Category: Articles

Recent articles published by faculty, students, and alumni.

[Article] Dirk Witteween and Paul Attewell – Social Dimensions of Student Debt: A Data Mining Analysis

Posted on November 20, 2019 by - Articles, Recent Publications

Dirk Witteween (Alum) and Paul Attewell (Faculty)

“Social Dimensions of Student Debt: A Data Mining Analysis.” Journal of Student Financial Aid 49(1) Article 1 (October, 2019).

Abstract

Media commentary on undergraduates’ loan debt portrays a crisis in which many students are unable to pay back their loans, having borrowed large sums and lacking sufficient post-college income to repay. Several scholars have questioned the media accounts, noting that indebtedness is highest among students from high income families, while defaults predominate among low debt students. Using a data mining technique known as CART, we analyze national data on the indebtedness of recent baccalaureate graduates, to uncover combinations of social characteristics that are associated with loan pressure: the ratio of indebtedness to post-college earnings. We find that students from lower income families who attend expensive institutions – especially for-profit colleges – accumulate high debt. In contrast to earlier scholarship, after controlling for the net cost of attending a college, we find that lower-income students face much higher loan pressure than students from more affluent families.

[Article] Anna Zhelnina – The Apathy Syndrome: How We Are Trained Not to Care about Politics

Posted on October 29, 2019 by - Articles, Recent Publications

Anna Zhelnina (PhD Candidate)

“The Apathy Syndrome: How We Are Trained Not to Care about Politics.” Social Problems. Online first (July, 2019).

Abstract

The role of emotions in social movements and mobilization has been an important focus of recent research, but the emotional mechanisms producing apathy and non-participation remain under studied. This article explores the thinking and feeling processes involved in the production of apolitical attitudes, paying particular attention to their social and cultural context. Cultural norms of appropriateness and emotional expression can hinder or boost the emotions involved in the mobilizing processes. Based on 60 interviews with young people in two Russian cities, collected during and in the aftermath of the anti-regime protests of 2011–12, I explore the apathy syndrome—a combination of emotional mechanisms and cultural norms that produce political apathy. Personal frustrating experiences develop into long-term cynicism and disbelief in the efficacy of collective action, a process exacerbated by the transmission of apathy in families and educational institutions, as well as by cultural norms of appropriate emotions. Cultural clichés and dissociation from others help people cope with the trap and justify inaction.

Keywords: political apathy, political avoidance, emotions, apathy syndrome, emotional mechanisms

[Article] Van C. Tran – The Mere Mention of Asians in Affirmative Action

Posted on October 29, 2019 by - Articles, Recent Publications

Van C. Tran (Faculty)

“The Mere Mention of Asians in Affirmative Action.” Sociological Science *co-authored with Jennifer Lee (Sept. 2019)

Abstract 

Presumed competent, U.S. Asians evince exceptional educational outcomes but lack the cultural pedigree of elite whites that safeguard them from bias in the labor market. In spite of their nonwhite minority status, Asians also lack the legacy of disadvantage of blacks that make them eligible beneficiaries of affirmative action. Their labor market disadvantage coupled with their exclusion from affirmative action programs place Asians in a unique bind: do they support policies that give preferences to blacks but exclude them? Given their self- and group interests, this bind should make Asians unlikely to do so. We assess whether this is the case by comparing their attitudes to those of whites, blacks, and Hispanics. Drawing on a novel three-way framing experiment embedded in the 2016 National Asian American Survey, we document how the “mere mention of Asians” in affirmative action frames affects support for the preferential hiring and promotion of blacks. Support shifts in different ways among all groups depending on the mere mention of Asians as either victims of affirmative action alongside whites or as victims of discrimination alongside blacks. Moreover, among Asians, support for affirmative action differs significantly by immigrant generation: first-generation Asians express the weakest support.