Dr. Beverly Yuen Thompson: Snakegrrl Sociology

Episode 19. Black American Refugee by Tiffanie Drayton

Dr. Beverly Yuen Thompson — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 13:40:30 GMT

In this overview of the book Black American Refugee, written by Tiffanie Drayton, I provide a close reading of the chapters of the book (spoiler alert). Tiffanie Drayton was born in Trinidad and Tobago but arrived to NYC as a small child, making her a 1.5 generation immigrant along with her brother. The live in New Jersey, Texas, Florida, and she lives in Hawaii for a stint as well, thus experiencing many different parts of the United States. She learns through this coming-of-age story what it means to be Black in America, and what a confinement that becomes for personal development. As a sociology professor, I most appreciate the historical and sociological context she provides to each chapter, setting the context of the larger national happenings in which her personal life is evolving. She also immerses herself in Black history and provides the parallels of those lessons alongside her own learning. With trips back to the motherland, she debates where she belongs and if the U.S. can ever live up to its ideals of equality, or if a return to the motherland is the freest option for her family.

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Episode 18. A Conversation on Teaching

Dr. Beverly Yuen Thompson — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 15:39:35 GMT

In this episode, three teachers at three different levels of the educational institution discuss the sociological context of education in the U.S. and the profession of teaching. These three co-authors recently wrote an academic article on the topic of the teaching profession and this conversation reflects on the topics covered in the academic journal article. Morgan Craig is an art teacher in a Philadelphia public high school; Akello Stone is an adjunct sociology professor at a community college in California; and Beverly Thompson is a sociology professor at a small private, liberal arts college in upstate New York.

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Episode 17. Blood and Lightning: On Becoming A Tattooer, by Dustin Kiskaddon (Author interview)

Dr. Beverly Yuen Thompson — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 12:24:48 GMT

Co-hosts Akello Stone and Beverly Yuen Thompson interview Dustin Kiskaddon, author of the book Blood and Lightning: On Becoming a Tattooer. Published in 2024 by Stanford University Press, Dr. Kiskaddon takes us on his journey from tattoo apprentice to tattooer, via a sociological memoir journey through the main social concepts that arose during this professional development process. Using a sociological perspective on this unique world of tattooing as body work, we learn about the approach to working with skin, engaging with clients, advertising on Instagram, and creating body art that will last a lifetime.

Dustin Kiskaddon: https://www.dustinkiskaddon.com/
Blood and Lightning: https://www.sup.org/books/title/?bottom_ref=subject&id=35524

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Episode 16. Changing Family Choices: a Sociological Conversation with Akello Stone

Dr. Beverly Yuen Thompson — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 12:19:17 GMT

In this sociological conversation, two sociologists-- @AkelloStone and Dr. Beverly Yuen Thompson-- as long-time instructors of Sociology of the Family Course, talk about the global changes in marriage, divorce and procreation trends. Globally, people are getting married later (if at all), having children later, and having fewer children. Divorce is also a frequent choice, with subsequent marriages ending in ever increasing percentages of divorce. Some people even choose the option of sologamy—marrying one’s self. Overall, the professors hope that students and public sociologists will become informed on these larger trends and social pressures so that they can understand the context in which they make their own life choices.

Timeline:
00:00-01:48 Introduction
01:49-04:39 Sologamy
04:40-10:57 Divorce
10:58-20:40 Marriage
20:41-33:08 Procreation
33:09-36:41 Gender roles
36:42-54:20 Modern family alternative forms
54:21-57:59 Conclusion

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Episode 15. Tattoos in the Workplace: Dr. Alyssa Grocutt interview

Dr. Beverly Yuen Thompson — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 12:50:58 GMT

Dr. Alyssa Grocutt recently graduated from Smith School of Business, at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, with a PhD. She is currently a Postdoctoral Scholar at Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary. Her PhD was in management, concentrating in organizational behavior. Her dissertation studied employees’ perceptions of tattooed coworkers and leaders. It also looks at how tattoo content plays a role in perceptions of tattooed coworkers.
Alyssa’s website: https://www.alyssagrocutt.com/
Alyssa’s IG: https://www.instagram.com/dr.alyssagrocutt/

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Episode 14. Lean Semesters: How Higher Education Reproduces Inequality

Dr. Beverly Yuen Thompson — Sun, 31 May 2026 14:17:32 GMT

Dr. Beverly Yuen Thompson overviews the book entitled, “Lean Semesters: How Higher Education Reproduces Inequality,” by Sekile M. Nzinga. This book centers the experience of Black women who are graduate students, MA graduates, or PhD graduates, who are teaching as part time adjunct teachers in higher education. Yet even with, or indeed, because of, their graduate degrees, they are more indebted than ever because of their student loan burden. This ethnographic study presents the voices of women laboring in higher education and contrasts the demographic ideals of higher education with the reality of student loan burdens on the American public.

