Department of Sociology Spring 2012 Brown Bag Speaker Series Schedule

and other Department of Sociology talks

The Brown Bag speaker series is the primary way we encourage intellectual dialogue in the department, as well as a major way of learning about and supporting the research of our colleagues.

Other Department of Sociology talks are marked with an asterisk.

Speaker:

Sarah M. Zureick-Brown, Ph.D., Post Doctoral Fellow, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University

Understanding Global Trends in Maternal Mortality

Despite the fact that most maternal deaths are preventable, maternal mortality remains high in many developing countries. Millennium Development Goal 5 (MDG5), Target A, calls for a three-quarter reduction in the maternal mortality ratio over the period 1990 to 2015. We derived estimates of maternal mortality for 172 countries over the period 1990-2008. Depending on the data available for a particular country, trends in maternal mortality were estimated either directly from vital registration data or from a hierarchical/multilevel model. The number of maternal deaths declined worldwide from approximately 546,000 deaths in 1990 to 358,000 in 2008, a 34% decline. Similarly, it was estimated that the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) for the world as a whole declined by 34% over this period, falling from 400 to 260 (maternal deaths per 100,000 live births). Although the annual rate of decline in the global MMR (2.3%) fell short of the level needed to meet the MDG5 target, this estimated rate of reduction is much faster than had been thought previously. Between 1990 and 2008, the majority of the global burden of maternal deaths shifted from Asia to Sub-Saharan Africa. Both differential fertility trends as well as the HIV/AIDS epidemic are key factors underlying the shift in the burden of maternal deaths from Asia to Sub-Saharan Africa. Targeted efforts to improve access to quality maternal health care as well as efforts to reduce unwanted pregnancies through family planning are necessary to further reduce the global burden of maternal mortality.

Speaker:

Irene Browne, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Sociology & Mary Odem, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of History, Emory University

Latinos, Immigration Legislation, and Race: 'Juan Crow' in the Nuevo South?

With Georgia joining Arizona to enact harsh immigration policy in 2011, some scholars claim that these state policies are racializing Latinos and creating a situation of “Juan Crow” in the South.  Yet, unlike Jim Crow laws, Georgia’s restrictive immigration legislation never mention any specific race or ethnic group.   In this paper, we investigate whether and how these laws are associated specifically with Latinos through content analysis of newspaper coverage of Georgia’s recent comprehensive immigration laws, SB 529 and HB 87.  We find that the processes through which SB 529 and HB 87 racialize Latinos in Georgia are dynamic and complex, and differ depending on the bill and the type of newspaper.

Speakers:

Ralph Joseph DiClemente, Ph.D. & Gina M. Wingood, Sc.D./MPH, Candler Professor & Professor, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University

The Efficacy, Dissemination and Translation of HIV Prevention Interventions for Adolescents and Women

Speaker:

Deborah Holtzman, Ph.D., Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The Social and Behavioral Sciences at the CDC:  A Perspective from One Sociologist

Dr. Holtzman will describe the mission of CDC, how the agency is organized to accomplish its mission, and the type of research and practice that is conducted.  She also will discuss the variety of disciplines that are represented at CDC, with a focus on the social and behavioral sciences.  In addition, Dr. Holtzman will share her own experience as a sociologist at CDC for over 22 years.

Speaker:

Graham Scambler, Ph.D., Professor of Medical Sociology, Research Department of Infection and Population Health, University College London

Migrant Sex Workers in London: Opportunists, Victims or Both?

Speaker:

Graham Scambler, Ph.D., Professor of Medical Sociology, Research Department of Infection and Population Health, University College London

Class Politics and Contemporary Healthcare Reform in England and Wales

Professor Scambler is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, the author of numerous articles and the editor for the journal, Social Theory and Health. His sixteen books include, Rethinking Prostitution; Epilepsy; Health Inequalities; Menstrual Disorders; The Experience of Illness, Modernity and Health; and Sport in a Changing Society. Most British medical students know him through a commonly adopted text, Sociology as Applied to Medicine. He has been co-directing Emory’s Sociology Study Abroad Program on Comparative Health Systems in in London since 1976.

