Dr. Joanna Pepin, an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto, will deliver the 15th Annual William Form Lecture on April 10. The event details include a "Read more" button for additional information.

Join us this Friday, April 10, at 3pm when
@joannapepin.bsky.social of the University of Toronto will deliver the 15th annual William Form Lecture.

The talk will take place in Chaney Library at the Riggs Alumni Center.

More at go.umd.edu/pepin

Cohen & Hudde with Testudo

Got to visit with Ansgar @hudde.bsky.social today, as he gave a fabulous talk at @socyumd.bsky.social. Look for his work, with Shannon Taflinger, on cross-partisan dating in the US, using a survey experiment with open-ended responses, and a rigorous test of LLM-assisted qualitative coding.

How much of a reason is each of the following for why you are not likely to have children? Major reasons Percent Total percent Don't want to 14.5 67.1 Social / environment issues + Don't want to + Can't afford 9.4 Spouse issues 8.0 32.6 Social / environment issues + Don't want to 7.7 NONE 7.2 Infertility 6.3 12.9 Spouse issues + Don't want to 5.9 Social / environment issues + Don't want to + Can't afford + Negative experience 4.6 Don't want to + Can't afford 4.1 Spouse issues + Don't want to + Can't afford 2.5 Social / environment issues + Spouse issues + Don't want to + Can't afford + Negative experience 2.3 Don't want to + Negative experience 2.2 Spouse issues + Can't afford 2.2 Social / environment issues + Spouse issues + Don't want to + Can't afford 2.1 Social / environment issues + Don't want to + Negative experience 2.0 Social / environment issues + Spouse issues + Don't want to 1.9 Social / environment issues + Spouse issues + Can't afford 1.8 Social / environment issues + Can't afford 1.4 Don't want to + Infertility 1.3 Social / environment issues 1.3 40.0 Spouse issues + Don't want to + Can't afford + Negative experience 1.0 Social / environment issues + Don't want to + Can't afford + Infertility 1.0 Can't afford 0.9 35.8 Don't want to + Negative experience + Infertility 0.7 Negative experience 0.6 17.8 Spouse issues + Don't want to + Infertility 0.6 Social / environment issues + Spouse issues 0.6 Social / environment issues + Spouse issues + Don't want to + Negative experience 0.6 Don't want to + Can't afford + Negative experience 0.5 Top 95% 95.2

New from me: Most Americans who aren’t having children don’t want to (and not because of the environment).

To look at the overlapping reasons not to have children, I got the Pew data, constructed categories, and made a table of combinations.
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familyinequality.wordpress.com/2026/03/13/m...

Beyond the Ivory Tower—How Philip Cohen’s Citizen Scholar Changed My Thinking, and Why It Matters Now Philip N. Cohen’s monograph Citizen Scholar: Public Engagement for Social Scientists is both a reflective provocation and a practical guide for academics who want their work to matter beyond campus ga...

Very nice review of Citizen Scholar by Elizabeth Bennion (who is Director of Community Engagement at Indiana University South Bend), in Political Science Educator. "Cohen’s principles—openness, honesty, humility, care, and clarity about one’s role and limitations—are vital." Thanks!

A group of people on a film set by the beach, with some wearing headsets and others seated, engaged in discussion. Equipment and crew are visible.

Sociology alum Zainab Azizi, BA '12, is a producer on Sam Raimi's newest film, "Send Help"! Read more at go.umd.edu/zainab

But, scientists should do more to foster trust with the public, said Philip Cohen, a sociologist at the University of Maryland who recently published a paper on the "widening political divide over science." "What Trump, Kennedy, and the anti-science movement are doing is not our fault, but we have work to do. Every university researcher in particular relies on the public to do our work, and we all have to contribute to building the public's trust," he said. "We do that in everyday interactions, in speaking and writing about our work wherever it's needed, and being part of the public debate on these issues. A lot of researchers don't want to get involved, or they think it undermines their credibility to speak out on public issues, but the opposite is true. We no longer have a choice."

In @statnews.com , @aniloza.bsky.social covered today's new Pew survey on attitudes toward science. I said: "Every university researcher in particular relies on the public to do our work, and we all have to contribute to building the public's trust."
www.statnews.com/2026/01/15/a...

University of Maryland Department of Sociology January 2026 newsletter featuring a snowy landscape with a sundial at sunrise.

UMD Sociology has just launched a new newsletter! You can read the first issue at conta.cc/49INWgF

If you'd like to sign up (approximately 3 issues per year), just email sociology@umd.edu!

This week CCPR's seminar series will feature @philipncohen.com discussing his book, "Research is Not Enough: Public Engagement and the Citizen Scholar." Join us on January 14 @12pm in Public Affairs 337.

We do research to contribute to knowledge. That only happens if people can read it. In modern democracies, we don't choose who gets to have the knowledge we produce, thankfully. There are barriers to accessing our research, and we want to reduce them. The ideal is universal access.
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scatterplot of trend over time

Political polarization on confidence in the scientific community accelerated in the 2024 General Social Survey, with moderates now showing a significant downturn.

(Apologies if I missed this updated with 2024 data already)
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Person in a gray sweater and striped shirt. Text announces Lincoln Quillian's talk on Nov 19 at 12pm about "Digital Redlining in College Recruitment."

Join us on November 19 at 12pm when @lquillian.bsky.social of Northwestern University will give a talk entitled "Digital Redlining in College Recruitment."

We'll convene in room 4103 of the Parren J. Mitchell Art-Sociology Building.

