Second Thoughts

Janet M. Ruane (PhD, Rutgers University) is a professor of sociology at Montclair State University. She has served as her department's undergraduate and graduate program director. Professor Ruane's research interests include formal and informal social control mechanisms, media and technology, research methods, and applied sociology. She is the author of Essentials of Research Methods (Blackwell) and has contributed articles and chapters to several journals and collections including Sociological Forum, Sociological Inquiry, Law and Policy, Communication Research, Sociological Focus, Journal of Applied Sociology, and Science as Culture. Since stepping into her first classroom, Professor Ruane has accumulated decades of valuable teaching experience in both introductory and advanced-level sociology courses. These years have afforded her a wealth of opportunities for generating and fine-tuning many second thoughts. Karen A. Cerulo (PhD, Princeton University) is a professor of sociology at Rutgers University. Her research interests include culture and cognition, symbolic communication, media and technology, and comparative historical studies. Professor Cerulo's articles appear in a wide variety of journals, including the American Sociological Review, Contemporary Sociology, Poetics, Social Forces, Sociological Forum, Sociological Inquiry, Communication Research, and annuals such as the Annual Review of Sociology and Research in Political Sociology. She is the author of three books: Identity Designs: The Sights and Sounds of a Nation, winner of the ASA Culture Section's award for the Best Book of 1996 (Rose Book Series of the ASA, Rutgers University Press); Deciphering Violence: The Cognitive Structure of Right and Wrong (Routledge); and Never Saw It Coming: Cultural Challenges to Envisioning the Worst (University of Chicago Press). She has also edited a collection entitled Culture in Mind: Toward a Sociology of Culture and Cognition (Routledge). Professor Cerulo's teaching and research earned her both the Rutgers University Awards for "Distinguished Contributions to Undergraduate Education" and the "Scholar-Teacher Award." In 2014, she was named the Robin Williams Lecturer for the Eastern Sociological Society.