Sociology Newsletter - April 2024

It’s registration time for the Fall semester! Priority registration appointments are issued prior to open registration and are based on the number of credits completed. Be sure to find your priority registration appointment in your UCDAccess student portal prior to each semester's class registration period. For best course selection, register as soon as possible after your registration time assignment.

A few important dates to remember:

April 1 First day to withdraw from Spring class with Late Withdraw Petition Form

April 1-16 Registration begins for Fall semester via UCDAccess.

April 17 Open Enrollment for Fall 2024 begins

May 1 Last day to withdraw from Spring class with Late Withdraw Petition Form

Also, make sure to touch base with our expert Undergraduate Advisor, Dr. Maren Scull, to ensure you are taking the correct classes for your major, minor, or certificate.

Across the country, politicians are interfering in educational decisions that should be made by educators. In Florida, sociology was removed from the general education core course options. Educational gag orders are being passed in many states. At the heart of the attacks is what sociologists teach: inequality, race, gender, and sexuality. In response, the American Sociological Association (ASA) has launched The Value of Sociology Initiative. And it wants to add your voice in its TikTok/Instagram contest. If you are a sociology student at the undergraduate or graduate level, share what you have learned in sociology classes that has helped you better understand our world or your own lives and experiences. The deadline to enter the contest is Monday, April 22, 2024, 10PM.

The CU Denver Writing Center is available to help you with your upcoming writing assignments. Even if you don’t have a paper due tomorrow, the Center is available to meet to talk about your ideas and how you might grow as a writer. You can meet with them in-person or online. To learn more and schedule an appointment, head here!

Alpha Kappa Delta is continuing its workshop series for sociology graduate students: The Graduate Student Lounge. The AKD Grad Student Lounge is an initiative sponsored by Alpha Kappa Delta to support and foster graduate students’ professionalization, well-being, and peer networking. It meets monthly to discuss various topics of interest to graduate students in sociology and offers a grad-only safe space to share tips, ideas, and recommendations. Graduate students are welcome to sign up to be invited using this link: https://bit.ly/3nE7kQQ

Alpha Kappa Delta currently provides funding to AKD student members who present at regional sociology conferences. Awards are up to $500/student, although no more than $1,500 may be awarded per chapter. This is another great reason to join sociology’s honor society. For more information about AKD, contact Dr. Jenny Vermilya.  

The CU Denver Lynx Food Pantry responds to the need of CU Denver students for resources to fight food insecurity. CU Denver students have access to free food and hygiene products. All students are allocated 10 points each week to use on items from the pantry, whether it's just to grab a snack for the day or to help out with a meal. Bring your student ID when you visit. The Lynx Food Pantry is located on the 3rd floor of the Wellness Center. 

We are excited to invite you to a departmental keynote discussion on homelessness and human insecurity in the Denver metropolitan area and the role of sociology in addressing it. Jenny Loth Hill of the Colorado Village Collaborative will be visiting us to lead a conversation about what is happening on the ground right now in Denver related to homelessness, human insecurity, and marginalized groups; how sociologists can help address those challenges; and what industry will need from future employees in this and related areas. Ms. Hill has years of experience working with and providing services to marginalized and vulnerable populations. Come join us for this timely event on Thursday, April 25, from 4:30-6:00 in the Fourth Floor Conference Room at Lawrence Street Center. Light fare and refreshments will be served. And the Sociology Club will be tie-dying shirts immediately following the event!

The Sociology Club meets every other Thursday this semester from 6PM-7PM at the Sociology Department Library (Lawrence Street Center 420). The Club has three events this month. On April 4, it will host a conversation (rescheduled from before Spring Break) with two students interning at the Colorado state Capitol to discuss current legislative efforts in the state. On April 11, it will hold a discussion with students and faculty around national efforts to restrict sociology in the classroom. On April 25, the Club will be tie-dying t-shirts to celebrate the end of the semester. Come join us and meet other students dedicated to making the world a better place and having fun while doing it.

