Welcome to the Home Page of
John E. Farley
Professor Emeritus of Sociology
Edwardsville, Illinois 62026-1455
Phone (618) 650-2680
Because I retired in May, 2006, this Web page will no longer be updated on a regular basis. However, you may wish to visit my new personal Web page
My vita is now available online -
updated April, 2009! You can view it here!
In Spring, 2006, my final semester of teaching before retiring in May, 2006, I will be teaching Sociology 518, the graduate course in Social Data Analysis, as well as leading the ABle student problem-solving group. A syllabus for Sociology 518 for Spring, 2006 can be found here.
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Since my days
as an undergraduate at Michigan State and a
graduate student at Michigan, I have always
enjoyed doing research and writing about it. My major research interests today
are in the area of race and ethnic relations, with a particular interest in the
extent, causes, and consequences of racial housing segregation. In the early
1990s, I also participated in a series of four surveys concerning Iben
Browning's pseudoscientific prediction of a damaging earthquake in the central
United States, and the short and long-term effects of that prediction on
earthquake awareness, concern, and preparedness in the region. I was fortunate
to have the opportunity to co-organize a conference of researchers who studied
the Browning prediction, and to guest edit a special issue of the
International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters in
November, 1993 that reported many of these studies. My book, Earthquake
Fears, Predictions, and Preparations in Mid-America, published in 1998 by
the SIU Press, reports the results of the four surveys.
I am also the author of three major college textbooks in introductory sociology, race and ethnic relations, and social
problems, all published by Prentice Hall.
The Fifth Edition of the
introductory sociology book is now available. The Fifth Edition of the race and ethnic relations textbook was published in 2005 and is available in both printed and electronic formats. Both of the latter books are coming out soon in new sixth editions; more information is available here.
My recent publications include the following:
- (with Gregory D. Squires) "Fences and Neighbors: Segregation in Twenty-first Century America."
- Contexts: Understanding People in Their Social Worlds 4, 1 (Winter, 2005): 33-39.
- "Residential Interracial and Exposure Indices: Mean vs. Median Indices and the Difference it Makes."
- Sociological Quarterly 46, 1 (Winter, 2005): 19-45.
- "Racial Housing Segregation in the St. Louis Metropolitan Area: Past, Present, and Future."
- In Terrence Jones and Brady Baybeck (eds.),
St. Louis Metromorphosis. St. Louis: Missouri Historical Society, 2004.
- Majority-Minority Relations, fifth edition.
- Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2005.
- Sociology,
fifth edition.
- Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice
Hall, 2003.
- “An Attack on Iraq is Not Justified.” Pp. 27-31 in William Dudley (ed.),
- Iraq: Opposing Viewpoints. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, Thompson-Gale, 2003.
- "Contesting Our Everyday Work Lives: The Retention of Minority and
- Working Class Sociology Undergraduates" (2001 Midwest Sociological Society Presidential Address). The Sociological Quarterly 43 (Winter, 2002): 1-25.
- Earthquake Fears, Predictions, and Preparations in
Mid-America.
- Southern Illnois University Press, 1998.
- "Race Still Matters: The Minimal Role of Income and Housing Cost as Causes
of Housing
- Segregation in St. Louis, 1990." Urban Affairs Review
(formerly Urban Affairs Quarterly) (November, 1995) 244-254.
- (with Cui-xia Zhang), "Gender and the Distribution of Household Work: A
Comparison of
- Self-Reports by Female College Faculty in the United States and China."
Journal of Comparative Family Studies 26 (Summer, 1995): 195-205.
- "Sustained Preparedness or Cry Wolf: New Madrid Earthquake Awareness and
Preparedness
- Trends, October, 1990 - May, 1993." Earthquake Mitigation Across the
Nation: Proceedings, Fifth U.S. National Conference on Earthquake
Engineering, Chicago, July 10-14, Volume III. Oakland, CA: Earthquake
Engineering Research Institute (1994).