Co-sponsored by the Hightower Fund; the Rollins School of Public Health; and Oxford College

Speakers:

Graham Scambler, Ph.D., Professor of Medical Sociology, Research Department of Infection and Population Health, University College London & Annette Scambler, Collaborator and Co-author

"Fighting Back": Stories Behind the 2011 Riots in British Cities  

Speaker:

Ellen Granberg, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Clemson University

Using Organizational Resources to Sustain Successful Self Change: Implications for Identity Theory

Speakers:

John Hope Bryant

TJ Holmes

Provost Earl Lewis

Dean Robin Forman

Roundtable on Leadership and Underserved Communities

Co sponsored by the Office of the Provost, Departments of African American Studies, African Studies, Development Studies, Sociology, Screen, the Office of the Dean, Operation Hope Inc., and the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation.

Speaker:

Jody Clay-Warner, Ph.D., Meigs Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Georgia

Gender, Victimization, and Fear of Crime

Speaker:

Fuambai Sia Ahmadu, Ph.D., cultural and medical anthropologist, Senior Research Fellow and Public Health Adviser based in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Sunju Kumba Ahmadu, internationally acclaimed documentary filmmaker.

 Female Genital Cutting: Reframing the Debate

(Lecture, Film Screening, and Discussion)

Disputing Myths of Sexual Dysfunction in Circumcised Women

&

Bondo: A Journey into Kono Womanhood

Co sponsored by the Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts, Department of Women’s Gender, & Sexuality Studies, Institute of African Studies, Department of Psychology,
Department of English, Department of Film Studies, Department of Sociology, the Graduate Division of Religion, Center for Faculty Development & Excellence, Center
for Mind, Brain, and Culture, the Center for Ethics, and the Nat C. Robertson Fund for Science and Society.

Speaker:

James Ainsworth, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Georgia State University

Lessons Learned while Researching the Oppositional Culture Explanation for Racial Disparities in Educational Performance

Speaker:

Wesley Longhofer, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Organization & Management, Goizueta Business School, Emory University

Foundations of Global Giving

Social scientists have long been interested in the origins of generosity, altruism, and solidarity in society. However, few studies have looked at the effects of social context on charitable activity, particularly from a cross-national perspective. This talk will introduce a series of ongoing studies examining the effects of global and domestic institutions on charitable activity among individuals and organizations in a large number of countries. More specifically, I situate philanthropic and charitable activity in what Boli (2006) has called a global moral order that champions virtue and positions voluntary associations, including foundations and charities, as legitimate actors for solving global problems.

Speaker:

Matthew Mathias, Ph.D. Candidate,  Department of Sociology, Emory University

 A Bayesian Measurement Model for Human Rights Treaty Ratification, 1975-2005

Scholars have long been interested in the effect of human rights treaty ratification. The literature has typically operationalized ratification as a simple count of a core group of important treaties. Clearly, the counting strategy treats each treaty as being the same – treaties are not discriminated against as better or worse measures of treaty ratification, and there is no sense of whether or not each treaty is equally difficult to ratify. Yet, many scholars in the literature have long noted that: 1) not all treaties are central to the global human rights regime, and 2) some treaties are much more difficult to ratify (e.g., treaties that have formal means of oversight that sanction non-compliance). As such, current measures that simply count some number of ratifications miss important variation in the meaning and impact of each treaty that attenuates the efficacy of the overall measure. To remedy these issues, I develop a measurement model that: 1) measures 208 countries’ latent ratification ‘ability’ over time, 2) quantifies how well 66 different treaties track with human rights treaty ratification, and 3) estimates how ‘difficult’ each treaty is to ratify. Last, I apply this new measure to the now canonical Hafner-Burton and Tsutsui (2005) "Paradox of Empty Promises" model and find that their main findings dissipate in light of this more sensitive measure.