I am a social scientist it’s a broad
category and I only have two feet so I
have one foot in one area of social
science and one in another although
there probably are 10 to 12 different
areas that I could be involved in so
I’ve trained in following in the
footsteps of my aunt Zora Neale Hurston
I’ve trained in anthropology but I am a
mesh and trained mostly in sociology and
so sociology is what I teach in
sociology I teach in that it’s not a
dead German French male science that you
have to learn like at your sketch okay
so you spend 15 weeks stuffing it in
okay to regurgitate it back on a test
and then you turn it over like a nectar
sketch and shake it loose at the end of
15 weeks you’ve got room for something
else the next semester
as you continue to school done properly
a good course on sociology empowers you
and changes your life so anyone who’s
had a sociology course that says it
sucks at staying the table well it’s
boring it’s useless what are you going
to do with the degree in sociology the
only problem that they’ve had is a
really bad sucky professor because done
properly it’s fun it’s engaging its
motivating it’s powerful and I will tell
you how and that is by connecting what
you read to who you are the group that
you belong to and the intersection of
your biography and history and what you
can do with this powerful tool that
basically is the study of social life
and behavior among groups and we all
belong to plenty of groups your sex
determines the group that you’re in your
race your ethnic origin your religion
your political affiliation if you’ve got
one your sports activities your music
whatever it is that you do is a group
sometimes you get to choose the group
that you belong to you
wanna be a trooper player that’s your
choice all right sometimes you don’t get
to pick the group that you belong to
like being male or female or the
arbitrary category of race that’s given
to you by this society all right and
sometimes these groups get along and
sometimes they don’t I’m from Brooklyn
I mean Yankees fan I’ve been a New York
Yankees fan from before it was
fashionable okay and fans like the New
York Yankees and fans of the Red Sox
they don’t get along okay so when we
study about groups what we study is
people patterns and behavior that’s what
sociology is and when you use this
social science you can explain you can
describe at best you can predict but
most importantly you can solve problems
you’ve got to be able to see the problem
you’ve got to be able to examine the
problem you’ve got to be able to use
these scientific methods these proven
methods to examine basic issues that
we’ve been trying to resolve since the
beginning of time in our discipline
hunger homelessness general issues of
poverty have always existed and we’ve
made small incremental changes and
adaptations to alleviate or minimize or
diminish it but they still haven’t gone
away and if you don’t know how to fix it
or if you don’t care that’s one of the
things that sociology will help you in
because statistically you will between
the time you are born in the time that
you die you will bump into hunger
homelessness or poverty in one of the
groups that you belong to it may befall
you
or it may befall a member of your group
but wouldn’t you like to know when it’s
coming and
what you can do about it and that’s
where I do with my students rather than
have them read memorize and regurgitate
and say eh I have them put their hands
on a social problem on several social
problems through the course of a
semester locally nationally
internationally so that they will know
what to do when it comes to them not if
but when it comes to them so
understanding what hunger and food
insecurity is is different then I’ve got
a two o’clock class and I didn’t get to
lunch at 12:30 and my stomach’s gurgling
and what is this lecture going to be
over and can I eat my chips in the
classroom none of that matters because
that’s not hunger okay hunger and food
insecurity is not knowing where your
next meal is coming from or what it will
be made of can we do something about
that richest country in the world
richest state in the Union but the
highest per capita income well yes we
can but how do we do it so I give them
these skills and what I do is I use an
applied sociology approach okay so we
literally put out our feet in the shoes
of the people we do this with
homelessness and every semester we build
cardboard city on the front lawn of
Manchester Community College and we
spend one night one night in a cardboard
city now let’s see how this experiment
goes everybody gets their boxes they put
out their tops they build their
cardboard city and for the last nine
years the lane Falls the quad wood
cities collapse and people get really
angry okay what makes them angry is not
similar to that they’re in a soggy
cardboard box but that it interrupted
their sleep at two three o’clock in the
morning and they’re angry because the
one prohibition for our experiment
of living as a homeless person
advocating for and raising awareness of
homelessness the one for abyssion that I
installed on this group who voluntarily
participates in cardboard City is that
they’re not allowed any electronics that
sends them off the deep end okay now
this is for one night one night and
there’s an end in sight so we’ve got
cold weather we’ve got chilly weather
we’ve got you go to lose a digit weather
we’ve got rain tarps a long walk to the
bathroom there was a bathroom but
there’s a long walk to the bathroom and
then we talked about the fact that where
they’re living versus where I’m living
for that night is based on your level of
educational attainment I have three