Timeline:
0:00-1:54 Introduction to video
1:55- 8:10 Book Introduction
8:11-18:03 Chapter One: Mortgaging Our Brains
18:04-25:56 Chapter Two: Ain’t I Precarious?
25:57-31:53 Chapter Three: Families Devalued
31:54-38:39 Chapter Four: Jumping Mountains
38:40-43:32 Conclusion: Statement of Solidarity
43:33 Video Conclusion

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Episode 13. Centering Multiplicity and Intersectionality of Asian American Identities

Dr. Beverly Yuen Thompson — Sat, 30 May 2026 14:10:55 GMT

This talk is called, “Centering Multiplicity and Intersectionality of Asian American Identities,” and it was presented to the Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) Center at San Diego State University, on April 17, 2024. I am an alum of SDSU, where I earned my MA in women’s studies. This talk reviewed my MA thesis topic that I researched during my time at SDSU, thus, it was an honor to speak to this group, as such a organization did not exist during my tenure at SDSU in 1997-1999. This talk positions the identity of the mixed race and bisexual woman at the center of an identity model to explore concepts of identity formation, community, and solidarity. I then apply this theory to my current research topic of the tattoo community and talk about how Asian American women engage with their tattoo collection, especially when revealing it to their parents.
Timecode:
0:00-4:13 introduction
4:14-5:18 talk starts
5:19-7:48 Revisiting the thesis
7:49-10:39 Sociological autobiography
10:40-17:18 My family background
17:19-22:21 Thesis: Identities
22:22-27:07 Thesis: Communities
27:08-30:45 Tattoo community, women, and Asian American women
30:46-32:04 Conclusion: Solidarity
32:050-33:11 End: Networking

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Episode 12. Against Technoableism: Rethinking Who Needs Improvement

Dr. Beverly Yuen Thompson — Fri, 29 May 2026 14:31:26 GMT

Sociology professor Beverly Yuen Thompson overviews the book, “Against Technoableism: Rethinking Who Needs Improvement,” written by Ashley Shew (2023). In this short book of essays, Dr. Shew brings together her experiences as an academic researcher in the areas of technology, ethics, and embodiment to apply to the topic of disability from a critical perspective. As a disabled person herself, she reflects upon her own experiences, as well as the voices of disabled scholars and activists to discuss such topics as how disability can contribute to critical understandings of our materials and social worlds, media representations, the materiality of costs associated with disability technologies, neurodivergence, and perspectives on the future of our social context for all bodies. This book provides an insightful perspective for sociologists, medical workers, and those becoming educated on embodiment in social institutions.

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Episode 11. Stuck: Why Asian Americans Don’t Reach the Top of the Corporate Ladder

Dr. Beverly Yuen Thompson — Thu, 28 May 2026 20:36:33 GMT

I overview Margaret Chin’s book Stuck: Why Asian Americans Don’t Reach the Top of the Corporate Ladder, published by NYU Press in 2020. This book applies the concept of the bamboo ceiling to an ethnographic study of elite educated Asian Americans and their experiences climbing the corporate ladder and the various levels at which they find difficulty in being promoted to the next stage. Incorporating concepts such as the model minority myth, perpetual foreigner, racial stereotype, stereotype threat, we see that this group of elite workers find these images imposed on them to have real world consequences for their career trajectory.

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Episode 10. The Meaning of Multiraciality

Dr. Beverly Yuen Thompson — Wed, 27 May 2026 14:50:38 GMT

Dr. Beverly Yuen Thompson provides an overview of the book entitled, “The Meaning of Multiraciality: A Racially Queer Exploration of Multiracial College Students’ Identity Production,” written by Aurora Chang (2022). This book is a qualitative and ethnographic exploration of college students who identify as biracial or multiracial and how they conceive of their identity and the social context in which it is produced. It is based on twenty-five in-depth interviews and three focus groups at one particular college. Aurora Chang explores her own identity in one chapter, and those of her participants in several content chapters before concluding with her theory of “racial queerness.”
Dr. Thompson is a professor of sociology who teaches a course on the sociology of Race & Ethnicity and has published academic writing on similar themes.

