A quiet, foggy day before the students arrive 😍

Looking for alternatives to Mills for my Intro class, and am going to try a short essay from Robin Wall Kimmerer's Braiding Sweetgrass called "The Gift of Strawberries." In talking about the gift economy vs. property economy, she sketches the two-way relationship between humans and society!

Manifesting this vibe today:

Wait… in my lifetime, they tore down the old Mile High stadium and built a new one… and now we need a newer new one?

An excellent article on resisting AI in schools: “It took software developers in an METR study who used AI tools 19 percent more time to do their work. Nevertheless, because they expected to save time, they believed their work had been sped up by 20 percent.” (Via @allisonpugh.bsky.social)

@tisawenger.bsky.social's new book "Spirits of Empire: How Settler Colonialism Made American Religion" is out in March! It argues that American religion was shaped from the start by the governing imperatives of US empire. Pre-order and ask your library to purchase! uncpress.org/978146969362...

Dusting off my ol' Substack newsletter and officially re-launching today! Introducing: Weird Charisma annetaylor.substack.com

Good morning ☕ my cup is a prayer: literacy and justice for all.

Very happy to be back in New England so I can pop down to @yaledivinityschool.bsky.social for lunch with friends and mentors! Oh and Noah Kahan/Boston I love u 4ever

I was thrilled to talk to @bradleyonishi.bsky.social (who knows a thing or two about podcasts, evangelicals, and extremism) about my new documentary podcast, *When the Wolves Came: Evangelicals Against Extremism*. Listen here: www.straightwhiteamericanjesus.com/episodes/min...

Just realized it's the first year since '22 that I won't be setting off in April for field work in Europe. Feeling so so grateful that Yale and the Macmillan Center sponsored my research. Studying the ways people imagine nationalism, citizenry, and religion thru tourism is more important than ever!

Interesting story on Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado. His political performances capture the sacrality of both left and right audiences (e.g. gets AOC's praise, stands up to Biden, and is a former soldier with a Bronze Star). www.nytimes.com/2025/03/19/o...

I'm being reminded today that friendship is such a tonic amidst all the chaos. One friend wrote me to ask if I'd read their book draft. Another wrote me asking if they could read my thesis. In a world where everything that is meaningful can be discredited as cringey, embrace 👏 your 👏 friends.

New article from Yağmur Karakaya on how the AKP uses the Hagia Sofia in its populist strategy and "leverages the monument's history to create a sense of yearning among the Turkish people while positioning itself as the sole entity able to fulfill this yearning." Check it out! doi.org/10.1057/s412...

Some BIG news: the trailer for my new doc podcast is out today! WHEN THE WOLVES CAME is about how Christian nationalism has divided white evangelical churches, and how one Phoenix pastor & some unlikely allies are at the forefront of a growing resistance. More at open.substack.com/pub/ruthbrau...

Considering the current chaos, it's worth reflecting on one of the most sacred ideals of a democratic society - truth-telling - and how we relate to it. Check out this great article from @jgotzsche.bsky.social in @sociologicaltheory.bsky.social on the topic journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Rethinking JOY, in the latest #UncommonSense we look at joy and protest with Akwiugo Emejulu – Is joy a palliative for the world’s troubles or is it something more fleeting? buff.ly/4jkrhdl

Who gets to claim #MLK? @profhajaryazdiha.bsky.social's research reveals how different groups have strategically interpreted Dr. King's words to advance their own causes—often in ways that directly conflict. Find our 2024 conversation on the @contexts.org blog ▶️ contexts.org/blog/mlk-mem...

Looking for the light today ✨

Read this new article by Johan Gøtzsche-Astrup and Kaspar Villadsen entitled "The dispositif is alive! Recovering social agents in Foucauldian analysis". #EarlyView in #BJS ➡️ https://buff.ly/4a4DJtw

Rep Landsman: "You're just picking on children. Our government is not supposed to be this intrusive. Your government has become incredibly intrusive. You're in our doctors offices banning treatments. You're in our classroom banning books. Now you're in my daughter's locker room"

Republicans: we want government out of our lives! Don’t control us! Wahh! Also Republicans: except when we want to control women’s bodies and tell them they cannot play sports! Then more government! www.nytimes.com/2025/01/14/u...

Writing and listening to Max Richter - truly the best combo on this chilly morning in Colorado: youtu.be/oNLDJp83YAQ?...

Bluesky (and Twitter before it) felt so unusable the more people I followed, so I actually made use of the List function. It's a game changer!

Everything feels really horrible right now, so I'm just gonna post this recipe for "cure me chicken soup" that I have been making nonstop for a few months. www.handmethefork.com/recipes/cure...

