Daniel Laurison
@daniellaurison.bsky.social
Sociologist at Swarthmore College, trans man. Wrote Producing Politics & The Class Ceiling & a bunch of articles on class & race & inequality &/or political participation. DanielLaurison.com = me WeAreHigherEd.org = standing up for education and democracy
Some personal news: My sabbatical ended last week, just as I landed a deal for the book I've been working on for these 12 months. The Cradle Will Fall is now about half done (just need one more sabbatical) and will be edited by @rlevay.bsky.social at @princetonupress.bsky.social. I'm thrilled!
Latest news: 2 of my sociology colleagues, John Levi Martin & Geoff Wodtke & I each wrote separate reviews of the Vanderbilt-Wash U Report on Sociology by A. Rubin. For my brief opinion and links to all 3 reviews, see this blogpost: scatter.wordpress.com/2026/09/19/g...
guest post: scholarly malpractice and the vanderbilt-washington university report on sociology
The following is a guest post by Julian Go. By now readers of scatterplot will be aware of the Sociology portion of the Vanderbilt-Washington University Report (VWUR) by Ashley Rubin. Part of the “…
scatter.wordpress.com
My awesome kid made this & says: Hi! I’m Charlie, a high school intern at the Academy of Natural Sciences. Any action is good action. Please do what you can to help save the Academy! More action items: save-the-academy.org/ To sign the petition: actionnetwork.org/pe...
PSA to HS seniors & their adults - do NOT let the stated costs stop you from applying to expensive schools!! Many students pay less to go to fancy places than they would have paid at their state school. Even at places without a stated "free for families below $X" policy.
There are a few great ethnographies of privileged kids (e.g. @shamuskhan.bsky.social) but I am thinking of something that deliberately follows the screw-ups of privileged kids and how/whether their families protect their class position/trajectory. I know many anecdotes, but I can't think of a book.
Daniel Laurison@daniellaurison.bsky.social · 7d agoIn my Class Class today we discussed Ranita Ray's book, Making of A Teenage Service Class. It's the story of how kids coming from poverty can make all the "right" choices & still end up in low-wage jobs. Is there an equivalent/inverse book that's an ethnography of well-off kids?
In my Class Class today we discussed Ranita Ray's book, Making of A Teenage Service Class. It's the story of how kids coming from poverty can make all the "right" choices & still end up in low-wage jobs. Is there an equivalent/inverse book that's an ethnography of well-off kids?
Thank you @noamscheiber.bsky.social for such a thoughtfully reported @nytimes.com piece about our Class Gap research. Key point: the class gap is NOT an academia specific phenomenon. The cultural & social capital that come from class background matter in many elite settings.
Noam Scheiber@noamscheiber.bsky.social · 2w ago"If you’re a white working-class guy in an elite profession, you’re also facing pretty serious barriers.” Some very persuasive evidence that the "class ceiling" is a huge problem for white-collar workers. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/18/b...
New working paper w/ Hanna Folsz In Jan 2025 Trump issued an executive order targeting corporate DEI programs. Many companies ended DEI fearing financial risk We find that firms that kept DEI performed just as well in financial markets, revenue, etc democracypolicylab.berkeley.edu/wp-content/u...
The Wawa next to my kid's roller derby practice is going to be closed for 6 weeks and it is going to be much harder to motivate myself to leave the house at 6:15 on Sunday mornings without a treats-supplier right there. (It's in NE Philly, it's one of literally 10 in a ~3 mile radius! But still.)
My newest piece with proud Appalachian organizer Shawna McCown in @convergencemag.com We argue that while data center resistance is winning many of its immediate fights, it can accomplish something bigger: building a multiracial movement of the many. @surj.org j.org @stanfordpress.bsky.social
Is Data Center Resistance a New Vehicle for Multiracial Democracy?
Anti-data center sentiment, from Kentucky to Michigan, is proving to be an effective way to overcome racial divisions and carve out new winning coalitions.
convergencemag.com
🧵 About 30% of American adults say they are unaffiliated with a religious tradition, but as people are rejecting ancient epistemic systems, many of us are struggling to find meaning from life, to take care of ourselves, and to even have a concept of what selfhood is. That's a problem.
Non-religious people still need to think about meaning and selfhood
J. Eric Oliver on knowing yourself without gods
plus.flux.community
(standing in front of the "not getting a lot done" factory) i hope i get a lot done today
I have been making pretty little colorings and I find them pleasing and I am sort of embarrassed to share them but I would like to see more nice colorful things in my feeds so I am just going to post them occasionally.
If you believe any group of humans is intrinsically inferior and deserves to be hurt or cast out or eliminated, & esp if you have the power & act on that belief - you're not on the right side of humanity. If you bought from or voted for (or etc) someone like that, though - I'm not writing you off.
