AGE V 5, I OLUME SSUE Grad Student Feature: Daniela ... · letter! Spring 2017 Course Offerings...
Transcript of AGE V 5, I OLUME SSUE Grad Student Feature: Daniela ... · letter! Spring 2017 Course Offerings...
Events this Semester
Newsletter comments? Contributions? Questions? Suggestions?
Please contact: Any faculty member in the Sociology Department,
Vancouver Island University (VIU), Nanaimo, BC.
PAGE 4 VOLUME 5 , ISSUE 1
You’ve just entered an interdisciplinary Master’s program at the University
of Victoria, what’s different about it compared to Vancouver Island Universi-
ty?
I am currently completing my Master’s degree in Sociology, with a concentration
on Cultural, Social, and Political thought. This concentration is interdisciplinary,
with students from Political Science, Sociology, English, History and Environ-
mental Studies. More than differences, I have found more similarities between
this program and my undergrad. I took a few liberal studies courses at VIU, and
my classes remind me of them. These classes (as with the LBST classes I took)
have students from different disciplines coming together, and bringing their own
knowledge into the classroom. I deeply enjoy interdisciplinarity. Besides learning
from other disciplines, it helps me observe my own discipline through different
theoretical frameworks, which allows me to think about Sociology in different
ways and through different approaches. I always try to integrate Sociology in
whatever I’m learning, which exercises my sociological imagination.
What are you most excited for in the program you’re currently in?
The opportunities it will provide me. Along with deepening my knowledge of
classical and contemporary theoretical frameworks, this program will provide me
with a strong analytical foundation that will help in my research, and future ca-
reer.
Do you find yourself commonly exercising your skills in social theory in day-
to-day life?
Every day! For me, the ability to think critically is often a blessing and a curse at
the same time. I can’t turn it off! I find myself often critically assessing the most
mundane things. However, I do think that engaging critically with the ‘stuff’ I
consume every day (from the food I buy to the media I interact with) is important
in maintaining awareness of the societal forces that create and uphold inequality
and injustice. This is important as well in that it helps me position myself in re-
gards to these forces, and helps me realize the power I have as a sub-
ject/consumer/citizen/student/etc. to subvert the status quo.
Any plans for after your Master’s Degree? Going to conquer the world or
dismantle the bourgeoisie?
For now I’ve decided to stay present and enjoy the process of completing my de-
gree. Starting a Master’s degree is challenging, but in a good way. While disman-
tling the bourgeoisie (along with the patriarchy) is pretty high up in my to-do list,
I need to finish my papers first!
How valuable do you feel your experiences at VIU were for you? Would you
do it all over again?
My experiences at VIU were very valuable, as they gave me the tools to get into
grad school. I would definitely do it all over again! This sounds cliché, but class
sizes really do matter in that they allow students to truly reach their potential. The
comfort of being in a small class, and getting to know my profs really empowered
me to pursue further education; their mentorship has been invaluable. VIU is a
special place for me, I see it as the catalyst for me achieving my goals.
Find us online:
http://www.viu.ca/sociology/
Grad Info Night, November
17th, 6PM-8PM in BLDG 355
RM 211 hosted by the Sociolo-
gy Students Union. Meet a
panel of guests ranging from
professors to masters graduates
to learn about the graduate
school experience and what it
can offer you.
Grad Student Feature: Daniela Zuzunaga
Pictured above: Aquila Ortlieb,
Carli Paterson, Stephanie Pastro,
Alexis Gardner, and Danielle
Myers at the Halloween Party.
Two pro-
fessors
from our
very own
faculty,
along with
a former
professor,
are pub-
lishing a
book this
winter!
Sociology of Home: Belonging,
Community, and Place in the Ca-
nadian Context edited by Gillian
Anderson, Joseph G. Moore, and
Laura Suski is out this December.
Did You Know?
For information on how to stay connected to the department and SSU events, please see page 3
VOLUME 5 , ISSUE 1
FALL 2016
Sociological VIUs
Current Events 1
Name That Theorist! 2
What Are You Reading? 2
Sociology Students’ Union 2
Faculty Spotlight 3
Graduate Feature 4
Events 4
INSIDE THIS
ISSUE:
Know any students
who you think ought
to be featured in next
semester’s issue?
