Miscellaneous by R. Tyson Smith
In the following paper we argue that the conventional "Introduction to Sociology" survey course s... more In the following paper we argue that the conventional "Introduction to Sociology" survey course should be restructured because such courses try to survey an unsurveyable body of knowledge and they do not teach the application of sociological research. The conventional intro course should be replaced with an intro course that surveys the types of social dynamics that sociologists typically research and the methods they use to do so. We propose a semester-long intro course with four case study learningunits that are chosen for their coverage of the underlying sociological dynamics, methods, and core concepts. We contend that case study learning-units which concentrate on topical issues and core sociological concepts are better suited for an introduction course.
Papers by R. Tyson Smith
The American Sociologist, Oct 1, 2010
In the following paper we argue that the conventional "Introduction to Sociology" survey course s... more In the following paper we argue that the conventional "Introduction to Sociology" survey course should be restructured because such courses try to survey an unsurveyable body of knowledge and they do not teach the application of sociological research. The conventional intro course should be replaced with an intro course that surveys the types of social dynamics that sociologists typically research and the methods they use to do so. We propose a semester-long intro course with four case study learning-units that are chosen for their coverage of the underlying sociological dynamics, methods, and core concepts. We contend that case study learning-units which concentrate on topical issues and core sociological concepts are better suited for an introduction course.
Contexts, May 1, 2006
Millions of fans adore professional wrestling. A cross between sport and theater, its participant... more Millions of fans adore professional wrestling. A cross between sport and theater, its participants act out a fight in front of paying spectators. Pro wrestling is best known for highly stylized, televised pro-ductions in large sports arenas. Outside the purview of com-mercial television, ...
Advertising & society review, 2005
In the following paper I argue that in a post-feminist era, advertisers strategically employ iron... more In the following paper I argue that in a post-feminist era, advertisers strategically employ irony to target a young male demographic. As a case study, I analyze an extensive print advertising campaign from Jim Beam Bourbon that ran from 1999 to 2003. The campaign provides an ...
Qualitative Sociology, Apr 12, 2008
This paper draws upon the relational turn in the study of pain to understand and explain the ways... more This paper draws upon the relational turn in the study of pain to understand and explain the ways in which professional wrestlers manage and make sense of physical suffering. The paper focuses on how pain-laden interactions in the ring and the gym give form to the ways in which participants of wrestling think and feel about pain. The research is based on a long-term ethnography of professional wrestling. The article does two things: (a) explores the bodily skills that wrestlers cultivate to handle a context of ever-present pain, and (b) explains what the wrestlers' interactions tell us about the meanings of pain that wrestlers come to share. Based on the reconstruction of participants' lived experience of pro wrestling, I suggest that pain becomes attractive to wrestlers because it is given substantive meaning which encompasses denial, authenticity, solidarity, and dominance.
Social Psychology Quarterly, Jun 1, 2008
Oxford University Press eBooks, Dec 20, 2018
Media and advocacy outlets have expressed alarm about homelessness among post-9/11–era Veterans, ... more Media and advocacy outlets have expressed alarm about homelessness among post-9/11–era Veterans, with little systematic research available to evaluate these claims and to offer an empirically based profile of the nature and extent of homelessness. In this chapter, the authors draw on research, media, and advocacy accounts to identify the factors that are particular to homelessness among this most recent cohort of Veterans, with a particular focus on defining military-based factors of this era and broader systemic forces that were formative to Veterans’ experiences after returning to civilian life. These factors, the authors argue, interact to create a set of circumstances that do not appear to currently create substantially elevated rates of homelessness among post-9/11 Veterans but that potentially warrant policy attention and interventions in specific areas, as well as further monitoring of homelessness risk over the cohort’s collective life course.
