This conversation outlines an undergraduate research project that I designed and implemented during the fall of 2020 and the spring of 2021 in an online Sociology of the Arts class at Queensborough Community College in New York City. The project involves original student research on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on three community-based arts organizations and the communities they serve. To showcase the problems and possibilities that emerged in assigning the project, I engage the contrasting and complementary lenses of Pierre Bourdieu’s structurally based theories of culture, capital, and social reproduction on the one hand and the pedagogical strategies that emerge from humanistic sociology on the other. The conversation concludes with reflections on issues faced by educators committed to teaching an interdisciplinary and humanistic sociology at the community college level and the ways experiential learning strategies can help students develop community connections and agency through the arts.
BallardChet. 1987. “A Humanist Sociology Approach to Teaching Social Research.” Teaching Sociology15(1):7–14.
2.
BirdKelli A.CastlemanBenjamin L.LohnerGabrielle. 2022. “Negative Impacts from the Shift to Online Learning During the COVID-19 Crisis: Evidence from a Statewide Community College System.” AERA Open8(1).
3.
BorrupTom. 2006. The Creative Community Builder’s Handbook: How to Transform Communities Using Local Assets Art and Culture. St. Paul, MN: Fieldstone Alliance.
4.
BourdieuPierre. 1971. “Cultural and Social Reproduction.”Social Science Information/Information sur les Sciences Sociales10(2):45–82.
5.
BourdieuPierre. 1984. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
6.
BourdieuPierrePasseronJean C.1977. Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture. London: Sage.
7.
BourdieuPierreWacquantLoic J.1992. An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
8.
BourdieuPierreJohnsonRandall. 1993. The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature. New York: Columbia University Press.
9.
BruthersC. BrookeHedmanEmma L.MatyasMacia Lake. 2021. “Undergraduate Research Programs Build Skills for Diverse Students.” Advances in Physiology Education45(2):399–408.
10.
ChronopoulosTheodore. 2016. “African Americans Gentrification and Neoliberal Urbanization: The Case of Fort Greene Brooklyn.” Journal of African American Studies20:294–322. doi:10.1007/s12111-016-9332-6.
11.
CooperKatelyn M.BlattmanJoseph N.HendrixTaijaBrownellSara E.2019. “The Impact of Broadly Relevant Novel Discoveries on Student Project Ownership in a Traditional Lab Course.” CBE—Life Sciences Education18(4):ar57. https://www.lifescied.org/doi/full/10.1187/cbe.19-06-0113.
12.
Du BoisWilliamWrightR. Dean. 2002. “What Is Humanistic Sociology?”American Sociologist33(4):5–36.
FreirePaolo. 2000. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. 30th anniversary ed. New York: Continuum.
15.
GoodwinGlen A.1987. “Humanistic Sociology and the Craft of Teaching.” Teaching Sociology15(1):15–20.
16.
KuhGeorge. 2008. High-Impact Educational Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access to Them, and Why They Matter. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and Universities.
17.
Ladson-BillingsGloria. 1995. “Toward a Theory of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy.” American Educational Research Journal32(3):465–91. doi:10.3102/00028312032003465.
18.
LareauAnette. 2011. Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life. Berkeley: University of California Press.
19.
LeeElizabeth M. 2013. “Elite Colleges and Socioeconomic Status.”. Sociology Compass7(9):786–798.
20.
LoadesMaria E.ChatburnEleanorHigson-SweeneyNinaReynoldsShirleyShafranRozBrigdenAmberlyLinneyCatherineMcManusMegan NiamhBorwickCatherineCrawleyEsther. 2020. “Rapid Systematic Review: The Impact of Social Isolation and Loneliness on the Mental Health of Children and Adolescents in the Context of COVID-19.” Journal of American Academic Child Adolescent Psychiatry59(11):1218–39.
21.
LordeAudrey. 1984. Sister Outsider. New York: Penguin.
22.
MarkusenAnne R.SchrockGreg. 2006. “The Artistic Dividend: Urban Artistic Specialization and Economic Development Implications.” Urban Studies43(10):1661–86.
23.
MaslowAbraham H.1966. The Psychology of Science: A Reconnaissance. New York: Harper Collins.
24.
McRobbieAngela. 2011. “Rethinking Creative Economies as Radical Social Enterprise.” Variant41:32–33.
25.
MillsCharles W.1959. The Sociological Imagination. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
PatsarikaMariaTownsendScott. 2022. “Interdisciplinary Service Learning as a Critical Knowledge Transaction Space in University-Community Engagement.” Educational Forum86(2):185–98.
PonziniDavideRossiUgo. 2010. “Becoming a Creative City: The Entrepreneurial Mayor, Network Politics and the Promise of an Urban Renaissance.” Urban Studies47:1037–58.
31.
QuarlesChristopherBudakCerenResnickPaul. 2020. “The Shape of Educational Inequality.” Science Advances6(29).
RomanoRichardEddyPamela L.2017. “Community Colleges and Social Mobility.” Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning49(6):55–62.
34.
RoseMike. 2021. “Community College: The Great Equalizer?” Dissent68(4):63–70.
35.
RothenbergJulia. 2014. Sociology Looks at the Arts. New York: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group.
36.
SholetteGregory. 2011. Dark Matter: Art and Politics in the Age of Enterprise Culture. New York: Pluto Press.
37.
SwartzDavid. 1997. Culture and Power: The Sociology of Pierre Bourdieu. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
38.
TraverAmyKatzZivah. 2014. Service-Learning at the American Community College: Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
39.
TrottCarlie D.Sample McMeekingLaura B.WeinbergAndrea E.2020. “Participatory Action Research Experiences for Undergraduates: Forging Critical Connections through Community Engagement.” Studies in Higher Education45(11):2260–73.
