sociology

I want to dedicate this essay to the men and boys we have raised — and those in my own life who are trying to connect what they think to what they feel. You are enough.

The reality is that STEM seems to dictate our careers, our livelihoods and therefore our academics as well. Without these disciplines, I can’t imagine how any of us would exist. But without humanities, arts and social sciences, I don’t think our chances of existence would be any higher.

Society inspires literature, and literature inspires society. The union of my English and sociology majors constantly reminds me of this beautiful dynamic.

While I have no tangible evidence of what happened that day in the pews of a church, I do feel more certain that not everything in this world comes down to empirical explanation.

TikTok might mimic the spontaneity of meeting a stranger or the serendipity of finding common ground with another person, and it may have even served as an anchor in community life during the pandemic, but third places hinge on this element of place, and TikTok would be more fairly considered a “nonplace.” 

We are deluding ourselves if we believe tech is a blank slate that is free from capitalism, misogyny and racism.

But while all men aren’t “bad,” they all have inherited a society which severely needs to reconsider what it means to be a boy, and more crucially, what it means to be human.

As I wrap up the third week of the semester as a UC Berkeley senior, I am starting to bear the feeling that studying sociology is hard.

Packed into this equation is the obligation I feel to live up to the rankings, but more than anything, to the legacy of those who have made it possible for me to know what career I want to pursue and actively go for it.

Working as a graduate student at UC Berkeley, one of the top public research institutions in the world, can seem like a dream. Yet, for some, that dream can be tarnished when faced with the reality of campus working conditions amidst the costs of living in one of the world’s most expensive cities.