- "Twentieth Century Wars: Some Short-Term Effects on Domestic Intergroup
Relations."
- Sociological Inquiry 64, 2 (Spring, 1994): 214-237.
- "Public, Media, and Institutional Responses to the Iben Browning
Earthquake Prediction:
- Editor's Introduction." International Journal of Mass Emergencies
and Disasters 11, 3 (November, 1993): 271-277.
- (with Hugh D. Barlow, Marvin S. Finkelstein, and Larry Riley) "Earthquake
Hysteria, Before
- and After: A Survey and Follow-up on Public Response to the Browning
Forecast." International Journal of Mass Emeregencies and
Disasters 11, 3 (November, 1993): 305-321.
A full list of my publications can be seen on my vita. Links to abstracts of
the journal articles listed above will be added soon. If you're interested, come
back for another visit. And if you're really interested, call or email me and I'll send you a copy of the
complete article.
Students or faculty using any of my textbooks are invited and encouraged to
send me comments by email to jfarley@siue.edu. Your comments will help me
improve the books when I revise them for new editions.
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I believe
that service is an important part of a state university faculty member's
responsibilities, and that in fulfilling this responsibility, we should never
lose sight of the goals of improving the quality of life for the average citizen
and of encouraging equal opportunity in society. I further believe that the
knowledge created by sociology is of its greatest value when it is applied to
these objectives. Accordingly, I have been very active in public and university
service, directing my activity toward a variety of goals related to these
objectives. Among these goals have been the creation and development of a strong
fair housing organization in the St. Louis/Metro East area, the encouragement of
the larger community to value diversity and equal opportunity, and the promotion
of participatory governance and democratic decisionmaking at SIUE. My recent
service activities include:
- Metropolitan St. Louis
Equal Housing Opportunity Council (EHOC)
- Co-founder, Board of Directors Member since June, 1992. President,
1992-1998. Vice President, 2000-presnt. Previously, Co-Chair, Confluence St.
Louis Valuing Our Diversity Housing Subcommittee. This fair housing organization, founded in
1992, works to combat discrimination in the sale, rental, advertising, and
financing of housing in the greater St. Louis, Missouri-Illinois area, and to
educate the public about its fair housing rights and responsibilities. If you
would like further information or if you believe that you may have been
discriminated against, you are urged to contact EHOC at (314) 725-5900 or at
(800) 555-3951.
- Faculty Senate, Southern Illinois
University at Edwardsville (SIUE)
- Member, 1982-1985 and 1992-1996; Executive Committee Member, 1993-1996;
President 1994-1995. The SIUE Faculty Senate is the official representative of
the SIUE faculty in all university governance matters, and has primary
responsiblity for academic governance at SIUE.
- SIUE Human Relations Advisory Committee
- Member from the Committee's inception in 1990 until 1996; member of
subcommittee that drafted SIUE's Diversity Plan which is now in the process of
being implemented. The Human Relations Advisory Committee acts in an advisory
capacity to the SIUE Director of Human Relations, and assists in the
development of university policies and plans relating to diversity and equal
opportunity.
- Focus St. Louis Valuing Diversity Task Force, 1999-2001
- This Task Force of 30 diverse citizens of the St. Louis area, under the
auspices of Focus St. Louis conducted
a comprehensive study of racial inequality and racial polarization in the St.
Louis area, examining trends since the last such study 12 years ago and making
recommendations on ways to move the area toward greater racial equality. An
implementation committee will be put in place by the end of 2001 to take
actions to implement the Task Force's recommendations.
- Community presentations on diversity and fair housing
- I regularly make presentations to community and educational groups on
diversity, fair housing, and related topics. Call or email me if your organization is
interested.
- President, Illinois
Sociological Association, 1997-98
- Responsible for planning of 1998 annual meetings which were held at the
SIUE East St. Louis Center, October 14 and 15, 1998.
