The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit news organization focused on producing in-depth education journalism, published an interview with Daniel Chambliss, the Eugene M. Tobin Distinguished Professor of Sociology, on May 17.  “Q&A with Dan Chambliss: A successful college education can come down to a single conversation” focused on the Mellon Foundation-funded longitudinal study initiated by Chambliss in 2001. The article reviewed some of the study results, which will be included in a forthcoming book titled How College Works, and what implications the results might have for U.S. higher education.

Six members of the Hamilton faculty were recognized for their research and creative successes with the Dean’s Scholarly Achievement Awards, presented by Dean of Faculty Patrick Reynolds at Class & Charter Day on Friday, May 4. The Awards recognize individual accomplishments, but reflect a richness and depth of scholarship and creative activity across the entire faculty.  The awards were made in three categories: Career Achievement, Early Career Achievement and Notable Year Achievement.

"Can Colleges Manufacture Motivation?," an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, opened with comments by Daniel Chambliss, The Eugene M. Tobin Distinguished Professor of Sociology. “‘Motivation is an outcome of college. … It energizes people to want to learn more and go out in the world and grab it by the throat,’” began Chambliss, who is completing a book with Christopher Takacs ’05 titled How College Works (Harvard University Press).

Elly Field '13 presented a paper with Professor George Hobor of Colgate University at the annual conference of the Southern Sociological Society in New Orleans on March 22. The paper was co-authored with sociology students Amy Dow '12 and David Schwartz '13 and details the results of the group's summer research on the social and economic integration of Utica's Karen and Bantu refugee population.

WAMC/Northeast Public Radio in Albany will feature a reading by Professor of Sociology Dennis Gilbert on Monday, March 5, as part of the public radio station’s Academic Minute. During his reading, Gilbert examines exactly who is considered middle class, pointing out that there are many definitions.

The fourth edition of Daniel Chambliss' book, Making Sense of the Social World: Methods of Investigation, co-authored with Russell Schutt, has just been published by Sage Publishers. Chambliss is the Eugene M. Tobin Distinguished Professor of Sociology. 

Associate Professor of Sociology Yvonne Zylan presented a paper at the Law and Society Association's annual meetings held in San Francisco, June 2-5.  The theme of the conference was "Oceans Apart? Narratives of (Il)Legality in Liminal Spaces."

Within the past 25 years, a new type of social movement has emerged in American culture: religious environmental groups. Their members apply religious texts and beliefs to environmental causes, raising environmental concern and benefiting sustainable practices. However, despite how diverse and numerous these groups have become, sociologists have yet to study them in detail.

Associate Professor of Sociology Yvonne Zylan is the author of a new book, States of Passion: Law, Identity, and Social Construction of Desire (Oxford University Press, March, 2011).

“Every indicator we have shows that the country is becoming more and more unequal,” said Professor of Sociology Dennis Gilbert in an interview with a New York Post reporter for a Nov. 14 article. In “Class dismissed: Why middle income jobs are not coming back,” Gilbert continued, “When people are asked which class they belong to … the bulk of the population says middle class, as they have since WWII.”