Rebecca Tiger
Assistant Professor of Sociology
Email: rtiger@middlebury.edu
Phone: work802.443.5513
Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays 2:30-4 p.m.
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My research and teaching interests are at the intersection of deviance, criminology, the law, medicalization, and media culture. My book, Force is the Best Medicine: Drug Courts and the Logic of Coerced Treatment (under contract with New York University Press, Alternative Criminology Series), examines the re-emergence of rehabilitation in the criminal justice system focusing on the medicalized theories of addiction advocates of drug courts (where defendants are mandated to drug treatment) use to bolster criminal justice oversight of defendants. I argue that the disease designation erases considerations of race from discussions of criminal justice processing and reform. By calling these defendants “sick,” drug court advocates obscure the racial bias inherent in a system that arrests, charges, convicts and sentences African American drug users at a much higher rather than their white counterparts. Rather than reforming the system, these courts permit increased social control of these defendants in the name of healing and punishing them.
My research interests grew out of the public health work I’ve done in the U.S. For several years before getting my PhD, I worked as a researcher and policy analyst in the field of HIV/AIDS and drug policy, in New York, New Orleans and other urban areas, focusing on criminal justice and public health approaches to these issues. I am interested in fostering sociology’s potential “applied” contributions while retaining a critical perspective on the ways in which this research is used by policymakers and advocates.
Before coming to Middlebury, I co-edited the ninth book in Elsevier Press’s “Advances in Medical Sociology Series” Bioethical Issues: Sociological Perspectives. In 2009, I co-authored a short article in the Journal of Clinical Issues with Barbara Katz Rothman in which we consider medicine as an institution of punitive social control for poor mothers suspected of child abuse and neglect and consider the policy ramifications of the medicalization of social problems. An article based on the research for my book is forthcoming in Sociological Forum.
I have recently begun a new project that continues to examine our cultural preoccupations with deviance and normality, focusing specifically on addiction and the cultural sites where ideas about addiction are communicated. Celebrity gossip blogs, some with over 7 million readers per month, and reality shows such as Intervention and Celebrity Rehab are important places where ideas about addiction are constructed, defined, reinterpreted and, in some instances, contested. I am studying the linkage between the knowledge about addiction produced through the media that are then reflected in the institutional practices used to monitor and control drug users.
I enjoy being part of the Middlebury Community and teaching the following courses: Society & the Individual, Deviance & Social Control, Sociology of Drugs, Sociology of Punishment, and Bad Boys and Wayward Girls: The Social Control of Problem Youth.
Courses
Courses offered in the past four years.
▲ indicates offered in the current term
▹ indicates offered in the upcoming term[s]
SOAN 0105 - Society and the Individual
Society and the Individual
This course examines the ideas and enduring contributions of the giants of modern social theory, including Karl Marx, Max Weber, Emile Durkheim, and Sigmund Freud. Readings will include selections from original works, as well as contemporary essays. Key issues will include the nature of modernity, the direction of social change, and the role of human agency in constructing the "good society." This course serves as a general introduction to sociology. (Not open to second semester juniors or seniors without approval) 2 hrs. lect., 1 hr. disc.
Spring 2009, Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Fall 2011
SOAN 0281 - Celebrity ▲
Celebrity
In this course we will explore (1) definitions of fame and celebrity and difference between the two, (2) the history, production, and consumption of celebrity in the U.S., and (3) the structures of power and inequality the celebrity phenomenon and its commodification embody. We will draw from a range of examples including the history of Hollywood, reality television, sports, celebrity deviance, and the role the Internet plays in celebrity culture and surveillance. Overall, we will consider what the pleasures we derive from consuming celebrities reveal about the cultural significance of celebrities in our everyday lives. 3 hrs. sem.
Spring 2012
SOAN 0288 - Deviance and Social Control
Deviance and Social Control
This course will introduce students to sociological perspectives on the nature, causes and control of deviant behavior and populations. We will consider, historically and theoretically, the construction of deviance, the social purpose it serves, and the societal response deviance engenders. We will pay special attention to the ways in which the deviant body is constructed and managed through a variety of frameworks – including medical, punitive and therapeutic - and reflect critically on the social and political ramifications of the categorizations “deviant” and “normal”. Limited places available for students to satisfy the college writing requirement. 3 hrs. lect./disc.
