John Sonnett
Assistant Professor of Sociology
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
P.O. Box 1848
University, MS  38677-1848

Phone: 662-915-7316
Office: Leavell 207
E-mail:

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Biography:
I received my B.A. in Russian Studies from the University of Virginia, and my M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Arizona. I have previously taught at Denison University. I joined the faculty at the University of Mississippi as an Assistant Professor of Sociology in Fall 2006.

My research and teaching in sociology focuses on the ways in which knowledge is connected to social power. I have done research on patterns of inclusion and exclusion in musical tastes, links between methods of inquiry and topics of study in sociology, and ways in which environmental issues are named and framed in the media. Across all of these topics I have also been interested in how theory informs our methods and methods shape our theory. In my methodological work, I have investigated the role of counterfactual cases in comparative methods, and the correspondence between relational methods and theory in cultural sociology.

In my teaching I try to highlight the ways in which our knowledge about the social world is shaped by our social positions within contexts of political, economic, and cultural power. I hope to give students a better sense of how existing social patterns have come to be and how they might be changed.

Research
My recent research has focused on the ways in which environmental issues are represented in the media. In this work, I have been particularly interested in developing a method for mapping patterns of language use across social fields. My dissertation examined how global warming, climate change, and greenhouse gases were represented in a diverse mix of media—including scientific, environmentalist, industry, and popular publications—between 1997 and 2004. I am currently revising and expanding papers from this project which examine the naming of issues across media and time, the ways in which issues are embedded in a discourse of “risk,” and the presence or absence of science in reporting. I have also done research on reporting about drought in regional newspapers and themes in coverage of wildland fires. I am currently collaborating on a series of projects examining press coverage of African Americans during and after Hurricane Katrina. In other current work I am expanding on the theoretical basis of my method of discourse mapping, and investigating patterns in best-selling religious and spiritual non-fiction in the 20th century.

Publications
Sonnett, John, Barbara J. Morehouse, Thomas D. Finger, Gregg Garfin, and Nicholas Rattray. 2006. “Drought and Declining Reservoirs: Comparing Media Discourse in Arizona and New Mexico, 2002-2004.” Global Environmental Change, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 95-113.

Ragin, Charles C., and John Sonnett. 2005. “Between Complexity and Parsimony: Limited Diversity, Counterfactual Cases, and Comparative Analysis.” In Sabine Kropp and Michael Minkenberg (eds.), Vergleichen in der Politikwissenschaft. Wiesbaden:VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.

Sonnett, John, and Ronald L. Breiger. 2004. “How Relational Methods Matter.” Culture, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 1, 8-10.

Sonnett, John. 2004. “Musical Boundaries: Intersections of Form and Content.” Poetics, vol. 32, no. 3-4, pp. 247-264.

Teaching
101 Introductory Sociology
365 Social Research Methods
411 Environment, Technology, and Society