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DOI: 10.1177/0092055X13483709

2013 41: 228Teaching SociologyMartin D. Hughes

Web Review: This Week in Sociology: Connecting Your Classroom to the World

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Corey Dolgon and Jason SmithThis Week in Sociology: Connecting Your Classroom to the World. 2011. Electronic resource. Retrieved July 6, 2011. (http://www.thisweekinsociology.com).

Reviewed by: Martin D. Hughes, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USADOI: 10.1177/0092055X13483709

At the Web site for The New York Times its pos-sible to sign up for free e-mail alerts on selected topics. When I opted to have the newspaper notify me every time it published an article tagged with the keyword sociology, I expected to discover news stories that could serve as timely, relevant examples for my classes. What I received instead were occasional book reviews, obituary articles, and op-ed columns from non-sociologists. The truth is that there just arent that many hidden stories waiting to be discovered at the major news outlets. What you see is pretty much what you get.

I then switched to a different strategy: operat-ing my own news-clipping service. As I scanned each days headlines I simply saved those articles I thought I might some day use in class. The prob-lem with this approach was that my timing was usually off. Id have to wait until later that semes-ter for the story to line up with the course material; of course, if Id already covered that topic Id need to wait even longer, until the next semester. This defeated the purpose of clipping the articles in the first place. By the time a story became truly useful to me, it was often yesterdays news, buried under a torrent of more recent developments. In the current era of 24/7/365 news, a story can have a very short shelf life. Even more than the timing issue was the expense. Since I couldnt afford the constant vigilance, both in terms of time and men-tal effort, I eventually abandoned the project.

Then, in spring 2011, I learned of the launch of This Week in Sociology, an online collection of analyses of current events contributed by practicing

sociologists with an eye to connecting your class-room to the world. The site uses the blog template that most of us are familiar with by now: The newest posts appear on the main page, with older posts a few clicks away. All entries are tagged with key-words, allowing them to be grouped into topical categories. Beginning in mid-March 2011 and con-tinuing through early May 2011, every week brought a new slate of four to eight items, though the site seems to have gone on hiatus until the beginning of the 20112012 academic year. This makes sense, given that it is administered by a two-person staff and relies heavily on voluntary submissions.

This latter fact also means that content quality varies. I mention this not to indict anyones writing abilities, but rather to indicate that some stories are more student-friendly than others. Although I wholeheartedly endorse students learning about the history of May Day, the fact that it isnt even a nationally recognized holiday means that it is already somewhat removed from their everyday experience. Such items stand in stark contrast to those written about golf and college basketball tournaments, beer advertisements, Mardi Gras, and the years Best Picture winner. To be fair, there are also a number of analyses of high-profile events that are somewhat less proximate to students lives but no less significant, such as the earned income tax credit, giving visitors a good variety from which to select as well as a good understanding of the breadth of range across which a sociological perspective might be fruitfully applied.

A personal favorite is the analysis of televised beer advertisements and what they reveal about contemporary conceptions of masculinity (Brenne-man 2011). Written with warmth and humor by Robert Brenneman, this piece yields multiple insights into culture while also introducingor illustrating, for those readers with prior knowledgekey concepts such as heteronormativity. Many of the other articles are equally informative, and some have that same Ive-always-wondered-about-that-too flavor to them. But Brenneman manages to

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deliver all this in an accessible, conversational style, and all within the space of 1,200 words. He teaches, but he does so by leading us to the things hes learned himself. The reader learns with rather than from the author.

The variety of entries lends itself to application in a number of sociology courses, from the intro-ductory undergraduate level on up. Some of the analyses present concepts they do not fully expli-cate, leaving some of the work to the student and/or the teacher. This isnt necessarily a bad thing, of course. They could readily serve as discussion starters. They might also be used as examples for students to model their own analyses after. Id be excited if more students made their own contribu-tions to the Web site, but that depends on whether teachers actively encourage them to do so.

This Week in Sociology is a very new venture. Its long-term viability depends on the cooperation of its editors, its contributors, and its intended consumers: the myriad undergraduates in sociol-ogy courses and those of us teaching those courses. Its very existence is an experiment in collective action that I hope will succeed, but it isnt entirely up to me. At the very least I hope it survives long enough to witness the publication of this review.

REFERENCEBrenneman, Robert. 2011. Man Up! Lessons in Beer

Tasting and Masculinity. This Week in Sociology. Re- trieved July 6, 2011 (http://www.thisweekinsociology .com/?p=520).