Moral Matters: Conversations with Sociologists on Altruism, Morality, and Social Solidarity

In this webinar, we convened a panel to explore the diverse and fulfilling career paths available after the PhD. A panel of academics discussed their transitions to non-tenure-track roles, sharing insights into their current positions and how they arrived there. The conversation focused on the academic insights and skills that proved essential for finding fulfilling positions post-PhD, offering a realistic understanding of how professional fulfillment can grow and change beyond the expectations of the TT job search. Speakers: Shai Dromi, Associate Senior Lecturer on Sociology at Harvard UniversityNabil Tueme, Senior Research Associate & National Speaker with Springtide Research InstituteKerby Goff, Associate Director of Research, Boniuk Institute for the Study and Advancement of Religious Tolerance, Rice UniversityPatricia Tevington, Research Associate at the Pew Research Center

In this edition of Speaking of Solidarity, we interview Ruth Braunstein about her new book My Tax Dollars: The Morality of Taxpaying.In this book, Braunstein maps the contested moral landscape in which Americans experience and make sense of the tax system. Braunstein tells the stories of Americans who view taxpaying as more than a mundane chore: antigovernment tax defiers who challenge the legitimacy of the tax system, antiwar activists who resist the use of their taxes to fund war, antiabortion activists against “taxpayer funded abortions,” and a diverse group of people who promote taxpaying as a moral good. Going beyond the usual focus on tax policy, Braunstein’s innovative view of taxation through the lens of cultural sociology shows how citizens in value-diverse societies coalesce around shared visions of the sacred and fears of the profane.Ruth Braunstein is SNF Agora Institute Professor of Sociology at Johns Hopkins University, and host of When The Wolves Came: Evangelicals Resisting Extremism, a new documentary podcast spotlighting evangelical leaders who are resisting political extremism in their church and the country. A cultural sociologist interested in the role of religion and morality in American political life, Ruth’s award-winning research has been published in the American Sociological Review, the American Journal of Cultural Sociology, Contexts, the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Political Power and Social Theory, Sociology of Religion, Theory and Society, and Qualitative Sociology, among other outlets. She is also the author of Prophets and Patriots: Faith in Democracy Across the Political Divide and co-editor of Religion and Progressive Activism: New Stories About Faith and Politics.

In this episode, we talk with Nicholas Hoover Wilson, Associate Professor of Sociology at Stony Brook University about his new book, Modernity's Corruption: Empire and Morality in the Making of British India. We discuss how corruption became corruption and what we should be thinking about today when it comes to defining and addressing corruption.https://cup.columbia.edu/book/modernitys-corruption/9780231192194/

In this episode of Moral Matters, Nicole and Jiwon interview Matthew Andersson on his recent book with Steven Hitlin, The Science of Dignity: Measuring Personhood and WellBeing in the United States.In this book, they integrate classic and contemporary treatments of dignity and use them to position dignity as a public health concern affected by resources and stressors, drawing on multiple years of recent data collected by Gallup that offer innovative measurement of subjective dignity and its relationship to well-being. Andersson is an associate professor of sociology at Baylor University. He studies health inequalities across the life course through a social-psychological lens. His work has appeared in numerous social science and population health journals, including American Journal of Sociology, Social Forces, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, and Social Science Research.

In our second Speaking of Solidarity webinar, we discussed the challenges and opportunities of solidarity and social change with Francesca Polletta. Polletta is the Chancellor’s Professor of Sociology at UC Irvine, and a leading scholar of culture, politics, social movements, and the law, and the author of many books and articles. In this conversation we discuss ⁠Changing Minds: Social Movements’ Cultural Impacts,⁠ with Edwin Amenta (2025, Russell Sage), and ⁠Inventing the Ties that Bind: Imagining Relationships in Moral and Political Life⁠ (2020, Chicago).  

