Abstract:Randall Collins' theory of interaction ritual chains is widely cited, but has been subject to little theoretical elaboration. One reason for the modest expansion of the theory is the underdevelopment of the concept of emotional energy. This paper examines emotional energy, related particularly to the dynamics of negative experiences. It asks whether or not negative emotions produce emotional energies that are qualitatively distinct from their positive counterparts. The analysis begins by tracing the development of Interaction Ritual Theory, and summarizes its core propositions. Next, it moves to a conceptualization of a "valenced" emotional energy and describes both "positive" and "negative" dimensions. Six propositions outline the central dynamics of negative emotional energy. The role of groups in the formation of positive and negative emotional energy are considered, as well as how these energies are significant sources of sociological motivation.

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Background and purposeUnconscious bias and explicit forms of discrimination continue to pervade academic institutions. Multicultural and diversity training activities have not been sufficient in making structural and social changes leading to equity, therefore, a new form of critical consciousness is needed to train diverse scientists with new research questions, methods, and perspectives. The purpose of this paper is to describe Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD); Promoting Opportunities for Diversity in Education and Research (PODER), which is an undergraduate biomedical research training program based on transformative framework rooted in Critical Race Theory (CRT).Key highlightsBy employing a CRT-informed curriculum and training in BUILD PODER, students are empowered not only to gain access but also to thrive in graduate programs and beyond. Poder means “power” or “to be able to” in Spanish. Essentially, we are “building power” using students’ strengths and empowering them as learners. The new curriculum helps students understand institutional policies and practices that may prevent them from persisting in higher education, learn to become their own advocates, and successfully confront social barriers and instances of inequities and discrimination. To challenge these barriers and sustain campus changes in support of students, BUILD PODER works toward changing campus culture and research mentoring relationships. By joining with ongoing university structures such as the state university Graduation Initiative, we include CRT tenets into the campus dialogue and stimulate campus-wide discussions around institutional change. Strong ties with five community college partners also enrich BUILD PODER’s student body and strengthen mentor diversity. Preliminary evaluation data suggest that BUILD PODER’s program has enhanced the racial/ethnic consciousness of the campus community, is effective in encouraging more egalitarian and respectful faculty-student relationships, and is a rigorous program of biomedical research training that supports students as they achieve their goals.ImplicationsBiomedical research programs may benefit from a reanalysis of the fit between current training programs and student strengths. By incorporating the voices of talented youth, drawing upon their native strengths, we will generate a new science that links biomedical research to community health and social justice, generating progress toward health equity through a promising new generation of scholars.

This study investigates science identity and intention to pursue a science career among three groups of graduating Latinx biomedical majors. Students who participated in an undergraduate research program guided by critical race theory reported the highest levels of science identity and intention to pursue a science career at the end of college.

Public sociology is an attempt to redress the issues of public engagement and disciplinary identity that have beset the discipline over the past several decades. While public sociology seeks to rectify the public invisibility of sociology, this paper investigates the limitations of it program. Several points of critique are offered. First, public sociology's affiliations with Marxism serve to potentially entrench existing divisions within the discipline. Second, public sociology's advancement of an agenda geared toward a ~'sociology for publics" instead of a "'sociology of publics" imposes limitations on the development of a public interface. Third, the lack of a methodological agenda for public sociology raises concerns of how sociology can compete within a contested climate of public opinion. Fourth, issues of disciplinary coherence are not necessarily resolved by public sociology, and are potentially exacerbated by the invocation of public sociology as a new disciplinary identity. Fifth, the incoherence of professional sociology is obviated, and a misleading affiliation is made between scientific knowledge and the hegemonic structure of the profession. Finally, the idealism of public sociology's putative defense of civil society is explored as a utopian gesture akin to that of Habermas' attempt to revive the public sphere. The development of a strong program in professional sociology is briefly offered as a means to repair the disciplinary problems that are illustrated by emergence of the project of public sociology. Introduction: Sociology and Its Public FaceMichael Burawoy is right--if sociology is to thrive, it needs a stronger public presence. Sociology has an unconvincing presentation of self, and is wracked by a marked inability to establish and manage a coherent and public face. In many respects, sociology is all but invisible to the public eye, dominantly overshadowed by its social science brethren--psychology, economics, and political science. The David Boyns is an assistant professor in Sociology at California State University at Northridge. He specializes in sociological theory and its fundamental role in facilitating sociological research. His recent work is directed toward the investigation of forms of epistemology in sociology, in particular the role of the scientific process. He can be contacted at david.boyns @csun.edu. Jesse Fletcher is an M.A. candidate in sociology at California State University at Northridge. Jesse hopes to gain his Ph.D. in sociology upon completion of his M.A. His primary interests lie within the creative combination of theory and methodology for the furtherance of scientific sociology. He is a musician, and would very much like to be involved in the revitalization of the sociology of music in America. He can be contacted at socalsociophile@yahoo.com.The emergence of public sociology by a sociologist of an overtly Marxist orientation raises the question of the ideological orientation of "public sociology." As Boyns and Fletcher 9