- President, Midwest Sociological
Society, 2000-2001.
- Program Chair for the 2000 annual meetings, held in Chicago, April 19-22.
I then served as President for the 2000-2001 year, and delivered my
presidential address, "Contesting Our Everyday Work Lives: The Retention of
Minority and Working Class Sociology Majors" at the 2001 annual meetings in
St. Louis.
I am currently a coordinating council member and a research
fellow at the SIUE Institute for Urban Research. In the past, I also held a
joint appointment for several years with SIUE's office of Regional Research and
Development Services, a public service unit on campus. My projects there
included focus groups for public housing residents concerning their housing,
service, and security needs; an assessment of housing needs of people with
disabilities in Madison County, Illinois; identification of medically
underserved areas in central and southwest Illinois; and development of a
proposal for a program to reduce teenage pregnancy in the city of St. Louis.
Some of the research projects mentioned above were also
partially supported by RRDS.
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Sometimes,
equal opportunity, democratic decisionmaking, and protecting the environment can
only be acheived by organized collective efforts for social change. When wealth
and power are amassed at the expense of others, or of the environment, or of the
general quality of life, such efforts are often essential: Sociology tells us
that those who have great wealth and power do not often willingly accept changes
or reforms that threaten their wealth or power. Thus, I am proud of my
participation over the past three decades in a wide variety of organized
collective efforts for social change. Some recent examples include:
- Support, together with Rev. Jesse Jackson, local politcal leaders and
union members, and hundreds of area residents, of workers on strike for a
decent wage in 1999 against Beverly Farm in Godfrey. More information on this
important struggle can be found here.
- Participation in campus and community efforts to speak and act
collectively in support of the value of diversity, when Ku Klux Klan and other
hate group activity occurred in the Edwardsville and Alton Illinois areas in
1992, 1993, and 1994.
- Cooperative efforts with colleagues, students, and campus workers to
support the rights of SIUE clerical workers to a decent wage and working
conditions, when those rights were under attack from a prevous SIUE
administration. And I was proud to help organize efforts to protect SIUE
students from threats of reprisals when they marched in support of those
clerical workers. I am pleased that a much more enlightened approach has been
used by more recent SIUE administrations. The new spirit of cooperation that
emerged on the SIUE campus during the chancellorship of Nancy Belck is
powerful testimony to what can be accomplished when campus decisionmaking is
collective and participatory rather than heirarchical and autocratic. We hope
this style of leadership will continue with our new Chancellor, David Werner.
- Participation in efforts to prevent the elimination of jobs and the loss
of wages, benefits, and union representation by contracting out. Nothing
represents a greater threat to hard-won employee rights and benefits in the
United States than the current trend toward use of part-time and temporary
workers. These efforts included participating in a successful campaign against
contracting out of SIUE employees' jobs in 1993.
- Organizing a successful effort by the Faculty Senate Leaders of Illinois
Public Universities to secure full funding from the Illinois legislature of
the Illinois Board of Higher Education's requested level of approriations for
public universities for the 1995-96 school year.
- Speaking out in a variety of forums in support of affirmative action;
against ultraconservative extremists who want to de-fund public education; in
support of the need for a Black Student Association in predominantly white
universities; and in support of governmental funding of non-profit fair
housing organizations. Some of the commentary pieces I've written are now
available on the World Wide Web:
I'll add links to additional items in later revisions of this
Web page; come back and visit soon if you're interested.
Does some of this sound interesting? If you think so, keep two
things in mind:
- YOU CAN DO IT, TOO!
- IT'S FUN! (WITH A PURPOSE!)
Helpful Hint
There are lots of sites on the World Wide Web that offer
more information on activist organizations and opportunities to get involved.
For some of them, see Activism under Farley's
Favorite Web Links.
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As important as they are, academics, service, and activism are
not all there is to life. When not engaged in one or more of the above, I enjoy
snow skiing, fishing,
hiking, and weather and
nature photography.