Bring Me Men starts with the thesis that "military masculinity is not what it seems to be" and se... more Bring Me Men starts with the thesis that "military masculinity is not what it seems to be" and sets out to complicate inherited ideas and analyses of American military masculinities through feminist lenses. From cover to cover, this book is a careful, complex, theoretically innovative, and empirically rich explication of a new understanding of American military masculinity. Defining military masculinity fairly conventionally -as "a set of beliefs, practices and attributes that can enable individuals -men and women -to claim authority on the basis of affirmative relationships with the military or with military ideas", (p. 3) Belkin goes on to reject the conventional understanding of American military masculinity as "requiring warriors to disavow, and even crush, any unmasculine aspects of themselves" (p. 4). Instead, Belkin argues, "the production of masculine warriors has required those who embody masculinity to enter into intimate relationships with femininity, queerness, and other unmasculine foils, not just to disavow them" (p. 4). Realizing this contradiction leads Belkin to retheorize militarized masculinity in the American context between the Spanish-American War and the eve of the "Global War on Terror," arguing that the masculine armed forces require a surprising degree of engagement with the unmasculine others. Bring Me Men demonstrates and analyzes these contradictions in two two-chapter case studies with an impressive amount of detail and depth. Chapters 3 and 4 deal with questions of penetrability and impenetrability regarding questions of rape in the U.S. military, focusing specifically on the United States Naval Academy rape investigations in 2000. Chapters 5 and 6 explore significations of filth and cleanliness in the Philippines, starting in 1898 with the beginning of the United States military presence. Belkin argues that these dichotomies of penetration/impenetrability and filth/cleanliness are not opposites where American militarized masculinity chooses one and abhors the other. Instead, he demonstrates that one cannot understand the progression of American
Social Psychology Quarterly, 2008
This paper presents a case of jointly produced passion work. Passion work is emotional labor desi... more This paper presents a case of jointly produced passion work. Passion work is emotional labor designed to elicit a strong response from subjects through an impression of extreme states such as pain, agony, or suffering. Based on an ethnographic investigation of professional wrestling participants, this study analyzes the backstage emotion teamwork that takes place within the self and with other performers. The study traces how performers do this physical labor and the social consequences of such work. The findings demonstrate that a) social rewards are intrinsic to performances of passion work, b) jointly produced passion work allows for the sort of breadth that is difficult to achieve in solo emotional work, and c) emotional labor shapes identity in recreational performances of the body.
Society and Mental Health, 2014
Drawing from 26 life story interviews of recent American veterans, this paper analyzes the identi... more Drawing from 26 life story interviews of recent American veterans, this paper analyzes the identity struggle faced by soldiers returning from Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom and reentering the civilian world. Instead of examining veterans’ problems as a consequence of post-combat mental illnesses such as PTSD and major depression, we analyze the contrast between the participants’ identities as soldiers and their identities as civilians. We find that the postwar transition causes adverse mental health effects that stem from contrasts between the military’s demands for deindividuation, obedience, chain-of-command, and dissociation and the civilian identity expectations of autonomy, self-advocacy, and being relational. Veterans’ reintegration to civilian society is further hindered by a culture that is perceived (by veterans) as having decreased understanding of the soldier/veteran experience itself. These identity conflicts—what we term warring identities—have a...
Homelessness Among U.S. Veterans, 2018
Media and advocacy outlets have expressed alarm about homelessness among post-9/11–era Veterans, ... more Media and advocacy outlets have expressed alarm about homelessness among post-9/11–era Veterans, with little systematic research available to evaluate these claims and to offer an empirically based profile of the nature and extent of homelessness. In this chapter, the authors draw on research, media, and advocacy accounts to identify the factors that are particular to homelessness among this most recent cohort of Veterans, with a particular focus on defining military-based factors of this era and broader systemic forces that were formative to Veterans’ experiences after returning to civilian life. These factors, the authors argue, interact to create a set of circumstances that do not appear to currently create substantially elevated rates of homelessness among post-9/11 Veterans but that potentially warrant policy attention and interventions in specific areas, as well as further monitoring of homelessness risk over the cohort’s collective life course.
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Miscellaneous by R. Tyson Smith
Papers by R. Tyson Smith