LynxConnect is hosting a career fair in partnership with Metro State and Community College of Denver that is especially suited for Sociology students. All the organizations attending are related to federal, state, and local government or the non-profit sector. They will be highlighting job opportunities with civic impact. If you are interested in exploring unique career pathways, please stop by. “Careers with Impact: A Public Service Career Event” will be held Thursday, April 11 from 10am – 2pm in the Tivoli Turnhalle.

RaCAS is kind of a big deal on campus. The Research and Creative Activities Symposium (RaCAS) is an annual event where CU Denver undergraduate and graduate students showcase their scholarship. Each year, over 200 presenters share their research and creative projects and celebrate their achievements with peers, faculty, family, and friends. The 27th Annual RaCAS will take place on April 26^th from 9-2 at the Lola and Rob Salazar Student Wellness Center.

Good luck to those of you presenting at RaCAS! And if you’re not presenting this year, put this awesome opportunity to build your research profile on your radar for next year!

Spring Fling is Wednesday, April 17 from 10-2 at the Lawrence Street Mall. At Spring Fling, student organizations and campus departments promote their groups, and nonprofit and for-profit vendors invite the campus to learn more about their products and services. Food trucks will be bringing you your favorite dishes. And Shakespeare in the Parking Lot will be performing Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at 11 and 1, respectively! Come join us to relax, laugh, and enjoy Spring!

Access: Reproductive Care Deserts in the Denver Metropolitan Area is an ethnographic documentary film looking at the lack of reproductive care in our community. Students at Arapahoe Community College put it together through qualitative interviews with practitioners and care recipients. It highlights the experiences of pregnant people, and how both institutional and mutual aid practices shape health outcomes. It premiers in Room 1640 on ACC's Littleton campus on Friday, April 19th, 2024, 11:30-1. Lunch will be provided.

“Old medicine, new medicine” (2021), Bianca Maestas, SLV AHEC building, Alamosa, CO.

Sociology major, Mercy Kibet, presented her research, “Black Maternal Experiences in Colorado: A Qualitative Study”, at the 95^th Annual Pacific Sociological Association Conference in San Diego on March 22. Ms. Kibet’s presentation on the maternal health experiences of Black mothers in the state received a rousing round of applause from conference attendees. Ms. Kibet is also a McNair Scholar and will be presenting her research at the department’s honors research event in May. Congratulations Mercy and thank you for so expertly representing CU Denver Sociology!

Sociology BA alum and current MA student Renna Munson is studying abroad this semester in CU Denver’s Bridging Global Divides program. The program offers four seminars covering current politics and history in Germany, with a focus on underrepresented minoritized groups and the environment. Ms. Munson shares that, “The academic value provided from studying abroad is irreplaceable. Having the privilege to study in a foreign country and engaging with the practices, customs, and people is unlike anything I have ever experienced…Speaking with those in my neighborhood, I have heard stories of life in East Germany under the GDR and people’s experiences of living through civil revolutions in Egypt and other countries across the Middle East…My goal for when I return to Colorado is to apply what I have learned into my studies on the US correctional and judicial system.” Way to go Renna!

Rachel Carson, an American marine biologist, writer, and conservationist, published Silent Spring in 1962. The book highlighted the environmental harm caused by the indiscriminate use of the pesticide, DDT. In it, she wrote, “Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature — the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.” Thank you for those words as we observe Earth Day on April 24.

Suncor’s Commerce City Refinery processes approximately 98,000 barrels of oil per day and contributes $2.5 billion to Colorado’s economy annually. But operations at the plant have sparked concern among local residents, environmental activists, and state regulators. In February, the State of Colorado issued a $10.5 million penalty on the Commerce City facility for over three years of air pollution violations. It was the largest-ever fine against a single facility. The Colorado Sun provided informative reporting on the case earlier this year.

A few years ago, the US was experiencing a sharp decline in honeybee colonies. However, the recently published federal Census of Agriculture shows a dramatic rise in honeybee populations across the country. The Washington Post’s Department of Data series has a deep dive into the surprising good news and the role of government and society in making it happen.   

Bengaluru is known as India’s Silicon Valley. The southern Indian metropolis is home to scores of national and international IT companies, like Infosys, Wipro, and others. But the city’s exponential growth has sparked a water crisis. The Indian Express has coverage of how government officials and city residents are responding to the situation, which is another harbinger of climate change.