Séances de la conférence

In a world increasingly marked by polarization, hostility, and hate, the role of educators in higher education institutions cannot be understated. In the field of Sociology, the task is particularly challenging since real-time events often interweave with the narratives we teach. This proposed round table “Integrative Pedagogies: Teaching Sensitive Topics and Open Pedagogy,” seeks to address these concerns. Sociology educators often grapple with the dilemma of integrating and discussing sensitive, timely, and sometimes controversial issues, which may pop-up well after their curriculum and lessons have been planned. If mishandled, these topics can inadvertently fuel biases, misinformation, and exacerbate hate. However, with an informed pedagogical framework, these very same topics can become pivotal for instilling empathy, understanding, and informed action. Likewise, by facilitating knowledge sharing and delegating responsibilities to students for sourcing and incorporating lived experiences, open pedagogy fosters solidarity, social justice mobilization, equity, diversity and inclusion, accessibility. This session brings educators in Sociology (and other related disciplines) together to share best practices, frameworks, and experiences of informed and open pedagogies. All done with the objective of, not only to educate, but also to counteract divisive narratives and promote empathetic understanding amongst those we strive to teach. The discussions will centre on balancing "real world" relevance with academic rigour, the need to instill critical thinking, and the importance of fostering inclusive and supportive classroom environments. The role educators play in challenging hate and promoting understanding is relevant in embracing the complexities of the contemporary sociopolitical landscape. Mitigating hate fuelled perceptions of the "other," has always been central to Sociological pedagogical practices. This session addresses some of these challenges, by fortifying educators’ role in challenging hate and promoting nuanced empathetic understandings in the face of contemporary and emerging issues within today's, and tomorrow's sociopolitical landscape. The educator's role is crucial for influencing societal narratives and challenging hate filled narratives.

Typically, introductory courses are large classes taught to sociology majors and non-majors at the beginning of students’ post-secondary educations. The unique characteristics of introductory courses present opportunities and challenges for teaching and learning. Join us for a panel discussion featuring 5 short (5-10 minute) presentations of pedagogical innovations, followed by an interactive discussion about the opportunities and challenges of teaching introduction to sociology. Presentations include examples and experiences with: integrating use of online census data, experiential learning in tutorials, pedagogical tools for decolonizing the discipline, reflection assignments to hone learning skills, and engaging with principles of Universal Design for Learning.

This session will offer a space for explicit engagement with the ideas, structures, and ways of knowing that often represent the 'background' of everyday life. Many theories have attempted to grasp at this liminal space: lifeworld, habitus, tacit knowledge, prereflective backgrounds, primary frameworks, spheres and counter-spheres, etc. We investigate how questions of such 'theories of the background' apply (and perhaps ought to be adapted) to the current circumstances of our age, whether epistemic, ontological, or ethical. The strength and flexibility of such a session is that all social questions carry buried within them the question of ‘what is going on in the background?’ This includes the causes and maintenance structures for the hate which this year's Congress seeks to challenge. Sociology's inherently interdisciplinary nature represents a strength in this regard and so we welcome presentations representing a host of disciplines to help spark new theoretical engagements to answer the questions of today, tomorrow, and beyond.

This session will offer a space for explicit engagement with the ideas, structures, and ways of knowing that often represent the 'background' of everyday life. Many theories have attempted to grasp at this liminal space: lifeworld, habitus, tacit knowledge, prereflective backgrounds, primary frameworks, spheres and counter-spheres, etc. We investigate how questions of such 'theories of the background' apply (and perhaps ought to be adapted) to the current circumstances of our age, whether epistemic, ontological, or ethical. The strength and flexibility of such a session is that all social questions carry buried within them the question of ‘what is going on in the background?’ This includes the causes and maintenance structures for the hate which this year's Congress seeks to challenge. Sociology's inherently interdisciplinary nature represents a strength in this regard and so we welcome presentations representing a host of disciplines to help spark new theoretical engagements to answer the questions of today, tomorrow, and beyond.

This session invites papers focusing on sociological metatheory and the philosophy of social science, broadly understood. This area generally concerns debates about the fundamental assumptions in sociology covering a wide range of areas, including: epistemology and methodology; ontology and the nature of social reality; axiology and normative commitments, and aesthetics (e.g., the forms sociology takes; different ways it is conveyed, etc.), to name a few. The field has been recently re-energized by Critical Realism, contemporary nominalism, decolonizing scholars, new materialism, among more conventional discussions of materialism, idealism, positivism, vitalism, constructivism, and nominalism, among others.