I’ve been interviewed about feminism and my career by Lady Science, plus, learn more about my recent research and secondment in the Central Coast.
Secondment
Happy lunar new year and happy 2019! The end of last year flew by in a whirl. October 2018 was busy as I geared up to leave on a six-week secondment. I worked with Barang Regional Alliance on their Youth Summit and Three-Year Youth Plan. Barang is the backbone for Aboriginal-controlled organisations in the Central Coast of New South Wales. I lived in the Central Coast from the end of October to early December. You can see some of my adventures on my Instagram and hopefully more soon on my research blog.
After some lovely rest and interstate travel, it’s been back to work on scaling up our vocational education trials and scoping other exciting new projects.
Interview
In January 2019, Lady Science published a podcast about my career and feminism. I talk about what sociology is and how Indigenous and other minority sociologists continue to challenge Western and colonial methods and ideas in sociology and in social policy. I also discuss the concept of ‘otherness,’ which unpacks how ideas of difference position dominant and less powerful groups. Take a listen to see how we can improve societies by being more aware of power and fighting institutional inequality.
Sociology of the mundane
A new textbook on Social Deviance lists my research blog as a resource for the sociology of mundane deviance. This is not quite how I would categorise what Professor Philomena Essed calls ‘everyday racism.’ This is the connections between routine interactions which reproduce racism and institutional discrimination. Still, Professor Henry sees a connection between microaggressions and social deviance.
When the Journal of Mundane Behaviour closed down in 2004, it left a gap in the field, which was filled in 2011 by Zuleyka Zeallos, an applied sociologist of Latin-Australian background, and her blog site: https://othersociologist.com. This site is worth exploring for the everyday, unremarkable practices in which humans engage that are “common, unexciting or ‘humdrum’ and provides a glipse at mundane deviance, with which it often overlaps when observing the irreverent aspects of social life. Yet the site also shows how the mundane practices and a series of “microaggressions” can socially construct consequential stereotypical categories sucha as “race.”
Professor Henry lectures in criminal justice and is Director of the School of Public Affairs, San Diego State University.
You can read other textbooks which reference my work under Citations.
Dr Zuleyka Zevallos - Sociology Prose 