IPRH Reading Groups

The Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities has released its Reading Groups for 2011-2012, and there are a lot that might be of interest to our department, including some that have been organized by our grad students (!!!).

Some of these include:

Digital Literacies

Energy Policy in Illinois

Global Health Interest Group (organized by our very own Steph Rieder)

Labor and Working Class History

Mass Incarceration (with an assist from Sheri-Lynn Kurisu)

Medicine / Science (very topical, given our search)

Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow (another assist from Sheri-Lynn)

The Sociology Department prides itself on its interdisciplinary collaborations in the humanities and social sciences, and the IPRH is a great institution at the University of Illinois that supports those kinds of collaborations.

We look forward to hearing about these groups over the course of the year.

Ruby Mendenhall Wins A. Wade Smith Award for Teaching, Mentoring, and Service

Our new school year has gotten off to a great start with the news that our colleague, Ruby Mendenhall, has won the A. Wade Smith Award for Teaching, Mentoring, and Service from the Association of Black Sociologists.

According to the citation, "Service-learning, public engagement and social transformation are some of the core principles of African American Studies and as a scholar, Dr. Mendenhall has tried to incorporate these principles into her classes and mentored research."

We've certainly had plenty of evidence of Professor Mendenhall's commitment to these values in the Sociology Department. Since she arrived at the University of Illinois, she has supervised many independent studies and included undergraduate students in her research activities. In addition, with Professor Ray Muhammad, she won a grant for a literacy project entitled "Letters to the President." In this program, young people found productive and civil ways of expressing their anger and frustration about violence in their communities.

Congratulations, Dr. Mendenhall!