Departmental Seminar
Throughout the academic year, the Sociology Department hosts a seminar series featuring research work by our faculty, our advanced PhD students, and by other prominent scholars in the field. This page contains the seminars scheduled for the current academic year 2008-2009. If you are interested in attending a seminar, please email sociology@bc.edu in advance.
September 25
Anne Fausto-Sterling
Biology and Women's Studies
Brown University
Measuring the Environment: Meaningful Approaches to Biology and Sociology
12-1:30
To attend seminar, contact sociology@bc.edu.
October 13
Rosanna Hertz
Sociology and Women’s Studies
Wellesley College
"Donor Siblings or Genetic Strangers: The Internet and the New Networked Family"
12-1:30 McGuinn 5th Floor Lounge
October 30
Dorothy Roberts
Law, African American Studies and Sociology, Northwestern University
Is Race-based Medicine Good for Us?: A Scientific and Political Question
12-1:30
To attend seminar, contact sociology@bc.edu.
November 10
Stephen Pfohl
Sociology, Boston College
Digital Magic, Cybernetic Sorcery: on the Cultural Politics of Fascination and Fear
12-1:30 McGuinn 5th Floor Lounge
December 1
Cathy Riessman
Sociology, Boston Cellege
Narrative Analysis and Bob Dylan: What's the Connection?
12-1:30 McGuinn 5th Floor Lounge
December 1, 12-1:30
Professor Catherine Reissman
Narrating Emotional Experience: Masculinity, Depression and Bob Dylan
Storytelling is pervasive in everyday life and research qualitative interviews, but meanings are rarely self-evident or transparent and contrasting readings of a text are always possible. Emotional experience can be especially difficult to narrate-it goes beyond words and the common structures of narrative discourse. In a case study I compare several readings of an interview segment collected long ago from a man who described a period of "bleak depression." I reinterpret the personal narrative in light of contemporary theorizing about masculinities and developments in narrative inquiry. The discovery of Bob Dylan hidden in a referent opens up new readings. Drawing from Bakhtin's theory of dialogic discourse, the case study illustrates how close attention to the appropriation of language expands understanding of gender and emotional distress.
To attend seminar, contact sociology@bc.edu
Archives
The Sociology Department Seminar Series is generously supported by the Boston College Dean of Arts and Sciences and by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.