By Mary Barrett '14
Siena College students, faculty and members of the outside community gathered to explore the ways in which sociological issues are visualized and represented during this year’s Student Sociology Symposium. The event’s theme was “Visual Cultures.”
Sociology students of all class years also presented their varied and expansive research topics ranging from same sex marriage and it’s relation to the United States military to studies about the equestrian subculture.
Sociology major Nichole Moocz ’14 gave a presentation on her senior capstone titled “Systematic Denial of the Noncitizen: A Critique of the United States Immigration and Deportation Policy.” During her talk, Moocz discussed the impacts of deportation, especially regarding families.
“Because this was an issue I’ve always been thinking about, it was interesting to be able to go out of my comfort zone and find others who were interested in this topic as well,” Moocz said.
Along with the student presentations, Duquesne University Professor of Sociology Douglas Harper, Ph.D. gave a talk titled “Seeing Theory.” Before starting his own presentation, Harper discussed the work Siena were sharing.
“It was nice to see that the work being presented was work that the students were interested in,” Harper said. “It was nice that the work involved not just looking at computer screens but talking to human beings.”
Harper talked about how sociology is about human beings interacting and connecting, so he was glad that Siena College students were taking that into consideration. He then discussed his own experiences, his start as a photographer and the way in which he looked at sociological questions in visual ways.
