College Republicans and the Moral Order

• In Event: 545 - Section on Sociology of Culture Roundtable Session.
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 10. Identity and the Life Course

Abstract

This paper reports on an ethnographic study of College Republicans at a mid-sized, mid-tier public university. I argue that the conservatives in this study engaged in a process of othering that validates white privilege and positions non-whites as a threat to the moral order. I also show that liberals and Democrats were defiled for enabling the Other's profanations. Additionally, I propose this process of othering involves a spatial logic in which the City is conceptualized as the breeding ground for these uncivil threats.

Author

• Jeffrey L. Kidder, Northern Illinois University