Fall 2008, Fall 2009, Fall 2010
SOAN 0319 - Sociology of Drugs
Sociology of Drugs
Why are some mind-altering substances called "drugs" and others "medicine"? Why are some drug users called "criminals" while others are called "sick"? In this course, we will examine psychoactive drugs from an historical and sociological perspective. Drawing on a variety of sources - including films, documentaries, and ethnographies - we will consider the political, economic, legal, and social dimensions of drugs and drug use. Through an empirical and theoretical focus on drugs and the "moral panics" surrounding drug users, we will critically analyze a variety of drug control strategies to understand their sociopolitical origins and consequences. 3hrs. lect/disc. (SOAN 0105 or SOAN 0288)
Spring 2009, Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Fall 2011
SOAN 0375 / WAGS 0375 - Social Control/Problem Youth ▲
Bad Boys and Wayward Girls: The Social Control of “Problem Youth”
Everyone worries about young people; we scrutinize their clothes, music, friends, grades, drugs, and sports. Families, schools, medicine, and psychology communicate what it means to be a "normal" young person. Reformatories and other disciplinary mechanisms convey the consequences for rule breaking. In this course, we will (1) look at the construction of childhood, the invention of delinquency, the creation of adolescence, and the ideas of normalcy embedded in these categories; (2) consider how class, race, and gender intersect with the mechanisms of social control exerted over those who deviate; and (3) explore how young people resist the social pressures to be good boys and docile girls. (Formerly SOAN 0475) (SOAN 0105 or SOAN 0288) 3 hrs. lect./disc.
Spring 2012
SOAN 0475 - Social Control/Problem Youth
Bad Boys and Wayward Girls: The Social Control of “Problem Youth”
Everyone worries about young people; we scrutinize their clothes, music, friends, grades, drugs, and sports. Families, schools, medicine, and psychology communicate what it means to be a "normal" young person. Reformatories and other disciplinary mechanisms convey the consequences for rule breaking. In this course, we will (1) look at the construction of childhood, the invention of delinquency, the creation of adolescence, and the ideas of normalcy embedded in these categories; (2) consider how class, race, and gender intersect with the mechanisms of social control exerted over those who deviate; and (3) explore how young people resist the social pressures to be good boys and docile girls. (SOAN 0105) 3 hrs. sem.
Spring 2011
SOAN 0478 - Sociology of Punishment
Sociology of Punishment
In this course, we will examine the changing ideologies and practices of state-sponsored punishment that have led to the spectacular expansion of imprisonment and other forms of penal supervision in the U.S. Drawing on theoretical accounts of punishment, historical examinations of prison and parole, and contemporary studies of criminal law and sentencing, we will consider social control as it plays out via institutionalized contexts, namely prisons and asylums, as well as alternative sanctions, such as coerced treatment. We will identify the major phases of penal development and consider mass imprisonment as both a reflection and cause of racial and economic inequality. 3 hrs. sem.
Fall 2008, Fall 2009
SOAN 0500 - Advanced Individual Study ▲
Prior to registering for SOAN 0500, a student must enlist the support of a faculty advisor from the Department of Sociology/Anthropology. (Open to Majors only) (Approval Required)
Fall 2008, Winter 2009, Spring 2009, Fall 2009, Winter 2010, Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Winter 2011, Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Winter 2012, Spring 2012
SOAN 0700 - One-Semester Senior Project ▲
One-Semester Senior Project
Under the guidance of a faculty member, a student will carry out an independent, one-semester research project, often based on original data. The student must also participate in a senior seminar that begins the first week of fall semester and meets as necessary during the rest of the year. The final product must be presented in a written report of 25-40 pages, due the last day of classes.
Fall 2008, Spring 2009, Fall 2009, Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Spring 2012
SOAN 0710 - Multi-Semester Senior Project ▲
Multi-Semester Senior Project
Under the guidance of a faculty member, a senior will carry out an independent multi-semester research project, often based on original data. The student must also participate in a senior seminar that begins the first week of fall semester and meets as necessary during the rest of the year. The final product must be presented in a written report of 60-100 pages, due either at the end of the Winter Term or the Friday after spring break.
Fall 2008, Winter 2009, Spring 2009, Fall 2009, Winter 2010, Spring 2010, Winter 2011, Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Winter 2012, Spring 2012