Have you ever tried snow skiing? It sure beats sitting inside and complaining
about how cold it is. Personally, I know of no greater thrill than speeding down
a snowy slope at full tilt but under control, and I know of nothing more
tranquil than cross-country skiing in the silence of the woods after a fresh
snowfall. To find out more, contact your local ski club. If you live in
the St. Louis area, you can reach then at 314-851-6710, or visit the new St. Louis Ski
Club Web Page.
If you're one of those people I can't comprehend who truly can't deal with
cold weather, try taking a long warm weather hike in the woods or standing by a
lake at midnight and seeing more stars than you could count in a thousand years.
It's good for the body and good for the soul.
When you're back in the city from your trip to the mountains or the woods, go
check out one of your local blues
venues. This uniquely American form of music is finally getting the public
attention it deserves. And if you're lucky enough to live in St. Louis, Chicago, New Orleans, Kansas City, or Montreal, check out
some really great music at your local blues or jazz and blues festival. All of
those cities have topnotch festivals.
Finally, whatever you're doing just for fun, remember this: Life's a
mountain, not a beach!
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On October 15 and 16, 1998, the annual meetings of the Illinois Sociological
Association were held at SIUE's East St. Louis Center. Here are some pictures.
In December, 1997, my close friend and college roomate Ed Clark passed away
suddenly. Here is a Web page
dedicated to his memory.
On August 30, 1997, I was married to Dr. Alice Hall Petry
of the SIUE English Department!
On April 13, 1998, a tornado hit Edwardsville. Several businesses, a home,
and a farm building suffered serious damage. Here are some photos of the damage.
Academics
- Sociology at SIUE
- All kinds of info on Sociology at SIUE - Faculty info and email links,
course schedules, program descriptions, and sociological Web links. This site
is one of my favorites for a personal reason - I designed it!
- Using the World Wide Web
in Sociology - A collection of interesting
sociological Web links I developed to accompany the fourth edition of my textbook, Sociology. Check them out!
- Sociology Pages -
Lots of Web resources related to the field of sociology
- SocioWeb
- Lots more sociology Web resources - including a comprehensive directory
of sociology departments on the Web
- Student Center from Monster Job Search - A topnotch
site for students seeking employment, or just wanting to learn more about job
opportunities and looking for a job. Includes self-diagnostic test, info on
jobs and internships, resume assistance, and more.
- Libraries -
Information on libraries across the nation and around the world.
- NSF Home Pages - Find out about the
National Science Foundation and the research it funds - and how to get yours
funded.
- Minority Affairs
Forum - Issues and information concerning people of color and intergroup
relations.
- Jim
Andris's Diversity Resources - An excellent compendium of Web sites
related to diversity - compiled by Jim Andris of the SIUE School of Education.
- Martin Luther
King - Historical and biographical information about Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr., including the texts of a constantly-growing number of his speeches,
writings, and letters.
- American
Studies Web - Race and Ethnicity - The most comprehensive listing I've
found of links to sites relating to race and ethnicity. A really wide of
interesting and unusual sites can be accessed from here.
- World African Network
Online - Lots of info on 24 life interest
areas on matters of interest to and about Africans and African Americans.
- Demography
and Population Studies Page - A page with numerous links to resources
related to population studies, including university population studies
centers, journals, and sources from which you can download demographic data.
- World Population
Clock - Get the population of the world - current to the second you log
in. Also has a link to the United States Population Clock.
- U.S. Census Bureau Home Page -
Links to a variety of population data from the Bureau, updated frequently and
including Bureau press releases. Additional data can be obtained from the Population Division Home
Page.
- Center for American Women and
Politics - This center at Rutgers
University has current info about women candidates and officeholders, with
links to other sources on women and politics.
- World Lecture Hall -
View syllabi, assignments, lecture notes, and other resources from college and
university courses from around the world - in just about every subject!
- St.
