Papers by Roberta spalter-roth
A series of interrelated transformations took place at academic institutions across the country d... more A series of interrelated transformations took place at academic institutions across the country dur-ing the first decade of the 21st century. These trans-formations included, but were not limited to, the increasing importance of specialized or vocationally-oriented programs; hiring freezes and the lack of faculty replacements; the increasing share of adjunct faculty; new evaluation models based on costs and benefits; monetized measures of the value of majors; and greater emphasis on workplace preparation. In this research brief we use data from two waves of the American Sociological Association’s (ASA) Depart-ment Survey to examine the changes in the structure and teaching loads of sociology departments over the course of 10 years at four types of institutions—re-search, doctoral, master’s, and baccalaureate-only—
American Sociological Association Chairs Conference, Aug 9, 2013
Scholars (NAS) continued to promote the message that it has endorsed since its founding that coll... more Scholars (NAS) continued to promote the message that it has endorsed since its founding that colleges should be meritocracies focused on teaching, research, reasoned discourse, and the scientific method. Other kinds of activities such as student participation in community activities to bring about social change are regarded as “dumbing down ” of the curriculum and spreading political views among students (Schmidt 2013). It is a message rooted in idealized recollections of how America’s colleges operated in the middle of the 20th century, before the advent of increased diversity programs, women’s and ethnic-studies departments, and service learning and community activities that the association regards as anathemas. The article suggests, further, that NAS is facing a challenging future, barring a major resurgence of traditionalist thinking on college campuses, and the appeal of their message might not be enough to carry the group another 25 years (Schmidt 2013).
In consultation with the Centennial Bibliography Committee of the American
Many sociology departments in schools of liberal arts and sciences are concerned about losing out... more Many sociology departments in schools of liberal arts and sciences are concerned about losing out in the competition for undergraduate majors, even though a study of senior sociology majors who
changes that have occurred in sociology classrooms. We examine changes such as online courses, in... more changes that have occurred in sociology classrooms. We examine changes such as online courses, in-class technology, new courses, and whether departments have gained resources to bring about these changes. There may be a number of explanations for these changes. First, they may be the result of efforts to improve student outcomes while saving costs (Kerwin, as cited in Parry 2013). Second, they may result from motives to increase the scope and content of sociology courses to compete with vocationally-oriented majors and to recruit additional students. Third, they may be part of an effort to recruit and retain students by making these major users of technology more comfortable and stronger participants in the classroom. All three of these issues are discussed and debated within the discipline.
The American Sociological Association (ASA), founded in 1905, is a non-profit membership associat... more The American Sociological Association (ASA), founded in 1905, is a non-profit membership association dedicated to advancing sociology as a scientific discipline and profession serving the public good. With over 14,000 members, ASA encompasses sociologists who are faculty members at colleges and universities, researchers, practitioners, and students. About 20 percent of the members work in government, business, or non-profit organizations. As the national organization for sociologists, the American Sociological Association, through its Executive Office, is well positioned to provide a unique set of services to its members and to promote the vitality, visibility, and diversity of the discipline. Working at the national and international levels, the Association aims to articulate policy and implement programs likely to have the broadest possible
Higher education has seen many changes that affect newly-minted PhDs. These include the constrict... more Higher education has seen many changes that affect newly-minted PhDs. These include the constriction of the academic job market for PhDs, the increased number of publications required for tenure, the effort to shorten the years to PhD (referred to as the end of what City College of New York President William P. Kelley refers to as the “roach motel ” view of PhD completion (Flaherty 2013). These changes may result in an increased de-sire for specialized training beyond the PhD and additional time to become more competitive in the job market. In sociology,—a field that has not traditionally used the postdoc as a stage in the career trajectory—there is increasing interest in the place of post-doctoral training in the discipline. Do aspiring academics in sociol-ogy need this additional step before qualifying for a position as an assistant professor? More general questions arise as to its content and structure, its role in providing a job alternative in tight labor markets, its preparati...
▷▷Women sociologists with children are equally likely to have “ideal ” careers as men with childr... more ▷▷Women sociologists with children are equally likely to have “ideal ” careers as men with children and childless men. ▷▷Mothers are seven times as likely to have ideal careers as fathers, childless men, and childless women, when provided with departmental resources and when they attended prestigious graduate schools. ▷▷Mothers are more likely than fathers to use work/family policies. ▷▷Despite the difficulties faced by women in pursuing the “male model for careers,” mothers in sociology appear to be as successful following an ideal career track as their male colleagues. We use data from our PhD+10 survey to investigate whether gender and parental status affected the likelihood of obtaining an ideal versus an alternative career during the first 10 years post-PhD. This new brief follows our recent research that examines racial and ethnic differences in obtaining what we call “ideal ” versus “alternative ” careers (Spalter-Roth, Mayorova, Shin, and White 2011). An ideal career is cons...
