Art in Sociology Showcase and Reception

Description

We invite you to join us for an inaugural showcase featuring Bhavani Arabandi and Erin O’Connor. The program will begin with welcome remarks from ASA Executive Director Heather Washington and Irene Castro of the Creative Sociology Section-in-Formation, followed by artist remarks and light refreshments.

Featured Artists:

Bhavani Arabandi
I craft stories for the everyday. I create functional ceramics that transform everyday rituals into meaningful experiences. Drawing on my background as a sociologist, I'm fascinated by how objects shape our social lives—the mug that holds our morning coffee, the plates that gather us around tables, the bowl that sparks conversation.

I use the earthy and muted tones of clay as a rich canvas for my colorful, hand painted designs. I mix custom glazes and experiment across multiple firing techniques—electric, wood-fired, Raku, and alternative methods—seeking unexpected color interactions and textures. Each piece is designed to be both beautiful and genuinely useful, with an element of visual surprise: a pop of color where least expected, a textural shift that rewards close attention, a form that feels familiar yet fresh.

The social scientist in me understands that functional objects aren't passive—they actively structure how we gather, eat, celebrate, and connect. My ceramics are meant to be touched, used, and lived with, bringing small moments of delight to the rituals that punctuate our daily lives.

Erin O’Connor
Erin O’Connor is a sociologist, a glassblower of modest skill, and a paper collage artist. Combining these skills, she practices apprenticeship-ethnography to understand the formation of knowledge, self, and world. Through this method, she learned glassblowing in a New York City studio and wrote Fire Craft: Art, Body, and World Among Glassblowers (Columbia University Press, 2025). This inaugural exhibition marks the first public showing of the glass art O’Connor produced during her fieldwork for Fire Craft, as well as the narrative collages she created to illustrate the monograph. Notably, the exhibition features her well-known “globlet.” In addition, O’Connor will present glass art and lithic installations from her current fieldwork for her second book, The Middle Mineral and the Mine: A Geoanthropology of Studio Glass.

Sub Unit

• American Sociological Association

Session Organizer

• Heather M. Washington, American Sociological Association