Zeenat Shah
Staff Writer
Listening to your favorite songs on the radio, tuning into your favorite television show or shaking your stuff on the dance floor may not seem like earth-shattering, thought-provoking fodder for research, but be warned: your every move may end up the topic of interest at a future interactionist conference.
Sociologists from all over the world flocked to the University of Houston this weekend to attend the Coach-Stone Symposium, an event geared toward the study of the everyday.
The symposium is an annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interactionists who, according to event organizer Joseph Kotarba, "study everyday life and social life in it's most common and exotic forms."
The theme for this year's event was "Symbolic Interactionist Work: What we have to say about social life today."
Kotarba said the goal of the event was to update the members of the group on new developments in the field of sociology. "The benefit to students is to show them the practical work sociologists do. They do much research work on social problems and shed light on problems and solutions.
"The fact that it is being held here shows that the university supports cutting edge research in the social sciences." This is the first time the event has been held at UH.
Through panels, paper presentations, performances and lectures, approximately 90 people discussed their research projects. About 30 research papers on a wide array of topics from popular culture, to identity and emotions, to aging, health and illness were presented.
Two sociologists from Australia's Griffith University put on a the theatrical presentation, "Stop! In the Name of Love!" which focused on the struggles of sexual assault victims. Steve Morgan, who presented the drama, said its goal was "to show how this research brings out the agendas and different languages of sexual assault victims, police officers and sexual assault counselors."
Morgan said presenting his work at the conference would help him further his research. "The idea is to get recognition here in the states so we can go to funding boards in Australia and raise funds there, in order to bring about awareness of sexual assault issues to the public."
Barbara Korth, a graduate student from the College of Education, attended a morning session on "Identity and Emotions." She said, "The session was bold in that it was an attempt to legitimize emotions and social science research."
The session that focused on popular culture tied together the topics of postmodern dance, river rafting, sexual self-presentation in current television, history and the state of current popular music in an effort to explain popular culture.
Aimee Krouskop, a graduate student of psychology at UH, presented her research on postmodern dance. "I wanted to present my work for the public-speaking and professional presenting experience," she said.
"For students, (the conference) helps bring what they're studying home. It is kind of difficult to ... conceptualize these theories, if you don't see them being presented," Krouskop said.
Gary Alan Fine, a professor of sociology at Northwestern University, focused on the truth of history. His presentation raised questions about the Holocaust.
"The creation of the number of six million Jews - where did that number come from? I do not deny the huge number of Jews that were killed, but even the most reputable historians say that six million Jews were not killed. They're saying only 1.5 to 1.7 million," Fine said.
He blamed "communist countries who had a particular interest in creating those numbers" for exaggerating the fatality figures.
Chad Gordon from Rice University focused on the women's changing sexual roles on television. In the past, he said, women were portrayed as soft and not aggressive on television. Women are not portrayed that way anymore. Instead, he said, "women are being portrayed as being strong and dynamic."