Fall Colloquium Series in Sociology
Margaret Frye, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Princeton University
“Bees to a Flower: Desire, Risk, and Cultural Friction in Malawi's AIDS Epidemic”
Margaret Frye's research focuses on a fundamental problem at the intersection of demography and cultural sociology: how does culture influence the plans and choices of individuals, producing the patterned behavior that we observe? She examines how socially structured standards of morality influence life course decision-making in contexts undergoing rapid cultural change. At each milestone on the transition to adulthood–continuing in school, starting a serious relationship, and having sex– her work demonstrates that individuals shape and reshape their life trajectories in accordance with these moral frames. Frye's empirical research has primarily been based in Malawi, where she looked at the influence of culture on educational choices, romantic experiences, and, most recently, men’s evaluations of women’s sexual desirability.
Box lunches provided