Sociology and Subculture
Back in 2016, students in Sociology Professor Ross Haenfler’s Deviance and Social Control class began building webpages about subcultures that were of interest to them. The project, dubbed Sociology and Subcultures, highlights a wide range of alternative social groups — from psychonauts and roller derby to burlesque and steampunk — and has continued to grow over the past seven years to include more groups researched and explored by students.
“Students who work on the Sociology and Subcultures site learn a lot about groups that resist dominant social norms to forge their own paths,” explains Haenfler. “But they also learn practical skills in web design and communicating sociological knowledge in accessible ways. Additionally, the site features ‘theory’ pages that teach people the basics of subcultural theory, for example, stigma, commodification, and authenticity.”
With several years’ worth of material now available on the site and more information still to be added, Haenfler is receiving support through the Vivero Digital Fellows Program to revamp the site, increase its functionality, and help students add more pages next semester.
The Vivero Digital Fellows Program trains students to utilize digital tools for video, mapping, and online exhibitions. Vivero fellow Livia Stein Freitas ’25, a third-year English and computer science major, is working closely with Haenfler to make the website more user-friendly and more accessible. They are structuring the site to make it easy for students to contribute to and for users to find.
“We hope to make the Sociology and Subculture site an easily accessible resource for students with tutorials and instructions on how to add to the website,” says Stein Freitas. "Essentially we want all the information that already exists to be well organized, and we want it to be easy to add to the website in the future.”
The primary goal of the site is pedagogical — for students to learn more about the subcultures being explored and develop skills in writing, research methods, and information sharing. The secondary goal is to provide a source of information for other researchers and scholars.
“I hope that the site empowers my students to share their knowledge and research skills with a broad audience interested in subcultures,” says Haenfler. “Additionally, I hope the site helps parents, educators, students, and the general public appreciate how people find meaning in "deviant" communities.”
Opportunities and Mentors
Stein Freitas first learned about the Vivero Fellowship through her advisor and professor, Erik Simpson, when she expressed interest in finding an on-campus opportunity to learn more about the intersection of technology and the humanities.
Her work through the fellowship has three parts: working with a member of the faculty on a digital project (the Sociology and Subcultures site); tutoring other students and helping them with questions about digital tools (how to create a website or edit a video); and training, which involves a digital projects class to learn about these tools available to them.
“It’s just an amazing opportunity to learn a lot and also develop a really cool project,” says Stein Freitas. “One of the best decisions I made in college was to apply to the fellowship. It’s given me the confidence that I can realize my goals and do all the cool projects that I want to do. I've also gotten better at presenting myself professionally, I’ve developed a personal portfolio, and gotten better at writing about my achievements. It has given me a lot of confidence to try new things and develop a lot of important skills.”
Stein Freitas also credits those she has worked with through the fellowship for creating an experience that has enhanced her Grinnell education.
“Tierney Steelberg (digital liberal arts specialist) and Elizabeth Cave (assistant professor, digital humanities and instruction librarian) — as well as Elizabeth Rodrigues (associate professor humanities and digital scholarship librarian) who is away but is also a program lead — are amazing supervisors,” she says. “They’re incredibly knowledgeable, very mindful of our wellbeing, and they really want this to be an enriching experience,” she says. “Professor Haenfler, too. He’s very open to my ideas and clear with his feedback. All the people I’ve been working with have just been great.”
About the Vivero Digital Fellows Program
The faculty, staff, and students of the Vivero Digital Fellows program seek to develop a digital liberal arts community of practice at Grinnell College that embodies the College’s commitment to social justice, diversity, and excellence in undergraduate liberal arts education. Vivero Digital Fellows collaborate on digital projects led by faculty and staff from all disciplines and departments, for research and/or teaching; provide peer mentoring support for courses engaging with digital methods of analysis and presentation, throughout the semester or for a particular assignment; provide drop-in office hours to serve as a resource for students pursuing digital projects as part of their curricular or co-curricular work.