Also, I've been a huge fan of Jason Segel since Freaks and Geeks days. Shrinking feels very true to what I've always admired about him - a vulnerability, an earnestness, a desire to know more, a wacky hilarity (I mean, Dracula musical...come on, love).

Absolutely obsessed with Shrinking on AppleTV. Obsessed. www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjHf...

Really enjoyed reading Celso Villegas' review of Alexanders' new book 'Civil Repair' on the Thesis Eleven blog -- especially Villegas' discussion critique and idealism. So important for these strange days we are living in: thesiseleven.com/2024/12/18/b...

First day back at work after the holidays, and struggling to get my brain back online. Reading this great new article from Gordon Brett on improv theater and audience agency really got me back in the groove. Check it out: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

The curious transformation of “Critical Race Theory” to “CRT”: The role of election campaigns in American culture wars February 2025 Volume 108 Yagmur Karakaya, Penny Edgell Read here.

New research with Yagmur Karakaya (Yale Center for Cultural Sociology), out now at @poeticsjournal.bsky.social. Here's a link to read for free! www-sciencedirect-com.ezp1.lib.umn.edu/science/arti...

On January 1st, the first Valentine’s Day-themed post (for pajamas) showed up on my Insta feed. Capitalism so hungry nom nom!

Watching the Alamo Bowl and would love to see a cultural soc paper on the idea of a “dirty” football team or refs playing “dirty.” Purity and danger, matter out of place, you know the “drill.” Know of any? Hashtag sportsball.

Thanks to everyone who sent me the recent Rick Steves interview from the NYTimes! Some are surprised to hear @ricksteves.bsky.social talk about religion and pilgrimage. I'm writing about this in my book, but until then check out this essay I wrote on the topic: hedgehogreview.com/issues/the-v...

Thank you Kelly for including my essay on Rick Steves' (@ricksteves.bsky.social) travel philosophy in your end of year round up! In case you missed it: hedgehogreview.com/issues/the-v...

Saw someone upbraiding someone else for having a hobby while the world is on fire, and, my friends: 1. The world is ever on fire, this is today's conflagration; 2. If you don't find time for rest and joy the fire will consume you; 3. Don't let people shame you for being an entire human.

Deep in my 'sexy fairy' novel era, and reading the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas. I chose to do the tandem read, blah blah iykyk. I dunno if I'd recommend! Dare I go against booktok-dom to say I like Tower of Dawn better??

All three journals waved all fees! 🙌🏻

Postdoc in Princeton's Center for Culture, Society and Religion @princetonccsr.bsky.social for "recent PhDs specializing in the study of religion in any discipline" with "interest and expertise in public-facing scholarship on religion." puwebp.princeton.edu/AcadHire/app...

Check it ouuutttt!

ASA sections on Bluesky. Hopefully we can get more to set up accounts here. Theory Section - @asatheory.bsky.social Section on Labor & Labor Movements - @asalabor.bsky.social SKAT - @asaskat.bsky.social Section on Political Sociology - @asapolisoc.bsky.social

More people need to know about the Progressive era! One of my fave history classes back in undergrad and strikingly relevant today

You guys, pears are delicious. How did I forget this?

“But a lot of care work cannot be tracked and cannot be standardized. Industrial logic, when applied to something like chaplaincy, borders on the absurd. How do you even measure success when it comes to providing spiritual comfort?” www.nytimes.com/2024/12/04/o...

My article, "Saving one's face while saving one's soul?" has found a home! If you're interested in learning how people (in my case, early modern penitents) tactically approach disciplinary networks and how these tactics can be further transfigured into disciplinary tools, this might do the trick.

At this point, I’m less amazed by A Christmas Carol’s visitation of three magical ghosts who can travel in time than the miracle of a rich man actually feeling convicted, and repenting so fully, he becomes a paragon for generosity and community.

Is it just me, or does it feel like a scam that I have to pay a journal to reprint my own work in my own dissertation?

In a week, Matteo Bortolini and I will host the first ISA RC08 online conference focused on the uses of archival and digital methods in the history of sociology. Register using the link below! Thanks to the support of the MoHu Centre and the DiSSGeA department (@unipd.bsky.social).

10 days left to read, download, and share the Fall issue of @contextsmag.bsky.social for free! Read new sociology on Black joy, pinball, startup hype, and so much more! contexts.org/articles/f24... #sociology #publicsociology

Looking back through my pal Adam Valen Levinson's work as we cope with his tragic loss. He was a kind, curious, and brilliant person and a creative powerhouse who often used irreverence to push on boundaries of thought: scholar.google.com/citations?us...