Contact any faculty
member regarding
the Sociology News-
letter!
Spring 2017 Course Offerings
INTR 150 University Essentials
SOCI 111: Introduction to Sociology
SOCI 112: Canadian Society in the
Contemporary World
SOCI 204: Social Interaction
SOCI 209: Social Inequality
SOCI 240: Social Control and Resistance
SOCI 250: Introduction to Social
Research
SOCI 310: Foundations of Social Theory
SOCI 320: Families in Today’s World
SOCI 340: Sociology of Health and
Illness
Arizona Field School
By Cara Faganello, Sociology Student.
The Witness Blanket is a moving piece
of artwork created by Carey Newman.
He has used personal items and pieces of
wood, metal, and glass from residential
schools, government buildings, and
churches. I was struck by how simple the
objects that make up the Blanket
are. There are intimate items, like braids,
dolls, and shoes, placed alongside build-
ing materials, such as door handles, shin-
gles, and glass shards. To me, these
items, such as a twenty dollar bill, a pair
of hockey skates, or a door handle, have
no real meaning beyond themselves. Yet
when they are all woven together, we are
able to see the whole story. It is a story
far greater than the items themselves. It
is a heartbreaking story of stolen child-
hoods, of broken families, of lives cruel-
ly cut short, of a needless cultural geno-
cide. I will not soon forget my time spent
with the Witness Blanket nor
the overwhelming and humbling sense of
being permitted to experience something
far greater than myself.
The Arizona Field School is a compara-
tive analysis involving both Sociology
and Criminology students. Students will
be travelling to Arizona, US to engage
their sociological imaginations in the
criminal justice system. Topics include
immigration (legal and illegal), racial
profiling, discrimination, among many
others. They will be working with an or-
ganization called Borderlinks which rais-
es awareness of the impacts of immigra-
tion policies and aims to connect divided
communities.
There are numerous fundraising events
for the Field School which all students
can participate in to help their colleagues
afford this incredible experience. One of
them is a weekly pizza event in the Atri-
um of building 356. Every Tuesday from
11AM to 2PM, students can purchase a
slice of pizza for $2 or two slices and a
pop for $5. Proceeds go directly to fund-
raising efforts.
The Witness Blanket
Edited by Danielle Myers
Image by Cara Faganello.
VOLUME 5 , ISSUE 1 PAGE 2
Name That Bearded Theorist!
Name: James Chumsa-Jones
Major: Sociology, Minor: History
Book: Race Traitor: The True Story
of Canadian Intelligence's Greatest
Cover-Up by Elise Hategan
The story is an autobiographical
account of a Romanian-Canadian
girl who runs away from her abusive
mother and joins a white-
supremacist group called the
Heritage Front. She becomes very
close with the group leaders, howev-
er she later discovers the horrific
actions taken by the group towards
anti-racist activists and the LGBTQ
community. She begins to question
her identity as a group member and a
lesbian. She also ends up risking her
life to expose the group that she
once thought to be her family. The
book explores themes of police and
CSIS corruption, racism, sexism,
group mentalities, and homophobia.
Name: Kelsey Yamasaki
Major: Sociology
Book: Happy City by Charles
Montgomery
The reason why I like this book is
because it explores the ‘science of
happiness’ from multiple perspec-
tives, while focusing on the role of
city design and planning in helping
to foster important social relation-
ships among residents. The book
emphasizes that through thoughtful
city design, planners and other pro-
fessionals can help create public
spaces that promote social connec-
tion and ultimately increase the so-
cial capital within a community –
how interesting is that! I think Mont-
gomery’s underlying message is that
change is possible, but it takes par-
ticipation and engagement at all lev-
els.
What Are You Reading?
The Sociology Students’ Union
(SSU) is a VIU club which aims
to bring sociology students to-
gether to socialize, exercise our
sociological imaginations, and
to contribute to our local cam-
pus communities. We have
hosted various events in the past
including Beer and Burger
fundraisers for the Sociology
Scholarship, Fish and Chip
fundraiser for the London soci-
ology field school, as well as
Halloween parties and clothing
drives.
