Join us this Friday, April 10, at 3pm when @joannapepin.bsky.social of the University of Toronto will deliver the 15th annual William Form Lecture. The talk will take place in Chaney Library at the Riggs Alumni Center. More at go.umd.edu/pepin

Got to visit with Ansgar @hudde.bsky.social today, as he gave a fabulous talk at @socyumd.bsky.social. Look for his work, with Shannon Taflinger, on cross-partisan dating in the US, using a survey experiment with open-ended responses, and a rigorous test of LLM-assisted qualitative coding.

New from me: Most Americans who aren’t having children don’t want to (and not because of the environment). To look at the overlapping reasons not to have children, I got the Pew data, constructed categories, and made a table of combinations. /1 familyinequality.wordpress.com/2026/03/13/m...

Very nice review of Citizen Scholar by Elizabeth Bennion (who is Director of Community Engagement at Indiana University South Bend), in Political Science Educator. "Cohen’s principles—openness, honesty, humility, care, and clarity about one’s role and limitations—are vital." Thanks!

Sociology alum Zainab Azizi, BA '12, is a producer on Sam Raimi's newest film, "Send Help"! Read more at go.umd.edu/zainab

In @statnews.com , @aniloza.bsky.social covered today's new Pew survey on attitudes toward science. I said: "Every university researcher in particular relies on the public to do our work, and we all have to contribute to building the public's trust." www.statnews.com/2026/01/15/a...

UMD Sociology has just launched a new newsletter! You can read the first issue at conta.cc/49INWgF If you'd like to sign up (approximately 3 issues per year), just email [email protected]!

This week CCPR's seminar series will feature @philipncohen.com discussing his book, "Research is Not Enough: Public Engagement and the Citizen Scholar." Join us on January 14 @12pm in Public Affairs 337.

We do research to contribute to knowledge. That only happens if people can read it. In modern democracies, we don't choose who gets to have the knowledge we produce, thankfully. There are barriers to accessing our research, and we want to reduce them. The ideal is universal access. /1

Political polarization on confidence in the scientific community accelerated in the 2024 General Social Survey, with moderates now showing a significant downturn. (Apologies if I missed this updated with 2024 data already) /1

Join us on November 19 at 12pm when @lquillian.bsky.social of Northwestern University will give a talk entitled "Digital Redlining in College Recruitment." We'll convene in room 4103 of the Parren J. Mitchell Art-Sociology Building. More at go.umd.edu/quillian

Join the UMD Department of Sociology on Wednesday, October 22, for a talk with @drernestocast.bsky.social titled "The Science and Politics of Immigration Research, Public Opinion, and Policy Making." More at go.umd.edu/castaneda

Join us on November 7 for the annual Morris Rosenberg Lecture, delivered this year by Dr. Ann Morning of NYU. She will give a talk entitled "Sociology in Real Time: Evolving Concepts of Race in the U.S." The talk begins at 2:30pm in the Stamp Student Union. More info at go.umd.edu/rosenberg2025

I don't know how many children 2025 Nobel Laureate Mary Brunknow has, but this AP photo caption says "one of their daughters." If she has 2 kids she just raised the mean number of children for Nobel medicine winners from 0.8 to 0.9.

Not just an attack on academic freedom and democracy, but on science and knowledge creation, too. The end of the system where experts even nominally decide on research funding and priorities, replaced with a loyalty oath.

Back when almost all births were to married couples, fascists promoted marriage and births together, like Mussolini's bachelor tax. In the US, once marriage and fertility came uncoupled circa 1980s, it was harder to muster a decent fascist profamily policy... /1

It’s an exciting week for letterpress on campus! Join us Wednesday in STAMP for Constitution Day buttons and broadsides and Thursday at Hornbake, Tawes Booklab, and the Clarice for Type High Day! More to come on both of these events 🐢 #libsky #umdlibraries #umdspecialcollections #umd

Congratulations to Sociology faculty member Collin Mueller, who was awarded a pilot grant from the National Institute on Aging! He will work with new @socyumd.bsky.social ‬faculty member Taylor Hargrove. Read more at go.umd.edu/muellergrant

Congratulations to Sociology faculty member Long Doan, who was selected for the 2025 cohort of the Office of Faculty Affairs' Fearless Leadership Foundations Program! Read more at go.umd.edu/leaderdoan

Wow, Citizen Scholar has been selected for author-meets-critics at ASA next year. I don't get to pick critics but I can nominate them. If you would like to discuss it, are willing to do 2 hours work for a print copy, or just need a program appearance, let me know! cup.columbia.edu/book/citizen...

The Department of Sociology is excited to announce the arrival of our newest faculty member, Dr. Taylor Hargrove! Associate Professor Hargrove joins us from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Learn more at go.umd.edu/hargrove Welcome, Taylor!

🎉🎉 Congratulations to PhD candidate Neerad Deshmukh, the inaugural recipient of the Joan R. Kahn Endowed Graduate Research Support Fund, established by Professor Emerita of Sociology Joan Kahn. Read more about his work at go.umd.edu/deshmukh Congratulations, Neerad!

"It's going to get worse before it gets better." In a conversation with Respons, sociologist Philip N. Cohen discusses how research and politics can be united in the shadow of political developments in the United States (in Swedish) tidskriftenrespons.se/artikel/phil...

