Tag Archives: Analysis

Is there a Military Spouse Hiring Penalty?

Brittany N. Dernberger (@bdernberger) is a Doctoral Student in Sociology at University of Maryland, College Park, where she studies social inequality and mobility. Her research focuses on gender and sexuality, the changing nature of work, and how social institutions influence life outcomes. Military spouses are what you would call “tied migrants.” Tied migrants are people who […]

A Tale of Two Wounded Veterans

Last week I was honored to represent the American Sociological Association (ASA) at a Coalition for National Science Funding (CSNF) exhibition on Capitol Hill. The annual event gives lawmakers a chance to see the impact of research funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). I received a Dissertation Improvement Grant from NSF, which helped me […]

When A Simple Statistic Isn’t So Simple: The Story of Rural Enlistments

On Monday April 3 I participated in a congressional briefing sponsored by the Population Association of America, and several other organizations, on the demography of rural America. I was asked to present about rural veterans in the short time span of twelve minutes, but twelve minutes goes by quickly and doesn’t offer much time to […]

The Emotion Work of “Thank You For Your Service”

In the post-9/11 era, “thank you for your service” (TYFYS) has become the new mantra of public support bestowed upon the veteran community. In the early 2000s, as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq began escalating, “Support Our Troops” car magnets increasingly appeared on the trunks of cars across America. After well over 15 years […]

Who supports contemporary US veterans? And who’s lying about it?

In the nearly fifteen years since we began “creating” veterans of our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, it would seem that the public has embraced contemporary veterans. The ritual of thanking those who serve or have served in the military at sporting events is one example. While veterans from the Vietnam War may have returned […]

Do employers discriminate against veterans in hiring?

I am currently in Tucson at the Arizona Methods Workshops refreshing and updating my knowledge on experiments in social sciences. It’s been a number of years since I last conducted a field experiment of hiring, often called an audit study.   This research method is deceptively simple—send applications for fictitious job seekers in response to real […]

Military service as a transformative experience

In Transformative Experience, philosopher L.A. Paul grapples with the dilemma of how to make decisions about life-changing experiences when the nature of that experience can’t be understood until experienced, and when the experience itself might change the very values upon which one would make such decisions. She offers several running examples of transformative experiences, such […]

What’s the best state for veterans?

I frequently see links to sites purporting to identify the Best ___ for Veterans. Best Cities for Veterans, Best Colleges for Veterans (although this list is different from this one, or this one, or the others that circulate on the internet.) These rankings combine multiple criteria like actual outcomes for veterans, availability of veteran-connected resources, and […]