degrees I have a pop-up tent I have a 30
degree below um a bedding inside my
son’s actually my son’s sleeping bag
from when he was in Afghanistan okay so
I’m good I’m comfy I’m cozy all right
and we talk about that when we get back
in the classroom okay that these are
variables that are true okay that based
on your level of educational attainment
it will determine where you live safe
good services close to things that you
would like to be close to far away from
things that you don’t want near you okay
are you living near the dump while you
live near the high-tension wires or are
you living in a good pop up tent okay I
get to use my iPad okay and so we talked
about this we’ve lived it and then we
talked about the anger that always
always comes out of this experiment
knowing that there was a deadline in
place I wake them at 6 o’clock in the
morning 6 o’clock I’m going around
banging on the soggy boxes
get up get out clean it up get out
because this is what happens if you in a
shelter or if you’re homeless when the
Sun comes up you have to be gone off
that park bench out of that Park out of
that bat that alleyway shelters don’t
let you sleep in you have to get up and
get out that’s the reality of it and
even though they will be leaving the
campus getting in their cars going to
their homes to take a hot shower get
something out the fridge to eat and get
in their cozy bed they don’t understand
the anger still until we debrief the
next time you meet in the classroom and
then they get it when the government
fell down on the job a little bit after
Katrina brushed by New Orleans because
it wasn’t Katrina that destroyed Noland
and the lower ninth it was the failure
of the levees and so when the government
kind of failed at putting their hands on
that problem my students were so
empowered okay they said we can do
something we can go there we can help
them and we did we raised our slew of
money and bought plane tickets and made
arrangements to stay Camp Hope and we
went down there for ten days and we
worked for Habitat for Humanity in New
Orleans NOLA means New Orleans Louisiana
okay and so we made a documentary out of
it about our venture down there and what
it meant to these students and to meet
the people in the Lower Ninth
and to speak with the Army Corps of
Engineers and to tour the levee system
and to stand right there in a field of
nothing more of nothing more than
foundations steps just steps
those were the that was the area where
the families lived when the water came
in the middle of the night and washed
them all of the items and all of their
family members away so
to stand in that spot was powerful for
them and we went back year after year
after year and over the course of about
four or five visits with over 100
students we built eight houses well it’s
not a lot but to those eight families
and we go back and we see them we put
our hands on a national problem and did
something about it
so when we go to Food Share locally when
we go to Habitat for Humanity locally
when we go to the food pantries and
serve meals my students now understand
they’re empowered they’re equipped
they’ve got skills they also understand
empathy they also understand is I’ve
been installed in them be the type of
volunteer on this side of the table that
you would want treating you when it’s
your turn on the other side of the table
because statistically you might be there
so now we understand that privilege and
oppression are two sides of the same
coin
that it’s luck people don’t want you to
believe that but that it’s luck that
gives some people an advantage and
disadvantages other others so now they
have the skills and they pass it on and
it’s contagious it’s like it’s like a
rash like a bad rash I hear from them
when they finish at Manchester Community
College and they go on for their
bachelor’s degree that they’re still
doing work there that they’re still
spreading the word that they’re still
giving hours when they become our A’s
okay that they’re taking their students
and they’re doing you know a day of
service all right they’re doing
rebuilding Together we are going next
weekend to our annual trip to heifer
international
all right to live in the global village
and to see from a global perspective
what is going on and how people are
living and what we can do with
organizations such as heifer that helps
people in Ghana in Tibet and Peru
because they have a global village there
that has a building a structure a
neighborhood for each of those countries
that they’re working in there’s one
structure there’s one garden and the
animals water buffalos and such all
right
and we will spread out in little groups
and live for the night in that little
village you will build a fire you will
go to market you will barter for
whatever it is you can get to eat and
you will once you get that fire going I
was never a Girl Scout so I’m not good
at the fire thing okay but it tells you
how long it takes a person in Peru to
get a fire going and to make some quinoa
stew okay and then you spend the night
there and if you need water you walk to
the one water tap way at the other end
of the global village to get water and
you solve whatever this family problem
is that has been delivered to you for
that evening and you get to experience a
little global taste of what issues are
about social life and behavior so to me
there can be no more important area of
study then the study of social life and
behavior among groups the issues they
deal with and how best to repair them if
nothing else you can describe you can
explain best case scenario you can
predict and you can resolve thank you
very much
[Applause]
you
[Applause]