Louis University Earthquake Center - Learn about the history and risk of
earthquakes in the New Madrid Seismic Zone.
- Center for Critical
Thinking - Information on critical thinking - how to do it, how to teach
it. Includes links to email discussion groups.
- Instead of War - Keep up on the latest developments in the antiwar movement in the St. Louis area.
- Activist's Oasis -
An activist's home page, with links to lots of valuable resources for
activists, including extensive lists of progressive and activist
organizations.
- IGC Directory of
Organizations - One of the most comprehensive Web directories available of
organizations with an activist or progressive orientation - with links to the
home pages of those organizations.
- Guerilla Girls -
Creative use of art and humor to promote social change - you gotta see this
one! (If you were lucky, you saw them during their visit to SIUE in 2003, where they revealed a new poster on Bush, Cheney, and company for the first time.)
- Labor Pages - These AFL-CIO pages
include the latest information on the latest efforts to protect the rights of
working men and women in the United States - includes current action alerts
and boycott lists.
- Vote Smart Web - THE Web site for
political information. Get voting records and issue positions of legislators,
and see who gave them how much. Links to lots of candidate and organization
home pages, too.
- Mother Jones Home Page - Links to an
archive of current and recent issues of Mother Jones magazine, as
well as links to lots of info useful to progressive activists.
- Metropolitan St. Louis
Equal Housing Opportunity Council - A Fair Housing organization serving
the greater St. Louis area, both Missouri and Illinois. If you believe you may
have been discriminated against in the sale or rental of housing or just want
to know more about fair housing rights and responsibilities, this is the place
for you! This site is near and dear to me because 1) I am the President and
co-founder of the organization, and 2) I designed its Web page.
Just for Fun
- Ski Area Maps - Get a
full-color map of your favorite ski area - or the one you've always wanted to
ski.
- Intellicast Ski Reports -
Get daily updated ski reports from hundreds of ski areas all over the United
States and the world! Check out the conditions and see where to ski!
- Weather Net - Lots of
links to over 380 weather sites on the Web, as well as a variety of other
weather information from the University of Michigan.
- Virtual Tourist World Map -
The quickest way to find your way to anywhere in the world on the World Wide
Web.
- Subway
Navigator - Find the quickest route and approximate travel time on the
subways of dozens of cities throughout the world.
- Metrolink - For
those of you in the St. Louis area, or planning a trip here, learn about
Metrolink, the most successful light rail transit system to open in the United
States this decade. A system map is also available.
- Open Letter from the
U.S. Committee for the Sociotron - A massive sociotechnological
breakthrough could be just around the corner! Whoever said sociology can't be
useful never saw this!
- Banned
Books Online - Learn about the incredible variety of books that have been
the targets of those who think they should decide what we read. You can even
read a lot of banned books online. Ironically, this site is located at a
university (Carnegie-Mellon) that has a policy of censorship of its Internet
users!
Nifty Net Nook of the Month
NEW OCTOBER, 2005! Who Rules America? - A great new resource on the sociological study of power in the United States, by sociologist G. William Domhoff, author of the best-selling book by the same title, and leading researcher on U.S. power structure.
Nooks from Previous Months
- American Fact Finder - Look up 2000 Census data instantly for anywhere from your block to the entire United States, and everything in between.
- Independent Media Center - Find out the news the mainsteam media don't tell you about, and exchange views on the news with grassroots activists. Choose from the list of geographic areas on the left side of the Web page for local angles on the area of your choice, including St. Louis.
- Hunger Site - Every time you go
to this Web page (up to once a day) you can make a donation of food to someone
who needs it - free of charge to you. All you have to do is click a button.
Please bookmark this Web page and visit it once a day!
- Psychedelic
Sixties Home Page - This site, maintained through the University of
Virginia, has all kinds of cool info on the most interesting and dynamic
period in recent history - the 1960s.
