Top of page

Category: Sociology

Highlights from the Kluge Center’s 2023 Events

Posted by: Andrew Breiner

In 2023, the John W. Kluge Center continued its work bringing scholars, writers, and lawmakers to the Library of Congress for public programming that informs, entertains, and shines a spotlight on the collections of the Library. With 2023 behind us, we’ve collected some of our favorite events we’ve hosted in the last year, all available …

Image shows the Join In exhibit at the Library of Congress, featuring a model barn raising

Joining In at the Kluge Center

Posted by: Andrew Breiner

This is a post by Kevin Butterfield, Director of the John W. Kluge Center.  One of the more remarkable coincidences of my professional life happened on September 12, 2022, when I arrived for my first day of work at the Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress as the new Director of the John W. …

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

Equitable Infrastructure, Democracy, and Why Private Industry Can’t Address the Digital Divide

Posted by: Janna Deitz

Now, more than ever, vast amounts of digital information are instantly available to the public. And yet, accessing digital information and online services remains a challenge for those in areas without high-speed internet access. In this interview, Ann Eisenberg, Associate Professor of Law at the University of South Carolina and current Kluge Fellow, explained the …

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

Watch Now to Learn About the Movements Shaping American Democracy

Posted by: Andrew Breiner

The John W. Kluge Center and the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University are proud to release Social Movements and American Democracy in the 21st Century, a discussion moderated by Theda Skocpol and featuring panelists Hahrie Han, Dana Fisher, and Leah Wright Rigueur. Theda Skocpol, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology at …

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

The Entanglement of Power, Security, and Energy Supply – Part Two

Posted by: Giselle M. Avilés

I talked with Kluge Fellow Gaetano Di Tommaso about his research project, “Petro-Modernity and Statecraft: The U.S. Energy-National Security Nexus Reconsidered (1890s-1920s).” Before coming to the Kluge Center, Tano, as we call him here, was a Teaching Fellow at Sciences Po-Paris (Reims campus), in France. This is part two of the two-part interview. Click here for part one. …

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

Can Big Data Save Us from Ourselves? A Conversation About Information, Democracy, and Dystopia

Posted by: Dan Turello

On a rainy day in late spring, a pan-Asian noodle restaurant on Pennsylvania Avenue offered the perfect nook for a spirited conversation about big data, algorithms, and the construction of our legal and social realities. Among those at the table with me were Martin Hilbert, who was a Kluge Distinguished Visiting Scholar and is Associate …

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

Emoji, Texting and Social Media: How Do They Impact Language?

Posted by: Dan Turello

I’m here with Dame Wendy Hall, Kluge Chair in Technology and Society, Regius Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton and early pioneer in web protocols; with Alexandre Loktionov, AHRC Fellow at the Kluge Center and an expert on hieroglyphic and cuneiform legal texts; and with Jessica Lingel, Kluge Fellow, assistant professor at …

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

At the Crossroads of Health and Spirituality: An Interview with Joanne Braxton

Posted by: Travis Hensley

The following is a guest post by Samira Mehta, Assistant Professor at Albright College and the 2015 David B. Larson Fellow in Health and Spirituality at The John W. Kluge Center. This is the first post of a two-part interview by two of our Larson Fellows. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and Yale University, …

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

Africa, Past and Future: A Conversation with Toyin Falola

Posted by: Dan Turello

Members of the Scholars Council are appointed by the Librarian of Congress to advise on matters related to scholarship at the Library, with special attention to the Kluge Center and the Kluge Prize. The Council includes distinguished scholars, writers, researchers and scientists. “Insights” is featuring some of the work of this highly-accomplished group of thinkers. …