Making Sense of the Political Climate for Sociology and Equity-minded Social Science Conversation with Joya Misra and Kris De Welde

New federal administrations often bring changes to higher education, but the uncertainty and turmoil that we are currently experiencing is unprecedented. Increased political attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts are making the practice of many social science fields extremely difficult, and sociology has been particularly targeted. For graduate students, this political climate can be especially anxiety-inducing as they try to imagine their professional futures. Sharing their insights from decades of equity work, Drs. Joya Misra and Kris De Welde join in conversation to discuss what the attacks on DEI mean for early career social science scholars, where the current climate might fit into the longer arc of history, and how the skills that young sociologists are developing now will be needed to rebuild the future. Dr. Joya Misra is a Distinguished Professor in both Sociology and the School of Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her research primarily falls into the subfields of race/gender/class, political economy, work & labor, family, and welfare states. She is Immediate Past- President of the American Sociological Association. Dr. Kris De Welde is Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies and Professor of Sociology at the College of Charleston in SC. She specializes in the study of intersectional inequalities in higher education and organizational change for academic justice as well as liberation-focused pedagogies.