Divergent Pathways: How Pre-Orientation Programs Can Shape the Transition to College for First-Generation, Low-Income Students

First-generation, low-income (FGLI) students attend college at historically high rates in the United States. However, FGLI students continue to struggle in transitioning to college, particularly in elite universities. In this article, we engage with interview and supplemental survey data from 40 FGLI students at an elite university to demonstrate how self-advocacy skills—conceptualized as a form of cultural capital—can support FGLI students' transition into college. We do this through the case of pre-orientation programs, which are increasingly offered across universities, where half of the sample participated in pre-orientation and half did not. We interviewed both subsets at the start of their first academic year, as well as during their COVID-19-induced departure from campus residences. In response, we argue that students who participated in pre-orientation more often demonstrate self-advocacy skills, both in-person and online, especially in comparison with those who did not participate. We show that forming relationships with peers, as well as faculty and staff, during pre-orientation is key to enacting self-advocacy. Lastly, we also respond to previous studies that typically associate self-advocacy skills with the cultural competencies of higher-income and continuing-generation students, while making clear how these skills can benefit FGLI students in transitioning into school

What is ethnographic about digital ethnography? A sociological perspective

When COVID-19 health guidelines vastly restricted or shut down in-person ethnographic research in 2020, many researchers pivoted to forms of online qualitative research using platforms such as WeChat, Twitter, and Discord. This growing body of qualitative internet research in sociology is often encapsulated under the umbrella term “digital ethnography.” But the question of what makes digital qualitative research ethnographic remains open. In this article, we posit that digital ethnographic research necessitates a negotiation of the ethnographer's self-presentation and co-presence within the field that other forms of qualitative research, such as content or discourse analysis, do not require to satisfy their epistemological stance. To make our case, we provide a brief overview of digital research in sociology and related disciplines. Then, we draw upon our experiences conducting ethnographies in digital communities and in-person communities (what we call here, “analog ethnography”) to explore how decisions about self-presentation and co-presence facilitate or block the generation of meaningful ethnographic data. We think through pertinent questions such as: Does the lower barrier for anonymity online justify disguised research? Does anonymity generate thicker data? How should digital ethnographers participate in research environments? What are the possible repercussions of digital participation? We argue that digital and analog ethnographies share a common epistemology that is distinct from non-participatory forms of qualitative digital research—namely the need for the researcher to relationally gather data from the field site over an extended period of time

Doing Gender, Doing Heteronormativity: \u27Gender Normals,\u27 Transgender People, and the Social Maintenance of Heterosexuality

This article brings together two case studies that examine how non-transgender people, “gender normals,” interact with transgender people to highlight the connections between doing gender and heteronormativity. By contrasting public and private interactions that range from nonsexual to sexualized to sexual, the authors show how gender and sexuality are inextricably tied together. The authors demonstrate that the criteria for membership in a gender category are significantly different in social versus (hetero)sexual circumstances. While gender is presumed to reflect biological sex in all social interactions, the importance of doing gender in a way that represents the shape of one’s genitals is heightened in sexual and sexualized situations. Responses to perceived failures to fulfill gender criteria in sexual and sexualized relationships are themselves gendered; men and women select different targets for and utilize gendered tactics to accomplish the policing of supposedly natural gender boundaries and to repair breaches to heteronormativity

A Labyrinth: Designing and Playing a Collaborative Game During COVID-19

A Labyrinth was an alternate reality game developed at the University of Chicago during the COVID-19 pandemic. The game was created to spur creativity and build community online under the unprecedented and emergent conditions of the pandemic. On April 6, 2020, A Labyrinth began with an opening puzzle that unlocked the game and attracted approximately 3,500 players. A week later, on April 13, the Fourcasters (the designers) welcomed 73 core teams to compete by completing 140 quests. Alongside the competitive aspect, the game had a parallel collaborative dimension. Via the Twitch live streaming platform, players were invited to explore the alternative space-time known as Labyrinth. Once a week, via a live and collectively adjudicated interactive narrative format, players helped the Taur locate key hubs and hidden objects as they tried to make it back to the center of Labyrinth. They succeeded in this objective and saw the Labyrinth transform in an unprecedented way. On May 13, the game concluded with over 800 quests being submitted by participating teams. This panel will screen a short documentary that includes footage from gameplay on Twitch, instances of quests, and interviews with players. Following this short screening, the five core designers will discuss the challenges and affordances of designing a transmedia narrative and improvised game during a pandemic. We will begin with the question: What does it mean to grapple with the unfolding historical present through a participatory networked artwork