Spotlight on sociology . . .

What is it about basketball that makes it "the black man’s game"? And what about pickup basketball in particular: can it tell us something about the state of blackness in the United States? Reflecting on these questions, Rafik Mohamed presents pickup games as a text of the political, social, and economic struggles of African American men. In the process, he tells a story about    More >

What is the lived experience of previously healthy older adults as they face disability in late life, and how is disability assimilated in their identity? How do prevailing practices facilitate—or limit—options for elders living with new disabilities? To address these questions, Jeffrey Kahana and Eva Kahana uniquely synthesize disability and gerontological perspectives to explore    More >

Though a majority of mothers of young children are employed outside the home, countless articles have been devoted to anecdotes about highly educated women in high-status occupations "opting out" of the labor force. Are mothers in these occupations in fact the most likely to opt out or reduce their work hours? Do race, ethnicity, or age of children play a role? Addressing these questions    More >

Who is "multiracial"? And who decides? Addressing these two fundamental questions, Melinda Mills builds on the work of Heather Dalmage to explore the phenomenon—and consequences—of racial border patrolling by strangers, family members, friends, and even multiracial people themselves.    More >

What explains the well-documented racial disparities in rates of homicide and other acts of criminal violence in the United States? Critically confronting the conventional narratives that purport to answer this question, the authors of Roots of African American Violence offer an alternative framework—one that acknowledges the often hidden cultural diversity and within-race ethnocentrism    More >