Gossip in the workplace can be a weapon in reputational warfare or a gift and can offer clues to power and influence not found on organizational charts. New research from Indiana University details how the weapon is wielded -- and its influence muted -- in a rare study that catches this national pastime on video.

Dozens of Indiana University researchers participated in the American Sociological Association's annual meeting in San Francisco. In this media tip sheet, researchers discuss studies involving "coming out" in rural areas, public opinion about name change after marriage, the polarization of American politics, pet ownership, stigma and the medicalization of mental illness and bullies.

IU Bloomington selects faculty members each year with distinguished leadership ability to participate in the Academic Leadership Program (ALP), sponsored by the Committee on Institutional Cooperation. This year's ALP Fellows are Joyce Alexander, Martin McCrory, Jane McLeod and Sara C. Pryor.

Racism, in the context of such issues as institutions and society, crime and class, and ethnicity and multiple identities, will be the focus of symposium this weekend at Indiana University Bloomington featuring sociology researchers from across the country.

Should sociologists be involved in research on the genetics of illness and disease? A recent issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education recognized Indiana University Distinguished and Chancellor's Professor of Sociology Bernice Pescosolido for her research on alcoholism.

Students considering a career in health care can learn about more than careers as "doctor" and "nurse" at Indiana University Bloomington's Health Programs Fair on March 4 (Wednesday). The fair, scheduled from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Indiana Memorial Union Alumni Hall, will feature more than 100 health care representatives on hand to meet with students and answer questions about educational and career opportunities.

Sheldon Stryker, Distinguished Professor of sociology at Indiana University, has won the W.E.B. Dubois Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award from the American Sociological Association. The award honors scholars who have shown outstanding commitment to the profession of sociology and whose cumulative work has contributed in important ways to the advancement of the discipline.

A new study involving health care systems in 21 countries -- and the prospects for change in response to such common pressures as rising costs and aging populations -- casts doubt on the possibility of major overhauls of any of these systems because of the history and traditions that created them.

Indiana University professors of law and sociology discuss the current debate in America about same-sex marriage.

Noted Indiana University political scientist Elinor Ostrom will deliver the inaugural Karl F. Schuessler Lecture in Social Science Research at IU Bloomington next month when she discusses "Sustaining Social-Ecological Systems." Her talk will be Nov. 6 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the President's Room of the University Club in the Indiana Memorial Union.

Indiana University sociologist Fabio Rojas discusses "disenchanted" anti-war demostrators and their impact on presidential campaign.

Recipients of the Outstanding Junior Faculty Award at Indiana University Bloomington this year are Candy Gunther Brown in the Department of Religious Studies, Tony H. Grubesic in Department of Geography, Scott Michaels in the Department of Biology, Ethan Michelson in the Departments of Sociology and East Asian Languages and Cultures, Sima Setayeshgar in the Department of Physics, and Chen Yu in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences.

Cooperation between the Democratic Party and antiwar activists helped Democrats in the 2006 congressional elections, say researchers at Indiana University and the University of Florida, but the upcoming presidential election could see this support wane because of divisions among the antiwar activists and the instability of the "Party in the Street."

June 12 marks the 40th anniversary of the landmark Loving v. Virginia U.S. Supreme Court ruling, which overturned a ban in Virginia that had prohibited whites from marrying non-whites. The ruling invalidated similar bans in more than a dozen other states. Four Indiana University scholars with expertise in the family, history and law, discuss the continuing impact of the ruling on American society.

Children with depression or ADHD and their parents not only face the challenge of an illness, but may confront the stigma that accompanies treatment and social rejection, according to the first-ever national study to examine Americans' views of mental health issues in children.

Biracial parents, compared to their monoracial counterparts, are more likely to go the extra mile in the amount of time and money they spend on their young children, according to a national study by sociologists at Indiana University and the University of Connecticut.

Four of this year's Guggenheim Fellows are professors at Indiana University Bloomington. The election of IUB science historian Domenico Bertoloni-Meli, composer David Dzubay, Near Eastern languages and cultures Professor John Walbridge, and sociologist Pamela Barnhouse Walters brings IU's total of Guggenheim Fellows to 123.

The nation's schools often are blamed for the growing numbers of overweight youth, but a national study by sociologists at Indiana University and Ohio State University found that young children actually got fatter during their summer breaks than while in school.

Adoptive parents invest more time and financial resources in their children compared with biological parents, according to the results of a national study that challenges the more conventional view -- emphasized in legal and scholarly debates -- that children are better off with their biological parents.

Indiana University Bloomington professors are available to discuss several of the key issues expected to shape the 2006 midterm elections and the battle for control of Congress.

A physician, a sociologist and an economic development leader will be honored during the IU College of Arts & Sciences Annual Recognition Banquet on Friday, October 13.

Nearly 50 professors and graduate students from Indiana University will be presenting research or otherwise participating in the American Sociological Association's annual meeting in Montreal Aug. 11-14. "Criminological transition" in Russia, the male marriage bonus and voter turnout trends are just some of the IU research findings that will be discussed.

The portrayal in the West of Islamic traditionalists or fundamentalists often emphasizes their relegation of women to lower status in the home and family, restrictions on sexual expression and reproductive rights, and harsh punishments for crimes, but a new study by Indiana University and DePauw University sociologists finds that Islamic orthodoxy has an "egalitarian face."

The following Indiana University researchers have conducted research relevant to discussions about sexual assaults on college campuses.

Middle-aged women who become caregivers for an ill or disabled family member are more likely to leave their jobs altogether than reduce their hours, according to a new Indiana University study, which found that unpaid family leave, of all family-friendly benefits, proved most useful in helping caregivers keep their jobs.