Faculty-Student Research: Political Behaviors

Prof. Catherine Bueker and her students in Methods of Social Research conducted a study on the political attitudes and behaviors of Emmanuel College students leading up to the 2008 Presidential Election. They found that EC students were overwhelmingly Obama supporters. Nearly 78% of those surveyed cited support for the Democratic candidate, 17% cited support for McCain, and the remainder chose third party candidates. Regardless of their choice of candidate, the majority of students surveyed supported Obama's positions on healthcare (58%), the War in Iraq (80%), educational reform (59%), gay marriage (76%), and support for veterans (51%). Students were more in favor of McCain's positions on the economy (51%) and immigration (69%). These research findings will be presented at an upcoming conference. Our thanks to everyone who participated in the survey.

Lauren Harris, '09, writes about carrying out research in the department:

"In the fall semester of 2007, I took Methods of Social Research, a sociology class geared toward introducing students to the ways in which one can conduct social research. Emmanuel College asked the class to focus our research project on finding out students' levels of satisfaction with and expectations of the College. We broke into sub-groups to focus on specific categories and through surveys, interviews, focus groups, and observations, we studied different aspects of Emmanuel College, such as academics, social life, and food services.

After conducting research, compiling data, forming conclusions, and presenting the information to members of the faculty, we were presented with an amazing opportunity. Professor Bueker learned that the annual American Sociological Association conference would be held in Boston the following summer and was accepting student research. A few of the students, including myself, applied to present a poster at the conference, and all were accepted.

In August, we met in Boston to display our work at the conference with dozens of other researchers. Sociologists, graduate students, and others exhibited their work, from the difference in democratic tendencies between France and the U.S. to the history of racism in film and cartoons. Not only were we able to show our work to others, but we were able to see what sorts of studies were being conducted all over the country. It was an incredible experience, and it really opened my eyes to how expansive the world of social research is and how expansive the topics can be."

Faculty-Student Research:  Support Networks

Thanks to a faculty development grant, Meaghan Mingo, '10 and Prof. Križ worked on a research project that explores the support networks of low-income immigrant families in the Boston area. Mingo and Križ presented their research at the meetings of the Eastern Sociological Society (ESS) in Baltimore.

The study shows that kin do play a major role in providing an array of resources within immigrant families, and that this support is transnational and circular: while kin in the U.S. provide resources to low-income immigrant households, immigrant households provide resources to kin in their country of origin, who also provide resources back to immigrants in the United States. Most, but not all, families receive strong support from others and provide strong support to others. Interestingly, even families with weak in-support networks provide a lot of support to others, especially to family members in their countries of origin. Read more »