Pictured above: Carly Eldstrom (2015
-16 club president), and Danielle
Myers (current club president)
SSU Study Sessions
The club is planning to host a
number of study sessions before
this semester’s exam period. All
students studying sociology are
welcome to attend. Whether
you need help understanding
specific concepts or just need a
space where you will be forced
to study, join us!
Sociology Students’ Union
Answers: A: Friedrich Engels B: Georg Simmel C: Max Weber D:
Karl Marx E: Emile Durkheim F: George Herbert Mead
A B C
D E F
SOCIOLOGICAL VIUS PAGE 3
Q: Who is your favourite famous Bruce?
A: Lenny Bruce.
Q: All right, we’ll take that even though it’s a surname. What do you like about
this Lenny Bruce fellow?
A: Lenny Bruce spoke truth to power. Lenny Bruce challenged people’s assump-
tions about the social world with humour. He went to jail repeatedly for obsceni-
ty, while challenging what people consider to be obscene and what they consider
not to be obscene. So he considered racism to be obscene but he was allowed to
be racist in his comedy act. And he considered sexuality to not be obscene but he
went to jail for his expression of sexuality in his comic routine.
Q: And humour is important to you?
A: Yes.
Q: Good to know.
[laughs]
Q: What are you working on right now?
A: I have a film project I’m working on, which is about old men doing extreme
sports. I have a project I’m working on in men’s post-divorce adjustment, and
issues around emotional and physical health that arise for men in the end of a
relationship.
Q: And that is through your work at Family Services?
A: That’s through Family Services, and the other one’s a film thing we’re doing.
For my own purposes, I want to do a kind of film ethnography of middle-aged
men who do extreme sport. It’s actually in this case hang-gliding. I’ve been para-
gliding for 18 years but in this film I actually learned how to hang-glide, in this
film it was a full participant observation. If you study sociology you take sociolo-
gy into everything you do. So we’re doing interviews with people who do sport,
but for me it’s an ethnographic interview. And we’re doing observation, but it’s
participant observation. And in this particular case, I was able to do full partici-
pant observation… to participate fully in the subculture.
Q: Who is your favourite social theorist and why?
A: It’s gotta be Jürgen Habermas, I like Habermas because he did everything.
Because the theory of communicative action is all about how we construct society
through communication. How power gets reflected in communication, not quite
discussed in the same way that say-- postmodernism does-- not like Foucault and
his stuff on discourse, but how we construct reality through language, and we
construct social relationships through language. He is essentially saying society
consists of language and law. It consists of norms and communications. And
that’s a good assumption and place to start from. He tries to resolve some things
that are problematic from Parsons while maintaining a comprehensive conflict
perspective influenced by the Frankfurt school.
Q: Do you want students to know anything about you that they might not other-
wise ask?
(interview continued in next column)
Faculty Spotlight on Bruce McGuigan
A: No… It’s all secret. No, it might not
always be apparent, but I think it’s im-
portant for students to understand that I
love teaching, I love teaching at this insti-
tution.
Q: Some people might not get your sense
of humour, but I think the essence is
there.
A: Good.
Q: Those are actually the only questions I
have…
[laughs]
Q: Is there anything you might want to
add?
A: All education is a process of change,
and we are all changing, all of us, all of
the time. And one of the things that a
sociological education contributes to is in
our ability to change, in our ability to
open our minds, sometimes through a
systematic methodological approach and
sometimes just through an inclination to
understand other people, their perspec-
tives and their experiences, and how that
colours our relationships with them and
their relationships with the entire world.
In some regards, the sociological imagina-
tion is one of the best things that some-
body can arm themselves with in a post-
secondary education. Education doesn’t
always make you happier; it just makes
you better informed… It can make you
more resilient, because you’re always
going to be faced with change. And to be
able to cope with change is one of the best
things we can give people with education.
“All knowledge of cultural
reality, as may be seen, is
always knowledge from
particular points of view.”
-Max Weber
Are You Connected?
Visit the Sociology Students’
Union Facebook page at
facebook.com/viusociology
and the discussion page at
www.facebook.com/groups/
viusociology/ and the VIU So-
cial Science Facebook page at
facbook.com/viusocialsciences