Welcome!
Welcome to the first ever journal of various works by undergraduate students in Sociology courses at Iniskim / The University of Lethbridge.
The truly exceptional thing about one’s time in University is the opportunity it provides to learn from each other. It is a precious chance to learn from people who you might otherwise never have met, or talked with, or whose experiences and ideas you might not otherwise have been able to imagine. The impetus for this journal of student writing is to provide another opportunity to think and learn with each other.
This first configuration of “Sociological Imaginations” is made up of papers selected by professors who taught Sociology courses in Fall 2023 and Spring 2024. Professors selected these papers for different reasons. Each is an example of excellence. Each paper is well-written. Each demonstrates deep and critical thinking. They are creative pieces. Some take the mundane aspects of our lives and expose their strangeness. Many reveal important connections for understanding through their use of a “sociological imagination,” a concept coined in 1959 by American Sociologists C. Wright Mills, and the name of this journal. Using this imagination, students’ works show the relationships between an individual experience and the social and historical context in which we live. We think that such works should be shared so that we might learn from thinking together.
The journal is organized by course number, in ascending order, according to the level of the course for which student contributions were created. The topics explored are diverse and important. Using sociological imaginations, Runté examines disability and exclusion, Makowsky explores complexities of gender as a “doing,” Day Rider offers a Blackfoot Woman’s Manifesto, Tharle gives insight into the gendered treatment of pain in medicine, McMurray elaborates the concept of “crip time,” and Lenton explores gender, labour and weddings in film.
As you read this first edition of Sociological Imaginations, please keep in mind that this journal is one of student work, and that these works were initially written to satisfy course requirements. Remember, ‘essay’ is also a verb, meaning to attempt or try. This is important. What is published here represents students’ effort and thinking at a moment in time and for a specific purpose. In several of the pieces, students share meaningful and personal aspects of their lived experiences. It is very scary to share such work. We want to heartily thank the authors for taking such a risk in the spirit of learning with each other.
We hope that this journal will become an inspiration, resource and guide for Sociology students like you. In it, we hope that you might see what kinds of things that you could go on to study, what kinds of creative and critical thinking is possible, and what kinds of questions you might ask, as you continue to read, write and think through and beyond disciplines you study here and beyond.
We also hope that upon reading this first instalment of Sociology Imaginations, that some of you might see yourselves in its future pages, taking up roles as editors, writers, reviewers or artistic contributors. We would love that! This journal starts off small, with professors taking a little time to put different contributions together, but we hope that it will become a student-led project, perhaps one supported through an applied studies course within the Sociology Department. So please, if you would like to work to make this an annual student project, start by talking to your favourite Sociology prof, or with Jenny Oseen, our amazing Administrative Assistant and someone who has been helping students like you in innumerable ways for years now. We would love to work together to keep publishing Sociological Imaginations!
Thank you to all who contributed to this issue and to the community of Sociology students reading it.
Finally, a very special “Thank you” goes to U of L librarian, Rumi Graham, whose expertise in publishing, Pressbooks, and copyright, proved to be exceptionally helpful. Thank you for answering so many questions and helping to start Sociological Imaginations!
Kara Granzow and the Department of Sociology
