Privileged Narratives: Teaching About Class, Part 3

by Jillian Powers on April 12, 2012

Results Wow, I am just so impressed with the candor and emotions shared. What an indicator of the type of environment I like to create in my courses. This assignment wasn’t easy. Examining the self, how we interpret situations, and breaking down our taken-for-granted assumptions is a process that requires a lot of strength and [...]

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Privileged Narratives: Teaching about Social Class Part 2, My Story

by Jillian Powers on April 3, 2012

My story: When I was roughly six or seven years old, my mother hired a cleaning lady to help out around the house once a week while she was pregnant with my brother. I don’t remember how we came to hire Rosa, but I do recall how this was a new turn of events for [...]

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Privileged Narratives: Teaching about Social Class in 3 Parts.

by Jillian Powers April 2, 2012

Teaching about social class and stratification: I always like to re-tool classes based upon previous experiences. When I first taught Introduction to Sociology, I found that many of my students had a hard time relating social class and stratification to their own lives and positions of power and privilege. How can I further students’ critical [...]

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Dusting off Vintage Recipes: The Return of Savory Jell-O Molds

by Jillian Powers March 5, 2012

I’m all about historical cooking these days, and it seems like I’m not alone (albeit a little behind the trend). For example, food blogger Alejandra Ramos at Always Order Dessert recently dusted off a recipe for molded Salmon Mousse, and she frequently finds inspiration from vintage cookbooks. Television shows also explore historical eating, like the [...]

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Students rock!

by Jillian Powers February 8, 2012

I love when my students think about topics discussed in class outside of the classroom. Here is a comic shared on Facebook that my student thought spoke to our class discussion regarding a post-racial America.

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The Brutus half of Dr. Brutus Powers watches the Puppy Bowl

by Jillian Powers February 7, 2012

Every year I tape the Puppy Bowl. Since Brutus can see movement on television it truly does act as a babysitter and form of entertainment. As I prepare my lecture for Annette Lareau’s Unequal Childhoods, I wonder what sort of cultural repertoires I’m instilling in my canine.

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Have you seen this? ThePETEBOX

by Jillian Powers February 3, 2012

I absolutely love this guy, I think I’ve watched this video at least once a day this week.

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Key and Peele: Overshadowed by Comedic Ghosts

by Jillian Powers February 3, 2012

Key & Peele, Comedy Central’s new sketch show, stars Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele. These two former contributors to MADtv use their platform to explore race, gender, popular culture, and anything lampoon-worthy through their lenses as bi-racial—and therefore performatively fluid—young men. They are definitely funny, talented, and socially observant. However, the structure of the show [...]

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Reflecting at Semester’s End: Iterative Thinking is NOT Busywork

by Jillian Powers December 8, 2011

Teaching a hands-on methods class has been quite a challenge. There are so many moving parts to a course of this nature. Finding the right balance between methodological training, attention to subject area literature, and academic writing is a constant juggling act. Everyday we make real progress, yet also hit serious roadblocks in our journey [...]

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Diss to Book Action Plan in Action: Woordled Dissertation

by Jillian Powers November 8, 2011

It’s taken me a lot longer than I originally expected to work through this dissertation. I have to always remember that despite my ambitious beginnings and generally positive attitude, anything involving research usually takes me at least twice as long as I anticipate. I will either mature as a social scientist and become more efficient [...]

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