On Wednesday, the Sociological Action Network took over Room 450 in Schoonover Center for its first event. “Documenting Action: Student Awareness and Engagement on Social Issues” featured three speakers and introduced potential members to the club’s mission.
SAN was founded by Tamanna Shah, an assistant professor of instruction in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, and is presided over by Sonali Jha, a third-year doctoral student studying media arts and studies. Jha is from India, a country where nearly 8 million people were victims of human trafficking as of 2022, according to The Exodus Road. The history of Jha’s home country inspired her research on human trafficking, and she created SAN as an interdisciplinary research project surrounding that focus.
“Our club aims to establish an educational platform focusing on key topics such as human rights, human trafficking, citizen rights and social justice/injustice,” reads SAN’s description on BobcatConnect “Our primary aim is to empower students by providing opportunities for learning, fostering critical thinking and facilitating meaningful discussions to increase awareness and understanding.”
The first speaker at Wednesday’s event was Marguerite Hernandez, an associate professor of instruction in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology on Ohio University’s Chillicothe campus.
“I was speaking about … how to form coalitions that are committed to social change and the role empathy can play in facilitating collaboration and how we can work across our differences on issues we are concerned about,” Hernandez said. “We work in collectives, but a lot of that starts with one individual who is making that happen and providing those opportunities.”
The next speaker was Christi Scott Bartman, the founder of Eyes Up Appalachia, an organization that aims to “identify, alleviate and prevent human trafficking and those vulnerabilities that put someone at risk for it” in the Appalachian region. During her segment, Bartman emphasized the importance of individual and collective action while highlighting the voices of survivors.
The final speaker was Victoria LaPoe, a professor in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, who primarily spoke about missing and murdered Indigenous women, or MMIW. Many members in the audience were students in LaPoe’s Gender, Race and Class course, who came as an assignment for the class. One of these students was Matthew Dragani, a senior studying journalism.
“We’ve already done a little bit of coverage on MMIW, so (this event) is developing that perspective a little better,” Dragani said.
LaPoe also spoke about media coverage of MMIW and other human rights topics, which Dragani found useful for his coursework and broader field of study.
“There are a lot of things that need more press coverage, just more general understanding and this is definitely one of them,” he said. “So it was cool to come here and see these people’s stories and their specific relationships to these problems.”
SAN will continue to feature speakers in upcoming events. Future events will expand to help students working on research projects get feedback from one another as well as help students find internships, write grants and develop other professional and advocacy skills.
“I’m launching an online dialogue series where we have seats for 20 students because that is how the Ph.D. students can manage their workload and work with these students … whatever skills we have, we can work on,” Jha said.
Not only does Jha hope to help those working toward a Ph.D., but also undergraduate and graduate students.
As someone who didn’t have resources like the SAN in undergrad, Hernandez believes it’s an important facet of the club.
“By bringing people together who have these similar interests in doing research, that support system is so important for being successful,” Hernandez said. “You can find people to work with, you can find people who are cheering you on, maybe you find people you can collaborate with.”
In addition to research, Jha hopes the club will inspire people to increase their awareness and passion for social justice in academia. Students interested in a seat at the online dialogue session or in the club in general can email san@ohio.edu for more information.
“The bigger the network is, the better voices and social movements become,” Jha said.
