UGA Sociology

Home
United States
Athens, GA
UGA Sociology

Call Directions Website

Home to teachers and scholars engaged in interdisciplinary and collaborative sociological research

10/14/2026

This semester SGA is partnering with Athens nonprofit Books for Keeps to host an on-campus book drive to address low literacy rates in Athens Clarke County public schools.

Last year, UGA students, faculty, and staff donated more than 900 books. This year, they are setting an ambitious goal of 2,000 books, and SGA would love your help in reaching it. They welcome donations of books of any kind and in any condition, including textbooks, although they have a particular need for books geared toward younger readers.

The drive will run through the remainder of the semester and you can donate books outside of Room 201Q, on the second floor of the ELS office in Tate.

10/05/2026

Franklin College has partnered with the UGA Career Center and UGA Mentor Program to host Franklin Career Week, October 12-16. Monday-Wednesday with virtual events, Thursday is an in-person networking night with a catered dinner and group of interdisciplinary alumni panelists, and Friday is a drop-in celebration with treats and swag for anyone who has taken part in the week. Scan the QR codes in the picture to register.

09/29/2026

Join us on Friday, October 2 at 3PM at Miller Learning Center, Room 213, for Zara Jillani's presentation: "How Status Transfers from Task Groups to Informal Groups"

Summary: Research has well established that those with more advantaged characteristics enjoy a number of social benefits within task groups, such as being treated with more deference and being more influential in group decisions. However, theories explaining these behavioral patterns have not been successfully applied to predict interactional inequality in informal groups. In this study, I show how status characteristics theory can predict interactional inequality in “task-suspended groups,” which are informal groups whose members anticipate working together on a task in the future. I present results from an on-going laboratory experiment that show preliminary support for status-based interactional inequality between participants who expect to work on a task together. These findings suggest that effects of status inequality extend beyond task groups, which implies that those with advantaged status characteristics benefit from their status position in more interactional settings than previously theorized.

09/28/2026

The Inside-Out Prison Exchange (PHIL 3700S) brings together a small group of UGA students and a group of residents inside the Clarke County jail to discuss philosophical issues surrounding the criminal justice system, imprisonment, and justice.

The application can be found by scanning the QR code on the flyer. Deadline to apply is Monday, Oct 19 at 5PM

Please send any questions to Dr. Jeremy Davis ([email protected])

09/14/2026

This Week at WGS - September 14, 2026 - https://mailchi.mp/uga.edu/this-week-at-wgs-september-14-12870070

09/11/2026

It isn't just our faculty who produce excellent research as our graduate students do as well. Congratulations to Bex Groth, Katelyn Austin, and Rachael Weaver on their recent sole and first authored publications. Some good weekend reading is linked below!

Bex Groth: "The emotional rhythms of abortion accompaniment in Mexico" in Social Movement Studies.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14742837.2026.2728590

Rachael Weaver and Katelyn Austin (with Karlo Lei) "Mastery moderates the association between cumulative socioeconomic status risk and accelerated biological ageing among middle-age Black Women" in The Journals of Gerontology: Series B.
https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbag193

Katelyn Austin (with Karlo Lei): "Two Separable Aging Domains in Blood DNA Methylation Scores Developed for Cancer Research: Mitotic Replication and Early-Life Systemic Dysregulation" in Genes.
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4425/17/9/1083

08/31/2026

Thank you to Dr. Josh Seim (Boston College) for spending time with our department and presenting his work, "The Welfare Assembly Line: Public Servants in the Suffering City". This theory-driven case study looks at welfare offices and their importance not only for those who depend on them for benefits but also those who depend on them for a paycheck. And beyond welfare offices, this study contributes to larger conversations about work, social policy, and poverty governance.

https://www.ucpress.edu/books/the-welfare-assembly-line/paper

Please keep an eye out for announcements of our future guest speakers!

08/28/2026

Alie Ward, Emmy Award-winning science correspondent and host of Ologies—named one of TIME magazine’s top 50 podcasts—will speak at UGA on Tuesday, Sept. 8, from 3–4 p.m. at the Richard B. Russell Special Collections Libraries.

The lecture is free and open to the public, with no RSVP required.

UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

08/25/2026

Join UGA Sociology on Friday 8/28 at 3PM in Baldwin Hall Room 480 as we welcome Dr. Josh Seim from Boston College for his talk titled:

The Welfare Assembly Line: Public Servants in the Suffering City

Abstract: Despite claims that we live in a “post-welfare society,” welfare offices remain vital not only for those who depend on them for benefits but also those who depend on them for a paycheck. This theory-driven case study of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services examines how welfare work has transformed to allow a department of just 14,000 to serve over a third of the county. Drawing on ethnographic observations, archival research, in-depth interviews, and a range of supplemental materials, Dr. Seim argues that frontline workers at this agency, who are mostly Black and Brown women, have become increasingly proletarianized. Their work is defined less by their discretion and more by a lack of control over the productive process. This is enabled by a “welfare assembly line,” where high divisions of labor and heavy uses of machinery resemble production regimes in factories and fast-food restaurants. Beyond welfare offices, this study contributes to larger conversations about work, social policy, and poverty governance.

08/24/2026

We are excited to announce that Dr. Derick Baum has joined our faculty this year!

As a quantitative sociologist, he seeks to advance statistical and computational methods to address pressing questions in the social sciences. He holds a B.A. in Sociology and Mathematics (double major) from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an A.M. and a Ph.D. in Sociology from Harvard University. He arrives to Athens after recently completing work as a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Sociology at Brown University.

Welcome to UGA Derick!

Address

Athens, GA
30602

Telephone

+17065422421

Website

https://sociology.uga.edu/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when UGA Sociology posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Want your university to be the top-listed university in Athens?