Dozens of Sociologists Disrupt Annual Conference Over Gaza War as Enrollment Declines
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Aug 14
Dozens of Sociologists Disrupt Annual Conference Over Gaza War as Enrollment Declines
2 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Aug 14
Summary
A few dozen sociologists interrupted the discipline’s annual conference in New York on Sunday, chanting “Free Palestine” and unfurling a banner as association president Shelley Correll took the stage.
The brief protest highlighted a deeper split over whether sociology should take public political stances on issues such as Gaza or pull back from activism to protect its academic credibility.
That debate has intensified as Republicans in some states cast sociology as a symbol of left-wing academia, adding outside political pressure to the field’s internal rifts.
Fewer students are enrolling in sociology classes, making the fight over activism more consequential for a discipline already questioning how to balance advocacy with scholarship.
When an academic field built on studying inequality suppresses its own members' protests, does it risk destroying its remaining public credibility?
What happens to a struggling academic discipline when the very political conflicts it studies begin tearing its own institutions apart from the inside?