More at go.umd.edu/quillian

A person in a dark blazer and checkered shirt is seated in front of a bookshelf. The text below announces a talk by Ernesto Castañeda of American University on October 22nd at 12pm in room 4103 of the Parren J. Mitchell Art-Sociology Building, titled "The Science and Politics of Immigration Research, Public Opinion, and Policy Making." A "Read more" button is visible at the bottom.

Join the UMD Department of Sociology on Wednesday, October 22, for a talk with @drernestocast.bsky.social titled "The Science and Politics of Immigration Research, Public Opinion, and Policy Making."

More at go.umd.edu/castaneda

Join us on November 7 for the annual Morris Rosenberg Lecture, delivered this year by Dr. Ann Morning of NYU. She will give a talk entitled "Sociology in Real Time: Evolving Concepts of Race in the U.S."

The talk begins at 2:30pm in the Stamp Student Union.

More info at go.umd.edu/rosenberg2025

I don't know how many children 2025 Nobel Laureate Mary Brunknow has, but this AP photo caption says "one of their daughters." If she has 2 kids she just raised the mean number of children for Nobel medicine winners from 0.8 to 0.9.

Not just an attack on academic freedom and democracy, but on science and knowledge creation, too. The end of the system where experts even nominally decide on research funding and priorities, replaced with a loyalty oath.

Back when almost all births were to married couples, fascists promoted marriage and births together, like Mussolini's bachelor tax. In the US, once marriage and fertility came uncoupled circa 1980s, it was harder to muster a decent fascist profamily policy...
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It’s an exciting week for letterpress on campus! Join us Wednesday in STAMP for Constitution Day buttons and broadsides and Thursday at Hornbake, Tawes Booklab, and the Clarice for Type High Day! More to come on both of these events 🐢 #libsky #umdlibraries #umdspecialcollections #umd

A news article featuring an individual in a light blue shirt, with the headline "Collin Mueller Awarded Pilot Grant from the National Institute on Aging." The article mentions that Collin Mueller received a pilot grant as part of the newly funded Southern Population Aging Research Center. A "Read more" button is visible at the bottom.

Congratulations to Sociology faculty member Collin Mueller, who was awarded a pilot grant from the National Institute on Aging! He will work with new @socyumd.bsky.social ‬faculty member Taylor Hargrove.

Read more at go.umd.edu/muellergrant

Congratulations to Sociology faculty member Long Doan, who was selected for the 2025 cohort of the Office of Faculty Affairs' Fearless Leadership Foundations Program!

Read more at go.umd.edu/leaderdoan

Citizen Scholar | Columbia University Press What is the role of professional scholars in civic life? How and why should academics seek to reach audiences beyond their disciplines and institutions? Must... | CUP

Wow, Citizen Scholar has been selected for author-meets-critics at ASA next year. I don't get to pick critics but I can nominate them. If you would like to discuss it, are willing to do 2 hours work for a print copy, or just need a program appearance, let me know! cup.columbia.edu/book/citizen...

Headshot of a smiling person wearing glasses, a black top, and small earrings, in front of a plain gray background. Text reads: “News. Taylor Hargrove Joins the Sociology Faculty. Taylor Hargrove is joining the Department of Sociology as an Associate Professor in fall 2025.” There is also a “Read more” button.

The Department of Sociology is excited to announce the arrival of our newest faculty member, Dr. Taylor Hargrove! Associate Professor Hargrove joins us from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Learn more at go.umd.edu/hargrove

Welcome, Taylor!

🎉🎉

Congratulations to PhD candidate Neerad Deshmukh, the inaugural recipient of the Joan R. Kahn Endowed Graduate Research Support Fund, established by Professor Emerita of Sociology Joan Kahn.

Read more about his work at go.umd.edu/deshmukh

Congratulations, Neerad!

"It's going to get worse before it gets better." In a conversation with Respons, sociologist Philip N. Cohen discusses how research and politics can be united in the shadow of political developments in the United States (in Swedish) tidskriftenrespons.se/artikel/phil...

Congratulations to Dr. Amelia Branigan, who was recently promoted to the rank of Associate Professor with tenure!

🎉🎉

More at socy.umd.edu/news/amelia-...

In the last year I have written 10 posts under the Population tag. Collect the whole set!
🧵
familyinequality.wordpress.com/tag/populati...

We're embarrassingly late to the party but congratulations to our own @philipncohen.com, recipient of this year's Kohli Foundation Infrastructure Prize for Sociology for his work with @socarxiv.bsky.social!
🎉🎉🎉

We are thrilled to announce that Dr. Katharine Khanna will be joining the department as an Assistant Professor in fall 2025! She is currently with us as a UMD President's Postdoctoral Fellow. Congratulations, Kate! More at socy.umd.edu/news/kathari...

Professor Emeritus William “Bill” Falk recently passed away last month. Read more about his many years with the Department of Sociology at socy.umd.edu/news/celebra...

What’s Lost: Trump Whacks Tiny Agency That Works To Make the Nation's Health Care Safer - KFF Health News The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has helped improve health care safety in a country where thousands die of medical errors each year. It was effectively dissolved Tuesday.

Today at UMD we had a dissertation defense that relied on data from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to study health disparities. Their staff have now been gutted. kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

Declaration To Defend Research Against U.S. Government Censorship This Declaration is a call to action for the scholarly communication community and additional stakeholders to condemn and resist recent acts by the U.S. government to censor scholarly research. We ca...

Philip, this work is being censored and ppl are being erased.

Help fight 👊 back by ✒️ the DefendResearch.org Declaration to #DefendResearch from #censorship. We're over 4K strong working to educate the public on the dangers.

All welcome irresp discipline, geography:
 tinyurl.com/3bwuc38f