In this season premiere, student guest host Estrella is introduced, as she will be hosting this season. She shares her academic background in sociology, highlighting the projects and research that have shaped her perspective. Estrella then outlines her goals for the season, aiming to leverage the podcast as a platform for scholarly discussion and accessible learning. A central theme of her introduction is a passionate argument for the relevance of sociology in understanding everyday life and broader societal structures.
Estrella's Contact Information :
Email : ekl29@uakron.edu
Follow Why Sociology on Instagram : @Whysociologypodcast
Three speakers : Angela Adkins, Daniela Jauk-Ajamie, and Estrella Lemus
Angela Adkins : Welcome to
Dani Jauk-Ajamie : Why Sociology
Angela Adkins : A podcast series featuring many interviews with sociology majors who have taken Career Pathways beyond academia in applied and clinical careers,
Dani Jauk-Ajamie : And who show
Angela Adkins : Not only tell
Dani Jauk-Ajamie : Why and how sociology matters in today's world. We are
Angela Adkins : Angela Adkins from Stark State College and
Dani Jauk-Ajamie : Daniela Jauk from the University of Akron,
Angela Adkins : Both located in rubber city, Akron, Ohio,
Dani Jauk-Ajamie : But we feature sociological movers, change makers and shakers from all over the US and the globe. We are delighted and extremely joyous that On this sunny July afternoon in the year 2025 we get to introduce a new podcast host who is a student currently at the University of Akron, but transitioned over to us from Stark State College so is intimately connected with both institutions who are co hosting the podcast so far, and I am delighted To welcome Estrella Lemus Wright, yay, yay yay, who will take over season three of why sociology put her own student spin on it. I'm also really happy that Estrella will take over. What was the sociology club, the student organization of the Department of Sociology here at UA now transitioning into the AKD, Alpha, Kappa, Delta sociology, Honor Society, student organization. Welcome Estrella.
Estrella Lemus : Hi. Thank you.
Dani Jauk-Ajamie : So the obvious question is, how did you come to study sociology and particularly stick with that choice?
Estrella Lemus : Yeah, it took me three majors to get here. I never knew what sociology was, and my sister had actually graduated with a sociology degree, and I was, like, 14 at the time, and I was like, I don't know what that is. Sounds like psychology. That's fun, whatever. And so I went into college doing education, and then I had one soc 101, class. And I remember, like, sitting in that class and thinking, like, yeah, that's how the world works. Yeah, that makes sense. And like, thinking about my experiences and how, you know, everything has affected me. And I was like, I like this. And then I didn't change. Yet. I changed over to social work, and then I but I was still taking sociology courses, and I took a class called sociology, the structure of sociology and the individual. And I remember like, diving so deep into that material, like a class, like I'd never done that before with a class, and thinking about theorists while I was not at school, and while I was in my car, and while I was doing things by myself. And just remember it was like, so almost invasive in my mind that I was like, I need to study this more. I need to go into it more. So that's when I finally switched over to sociology as my major. And then it just like was, there's no coming back from that. And I just went deeper and deeper. And once you find your like, little niche or your interests, I feel like in sociology, it's hard to think about anything other than that.
Angela Adkins : I think that is very true. Like, once you you find your thing that's just it, and you just know, I think many of us came to it that way, so that's a wonderful thing to hear. And you also talked about, you know, some of our disciplinary hazards of it, you just like, can't shut it off like so I guess it sort of leads into the question of has or how has sociology changed you from when you came to it to begin with?
Estrella Lemus : Yes, I once had a professor who said sociology ruins everything because you can't, like, think about anything else in a different way, like, for example, like reality TV, or someone holding the door for you, or things like that. Now my brain is so, like, sociologically aligned that I'm, like, why did he hold the door for me? Is it because I'm a woman, or thinking about the things in reality TV? Like, I think reality TV is just like observing human behavior, which is half of sociology. So when you watch shows like that and stuff, all I can think about is the sociological impacts of this, or how, why and how their social upbringing and their conditioning has brought them to act the way they do. And sometimes I'll, like, try to bring it up with my family members and be like, Well, why do we do this? And blah, blah, blah, and I just get down a rabbit hole, and I've lost them, but I'm like, discovering something new about sociology myself. So yeah, I feel like sociology has changed everything I do and the way I do it.
Dani Jauk-Ajamie : That is so true. Sociology changes us. But how do you see the potential for sociology to change the world, or social structures, as we call it? Why do you think the world needs sociology?
Estrella Lemus : I feel like, especially right now in this time, I feel like we need sociology a lot, because I think one of the biggest things for me is that sociology explains so much of what we do and why we do it, like the history of everything you know can be explained in a sociological way of like, why we're doing it and why it's happening. And I think right now, we're sort of looking at it at like um, is history repeating itself? You know, in the United States, things like that. But I also think that we need sociology because we need people to find their niche, their interest in sociology. They need to be able to study that because it matters. Like for example, I saw this post online that was like this, these two girls, and they were like, Why do you study this? And she was like, I study. She basically studied, like, the colonization of America and how it disrupted, like, indigenous ways of living, being, believing, etc. And she was like, I study that damage and how it can be, like reversed. And that's not like a mainstream thing to study. So we need sociology for people to study those things that like nobody else cares about, and for people to be passionate about things that are not mainstream, and to have an outlet to study that and to inform other people, to hopefully get them involved too.
