How do social scientists determine what to study? Social scientists agonize over methodological considerations, but rarely is the relationship between the individual and topic choice examined empirically. Previous research by sociologists of science has applied this scrutiny to the natural sciences, but the same lens has not been applied to social scientists themselves. In this study I will examine both how individual researchers develop a personal interest in research, as well as how they grapple with external constraints on the topics and subjects of their research. I examine these questions through qualitative interviews with Sociology faculty at the University of Washington. Through interviews with both sociologists-in-training and established faculty, I will gain perspective on the factors influencing topic choice, and how standards of topic choice are reproduced or changed. As sociologists seek to evaluate their own practices, and policymakers increasingly turn towards evidence based practices, my results will allow us to understand not just what that evidence says, but how it is produced.

The viability of Greek communities and their place on college campuses has been a subject of intense debate in recent years. Researchers and critics of traditional Greek communities on U.S. college campuses have argued that rigid gender segregation and rules that give fraternities control over the party scene creates a gendered imbalance which favors men which, in turn, perpetuates the incidence of sexual assault and other harmful behaviors. But do the students that participate in Greek life agree? Do sorority and fraternity men also draw a connection between harmful behaviors and the formal rules and regulations that govern Greek life? Would structural changes to the Greek community alleviate its social risks like sexual assault, alcohol abuse, and hazing, or do they persist in the absence of gender segregation? This study explores how gender-segregated household regulations perpetuate these norms and further perpetuate social risks such as sexual assault, hazing, or alcohol abuse. Within Greek Communities, access to parties, drugs, and sex are the effective social currency that is exchanged within the Greek microsociety. Formal, gender-segregated household regulations give control of the party scene. Research has established widespread knowledge of how this control creates gender-based power dynamics and courtship patterns that contribute to a social culture with higher rates of sexual assault perpetration and victimization within its population. However, the University of Washington Panhellenic and Inter-Fraternity councils allow sorority women to live with fraternity men in their chapter houses during the summer. By interviewing a mix of 20 sorority women and fraternity men who from the University of Washington, Seattle Campus we can better understand if these gendered power dynamics are alleviated when men and women are regulated equally within their household.

Can parenting styles offset the effects of neighborhood disadvantage on child life-course trajectories? Much research indicates that children raised in an economically disadvantaged neighborhood face a greater risk of high school dropout or expulsion, low-wage employment, and incarceration. Yet not all youths raised in disadvantaged neighborhoods follow this trajectory, and success stories abound. This study examines how low-income parents’ childrearing strategies positively or negatively affect the life-course trajectories of at-risk youth. Using the Denver Youth Survey (DYS), a nationally representative, longitudinal sample of high risk youth, I intend to test whether parents’ childrearing strategies affect young adults’ academic accomplishment, income, job type, and criminal record. I hypothesize that positive parenting, defined as monitoring, control, and warmth towards the child, is associated with a reduced likelihood of youths experiencing impediments to socio-economic mobility. As an alternative hypothesis, I test whether impulsivity of the child mediates the association between parenting style and positive life-course outcomes. In doing so, I aim to contribute to the intersecting literature on life-course theory, child developmental psychology, and criminology, as well as provide evidence to aid the development of policy assisting at-risk youths overcome their disadvantaged circumstances.

In recent years, student activists have made headlines by accusing peers, institutions and celebrities of engaging in cultural appropriation - the selective taking of a culture other than one’s own. But under what conditions does an action become interpreted as cultural appropriation, and does it always carry a negative connotation? Scholars have debated the social significance of appropriation, with some arguing it is exploitative and others arguing it signals a minority group’s acceptance into a larger society. While much research has examined how white individuals define and determine cultural appropriation, little research has examined the reactions of the members whose culture has been potentially appropriated. This is especially true for Asian Americans whose understanding of cultural appropriation is almost never examined by researchers. This study corrects for this omission by examining Chinese and Vietnamese student interpretations and reactions to cultural appropriation using a factorial vignette study. While prior research has suggested the race of the appropriator and the culture appropriated affect interpreations, prelimary results reveal that the medium appropriated and the relationship between the copyist and the appropriated culture better predict the way individuals in this study view acts of appropriation. As what constitutes cultural appropriation becomes increasingly contested among students in colleges across America, my study will shed light on how members of underrepresented ethno-racial groups decide whether a potential act of cultural appropriation is harmful or helpful.