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Episode 9. The Academic Job Market

Dr. Beverly Yuen Thompson — Tue, 26 May 2026 21:56:27 GMT

In the first part, Dr. Beverly Yuen Thompson talks about the process of applying for a full-time academic teaching job at an institution of higher education. This video contextualizes the process within a tight academic job market into which ~55,000 newly minted PhDs are unleashed into each year. Because of this stiff competition and few jobs, especially in one’s area of research specialization, it is important to be precise and attentive to your application material package. Dr. Thompson speaks on the composition and perspective of hiring committee members; the pieces of the application, common mistakes, and common-sense details to work on in order to create the best materials for employment consideration. These pieces include: the CV, cover letter, possible teaching statement, research statement, evidence of teaching excellence, sample publication, and list of references or full reference letters. This is the first video in a series of three where the other parts of the process, such as the zoom interview and campus visit, are covered next. (See Video)

In the second part, Dr. Beverly Yuen Thompson discusses the process of the Zoom interview with the hiring committee and how the candidate should prepare for this encounter. The committee may be comprised of around seven faculty, primarily in the department hiring, along with outside members. Dr. Thompson discusses self-presentation, potential questions, time management, information to look up before the interview, and how to leave a lasting impression. Dr. Thompson also provides the perspective of a committee member who is doing this as additional college service, the number of potential applicants to overview, and the long days of interviewing candidates back-to-back. By the end of the Zoom interview, you want to come across as personable, confident, excited about this particular job, and have the committee excited to meet you in person for the campus visit, which is covered in the third video. (See Video)

In the third part, the academic job interview is discussed at the campus visit state. This video overviews the pieces of the campus interview, speaking to an audience of potential job candidates, who will learn about this grueling multi-day interview process for full-time academic teaching jobs. Dr. Beverly Yuen Thompson is a sociology professor who has sat on a number of hiring committees and provides the perspective of the committee members. Details about how to plan for this long campus visit with practice tip, from clothing to interpersonal skills. The steps of the process are also explained. This video points to the ever-increasingly competitive academic job market. (See Video)

Episode 8. Indebted: How Families Make College Work at any Cost

Dr. Beverly Yuen Thompson — Fri, 22 May 2026 11:33:15 GMT

Sociology Professor Beverly Yuen Thompson overviews the book, Indebted: How Families Make College Work at any Cost, by Caitlin Zaloom in 2019. This is an ethnographic study based on interviews with 160 participants, including college students and their parents, about how they understand, communicate about, and engage with student loan debt to finance college, even while the employment arena is increasingly uncertain and precarious. The participants attend both NYU, where Zaloom is herself a professor, as well as students attending a public university in Michigan of the United States. This video overviews the main points of each chapter, the facts and figures, and the sociological framework of understanding the exponentially growing institutions engaged with the process of financing student debt.

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Episode 7. Sociology of Housing

Dr. Beverly Yuen Thompson — Thu, 21 May 2026 14:38:27 GMT

In this episode, sociology professors Akello Stone and Beverly Yuen Thompson provide an in-depth overview of the anthology called, “The Sociology of Housing,” edited by Brian J. McCabe & Eva Rosen (2023). This overview mentioned many of the chapters which cover a vast array of topics such as: indigenous land loss, segregation, housing insecurity, short term rentals, types of housing, and social problems related to housing and well-being. This never took off as a sub-discipline of sociology, but this book argues for more research that examines housing as a social phenomenon.

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Episode 6. Southeast Asia in Sociological Books

Dr. Beverly Yuen Thompson — Wed, 20 May 2026 14:24:56 GMT

I recently traveled to six countries in SE Asia and as I am a sociology professor, I took this opportunity to read or collect about fifteen books on the sociological and historical aspects of the region. This video overviews all the books briefly and provide a glimpse into the trajectory of the region and our relationship to it. I would love to teach a course on SE Asian sociology in the future so be sure to let me know if you’d be interested in more information about any of these books.

