Degrees:
Ph.D. York University (Sociology)
MA York University (Sociology)
BA Augustana University College (Sociology)
Certificate in Building Capacity for Reconciliation, Augustana Faculty, Camrose, AB (September 2016-April 2017)
International Visual Sociology Association, Board Member (June 2018-July 2022) (https://visualsociology.org/?page_id=1211)
Reviews Editor for Elicitations in Imaginations: Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies (2011-2021)
Primary Research Areas:
Sociological Theory
Visual Sociology
Media and Digital Culture
Urban Life and the Public Realm
Recent Publications:
Mibrandt, Tara. 2020. “‘Make Them Famous’: Digital Vigilantism and Virtuous Denunciation after Charlottesville”. In Vigilant Audiences: Understanding Scrutiny, Denunciations, and Shaming in Digital Media Use, edited by Daniel Trottier, Rashid Gabdulhakov and Qian Huang, 215-258, Cambridge: Open Book Publishers (https://books.openbookpublishers.com/10.11647/obp.0200.pdf)
Milbrandt, Tara. 2020 “Season of Dreaded Joys: Adaptation, Enchantment, and Solidarity in a ‘Winter’ City”, for Seasonal Sociology, edited by Tonya Davidson and Ondine Park, 119-138. Toronto: University of Toronto Press (https://utorontopress.com/blog/2021/02/08/excerpt-winter-seasonal-sociology/)
Davidson, Tonya, Milbrandt, Tara, & Ondine Park (equal authorship). 2020. “Introduction to Seasonal Sociology.” In Seasonal Sociology Edited by Tonya Davidson and Ondine Park, 1-16. Toronto: University of Toronto Press (https://utorontopress.com/9781487594084/seasonal-sociology/)
Milbrandt, T. 2017. “Caught on Camera, Posted Online: Mediated Moralities, Visual Politics and the Case of Urban ‘Drought-Shaming’”, Visual Studies, 32(1): 3-23. DOI: 10.1080/1472586X.2016.1246952
Harper, D. and T. Milbrandt. 2016 (equal authorship). “Seen and Imagined: A Northwestern Crossroads City”, Imaginations: Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies, 7(1): 160-175. DOI: 10.17742/ IMAGE.NBW.7-1.13
Datta, R. P. and T. Milbrandt. 2014 (equal authorship). “The Elementary Forms of Religious Life: Discursive Monument, Symbolic Feast”, Introduction to Special Issue on Durkheim's Elementary Forms of Religious Life: Contemporary Engagements, for The Canadian Journal of Sociology, 39(4): 473-522
Milbrandt, T. 2013. “Signs of the City: Space, Place, and the Urban Street Poster”, in Captured by the City: Perspectives in Urban Culture Studies. Edited by B. Momchedjikova, 49-70. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press
Milbrandt, T. 2012. "Visual Irruptions, Mediated Suffering, and the Robert Dziekanski Tragedy: An Inquiry into the Efficacy of the Image", in Ethics and Images of Pain. Edited by A. Gronstad and H. Gustafsson, 74-92. New York: Routledge
Milbrandt, T. and F. Pearce. 2011 (equal authorship). “Émile Durkheim.” In The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Major Social Theorists, Volume I Classical Social Theorists. Edited by G. Ritzer and J. Stepnisky, 236-282. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell
Primary Teaching Areas:
Sociological Theory (Classical, Modern, Contemporary)
Visual Sociology
Mass Communication and Contemporary Society
Social Theory of Community
Specific courses I teach regularly at Augustana:
IDS 101: Who's Watching You? Surveillance in Everyday Life (new)
AUSOC101: Introduction to Sociology: Principles and Practices
AUSOC 103: Introduction to Sociology: Institutions and Insights
AUSOC 232 Theoretical Developments in Sociology I
AUSOC 233: Theoretical Developments in Sociology II
AUSOC 262: Mass Communication and Contemporary Society
AUSOC 263: Social Theory of Community
AUSOC 372: Visual Sociology
AUSOC 439: Seminar in Contemporary Sociological Theory
Selected topics that highlight the interdisciplinary nature of the Liberal Arts and Sciences. This seminar-style class is a key aspect of the Augustana First Year Experience. The focus and content of each course are determined by faculty interests, and vary from year to year.
Fall Term 2022Introduction to sociology focusing on the relation between social institutions and everyday life. Through an examination of institutions like law, family, education, politics, religion, and economy, the course develops an understanding of themes such as changes in family organization, the relation between delinquency and power, and the relation between religion and economy.
Winter Term 2023Survey of the origin and the development of classical sociological theory, with particular emphasis on Marx, Durkheim, and Weber. Prerequisite: One of AUSOC 101, 103, 105.
Fall Term 2022What kind of communication is mass communication, and in what ways in particular is this different from other forms of communication? What does it mean to live in an age of mass culture? The construction and character of mass society as one organizational and communicative possibility, using notions of postmodernism and post-industrialism. Prerequisite: AUSOC 101, 103 or 105.
Fall Term 2022An inquiry into visual representation in and of society; this includes the social dimensions that encompass the making, interpretation, and use of visual images, especially photographs, in collective life and within contemporary sociological research. Prerequisites: AUSOC 101, *3 at a senior level in Sociology and 3rd year standing or consent of the instructor.
Winter Term 2023Issues in contemporary theory. Central concepts and arguments proposed by a variety of theorists are examined. Topics covered vary by instructor. A student confronts primary texts. Prerequisite: *6 at a senior level in Sociology.
Winter Term 2023