''Contexts'': ''Understanding People in their Social Worlds'' is a quarterly

peer-reviewed Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...

academic journal An academic journal or scholarly journal is a periodical publication in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as permanent and transparent forums for the presentation, scrutiny, and d ...

and an official publication of the

American Sociological Association The American Sociological Association (ASA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology. Founded in December 1905 as the American Sociological Society at Johns Hopkins University by a group of fif ...

. It is designed to be a more accessible source of sociological ideas and research and has been inspired by the movement towards

public sociology Public sociology is a subfield of the wider sociological discipline that emphasizes expanding the disciplinary boundaries of sociology in order to engage with non-academic audiences. It is perhaps best understood as a ''style'' of sociology rath ...

Sections of the Journal

* Backpage * Books * Culture * Feature * From the Editors * In brief * Q&A * Teaching and Learning * Trends * Viewpoints

History

The journal was established in 2002 by

Claude Fischer Claude Serge Fischer (born January 9, 1948) is an American sociologist and Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. He has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in urban sociology, research methods, and American socie ...

and is published by

SAGE Publications SAGE Publishing, formerly SAGE Publications, is an American independent publishing company founded in 1965 in New York by Sara Miller McCune and now based in Newbury Park, California. It publishes more than 1,000 journals, more than 800 books ...

; until 2011, it was published by the

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...

. Fischer was succeeded by

Jeff Goodwin Jeffrey Roger Goodwin (born January 28, 1958) is a professor of sociology at New York University. He holds a BA, MA (Sociology) and PhD (Sociology) from Harvard University. His research interests include social movements, revolutions, poli ...

and

James M. Jasper James Macdonald Jasper (born 1957) is a writer and sociologist who has taught Ph.D. students at the CUNY Graduate Center, Graduate Center of the City University of New York since 2007. He is best known for his research and theories about cultur ...

, who edited the journal from 2005 to 2007, injecting a certain amount of controversial humor such as New Yorker cartoons and a column written by "Harry Green" (actually Jasper) called "The Fool." The current editors are

Rashawn Ray Rashawn Ray is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park, and Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution. Since 2017 he has been the editor of '' Contexts'' magazine, published by the American Sociol ...

(

University of Maryland-College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the Flagship un ...

) and

Fabio Rojas Fabio Rojas is Virginia L. Roberts Professor of Sociology at Indiana University Bloomington. He is the author of several sociological books, and starting with the first issue (Winter Issue) of 2018, he will be the co-editor of ''Contexts'' magazin ...

(

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

Former Editors

* 2002:

* 2003: Fischer * 2004: Fischer * 2005:

* 2006: Goodwin, Jasper * 2007: Goodwin, Jasper * 2008: Doug Hartmann, Chris Uggen * 2009: Hartmann, Uggen * 2010: Hartmann, Uggen * 2011: Hartmann, Uggen * 2012: Jodi O'Brien, Arlene Stein * 2013: O'Brien, Stein * 2014: O'Brien, Stein * 2015:

Philip N. Cohen Philip N. Cohen is an American sociology, sociologist. He is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park, and director of SocArXiv, an open archive of the social sciences. Early life Cohen grew up in Ithaca, New York an ...

, Syed Ali * 2016: Cohen, Ali * 2017: Cohen, Ali * 2018:

* 2019: Rojas, Ray * 2020: Rojas, Ray

Characteristics

The journal differs from a typical academic journal as it is targeted more toward students and the general public. It is used widely in courses,, and a selection of its premier articles is available in book format through ''The Contexts Reader,'' published by W. W. Norton & Company, now in its second edition. The new editors have introduced a blog feature on the magazines website, Contexts.org. New print issues are published quarterly in February (Winter), May (Spring), August (Summer) and November (Fall).

Awards

''Contexts'' won the Best Journal Award in the Social Sciences (2003) by Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division of the Association of American Publishers.

Notable Articles and Interviews

One of the most notable articles in ''Contexts'' is

Ann Morning Ann Juanita Morning is an American sociologist and demographer whose research focuses on race. In particular, she has studied racial and ethnic classification on censuses worldwide, as well as beliefs about racial difference in the United States ...

's interview with

Rachel Doležal Nkechi Amare Diallo (; born Rachel Anne Dolezal, November 12, 1977) () is an American former college instructor and activist known for identifying as a transracial black woman. In addition to claiming black ancestry, she also claimed Native Ame ...

. The interview has aired on many TV news networks, such as

Fox News The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

, and

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

, over the possibility of a trans-racial identity. The academic journal ranges in topics from

social mobility Social mobility is the movement of individuals, families, households or other categories of people within or between social strata in a society. It is a change in social status relative to one's current social location within a given society ...

immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...

, race,

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

's potential border wall, and ''

Buffy the Vampire Slayer ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' is an American supernatural fiction, supernatural drama television series created by writer and director Joss Whedon. It is based on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film), 1992 film of the same name, also written by W ...

''. One of the board members for ''Contexts'',

Tressie McMillan Cottom Tressie McMillan Cottom is an American writer, sociologist, and professor. She is currently an associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science (SILS), and is also an affiliate of t ...

, appeared on

The Daily Show ''The Daily Show'' is an American late-night talk and satirical news television program. It airs each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central with release shortly after on Paramount+. ''The Daily Show'' draws its comedy and satire form from ...

with

Trevor Noah Trevor Noah (born 20 February 1984) is a South African-born comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and former television host. He was the host of ''The Daily Show'', an American late-night talk show and satirical news progra ...

to discuss the impact of for-profit higher education in the United States on disadvantaged students.

Abstracting and indexing

''Contexts'' is abstracted and indexed in

SocINDEX EBSCO Information Services, headquartered in Ipswich, Massachusetts, is a division of EBSCO Industries Inc., a private company headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. EBSCO provides products and services to libraries of very many types around the ...

and

Sociological Abstracts CSA (formerly ''Cambridge Scientific Abstracts'') was a division of Cambridge Information Group and provider of online databases, based in Bethesda, Maryland before merging with ProQuest of Ann Arbor, Michigan in 2007. CSA hosted databases of ...

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.contexts.org/ Publications established in 2002 Sociology journals SAGE Publishing academic journals Quarterly journals English-language journals 2002 establishments in the United States Science education American Sociological Association academic journals