Sociology Students Present Original Research

Sociology students Diane Carvagno and Blake Kush presented papers at the New York State Sociological Association October 17th and 18th. The 56th annual meeting was focused on Community, Conflict and Control. This conference provides a forum for sociologists and students to present their research and exchange ideas with scholars from all over the state.

Diane’s research paper is the culmination of her Research Methods project from last semester. She studied the attitudes of Siena Colege students towards censorship of the radio. Some of the main points of her paper include: men will be less likely to support censorship than women, older students will be more likely to support censorship than younger ones, middle-class students are more likely to support censorship than any other class. She found that, in general, Siena Students do support censoring the radio.

Blake’s research came out of his work in a Sociology Seminar class from last year in which the students worked with kids from the city of Albany. "Troubled Youth" A Look Into the Perceived and Bona Fide Life of Albany’s Youth, looked at how the media represents Albany’s youth and at the youth’s actual experiences. Some of Blake’s conclusions are that the youth in Albany are negatively portrayed in the media the majority of the time, that they must battle against policies and a society that sets them up for failure, and that both media and society fail to take into account their day-by-day struggles to survive.