Click on the following links. Please note these will open in a new window.

Video Links

• Jessica Simpson- The Price of Beauty Excerpt from Paris (Episode 102) 
  Jessica Simpson interviews former model Isabelle Caro (now deceased) about her anorexia, the reactions to her thinness in the fashion industry, and her controversial anti-anorexia campaign.

• Revealed…Manorexia (From Switch) 
  A look at the phenomenon of “manorexia,”—male self-starvation. A young rugby player who is recovering from anorexia discusses the pressure on males, particularly within the context of sport, to have lean, muscular bodies.

• The Storm 
  This report examines the chain of decisions that slowed federal response to the calamity of hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, government's failure to protect thousands of Americans from a natural disaster that long had been predicted, and the state of America's disaster-response system four years after 9/11.

• Rules of Engagement 
  In 2006, eight the U.S. Marine Corps brought criminal charges against eight Marines. The charges stemmed from actions they had taken during combat and ranged from murder to dereliction of duty. The Marines maintained that they were simply following the standard rules of engagement.

Audio Links

• Radiolab: Season 4 Episode 1: Laughter 
  This program explores laughter as a biological and sociological phenomenon. Scientists discuss laughter as a means of communicating important social information and observe that we are unlikely to laugh when alone. Also examined is laughter as something that is “contagious.”

• This American Life 318: With Great Power  
  This episode is focused on stories of power and responsibility. The first act is a story of a woman who possessed information that could free an innocent man from prison.  The second act is the story of a mother and daughter in a family who wished for years they could do something to stop their neighbor from all kinds of shocking behavior. Suddenly they get the power to decisively change things forever and then they have to decide whether they will.

• This American Life 378: This I used to believe 
  This program is a compilation of stories about people forced to let go of their firmly held beliefs. For example, when the daughter of a pro-choice activist concludes that abortion is murder, her mother goes to extraordinary lengths to persuade her daughter to switch sides. An additional example shows us that after a woman loses her faith, a football coach—who she's never met—tries to restore it.

Web Resources

Professional Resources

The American Sociological Association (ASA) has a number of sections organized that bring together sociologists who have interests in theoretical issues, including:

• Theory Section
• Section on Marxist Sociology

• Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction (SSSI) 

  Sociologists who work from the symbolic interactionist perspective have long had their own professional association, the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction (SSSI).

• Sociological Theory 
  Theoretical work in sociology is advanced, in part, through the publication of an official journal of the ASA, Sociological Theory. The journal publishes work in all areas of social thought, including new substantive theories, history of theory, metatheory, formal theory construction, and syntheses of existing bodies of theory. 

• American Anthropology Association (AAA) 
  Anthropology is a social science related to Sociology and is defined as The American Anthropology Association (AAA) has two purposes including to advance anthropology as a science that studies humankind in all its aspects, through archeological, biological, ethnological, and linguistic research and to further the professional interests of American anthropologists, including the dissemination of anthropological knowledge and its use to solve human problems. 

Other Resources

• The Stanford Prison Experiment 
  The Stanford Prison Experiment Web site features an extensive slide show and information about this classic psychology experiment. What happens when you put good people in an evil place? Does humanity win over evil, or does evil triumph? These are some of the questions the researchers posed in a dramatic simulation of prison life conducted in the summer of 1971 at Stanford University [self-characterization].

• Stanley Milgram 
  Dr. Thomas Blass, Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, maintains a website dedicated to providing accurate information about the life and work of one of the most outstanding social scientists of our time, Stanley Milgram [self-characterization]. 

  There is no shortage of sites on the World Wide Web that provide more general information about the sociological enterprise. The following are meta-sites that attempt to organize sociology on the Web:

• “Julian Dierkes’ SocioLog”
   
• Open Directory Project: Sociology. 
  The Open Directory Project is the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web, constructed and maintained by a vast, global army of volunteer editors [self-characterization].
   

  • The SocioSite 
    The SocioSite was designed to provide access to information and resources which are relevant for sociologists and other social scientists. It was designed from a global point of view, as it offers access to the worldwide scene of social sciences. The intention is to provide a comprehensive listing of all sociology resources on the Internet. The SocioSite is a project based at the faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Amsterdam [self-characterization].

  • WWW Virtual Library: Sociology 
    Great Social Theorists, by Frank W. Elwell. In an attempt to promote greater understanding of classical macro-social theory, particularly its implications for social criticism and prediction, I have created an Internet Web Site on eight classical social theorists. I have included bibliographies, PowerPoint lectures, links to primary sources, and other worthwhile Internet materials. I developed these web sites as aides for myself and my students to further our studies of these theorists. They were developed because they offer incisive commentary on the contemporary world order and seeming chaos [self-characterization].