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Campus Review
December 18, 2012
Page 4
Caillouet Essay Wins Second National Award
Sociologist Bates Covers the Gamut from
Frivolity to Homeland Security and Terrorism
by John Shiffert, University Relations
An essay written by Dr. Ruth
Caillouet, chair of the Department of
Teacher Education at Clayton State
University, has won a second national
award.
Caillouet’s article, "To Be Young,
Gifted, Black, and Lesbian: Wyeth
and Woodson, Models for Saving a
Life," was selected as the recipient of
the 2012 Virginia Hamilton Essay
Award this past spring. Last week,
Caillouet flew to Las Vegas, Nev., to
receive the 2012 Nilsen-Donelson
Award for the outstanding article in
The ALAN Review for volume 39,
published by the Assembly on
Literature for Adolescents of the
Review Since July
1995 Virginia Tech’s
DLA (Digital Library
and Archives) has pro-
vided Internet access to
the ALAN Review
homepage, http://schol-
a r. l i b . v t . edu / e j ou r -
n a l s / A L A N / a l a n -
review.html.
National
Council
of
Teachers
of
English
(ALAN).
The article’s previous honor,
the Virginia Hamilton Essay
Award was established in
1991, and recognizes a jour-
nal article published in a
given year which makes a
significant contribution to
professional literature con-
cerning multicultural literary
experiences for youth.
Dr. Steven Bickmore, Dr.
Jacqueline Bach and Dr.
Melanie Hundley currently edit ALAN
Dr. Ruth Caillouet
Clayton State University Professor of
Sociology Dr. Rodger Bates is one of
those rare individuals whose expertise
covers two ends of a spectrum.
In Bates’ case, that sociological spectrum
runs the course from frivolity to homeland
security and terrorism
Bates recently made a presentation on
"The Social Construction of Frivolity," at
the Mid-South Sociological Association
(MSSA) meeting in Mobile, Ala. The
presentation was co-authored with daugh-
ter Emily Bates Fortner, assistant profes-
sor of Sociology at Jackson State
Community College in Jackson, Tenn.
“With regards to my other interests, in the
past two-years I have published two arti-
cles in the Journal of Public and
Professional Sociology in the area of ter-
rorism,” he adds. “Only a sociologist can
move from terrorism to frivolity and back
and keep a straight face.”
Of course, keeping a straight face on the
subject of frivolity may not be easy. "The
Social Construction of Frivolity” covered
such wide-ranging “frivolous” pastimes
as theme parks, doing the “wave” at sporting
events, Mardi Gras, theWorld Championship
Barbecue Cooking Contest, and a new fad,
“planking,” which Bates describes as involv-
ing people laying out in a plank-like manner
in various public places. Proving that the
MSSA was into the Bates’ presentation, four
MSSA officers mimicked planking for the
camera during the meeting.
“Leisure is a continuum of behavior from
normative to deviant. Some forms of
leisure reflect widely shared cultural
norms while others reflect only marginal
or sub-cultural acceptance,” reads the
abstract for "The Social Construction of
Frivolity.” (Planking is apparently quite a
hit on social media.) “Within this continu-
um, we label some harmless forms of non-
traditional behavior frivolity. The social
construction of frivolity is tempered by
time, place, social class and tradition. In
addition, frivolity can be a two-edged
sword, defining the abnormal as normal or
the normal as abnormal.
“Anthropologists document the functional
nature of frivolity as a safety-valve to the
pressures of conformity. Sociologists
explore how patterns of interaction are
altered or suspended in response to spe-
cial events defined as periods of frivolity.
Likewise, students of popular culture
study the emergent norms, behaviors and
the social definitions associated with car-
nivals, festivals and special environments
dedicated to frivolity.”
On a more serious note, Bates points out
that Homeland Security/Emergency
Management is now an approved minor in
sociology at Clayton State, as well as a
concentration in both the Clayton State
MSSA planking
Bates, cont’d., p. 13