In this episode, we interview Barbara Kiviat, assistant professor of sociology at Stanford University. She is an economic sociologist who studies how moral beliefs and other cultural understandings shape markets and justify the inequalities they produce. We discuss with Kiviat her recent article, "The Moral Affordances of Construing People as Cases: How Algorithms and the Data They Depend on Obscure Narrative and Noncomparative Justice," which won distinguished article award with the AMSS section. In the article, Kiviat analyzes how algorithms depend on rendering people as cases, which carries consequences for moral reasoning as well because different moral standards require different information. While rendering people as cases affords adjudications of comparative justice, parsing noncomparative justice often necessitates narrative. Kiviat summarizes the article here:http://www.wipsociology.org/2023/11/24/the-moral-ramifications-of-how-algorithms-see-people/Read the article here:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/07352751231186797

Seeing Others in these Times with Michele LamontIn Janurary, the ASA Altruism, Morality, and Social Solidarity section was proud to host a live conversation with renowned sociologist Michele Lamont to discuss her book, Seeing Others: How Recognition Works, and How it Can Heal our Divided World and explore the dynamics of recognition in today's challenging times. This is a condensed version of that conversation. You can check out Professor Lamont's book at the link below as well.Seeing Others: How Recognition Works, and How it Can Heal our Divided World, by Michele Lamonthttps://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Seeing-Others/Michele-Lamont/9781982153786

How does someone become the kind of person who commits genocide, and what role does dehumanization and moral agency play? In this interview with Dr. Aliza Luft, we discuss her research on genocide, moral agency, and dehumanization. Discussing her research on genocide in Rwanda and the Holocaust, Luft provides some keen insight on how violence leads to dehumanization and how local political and religious leaders play a critical role in stopping genocide from emerging. Luft is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at UCLA. You can read more of her work through links on her website: https://www.alizaluft.com.

Religious practice is often associated with being more politically and civically engaged, but what about spiritual practices? In this episode of Moral Matters, we interview Jamie Kucinskas and Evan Stewart about their article "Selfish or Substituting Spirituality? Clarifying the Relationship between Spiritual Practice and Political Engagement." We talk about how both religious and spiritual practices are linked to political and civic engagement. Here's Jaime and Evan's article in the American Sociological Review: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/00031224221108196

In this episode we discuss labor strikes, moral economies, and lessons we can learn from the famous 1937 GM strike in Flint Michigan from Dr. Josh Murray, associate professor of sociology at Vanderbilt University. We also discuss his book, with Michael Schwartz, Wrecked: How the American Automobile Industry Destroyed Its Capacity to Compete.

In this episode of Moral Matters, Shai Dromi and Sam Stabler discuss their new book, ⁠⁠Moral Minefields: How Sociologists Debate Good Science.⁠⁠ Shai Dromi is Associate Senior Lecturer on Sociology at Harvard University and Sam Stabler is a Doctoral Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Hunter College (CUNY).  Moral Matters is a podcast sponsored by the Altruism, Morality and Social Solidarity Section of the American Sociological Association. The 2023-2024 season is hosted by Kerby Goff (Boniuk Institute, Rice University) and Elena van Stee (University of Pennsylvania). Follow us on twitter here.

Listen in for an amazingly generative conversation with Dr. Hajar Yazdiha, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Southern California. We talked about her new book, The Struggle for the People's King: How Politics Transforms the Memory of the Civil Rights Movement (Princeton University Press 2023), and the importance of the study of morality and social solidarity for the broader discipline of sociology.

Check out the conversation with Francesca Polletta discussing her work and research of imaginary ties and social movements.

Check out this conversation with Dr. Galen Watts (KU Leuven) on his recent book, The Spiritual Turn: The Religion of the Heart and the Making of Romantic Liberal Modernity, published in 2022 by Oxford University Press. 

In this episode, Scott Hamilton, Chair of the Communication Committee of the AMSS Section and Professor of Sociology at the University of North Texas engages in a conversation with Netta Kahana, PhD Student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, on her recent article, "The road worth taking, the life worth living, and the person worth being: Morality, authenticity and personhood in volunteer tourism and beyond," published in Tourist Studies in 2021. Do not miss out this thought-provoking discussion! 

Check out the conversation between ex-chair Professor David Melamed (The Ohio State University) and this year's current chair Professor Penny Edgell (University of Minnesota) discussing the importance of public sociology and a recent publication by Professor Edgell. 

In this episode, Professor Matthew Baggetta (Indiana University) discusses two recent publications, "Systematic Social Observation in the Study of Civil Society Organizations," published in Sociological Methods and Research, and "Observing Civic Engagement: Using. Systematic Social Observation to Study Civil Society Organization Convenings," published in VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations. Check it out! 

In this podcast conversation,  Professor Bin Xu (Emory University), president-elect of the AMSS section, discusses his recent book "Chairman Mao's Children: Generation and the Politics of Memory in China" published in 2021 with Cambridge University Press.