2023
Tuesday, November 28, 2023
Gabriel Hetland, Associate Professor of Latin American, Caribbean, and Latina/o Studies
Faculty Affiliate, Sociology Department, SUNY Albany Olin 102 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm EST/GMT-5 This will be a book talk. In case you want an image of the book or other details, click here.Is democracy possible only when it is safe for elites? Latin American history seems to suggest so. Right-wing forces have repeatedly deposed elected governments that challenged the rich and accepted democracy only after the defanging of the Left and widespread market reform. Latin America’s recent “left turn” raised the question anew: how would the Right react if democracy threatened elite interests? This book examines the complex relationship of the Left, the Right, and democracy through the lens of local politics in Venezuela and Bolivia. Drawing on two years of fieldwork, Gabriel Hetland compares attempts at participatory reform in cities governed by the Left and Right in each country. He finds that such measures were more successful in Venezuela than Bolivia regardless of which type of party held office, though existing research suggests that deepening democracy is much more likely under a left party. Hetland accounts for these findings by arguing that Venezuela’s ruling party achieved hegemony—presenting its ideas as the ideas of all—while Bolivia’s ruling party did not. The Venezuelan Right was compelled to act on the Left’s political terrain; this pushed it to implement participatory reform in an unexpectedly robust way. In Bolivia, demobilization of popular movements led to an inhospitable environment for local democratic deepening under any party. Democracy on the Ground shows that, just as right-wing hegemony can reshape the Left, leftist hegemony can reshape the Right. Offering new perspectives on participation, populism, and Latin American politics, this book challenges widespread ideas about the constraints on democracy. |
Wednesday, November 8, 2023
Naiima Khahaifa, Guarini Fellow
Departments of Geography and African and African-American Studies Dartmouth College Olin 102 5:15 pm EST/GMT-5 Mass incarceration, characterized by unprecedented prison population growth in the US and a disproportionately large representation of Black men, has garnered much scholarly attention; however, a parallel increase in the proportion of Black correctional officers (COs) has not yet received the same consideration. During the early 1970s, demands made by the Prisoners’ Rights Movement led to the recruitment of thousands of Black men and women into the US correctional workforce over the following decades. Thus, focusing on New York State, I argue that as correctional workforce integration redefined the state’s prison system and broader carceral geography, the racialized process of mass incarceration came to depend on the labor of Black COs. Based on a qualitative analysis of life/occupational history interviews with Black COs in Buffalo, NY, recruited between the late 1970s and early 1990s, I find that dynamics of race, class, and gender shape relationships between Black COs and incarcerated individuals as their day-to-day encounters cultivated cooperation and consent in an otherwise volatile prison environment. Deriving from notions of community policing and fictive kinship, I developed the concept of carceral kinship, which refers to the formation of familial-like bonds that appeared the strongest between Black women COs and Black incarcerated men. This concept matters because it reveals the intricate dynamics and micro-politics of prison spaces and how carceral geographies rely on intimate, empathetic, and emotional care work that is profoundly raced and gendered. |
Wednesday, September 27, 2023
Olin patio (area outside Olin Hall) 2:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
Sociology welcomes all sociology or prospective sociology students to attend their Fall 2023 open house. Come learn about course offerings and meet sociology faculty and other students. Refreshments will be provided. |
Wednesday, April 26, 2023 – Thursday, April 27, 2023 Kline, Faculty Dining Room 8:45 am – 9:45 am EDT/GMT-4 A talk and discussion on how Civic Engagement is implemented in other universities across OSUN and how involvement in civic engagement activities can improve the well-being of your students. Breakfast included. Come at 8:30 to gather your breakfast! |
Monday, April 24, 2023 Olin 102 5:30 pm EDT/GMT-4 Women are the fastest growing segment of virtually all sectors of the carceral system (jail, prison, parole, and probation). This is also the case at the back end of the system, among those serving extreme sentences of 50 years in prison or more. People serving these sentences refer to their experience as "death by incarceration" given that sentence length and statutory limitations and exclusions from parole eligibility guarantee that they will die in prison. The number of women serving these sentences has exponentially increased in recent decades. The vast majority are survivors of gender violence. Their criminal convictions are often directly or indirectly tied to their encounters with violence and abuse. In this talk, I'll discuss why and how this is happening and what we can and should be doing about it. https://www.jillmccorkel.com/ Philadelphia Justice Project for Women and Girls |
Friday, April 7, 2023 Olin Humanities, Room 203 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm EDT/GMT-4 This teach-in will not only uncover some histories of Russian oppression and colonial domination within Ukrainian context, but will also include a panel discussion where students from other post-soviet countries will share their experience with Russification and how it affects their daily life. Since the event is during lunch time, a free meal and drinks will be provided. Looking forward to seeing you on Friday, April 7 in Olin 203! RSVP |
Friday, February 10, 2023
Webinar talk by Danielle Purifoy
Online Event 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm EST/GMT-5 This talk examines how the contemporary timber industry reproduces plantation power. It explores the “remote control” of land — such as absentee land ownership, Black family land grabs, new markets for energy, and legal regimes designed to “devalue” common property in favor of individual ownership and profit. Multi-generation Black homeplaces and communities, rooted in alternative modes of land relations, sustain themselves despite the friction between the economic interests of racial capitalism and the ecological interests of long-standing forest interdependence. With the further concentration of forestland ownership and local divestment throughout the Alabama Black Belt and the US South, the reciprocal traditions of Black forest ecologies represent modes of land relation and intervention that are necessary for livable futures. The CHRA Talk & Book Series celebrates critical voices working at the intersection of Human Rights and the Arts. Each year, we invite inspiring artists and activists from around the globe to share their practice or discuss their research. Each public talk is followed by a moderated discussion, and both are subsequently edited and published in a collected volume. |