Event

Book summary

Study Gods is a longitudinal study of how privileged youth in China prepare themselves to join the ranks of the global elite. It shows that these elite Chinese high schoolers first become “study gods” (xueshen), a term describing academically high-performing students. Drawing from eight years of fieldwork and extensive interviews, Study Gods reveals the important lessons that Chinese youth learn in their pursuit of top status in global society: They understand the hierarchy of the status system, recognizing and acquiring the characteristics that are prized, while avoiding those that are not. They maintain status by expecting differential treatment and performing status-based behaviors, which guide their daily interactions with peers, teachers, and parents. Lastly, with the help of resourceful parents, they rely on external assistance in the face of potential obstacles and failures. These youth continue to hone and apply these skills in colleges and careers around the world, and in their relationships with colleagues and supervisors. Highlighting another facet of China’s rising power, Study Gods announces the arrival of a new generation to the realm of global competition.

Organizer and Presider: Annette Lareau, University of Pennsylvania

Book summary: Randall Collins, University of Pennsylvania

Response: Yi-lin Chiang is a Assistant Professor in sociology at National Chengchi University. Her research focuses on educational inequality and intergenerational status transmission in Chinese societies. Website: yilinchiang.wordpress.com

Panelist: Elizabeth Armstrong is a Sherry B. Ortner Collegiate Professor of Sociology at the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on the reproduction of gender, class, and race inequalities. She examines these processes in the domain of sexuality and within the organizational context of the university. She is author, with Laura Hamilton, of Paying for the Party: How College Maintains Inequality (University of Chicago, 2013).

Panelist: Mitchell Stevens is a Professor of Education and (by courtesy) Sociology at Stanford, where he studies the political economy of higher education, academic sequences, and alternative educational forms. With Stanford computer scientist John Mitchell, he co-leads the Pathways Lab (pathwayslab.stanford.edu)

Panelist: Natasha Warikoo is a Lenore Stern Professor in the Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of Sociology, at Tufts University. In 2022 she published two books: Race at the Top: Asian Americans and Whites in Pursuit of the American Dream in Suburban Schools and Is Affirmative Action Fair? The Myth of Equity in College Admissions. 

You are invited to a Zoom meeting.

When: Nov 3, 2022 12:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Eastern time, 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM

*Register in advance for this meeting*:

https://upenn.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIvcOmuqj4tGdYM-OWcCGV09YfdU7kRFrH-

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Book website 

https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691210483/study-gods