close reading of the chapters of the book (spoiler alert). Tiffanie Drayton was born in Trinidad and Tobago but arrived to NYC as a small child, making her a 1.5 generation immigrant along with her brother. The live in New Jersey, Texas, Florida, and she lives in Hawaii for a stint as well, thus experiencing many different parts of the United States. She learns through this coming-of-age story what it means to be Black in America, and what a confinement that becomes for personal development. As a sociology professor, I most appreciate the historical and sociological context she provides to each chapter, setting the context of the larger national happenings in which her personal life is evolving. She also immerses herself in Black history and provides the parallels of those lessons alongside her own learning. With trips back to the motherland, she debates where she belongs and if the U.S. can ever live up to its ideals of equality, or if a return to the motherland is the freest option for her family.

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