Congratulations to Dr. Amelia Branigan, who was recently promoted to the rank of Associate Professor with tenure! 🎉🎉 More at socy.umd.edu/news/amelia-...

In the last year I have written 10 posts under the Population tag. Collect the whole set! 🧵 familyinequality.wordpress.com/tag/populati...

We're embarrassingly late to the party but congratulations to our own @philipncohen.com, recipient of this year's Kohli Foundation Infrastructure Prize for Sociology for his work with @socarxiv.bsky.social! 🎉🎉🎉

We are thrilled to announce that Dr. Katharine Khanna will be joining the department as an Assistant Professor in fall 2025! She is currently with us as a UMD President's Postdoctoral Fellow. Congratulations, Kate! More at socy.umd.edu/news/kathari...

Professor Emeritus William “Bill” Falk recently passed away last month. Read more about his many years with the Department of Sociology at socy.umd.edu/news/celebra...

Today at UMD we had a dissertation defense that relied on data from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to study health disparities. Their staff have now been gutted. kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

Philip, this work is being censored and ppl are being erased. Help fight 👊 back by ✒️ the DefendResearch.org Declaration to #DefendResearch from #censorship. We're over 4K strong working to educate the public on the dangers. All welcome irresp discipline, geography:  tinyurl.com/3bwuc38f

Don't forget to join us this afternoon for our 2025 Public Sociology Forum-- A Conversation with Dr. Philip Cohen (@philipncohen.com)!

This Friday, join us for a talk with SOCY PhD graduate Dr. SunAh Laybourn 👇

One week from today (on 3/31), we welcome Dr. Philip Cohen (@philipncohen.com) for our 2025 Public Sociology Forum. He will discuss the role of professional scholars in civic life and his recently published book, "Citizen Scholar: Public Engagement for Social Scientists". Details below!

Distinguished University Professor Emerita Patricia Hill Collins will participate in a conversation with @safiyanoble.bsky.social and @steelecat717.bsky.social on April 1. Details 👇

About slashing the Institute of Education Sciences, including National Center for Ed Statistics: “This is bedrock, base-line information for how our society is functioning,” said Philip N. Cohen, a sociologist at the University of Maryland... “It’s a common language — a shared reality we all have.”

Hey, I'm giving a zoom talk on my book, Citizen Scholar, at University of Wisconsin Sociology's Politics, Culture, and Society Workshop, tomorrow at 1:30pm Eastern US time. @uwsoc.bsky.social It's open to the public at: uwmadison.zoom.us/j/9571632480...

Today is #SocialJusticeDay In #NewPublication Yajie Xiong & Yaqiang Qi explore the bidirectional relationship between indicators of physical and mental health, and how they are affected by SES and education: bit.ly/4k4kYeh @socyumd.bsky.social #RenminUniversity @ASAMedSo

Insights from one of the best public facing scholars @sociologistray.bsky.social @socyumd.bsky.social

Check out @socyumd.bsky.social Professor @drkrismarsh.bsky.social on the Conversations with Dr. Chi podcast by @chinyereosuji.bsky.social! 👇 youtu.be/aoh904PAbnI?...

Since 1972, the General Social Survey has been asking, "What do you think is the ideal number of children for family to have?" It was a great question. Unfortunately, it's broken now and needs to be fixed or retired. I'll explain familyinequality.wordpress.com/2025/02/15/i... /1

Join us Friday, March 28, for @socyumd.bsky.social's 14th annual William Form Lecture, delivered by Dr. SunAh Laybourn. Her talk is titled "Out of Place: The Lives of Korean Adoptee Immigrants." 2:30pm, Benjamin Banneker A, Stamp Student Union More at go.umd.edu/laybourn

"Through its actions big and small, this administration evinces a consuming attention to degrade universities, science, and education." Read @philipncohen.com on the current administration's multi-fronted assault on higher education and the pursuit of scientific knowledge.

Now available! CITIZEN SCHOLARS is a practitioner’s guide to civic engagement today, showing current and aspiring social scientists how to build a career in the public sphere. https://buff.ly/4gExka2 #CitizenScholars #PublicScholarship #CivicEngagement #ScholarActivism #AcademiaAndActivism

One problem with the way Trump/DOGE are moving is the legal difference between asking for permission versus asking for forgiveness. It's harder legally and practically to make the executive branch do something than not to do something. /1

It's not just data archives: there is no way the federal statical agencies can continue their current data collections under Trump's executive orders. Even attempting to modify the surveys to comply would cost a fortune and create interminable delays. This is about blinding us to reality.

6 years ago I wrote the second edition of Scholarly Communication in Sociology, intended for grad students and early-career researchers. I'm sad to say it's ridiculously current still, with some obvious exceptions (like prices). "Someone" should update it. opensociology.pubpub.org/pub/scis/rel...

For The Emancipator, I expanded on an argument I’ve been making on Bluesky. The so-called anti-DEI movement is segregationist, and we should state that plainly. theemancipator.org/2025/01/28/t...

@socyumd.bsky.social PhD alum Amanda Dewey is making an impact in Zambia—and beyond! Read more at bsos.umd.edu/featured-con...

Thanks to the fearless (we're supposed to use this word) leadership of our excellent chair, @lsayer.bsky.social, the UMD Sociology department has moved from X to Bluesky: @socyumd.bsky.social. This is good.