category and I only have two feet so I
have one foot in one area of social
science and one in another although
there probably are 10 to 12 different
areas that I could be involved in so
I’ve trained in following in the
footsteps of my aunt Zora Neale Hurston
I’ve trained in anthropology but I am a
mesh and trained mostly in sociology and
so sociology is what I teach in
sociology I teach in that it’s not a
dead German French male science that you
have to learn like at your sketch okay
so you spend 15 weeks stuffing it in
okay to regurgitate it back on a test
and then you turn it over like a nectar
sketch and shake it loose at the end of
15 weeks you’ve got room for something
else the next semester
as you continue to school done properly
a good course on sociology empowers you
and changes your life so anyone who’s
had a sociology course that says it
sucks at staying the table well it’s
boring it’s useless what are you going
to do with the degree in sociology the
only problem that they’ve had is a
really bad sucky professor because done
properly it’s fun it’s engaging its
motivating it’s powerful and I will tell
you how and that is by connecting what
you read to who you are the group that
you belong to and the intersection of
your biography and history and what you
can do with this powerful tool that
basically is the study of social life
and behavior among groups and we all
belong to plenty of groups your sex
determines the group that you’re in your
race your ethnic origin your religion
your political affiliation if you’ve got
one your sports activities your music
whatever it is that you do is a group
sometimes you get to choose the group
that you belong to you
wanna be a trooper player that’s your
choice all right sometimes you don’t get
to pick the group that you belong to
like being male or female or the
arbitrary category of race that’s given
to you by this society all right and
sometimes these groups get along and
sometimes they don’t I’m from Brooklyn
I mean Yankees fan I’ve been a New York
Yankees fan from before it was
fashionable okay and fans like the New
York Yankees and fans of the Red Sox
they don’t get along okay so when we
study about groups what we study is
people patterns and behavior that’s what
sociology is and when you use this
social science you can explain you can
describe at best you can predict but
most importantly you can solve problems
you’ve got to be able to see the problem
you’ve got to be able to examine the
problem you’ve got to be able to use
these scientific methods these proven
methods to examine basic issues that
we’ve been trying to resolve since the
beginning of time in our discipline
hunger homelessness general issues of
poverty have always existed and we’ve
made small incremental changes and
adaptations to alleviate or minimize or
diminish it but they still haven’t gone
away and if you don’t know how to fix it
or if you don’t care that’s one of the
things that sociology will help you in
because statistically you will between
the time you are born in the time that
you die you will bump into hunger
homelessness or poverty in one of the
groups that you belong to it may befall
you
or it may befall a member of your group
but wouldn’t you like to know when it’s
coming and
what you can do about it and that’s
where I do with my students rather than
have them read memorize and regurgitate
and say eh I have them put their hands
on a social problem on several social
problems through the course of a
semester locally nationally
internationally so that they will know
what to do when it comes to them not if
but when it comes to them so
understanding what hunger and food
insecurity is is different then I’ve got
a two o’clock class and I didn’t get to
lunch at 12:30 and my stomach’s gurgling
and what is this lecture going to be
over and can I eat my chips in the
classroom none of that matters because
that’s not hunger okay hunger and food
insecurity is not knowing where your
next meal is coming from or what it will
be made of can we do something about
that richest country in the world
richest state in the Union but the
highest per capita income well yes we
can but how do we do it so I give them
these skills and what I do is I use an
applied sociology approach okay so we
literally put out our feet in the shoes
of the people we do this with
homelessness and every semester we build
cardboard city on the front lawn of
Manchester Community College and we
spend one night one night in a cardboard
city now let’s see how this experiment
goes everybody gets their boxes they put
out their tops they build their
cardboard city and for the last nine
years the lane Falls the quad wood
cities collapse and people get really
angry okay what makes them angry is not
similar to that they’re in a soggy
cardboard box but that it interrupted
their sleep at two three o’clock in the
morning and they’re angry because the
one prohibition for our experiment
of living as a homeless person
advocating for and raising awareness of
homelessness the one for abyssion that I
installed on this group who voluntarily
participates in cardboard City is that
they’re not allowed any electronics that
sends them off the deep end okay now
this is for one night one night and
there’s an end in sight so we’ve got
cold weather we’ve got chilly weather
we’ve got you go to lose a digit weather
we’ve got rain tarps a long walk to the
bathroom there was a bathroom but
there’s a long walk to the bathroom and
then we talked about the fact that where
they’re living versus where I’m living
for that night is based on your level of
educational attainment I have three
degrees I have a pop-up tent I have a 30
