Dear RSF:

Please join us next Wednesday, 9/27 at 11 in the library or on Zoom for Guest Speaker Mario Small’s presentation “Qualitative Literacy”.

Small is a Quetelet Professor of Social Science in the Department of Sociology at Columbia University. He has made numerous contributions to research on urban neighborhoods, personal networks, qualitative and mixed methods, and many other topics.  He has shown that poor neighborhoods in commonly-studied cities such as Chicago are not representative of ghettos everywhere, that how people conceive of their neighborhood shapes how its conditions affect them, and that local organizations in poor neighborhoods often broker connections to both people and organizations.

Small, the only two-time recipient of the C. Wright Mills Best Book Award (2005 and 2010), is also a two-time recipient of a Mirra Komarovsky Best Book Award Honorable Mention (2005 and 2010), and a recipient of the Robert Park Best Book Award (2005), a Choice Outstanding Academic Title designation (2010), the Robert Park Award (now Jane Addams Award) for Best Article (2004), a Best Book on Culture Award (now Mary Douglas Prize) Honorable Mention (2004), and a Best Article on Culture Award (now Clifford Geertz Award) Honorable Mention (2003), among other honors.  His articles have been published in the American Journal of Sociology, Theory and Society, Social Networks, Annual Review of Sociology, Social Forces, and Social Science Research, among other journals; his work has been featured by the New York Times, the Washington Post, Public Radio International, the Huffington Post, Pacific Standard, Greater Good, the Chronicle Review, Commonwealth, and Spotlight on Poverty, among other outlets.

Small holds a Ph.D. from Harvard in Sociology, and his BA is from Carleton College. He is a current Foundation board member.