BETWEEN US, Healing Ourselves and Changing the World Through Sociology

The world is a tough place right now. Climate change, income inequality, racist violence, and the erosion of democracy have exposed the vulnerability of our individual and collective futures. But as the sociologists gathered here by Marika Lindholm and Elizabeth Wood show, no matter how helpless we might feel, it’s vital that we discover new paths toward healing and change.

Marika Lindholm is the founder of ESME.com (Empowering Solo Moms Everywhere), a social platform dedicated to empowering a broad demographic of women, who despite differences in age, race, culture, and route to solo motherhood, are bound together in a conscious coalition that is strong, proud, and dedicated to their children. After receiving her PhD. in sociology at SUNY Stony Brook, Lindholm taught courses on inequality, diversity, and gender at Northwestern University for over a decade. She’s published scholarly and popular press articles, essays, and short fiction in a variety of outlets, including Theory & Society, Journal of Historical Sociology, the Harvard Business Review, The Daily News, the Hill, Ms., Writer’s Digest, Working Mother, Mutha, Mind Body-Green, Psychology Today, Silent Voices, and the Southern Indiana Review. Lindholm is also a co-editor of the award-winning anthology We Got This: Solo Mom Stories of Grit, Heart, and Humor, a poignant and unflinchingly honest collection—written by seventy-five Solo Mom writers, including Amy Poehler, Anne Lamott, Mary Karr, and Elizabeth Alexander—that celebrates Solo Moms.

Elizabeth Anne Wood is a SUNY Chancellor’s award-winning professor of sociology and acting dean of instruction at Nassau Community College. She is also a senior strategist for Woodhull Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to education and public advocacy in support of sexual freedom as a fundamental human right. She’s been writing about sex and society since receiving her Ph.D. in sociology from Brandeis University in 1999 for a study of gender, interaction, and power in strip clubs. Her scholarly work has been published in Journal of Contemporary Ethnography and Feminism & Psychology and her commentary has been published in Scientific American, HERS Magazine, Authority Magazine, Mens’ Health, and Elite Daily. Her radio and podcast appearances include Culture Shocks, Sex Out Loud, Our Better Half, Carnal Theory, LOA Today, and Peepshow Podcast. Elizabeth’s debut memoir, Bound: A Daughter, a Domme and an End-of-Life Story (She Writes Press, 2019) explores themes of sexuality, illness, aging, and the dysfunctions of the U.S. healthcare system. When she isn’t writing, teaching, or strategizing you can catch her on the flying trapeze.

Robin Rogers is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Queens College and the CUNY Graduate Center. A former Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Scholar at Yale University (1998-2000) and Congressional Fellow on Women and Public Policy (1995-96), Robin’s areas of expertise include poverty, policy, crime, and gender. She is the author of The Welfare Experiments: Politics and Policy Evaluation (Stanford University Press, 2004) and a recipient of Queens College’s Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching. In her off-time, she enjoys immersive theater, live jazz, alternative music, and painting her apartment walls different colors.

Oblong Books in Rhinebeck is a fully wheelchair accessible space with on-site van accessible parking. Microphones and speakers will not be used at this event but can be made available with advance notice. Our chairs are stackable and have arms. If you have specific questions about the space or how an event can be made more accessible to you, please do not hesitate to contact us: .

Event Venue

Oblong Books [Rhinebeck], 6422 Montgomery Street, Rhinebeck, United States