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In an opinion piece on the USA Today website, Associate Professor of Sociology Jenny Irons focused on two of the most significant predictors of gun deaths, income inequality and the percentage of the population identified as black. “But for the Grace of Class and Race,” posted on the publication’s site on Sept. 30, Irons expanded the conversation beyond legislation as a solution. “We should look more deeply into the roll race and class play in gun violence in the United States."

At the recent annual meeting of the Southern Sociological Society in Atlanta, (April 24-28), Associate Professor of Sociology Jenny Irons presented as part of a panel she co-organized with a colleague, University of Louisville Professor Karen Christopher.

Associate Professor of Sociology Jenny Irons reacted quickly to a serious error made by The Daily Show's Jon Stewart last week when, in Iron’s words, he “lampooned Dick Molpus.” The white former Secretary of State and civil rights champion, Molpus was responsible for registering Mississippi’s 1995 decision to ratify the 13th amendment abolishing slavery. Irons, who had worked for Molpus in the 1990s, wrote an opinion piece in the Huffington Post titled “Civil Rights Champion Falsely Accused by Jon Stewart” in which she corrected Stewart's mischaracterization.

The Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center has reorganized into three, thematically based programs: Security, Sustainability and Inequality and Equity. The goal in creating these groupings is to facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration and discussion among those with similar interests, but potentially different perspectives.

Associate Professor of Sociology Jenny Irons has published a book, Reconstituting Whiteness: The Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, with Vanderbilt University Press.

Growing up on Martha’s Vineyard, Samantha Rabin ’11 never thought her home was that different from any other. But now that Rabin is older, she realizes that because she is surrounded by crowded hotels and sun-scorched bathers, her seemingly commonplace life is actually dominated by an unusual economy. She is working with Associate Professor of Sociology Jennifer Irons to assess how a person’s financial position shapes his or her relationship to the community.

Associate Professor of Sociology Jenny Irons recently published an essay, "Political Elites and the Culture of Social Movements," in Sociology Compass (Culture Section, Vol. 3, May 2009), an online journal that publishes peer-reviewed survey articles that address current research. The article synthesizes scholarship that directly and indirectly addresses the question of how political elites impact the culture of social movements, and vice versa.

Eight Hamilton College faculty members were approved for tenure by the College's Board of Trustees during their recent meeting. The Board granted tenure to Heather Buchman (music), Jennifer Irons (sociology), Masaaki Kamiya (East Asian languages and literatures), Katherine Kuharic (art), Mike McCormick (biology), Tara McKee (psychology), Kyoko Omori (East Asian languages and literatures) and Sharon Werning Rivera (government).

Assistant Professor of Sociology Jenny Irons participated in an invited panel on anti-civil rights violence in the south at the Southern Political Science Association Meetings, Jan. 8-10, in New Orleans. The interdisciplinary panel brought together scholars from law, political science and sociology to discuss their work on white violence against civil rights activists and black southerners during the civil rights era.