Chad Gesser

Pre-covid I had just revised this blog with the intent of writing more, in the long form. Once covid hit those plans certainly changed as I found myself scrambling to revise (on the fly) my Sociology curriculum and course design for my students in March 2020. That continued for the remainder of that semester and even into the 2020-21 school year. It even continued well into the 2021-2022. It wasn't until halfway through the spring semester that masks came off, and some faux return to normalcy had begun. I still don't think we are "back to normal," and don't know that things will ever be the same. I don't mean that to sound sad. It just is. Amidst the covid years I had several surgical procedures and certainly those things that I had planned pre-covid were put on hold. I had to set my mind towards taking care of myself, my family, and doing our best to make it through. I'm sure others, in their own way, can relate. So here we are now back at the start of a

Fun fact about Martin Luther King, Jr. While a student at Morehouse College, Dr. King majored in Sociology. Here are courses in Sociology that he took as part of his bachelor's degree. -Introduction to Sociology -Contemporary Social Trends in America  -Social Anthropology  -Social Institutions -Social Legislation  -Seminar in Sociology  -Statistics  -Principles and Methods of Statistics  -Seminar in Sociology  -Intercultural Relations #MLK

As I approached my 50th birthday in 2022, I had an idea of creating an anniversary playlist commemorating important songs and music in my life the past 50 years. Music has been a very important part of my life. As I thought about this playlist I began to realize that there were specific times in my life and a musical playlist that marked it. It's been a joy to create this and to look back on the music in my life. I'm also very happy to be able to provide this to my children so they know what music has moved their pop! I present the playlists below in this order because it's the style of music which I currently listen. I also present a brief paragraph introducing each playlist. While some songs appear in a playlist I have to say that some of these songs I don't listen to much anymore. In particular the rock and roll playlist. Those songs were quite relevant to me as a late teen and into my 20s but I developed other interests outside of rock and roll. The very last pla

I've decided to make public and available all of my Introduction to Sociology lecture videos that I've made since the beginning of the pandemic. These are produced, directed, etc by me. They are intentionally basic and not flashy. YouTube playlist is below (28 videos).

I began tracking covid-19 when it first became visible in Kentucky in March of 2020. I began tracking this data to make informed decisions for my family and anyone else that felt it of value. Early on I used covid-19 data based on official media reports from Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear. In those early weeks there were no local entities providing reliable information to the public and there was little by way of offering good public health advice. Since March 2020 many institutions and academics around the United States and the world have recognized the need for collecting good data and making it available to the public. While early on we did have some state and county level information, I recognized that covid-19 was having different impacts from locality to locality. While it was important to have information from the national and state-level, I felt it necessary to not only have local data but to have an understanding of that data. Simply put, what was happening in New York or Flor

I've been on something of a rollercoaster of experiences the past several months and it's given me pause to think about the social psychological impact of 2020. Given the breadth of impact I think just about anyone can find something to relate to in these ideas. ---------------- Earlier this summer, after spending several months already in a form of lockdown, it struck me that I was feeling a sense of illusion. I recall discussing this with my immediate family. They too echoed similar sentiments. “Things just seem weird.”  For all intents and purposes I’ve been a professional Sociologist for almost 25 years. I’ve spent that time doing research and in academia. I have a good eye for understanding social experiences and how they impact the sense of self. This sense of “feeling weird” was a sensation, if you will, I found unique. I found it to be beyond a similar term in the field, “ anomie .” Particularly since March 2020, there has been so much for mindful people to absorb. I sa