Amazing Thailand Revisit

Hello everybody!

Today's post is actually a reference to another post on another blog. As you may or may not already know, the Sociology Department here at Covenant College is very closely associated with the Spring Semester in Thailand Program, run by Dr. Mike Leming of St. Olaf College in Minnesota.

Every year, Dr. Leming, his wife, and a few interns lead a diverse group of students from across the country to Thailand, where (we hope) they'll have the experience of their lives. Students engage Thai culture on a number of levels, learning the language, living with a Thai family, and taking classes at a Buddhist university. They will also participate in an internship at some institution, whether it is the Buddhist University in Chiang Mai or somewhere else.

This particular post comes from one of the students currently in Thailand. She writes about the group's experience in a Karen village, which is an integral part of the experience in Thailand. The Karen are a tribe of people who live in the Himalayan foothills in the North of Thailand. Dr. Leming and his crew have had connections with the village for years, and every year they spend a certain amount of time in the village.

So, without further ado, click this link to go to the blog post.

You can also click here to go to the homepage for the Spring Semester in Thailand program.

Happy surfing!

Infomania

I've been on an infographic kick lately. If you don't know what that is, it is essentially taking information (usually some kind of statistic or number) and putting it into a series of picture or images. This could be a simple graph, or something more complicated. "Infographic" is a recent word with origins on the internet, and is a a portmanteau of the words "information" and "graphic".

While not particularly in-depth, they are usually used to lay out the results of a study or survey very simply, and in a way that is aesthetically pleasing and interesting to look at. I'm a visual learner, so  this kind of thing is right up my alley.

For example, here's an infographic from Mashable.com about how online gaming is more likely to get you a date than online dating, which seems to be counterintuitive, and goes against the common stereotype about World of Warcraft players. While this may seem silly (because it is) you can't say it's not interesting or mentally stimulating in some ways. But for your serious types, click here for a serious infographic on internet censorship around the world.

For all the infographics your eyes can stand, you can click here to go to Mashable (just type "infographic" into the search bar) or here to the blog Graphic Sociology.

Random fun fact: according to several dictionaries, the term "infographic" is not a real word. Yet.

Masters in Counseling

What exactly can I do with a BA in Sociology, you might be asking yourself. I know I do.

Don't worry, there's always mercenary work.

Well, luckily for you, the American Sociological Association has conducted an enormous amount of research on that very subject. Here's a link to the page with some of the results on career choices and other data.

While there are certainly career choices available for you, even in this tough job market, perhaps you are considering graduate school? It is a legitimate option, and may make your job search a bit easier.

Here is a link to a great Masters program at Milligan College near Elizabethton, Tennessee. While similar in size to Covenant, Milligan has been ranked as one of the top liberal arts colleges in the United States.

Just to add a few more links to the page, click here for the Milligan homepage, and here for the Wikipedia page (for those of you wanting to do some in-depth research).

Go Go Gadget Social Theory

For those Covenant College students currently or soon to be enrolled in a Sociology course, be sure to be on the lookout (see what I did there?) for our new website.

For now, I'd like to share a recent discovery made while working on said website. One of the pages for the new site is a "Resources" tab, which will have links to everything from paper-writing tips to research sites. On of the subcategories is a list of links to helpful websites and blogs that could be used as either support or ideas for papers and research. While researching this, I stumbled upon a page entitled "Top 50 Sociology Blogs". You can look at the full page here.

This was our reaction here in the office.

After cleaning up the drool, I decided to check some of these blogs out, as most of them had helpful descriptions of what the topics were. You might be surprised just how far you can stretch your social and sociological knowledge. These blogs cover everything from economics to the environment to sociopaths.

So, without further ado, here is a list of some of our favorite blogs, from the above page and beyond:

• PurseLipsSquareJaw - Written by Dr. Anne Galloway, a senior lecturer at the School of Design at Victoria University, and focusing on art and aesthetics. Though she's not actually posting anymore, you can still access the archives of all her posts.

• What Is the What - A blog about the pop culture and other recent news.

• Racialicous - Though there are several blogs about race and race relations on the original page (all of them great), this one had the most interesting title.

• Graphic Sociology - This one is great. It takes data and transforms it into helpful and creative visualizations. If you're a visual learner (like I am), then this is the blog for you.

• The Grumpy Sociologist - This blog focuses on issues like masculinity and violence, covering everything from #Kony2012 to sports.

• Religion and Other Curiosities - Written by the famous (sort of) sociologist of religion Peter Berger, this blog covers his thoughts on religion and society in America and the world.

Be sure to be on the lookout (I did it again!) for our new website! Coming soon to a Chattanooga area near you.