degree below um a bedding inside my
son’s actually my son’s sleeping bag
from when he was in Afghanistan okay so
I’m good I’m comfy I’m cozy all right
and we talk about that when we get back
in the classroom okay that these are
variables that are true okay that based
on your level of educational attainment
it will determine where you live safe
good services close to things that you
would like to be close to far away from
things that you don’t want near you okay
are you living near the dump while you
live near the high-tension wires or are
you living in a good pop up tent okay I
get to use my iPad okay and so we talked
about this we’ve lived it and then we
talked about the anger that always
always comes out of this experiment
knowing that there was a deadline in
place I wake them at 6 o’clock in the
morning 6 o’clock I’m going around
banging on the soggy boxes
get up get out clean it up get out
because this is what happens if you in a
shelter or if you’re homeless when the
Sun comes up you have to be gone off
that park bench out of that Park out of
that bat that alleyway shelters don’t
let you sleep in you have to get up and
get out that’s the reality of it and
even though they will be leaving the
campus getting in their cars going to
their homes to take a hot shower get
something out the fridge to eat and get
in their cozy bed they don’t understand
the anger still until we debrief the
next time you meet in the classroom and
then they get it when the government
fell down on the job a little bit after
Katrina brushed by New Orleans because
it wasn’t Katrina that destroyed Noland
and the lower ninth it was the failure
of the levees and so when the government
kind of failed at putting their hands on
that problem my students were so
empowered okay they said we can do
something we can go there we can help
them and we did we raised our slew of
money and bought plane tickets and made
arrangements to stay Camp Hope and we
went down there for ten days and we
worked for Habitat for Humanity in New
Orleans NOLA means New Orleans Louisiana
okay and so we made a documentary out of
it about our venture down there and what
it meant to these students and to meet
the people in the Lower Ninth
and to speak with the Army Corps of
Engineers and to tour the levee system
and to stand right there in a field of
nothing more of nothing more than
foundations steps just steps
those were the that was the area where
the families lived when the water came
in the middle of the night and washed
them all of the items and all of their
family members away so
to stand in that spot was powerful for
them and we went back year after year
after year and over the course of about
four or five visits with over 100
students we built eight houses well it’s
not a lot but to those eight families
and we go back and we see them we put
our hands on a national problem and did
something about it
so when we go to Food Share locally when
we go to Habitat for Humanity locally
when we go to the food pantries and
serve meals my students now understand
they’re empowered they’re equipped
they’ve got skills they also understand
empathy they also understand is I’ve
been installed in them be the type of
volunteer on this side of the table that
you would want treating you when it’s
your turn on the other side of the table
because statistically you might be there
so now we understand that privilege and
oppression are two sides of the same
coin
that it’s luck people don’t want you to
believe that but that it’s luck that
gives some people an advantage and
disadvantages other others so now they
have the skills and they pass it on and
it’s contagious it’s like it’s like a
rash like a bad rash I hear from them
when they finish at Manchester Community
College and they go on for their
bachelor’s degree that they’re still
doing work there that they’re still
spreading the word that they’re still
giving hours when they become our A’s
okay that they’re taking their students
and they’re doing you know a day of
service all right they’re doing
rebuilding Together we are going next
weekend to our annual trip to heifer
international
all right to live in the global village
and to see from a global perspective
what is going on and how people are
living and what we can do with
organizations such as heifer that helps
people in Ghana in Tibet and Peru
because they have a global village there
that has a building a structure a
neighborhood for each of those countries
that they’re working in there’s one
structure there’s one garden and the
animals water buffalos and such all
right
and we will spread out in little groups
and live for the night in that little
village you will build a fire you will
go to market you will barter for
whatever it is you can get to eat and
you will once you get that fire going I
was never a Girl Scout so I’m not good
at the fire thing okay but it tells you
how long it takes a person in Peru to
get a fire going and to make some quinoa
stew okay and then you spend the night
there and if you need water you walk to
the one water tap way at the other end
of the global village to get water and
you solve whatever this family problem
is that has been delivered to you for
that evening and you get to experience a
little global taste of what issues are
about social life and behavior so to me
there can be no more important area of
study then the study of social life and
behavior among groups the issues they
deal with and how best to repair them if
nothing else you can describe you can
explain best case scenario you can
predict and you can resolve thank you
very much
[Applause]
you
[Applause]
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