With state legislatures squeezing higher education budgets, sequestration beginning to have an im... more With state legislatures squeezing higher education budgets, sequestration beginning to have an impact, and faculty roles in shared governance and unionization appearing to be decreasing, there is no silver lining for the “market basket ” of goods that sociology faculty members can purchase. There was an 8.4 % decline in the share of state tax revenues that were allocated to higher education (State Higher Education Executive Officers 2013). This decline occurred after the dollars devoted to higher education supplemented by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Kelderman 2012) ended. The effects of the sequestration, begun on March 1, 2013, have already had adverse effects, especially in terms of slowing down funds for research grants (Nelson 2013; Troop 2013). This slowdown or decline in research funding can affect the amount of grants and the number of publications produced by faculty and can adversely affect tenure and promotion. In addition, there have been documented outcri...
▷▷The academic job market for new sociology PhDs continues on the upswing with jobs now close to ... more ▷▷The academic job market for new sociology PhDs continues on the upswing with jobs now close to their 2008 levels, before the Great Recession hit departments. ▷▷Almost nine out of 10 of the academic jobs advertised were for assistant or open rank positions. The “success rate” or “yield ” for filling positions was 83 percent, slightly higher than last year. ▷▷99 percent of responding departments reported that searches were conducted for the positions that they posted. ▷▷A smaller percentage of advertised jobs was cancelled or suspended in 2011 than in 2010, with the most commonly reported reason why a position went unfilled being rejection of an offer by a candidate. ▷▷There was a larger share of open specialties advertised in 2011 than in 2010. ▷▷Although only 59 percent of the jobs advertised were in sociology or joint sociology departments, more than three-quarters (78 percent) of all jobs were filled by a sociologist. The 2011-2012 findings from the American Sociological Associa...
Students in metro-Atlanta universities have a number of opportunities to serve the community and ... more Students in metro-Atlanta universities have a number of opportunities to serve the community and be engaged. 5 And the Winners Are... Congratulations to the 2010 ASA distinguished award winners! 6 Almost ASA Election Time Learn more about the candidates for ASA President and Vice-president. 8 Sociology and Criminology Final Report The Task Force on Sociology and Criminology Programs issues 15 recommendations.
Contingent Work, 2019
Accelerating the recovery of marine coastal ecosystems is a global challenge that has been attemp... more Accelerating the recovery of marine coastal ecosystems is a global challenge that has been attempted on many systems around the world. Restoration efforts have shown varying levels of success at localized-scales, but developing techniques for large-scale application are still in their nascent stage for many systems. For seagrass meadows and marsh plants, large-scale successes have been realized by distributing seeds from moving boats or planes, respectively. Similarly for coral reefs, the harvesting, culturing and releasing of wild coral-spawn slicks to targeted reefs is anticipated to achieve costefficient, large-scale restoration of coral communities with low-impact technology. Yet, operational protocols for full-scale application still require development by practitioners. In this study we conducted a field trial to evaluate the actual feasibility of harvesting wild coral-spawn slicks for large-scale restoration activities, incorporating technologies used in oil spill remediation, dredging operations, and land-based aquaculture. Testing the potential for scalability to commercial vessels, our trial focused on concentrating and collecting wild coral-spawn slicks for culturing until settlement competency using an experimental 50,000 L aquaculture facility built on a tugboat. Five objectives were set and all were achieved successfully, with only one requiring further optimization. Overall, this restoration approach allows for long-distance translocation of genetically diverse coral assemblages, and may be combined with other larval conditioning techniques that are being developed to increase the resistance to stress and survival of coral recruits. Most importantly, it is fully scalable to produce billions of coral larvae for delivery to target reefs, with negligible impact to source populations.
Studies in Media and Communications, 2018
A persistent theme throughout the history of the Communication, Information Technologies, and Med... more A persistent theme throughout the history of the Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Section of the American Sociological Association (CITAMS, formerly CITASA) has been that the work of section members has been underrepresented in sociology's leading journals. This chapter empirically examines that claim, using data from the newly created American Sociological Review (ASR) Digital Archive, a collection of all manuscripts, published and unpublished, submitted to ASR between 1990 and 2010, along with all reviews of these manuscripts. Analyses in the chapter focus on a comparison of CITAMS and Methodology Section members' participation in the ASR process as a manuscript author or reviewer. The findings of this chapter show that controlling for differences in the gender and age composition of the two sections, CITAMS members are significantly less likely than Methodology Section members to participate in the ASR publication process. This pattern is evident not only in the degree to which CITAMS members are asked to review papers, but also in the frequency with which they submit to ASR. Further analyses in the chapter look at membership in multiple sections and the possibilities
Uploads
Papers by Roberta spalter-roth