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Episode 5. Yale Committee on “Trust in Higher Education”

Dr. Beverly Yuen Thompson — Wed, 20 May 2026 14:06:08 GMT

I overview the main points of the Yale Committee’s Report “On Trust in Higher Education,” based on one year of research, and published on April 10, 2026. The committee worked for the Yale president and conducted interviews and focus groups with hundreds of campus stakeholders, as well as held public forums on a variety of relevant topics. Based on this data, as well as a lengthy bibliography, the committee had a handful of primary topics to address. They also present a list of twenty recommendations for institutions of higher education to consider.

Link to video
Link to report: https://president.yale.edu/committees-programs/presidents-committees/committee-on-trust-in-higher-education

Episode 4. Historical Buildings: Demolition and Preservation

Dr. Beverly Yuen Thompson — Wed, 20 May 2026 13:13:42 GMT

We discuss Dr. Bruce Jackson’s book, “The Life and Death of Buffalo’s Great Northern Grain Elevator 1897-2023” published in 2024. Jackson is a professor of English at The University of University at Buffalo and has written numerous books, made documentary films, and is a photographer. This book is an archival project, bringing together original documents regarding the structure and its demolition, as well as photographs from Dr. Jackson. The book tells the story of one historical structure’s impact on the city of Buffalo and the actors who worked to demolish the building. Morgan Craig and I (Dr. Beverly Yuen Thompson) discuss the book and reflect on the historical and cultural significance of historic structures. I am a sociology professor and Morgan is an artist and PhD candidate in art and philosophy, whose artwork focuses on industrial ruin. Morgan discusses his artwork capturing the decline of manufacturing globally.

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Morgan’s website: https://morgancraig.org/
Dr. Bruce Jackson’s website: https://www.buffalo.edu/cas/english/faculty/faculty_directory.host.html/content/shared/cas/english/profiles/jackson-bruce.html

Episode 3. Heart of Toronto

Dr. Beverly Yuen Thompson — Fri, 15 May 2026 18:23:12 GMT

I am Beverly Yuen Thompson, a sociology professor interested in cities and city development. My partner Morgan Craig is a PhD candidate and visual artist focused on the built environment in a post-industrial society. In this video, we provide a close reading of the book, “The Heart of Toronto: Corporate Power, Civil Activism, and Remaking of Downtown Yonge Street,” by Daniel Ross. This book discusses the history of this once colonial road, how it reflects the history of development of consumer society from main street to the suburbs, and back, and the players who construct the life of the city, from the general public to property developers, to corporate conglomerates. We went to Toronto on a road trip to experience the city and we weave in our perspective on what we saw, as well as use our videos to illustrate the book.

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Book Link: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/H/bo156866970.html

Episode 2. How Democracies Die

Dr. Beverly Yuen Thompson — Fri, 15 May 2026 17:18:13 GMT

How Democracies Die (2018), written by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, is overviewed by sociology professor Beverly Yuen Thompson. This overview walks viewers through the book, chapter by chapter, and connecting the topics to current events. These historians provide us historical context of understanding the definitions and measures of authoritarianism, from global historical examples, and what the people can do to push back on these repressive social developments.

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Episode 1. Propaganda

Dr. Beverly Yuen Thompson — Fri, 15 May 2026 14:47:24 GMT

Edward Bernays wrote Propaganda in 1928, establishing his career as one of the first to develop the field of public relations and marketing by working with politicians and companies to sell their products or ideas.

This close reading overviews each chapter of the book, which is fully available online: https://dn720002.ca.archive.org/0/items/propaganda-edward-l.-bernays/Propaganda%20-%20Edward%20L.%20Bernays.pdf

See video link

My deviant behavior course post: https://deviantsociology.wordpress.com/2026/04/23/propaganda-by-edward-bernays/

Motherland Hong Kong

Dr. Beverly Yuen Thompson — Sun, 10 May 2026 12:33:38 GMT

I am so grateful to From Roots to Bridges for taking me to the ancestral homeland of Guangdong, Province, China, to discover more of my heritage, including finding an ancestral temple dedicated to my family. Grace and Yongjian provide heritage tours for Chinese heritage people interested in learning more about China and central Asia. I couldn’t have found a more perfect fit for a tour company that completely understands my needs as a Chinese American, as both of them are also Chinese American. I hope to write much more on this personal journey back to the motherland and what it means for us as children of immigrants who return to the motherland, as tourists, nomads, or even returnees. Please check out this amazing video they made of our trip exploring this lost family connection.