Angela Adkins : Absolutely, I think that's such an important thing to remind us all of the action component of sociology, right? So not just theory, but praxis, and this idea of doing and motivating, and right along with that is the idea of, you know, we are an empirical discipline, and so we not only theorize, but we base that on evidence and research. And you have already done what few students do as an undergrad, right? They'll do that as they get along. But when you were with us at Stark State, you conducted your own research with a colleague, and you both presented at a conference. So can you tell us a little bit more about that?
Estrella Lemus : Yes. So basically, what we wanted to do was, we, we like to think that sociology is, like, a very diverse and inclusive field. And so my colleague and I were kind of like, is the proof in the pudding? Let's find out. Is sociology as diverse as we like to think about it. And so we, we first wanted to do like, all of Ohio, but that was just like, not a real thing that we could have done. So we picked Northeastern universities and colleges, and we studied like the demographics of the sociologists there. So like who works there, as far as like demographics and diversity goes. So we sent out surveys, and we collected the data, and we did all that fun number of stuff, and we did, and the literature review was so fun and so great, but basically what we found is that sociology is a woman dominated field, but in positions that matter, positions of like tenure and chairs of departments and presidents and things like that, It is still white male dominated and even, like, adjuncts were more likely to be women or people of color and things like that. So that's what we found out. And so it was sort of like we didn't want that, but it wasn't something out of the norm that we would find in any other discipline. I feel like.
Dani Jauk-Ajamie : Good, great. Also, you have taken on student leadership roles at Stark State already, and now you are the incoming president of our AKD student organization. What are you getting out of it? Estrella, and how can people get involved?
Estrella Lemus : What am I getting out of it? I feel like a I'm a very social person. I like to talk. I like to meet new people. I like to have friends. So having a place for that on campus that feels like, I guess, safe for me, like and my peers, to come together and to talk about whatever we want to talk about. And also, I am like sociology's biggest recruiter. I'm always trying to get people into sociology. I'm always trying to get people to think deeper about their actions and other people's actions and what they do and what they study. And so I feel like it's a good place, the clubs and the organizations for me to be like, let's have fun. Also, do you know who Karl Marx is? You know? So I like to just be that like, I guess, middleman of like, we can have a place where we can have fun and we can eat pizza and we can chat and we can Yap, but also we have a place where we can talk about the world and what's going on and how we can help and how we can change and all that fun stuff, and how you can get involved. Is email me at my u Akron email address, which is Ekl29@uakron.edu.
Angela Adkins : We will include contact information at the bottom, so anybody on this page can reach out, and can also reach out to any of us, like we are all in the same place of being, you know, overjoyed. Like, do you want to talk about sociology? Yes, I will always talk about it with you. So that is, that is absolutely great. So now that you are on board with this project, and we're very happy to have you, do you have what kind of plans do you have for your seasons of why sociology? Do you have plans for something new or a different twist. So give us a little preview of what might be coming.
Estrella Lemus : Okay, I don't want to completely, like change the style or the like essence of what it is, but I would want to add, um, just sort of like asking guests what they see in like, sociology's future, especially right now, I feel like is a very uncertain time. We have SB1, we have all these things. And I want to just like, talk about what's the future, what does it look like? How can we help? How can we change things like that and like, especially with the banning of programs and having to change names of programs and things like that, how our guests are dealing with that at their university, how they're like, you know, creating a little support group, kind of for, like, almost at times, it feels like we're mourning the loss of sociology, or we're preparing to mourn it. So like, just having that support and just knowing each other, like, we don't want to lose sociology. We want to keep that going. And especially, like, with this podcast, like, let's keep talking about sociology. Let's not forget it, you know. And also, I was, I listen to a lot of podcasts, and usually my podcasts are, like, an hour to an hour and 30 minutes long, and I know that we have, like, pretty short episodes, and I was only gonna, like, add or extend whatever, if the guest is talking, and if they talk for 40 minutes or an hour, how long I don't want to, like, make it, it has to be 20 minutes, or has to be 30 minutes, or whatever. I just feel like, if we're talking and we're having a good conversation, and the sociology vibes are vibing, I just don't want to, like, have a time constraint. That would be the only thing I would add.
Dani Jauk-Ajamie : Love it. Love it. I cannot wait to learn from you and from all your guests. Just also comes to mind now that across the episodes we have so far, there is one universal tip every interview participant in every field has given, and that is to get involved with the student organization of your department, to throw yourself in there, to interact, to build relationships. And that has helped people figure themselves out, and often also figure their careers out. So it's exciting that now we have you a student out there doing this work, and hopefully attract more people to just throw themselves into it.
Estrella Lemus : Yeah. I mean, being a student is also a bit self serving, to get advice from my guests and to understand, you know, how they went through their grad school programs and their this and that. And like, I am very excited to hear what they say I should be doing. And start doing that, you know? I'm also, I'm looking forward to that the most. I feel like, just to, I love to, like, get advice from people who in my head, like, have it all figured out, you know, so like, when they're in their programs, they're at their university, they're, they've set up a nonprofit and things like that and like, Well, how did you get there? Let me jot that down.
Angela Adkins : Wonderful
Dani Jauk-Ajamie : Great. We look forward to season three of Why Sociology.
Estrella : Yippie! Me too.
Dani Jauk-Ajamie : Okay, thank you, Estrella, for taking the time.