By Preeti Vasishtha, Director of Communications, ASA
Amanda Gorman, who is the first person to be named the National Youth Poet Laureate and delivered her acclaimed poem “The Hill We Climb” at the inauguration of President Joe Biden, was a keen student of sociology, according to her professors. They describe how sociology influences her work; how her perspective helped them understand how and why sociology can be more impactful; and why a sociological education is critical for students. Gorman, who became the first poet to perform at the Super Bowl, is a cum laude graduate of Harvard University. 
“Amanda often talks about ‘doing her research’ before she writes a poem, and I like to think this commitment drew her to sociology,” says Jocelyn Viterna, sociology professor, Harvard University, who taught Gorman in a course on social movements in spring 2017. “Throughout college, Amanda sought to ground her art in the sociological understanding of research design, politics, activism, poverty, and racial inequalities.”
Shai M. Dromi, sociology lecturer, Harvard University, taught Gorman “Humanitarian Activism and Civil Society” in spring 2020. The deeply historicized perspective Gorman takes on U.S. social divisions in “The Hill We Climb” dovetails with some of the key sociological discussions of the day, he says. Gorman asserts that whoever wants to change present social divisions must acknowledge and address the past that has made them what they are.
“This assertion indeed links to one of the most current conversations in the discipline—one which has certainly involved many undergraduate sociological theory classrooms—about the historical construction of the sociological canon and the ways to rectify it,” Dromi says. “While substantively focused on the history of sociology, this conversation has also attuned students more generally to the role of history in shaping all the ‘taken-for-granted’ around them, which is the first step toward agency in changing them. Students who want to study sociology today will be well-equipped to take on Gorman’s call to work against social fragmentation while maintaining a grounded historical perspective.”
Bart Bonikowski, associate professor of sociology, New York University, taught Gorman “Introduction to Political Sociology” at Harvard in fall 2016. The course covered a wide range of topics related to politics, including the rise of the radical right in Europe and the United States. “For all the hope and joy that she brings to her writing and performances, the themes of Amanda’s art are solemn: she reaches into the history of slavery, white supremacy, and misogyny in the United States to illuminate persistent racial and gender inequalities that plague our society,” says Bonikowski, who also advised Gorman’s senior independent study in spring 2020. “In so doing, Gorman frequently celebrates and honors her African American forebears—not only writers, scholars, and activists, but also everyday people who have suffered centuries of oppression and violence at the hands of the white majority. It is through a structural understanding of protracted inequality that the legacy of Black intellectual thought and sociological research connects so powerfully in her work. Sociology may shape her message, but it is artistic expression that gives that message the unique capacity to resonate so profoundly with millions of people.” Bonikowski says that it was her “intellectual rigor, fearlessness, and an abiding sense of purpose” that made a big impact on her classmates—and on him.
In Viterna’s case, Gorman helped her understand why and how sociology can do better as a discipline. “For example, Amanda was dismayed by the discipline’s frequent failure to confront our history of racism, especially in classical theory courses,” Viterna says. “Amanda was also puzzled by her impression that sociology—while excellent at diagnosing problems and measuring inequalities—often marginalizes changing inequalities and injustices. She matriculated in 2016, when ‘fake news,’ social media echo chambers, and attacks on science and academic inquiry were threatening democracy—and imminently threatening the safety and security of all Black Americans. Amanda’s experiences with sociology encouraged me to push for classes that help students learn how to put research into action through social organization, policy analysis, program creation, and—what she was most interested in—learning to communicate rigorous research in ways that are meaningful to people outside the academy. If we want to ‘be the light,’ as Amanda says, we should embrace and encourage such engagement.”
Bonikowski says that Gorman’s work also illustrates why students should study sociology and develop sociological perspectives. “In order to understand inequality, one must take into account the structure of power relations in society, which themselves reflect and are reproduced by historically durable institutions,” he says. “By reframing individual outcomes as fundamentally shaped by structural conditions, sociology gives students the tools with which they can better understand their lived experiences, as well as those of the communities they hold dear. For some, these lessons may reveal previously hidden privilege, while for others they are likely to illuminate the consequences of oppression, discrimination, and stigmatization. In the process, a sociological education has the potential to enhance mutual empathy, while demystifying an otherwise puzzling social reality. At its best, it can also awaken a genuine intellectual curiosity that leads students to pose more precise questions about the world and answer them with analytically sound arguments backed up by rigorous empirical evidence.”