Moral Matters: Conversations with Sociologists on Altruism, Morality, and Social Solidarity – Details, episodes & analysis

How does someone become the kind of person who commits genocide, and what role does dehumanization and moral agency play?

In this interview with Dr. Aliza Luft, we discuss her research on genocide, moral agency, and dehumanization. Discussing her research on genocide in Rwanda and the Holocaust, Luft provides some keen insight on how violence leads to dehumanization and how local political and religious leaders play a critical role in stopping genocide from emerging.

Luft is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at UCLA. You can read more of her work through links on her website: https://www.alizaluft.com.

Religious practice is often associated with being more politically and civically engaged, but what about spiritual practices?

In this episode of Moral Matters, we interview Jamie Kucinskas and Evan Stewart about their article "Selfish or Substituting Spirituality? Clarifying the Relationship between Spiritual Practice and Political Engagement."

We talk about how both religious and spiritual practices are linked to political and civic engagement.

Here's Jaime and Evan's article in the American Sociological Review:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/00031224221108196

In this podcast conversation,  Professor Bin Xu (Emory University), president-elect of the AMSS section, discusses his recent book "Chairman Mao's Children: Generation and the Politics of Memory in China" published in 2021 with Cambridge University Press. 

In this episode we discuss labor strikes, moral economies, and lessons we can learn from the famous 1937 GM strike in Flint Michigan from Dr. Josh Murray, associate professor of sociology at Vanderbilt University. We also discuss his book, with Michael Schwartz, Wrecked: How the American Automobile Industry Destroyed Its Capacity to Compete.

In this episode of Moral Matters, Shai Dromi and Sam Stabler discuss their new book, ⁠⁠Moral Minefields: How Sociologists Debate Good Science.⁠⁠ Shai Dromi is Associate Senior Lecturer on Sociology at Harvard University and Sam Stabler is a Doctoral Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Hunter College (CUNY). 

Moral Matters is a podcast sponsored by the Altruism, Morality and Social Solidarity Section of the American Sociological Association. The 2023-2024 season is hosted by Kerby Goff (Boniuk Institute, Rice University) and Elena van Stee (University of Pennsylvania).

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Listen in for an amazingly generative conversation with Dr. Hajar Yazdiha, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Southern California. We talked about her new book, The Struggle for the People's King: How Politics Transforms the Memory of the Civil Rights Movement (Princeton University Press 2023), and the importance of the study of morality and social solidarity for the broader discipline of sociology.

Check out the conversation with Francesca Polletta discussing her work and research of imaginary ties and social movements.

Check out this conversation with Dr. Galen Watts (KU Leuven) on his recent book, The Spiritual Turn: The Religion of the Heart and the Making of Romantic Liberal Modernity, published in 2022 by Oxford University Press. 

In this episode, Scott Hamilton, Chair of the Communication Committee of the AMSS Section and Professor of Sociology at the University of North Texas engages in a conversation with Netta Kahana, PhD Student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, on her recent article, "The road worth taking, the life worth living, and the person worth being: Morality, authenticity and personhood in volunteer tourism and beyond," published in Tourist Studies in 2021. Do not miss out this thought-provoking discussion! 

Check out the conversation between ex-chair Professor David Melamed (The Ohio State University) and this year's current chair Professor Penny Edgell (University of Minnesota) discussing the importance of public sociology and a recent publication by Professor Edgell.