Special EventsHUMANITIES COUNCIL WORKSHOP
Journalism and the Sociological Imagination
The documentary impulse has always been an essential part of the work done by journalists. From Jacob Riis's writings and photography on the lives of the "other half" of New York, through George Orwell's study of English coal miners, and finally with Adrian Nicole LeBlanc's painstakingly detailed portrait of a family in the South
Bronx, journalists have dedicated themselves to chronicling the lives of the poor and exploited.
It is an impulse that has also played a significant role within American sociology, although it is usually expressed in a more academic manner. The Chicago School of Sociology produced much early ethnography in the 1920s and 1930s and the 1943 publication of W.F. Whyte's Street Corner Society resisted the growing quantitative imperative of sociology. These qualitative works produced a fascinating hybrid—drawing on the techniques both of academic sociology and long-form, literary journalism.
Sociologists like Mario Luis Smalls have used analytic concepts like "social capital" to explain why poor, ethnic areas fail to connect to the more prosperous communities around them. Journalists like Alex Kotlowitz and Leon Dash use innovative reporting techniques to show how activities such as crime and drug use are embodied in the
lives of individuals. This seminar series is intended to bring together ethnographer/social scientists and journalists/documentary filmmakers who can explore the intersections of these fields. The goal of this gathering is to survey both groups of literature, drawing substantive, methodological and analytical insights from each that
might illuminate concerns of the other.
October 6
Elijah Anderson (University of Pennsylvania, Sociology) & Leon Dash (University of Illinois at Champagne-Urbana, Journalism)
November 10
Mitchell Duneier (CUNY Graduate Center and Princeton, Sociology) &Adrian Nicole LeBlanc (Random Family, Macarthur Fellow)
Each participant has chosen a text to help focus the conversation, available on http://journalism.nyu.edu/events/workshops/sociology
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY 295 LAFAYETTE STREET (PUCK BUILDING)
4TH FLOOR MEMORIAL ROOM 3PM-5PM; COCKTAILS FROM 5PM-7PM
|