- Mid-Michigan Rottweiler Rescue - This
has got to be one of the most creative, best-constructed Web sites I've seen -
and also tells you about the terrific work done by this and other animal
shelters.
- Lakota Wowapi Oti Kin,
the Lakota Information Home Page - This page provides an extensive
collection of links to resources about the Lakota and Dakota tribes of the
Sioux nation. The site was constructed by Raymond Bucko, a professor of
anthropology at Le Moyne College, along with Martin Broken Leg, a member of
the Rosebud Sioux tribe who is a professor of Native American studies at
Augustana College in South Dakota. The page connects users to an extensive set
of resources on western South Dakota, where the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
is home to the Oglala Sioux. The site also offers material about Lakota people
as far east as Minnesota. An outstanding source of information including a
variety of viewpoints on issues of concern to the Lakota and Dakota people.
- new St. Louis Ski Club Web Page
- Okay, so this is not the fanciest Web page you've ever seen - not even
close. But it is the gateway to a great winter getaway, with information on
all of this year's exciting ski trips. And if you like the idea of going to Big Mountain, Montana,
drop me an email - I ran that trip in
the 1997-98 ski season, and would be glad to provide information on this
outstanding but largely undiscovered ski area.
- Citizens Internet Empowerment Coalition
- Visit this page to keep up to date on the latest news about the Supreme
Court case concerning free speech on the Internet, and information on how you
can join the fight to preserve the future of the Internet as a viable means of
free expression, education and commerce.
- Earthtimes - This internet daily
newspaper covers what's going on in environmental issues, in the United States
and in the World. It contains news, editorials, statistics, and other material
related to the environment, with past issues archived for Internet access.
- Stamp on Black History Page -
This page presents U.S. postage stamps on Black History, as well as extensive
information on Black History in the United States. And by visiting this site,
you will be helping three Washington, D.C. teenagers win college scholarships.
Check it out!
- Stormtrack/Storm Chaser's Home
Page - If you think what you saw in Twister is what storm
chasing is all about, you've got another think coming. To learn the real story
, check out this page. Lots of neat photos and weather links, too.
- Mapquest - Don't spend money on a
road atlas CD-ROM! Use this site for free, to download or view a map of
anywhere in the United States, on any scale from neighborhood to nation. You
can find an address, search for lodging, get trip routing, and more! Happy
travels!
- Bad Subjects
- The "bad subjects" are the ones that rulers occasionally find the need to
repress. This leftish e-zine was started in 1992 by English grad students at
UC-Berkeley, and has now gone national. Interesting ideas - check it out!
- Ansel
Adams Photos - View photos by Ansel Adams of the University of California
and its Nature Centers - all from the comfort of your computer chair. You can
even listen to Ansel Adams talk about many of his photos.
- Virtual Hospital - This Web
site, developed by the University of Iowa Hospitals, may be the most
comprehensive medical site on the Web. You can view over 200 medical
pamphlets, brouse on-line medical texts, and access material for both medical
professionals and laypersons.
- Census Data Lookup -
Get 1990 U.S. Census data instantly from anywhere in the country, at virtually
any geographic level - Nation, State, Place, Urbanized Area, Metropolitan
Statistical Area, Zipcode, or Congressional District - all for free, courtesy
of the Net!
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This page last updated April 16, 2009. Since I am now Professor Emeritus and am no longer teaching, updates of this page will be few and far between. Sorry about the dead links! For my current Web page, please visit www.johnefarley.com.
Materials appearing on this Web page and any of my pages linked to it
represent my views and opinions only. No material appearing here represents any
view or position of Southern Illinois Univeristy at Edwardsville. Also, material
on pages linked from here that are maintained by others represent the opinions
of the people who posted that material, not necessarily mine.
Comments to mailto:jfarley@siue.edu
Teaching
Research and
Publications
Community and
Professional Service
Activism and
Social Change
Special Photo
Galleries
Just for Fun
Farley's
Favorite Web Links