Daniel Laurison@daniellaurison.bsky.social · 3w agoBut I'm increasingly averse to all statements of the form "if you truly support X value/community, you must do exactly Y." And especially to "if you don't do Y, you clearly aren't on the side of good & justice." We have to be able to disagree about strategies & tactics without attacking people.
The marks are not the conmen! The marks are not the conmen! The marks are not the conmen! The marks are not....
Daniel Laurison@daniellaurison.bsky.social · 3w agoMy suspicion is that a lot of the "should we reach out to MAHA" discourse/discussion/debate rests on collapsing the distinction between 1) MAHA leaders & their associated overt pro-MAGA, explicit white Christian nationalist/supremacist beliefs and 2) regular people who've bought into some of that.
My suspicion is that a lot of the "should we reach out to MAHA" discourse/discussion/debate rests on collapsing the distinction between 1) MAHA leaders & their associated overt pro-MAGA, explicit white Christian nationalist/supremacist beliefs and 2) regular people who've bought into some of that.
I Study Projects that Select on the Dependent Variable. They Have One Habit in Common.
Opinion | I Study Successful People. They Have One Habit in Common.
Being a successful self-starter doesn’t mean pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.
nytimes.com
As a trans man, I appreciate everyone who won't buy anything in the HP franchise because JKR is actively using her wealth and influence to make life harder for trans people. But - it is very hard NOT to give some of your consumer $ to things owned by awful people. I'm not condemning ppl who buy HP.
I'm gonna go to this. I hope you'll go too if you're in NYC.
Rise and Resist@riseandresist.bsky.social · 4w agoMt Sinai has violated the Hippocratic Oath and sacrificed the health of Trans and Gender Nonconforming youth by capitulating to the Trump admin. A coalition of TGNCNB and LGBTQIA+ activists, and allies will stand up for our youth against @mountsinainyc.bsky.social . JOIN US!
@victorerikray.bsky.social makes it crystal-clear about what is going on with the Trump administration and universities. It's about re-segregation of these institutions. 1/ www.ms.now/opinion/trum...
Opinion | Trump’s next high education target: schools that help Black students
Victor Ray: American universities must stand up to Trump's plan to re-segregate higher ed
ms.now
Mount Sinai is failing trans patients and capitulating to Trump. Trump will stop at nothing to erase trans people from public life and deny youth essential healthcare. But in NY, trans patients are protected by state law. We must fight for their rights, not cower in fear.
Gothamist@gothamist.com · 4w agoMount Sinai reaches deal with Trump DOJ to end gender affirming care for minors gothamist.com/news/mount-s...
Also the APSA sections have their business meetings at 6 or 630p, right before their receptions. That is WAY better IMO than ASA's model of having them during random session times competing with everything else.
Daniel Laurison@daniellaurison.bsky.social · 4w agoA very inside-academia thought: the APSA norms of 1) sending papers before the panel & 2) having discussants give feedback both make the conference sessions more useful for presenters (vs ASA norms). BUT I do wish the discussants would email most of their feedback rather than reading it out loud.
A very inside-academia thought: the APSA norms of 1) sending papers before the panel & 2) having discussants give feedback both make the conference sessions more useful for presenters (vs ASA norms). BUT I do wish the discussants would email most of their feedback rather than reading it out loud.
This is so helpful, about how to understand Steinem's connection to the CIA. Whenever I've heard that, I pictured her - I don't know, helping depose Latin American leaders, but had never read up on it. Seems like basically she helped with a non-communist student org that the CIA funded.
Patrick Iber@patrickiber.bsky.social · 4w agoToday you're going to see a lot of tributes and assessments of Gloria Steinem (I thought this one very good: www.thecut.com/article/glor...). You'll also see some people raising her involvement with the CIA, and others ignore it. (That obit doesn't even mentioned it.) What was that about?
Good reminder for those of us trying to wrangle final drafts out of our brainstorms and early drafts (for me it's scholarly writing not fiction, but "plot hole" and "logical gao in argument" are the same kinds of things.
Elle Cordova@ellecordova.bsky.social · 4w agoRough Draft vs Final Draft
This (from Tom Wood) suggests more than just the typical thermostatic backlash is happening right now. In sixteen months, Trump and Republicans have turned the GOP’s largest party ID advantage this century into a tie for its biggest deficit
Great conversation with @michellesphelps.bsky.social about why Minneapolis has become a center for 2020s activism and the problem of progressives/Democrats distancing themselves from the 2020 protests. newrepublic.com/article/2146...
Transcript: Why Minneapolis Has Become the Center of 2020s Politics
Author Michelle Phelps explains why Minneapolis has been at the center of recent racial justice movements.
newrepublic.com
Great essay by Beth Baltzan at American Phoenix - lots of good points drawing on the Williams & Abbott report (& a mention of my work too). Key point = good policy is not, by itself, good politics. www.amphoenixtrade.c...
