Sarah Neitz

Cohort

2016

Subfields

Cultural Sociology, Political Sociology, Social Movements, Social Psychology, Theory

Profile

Sarah Neitz is a Kellogg Fellow at the University of Notre Dame. She holds an M.A. in Political Science from the University of Toronto, and a B.S. from the University of Scranton in International Studies, Hispanic Studies, and Philosophy. She spent two years in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, working with Spanish-speaking immigrants and people experiencing homelessness, and coordinating retreats and immersions for college students at the University of Detroit Mercy.

Sarah’s research explores the political and moral effects of engagement with cultural objects. Her dissertation examines how bluegrass communities use objects to negotiate political identity and polarization, reopening questions of perennial interest to the culture of production, like the role of industry mediation and interaction between creators and audiences in the production of cultural objects, while developing a theory of art and political action. Other projects theorize how poetry and literature mobilize resistance under Central American authoritarian regimes, and investigate how styles of social media engagement affect offline political behavior in the United States (with Terry McDonnell and Marshall Taylor). Sarah also works with the Summer Service Learning Program at the Center for Social Concerns at the University of Notre Dame to evaluate when and how students use the cultural tools of Catholic Social Teaching to align their moral identity and actions.

Dissertation

Title: "Creativity and Commitment: Why Music Matters for Social Action and Political Change"
Committee: Erika Summers-Effler, Terry McDonnell, Ann Mische, Jennifer Lena
Abstract