Sam Sloss, sociology professor, is constantly finding new ways to improve his knowledge and love for sociology.

Sloss has been working on a couple of new research projects in his free time. He has been working with Sandra French, a former sociology professor who has recently retired from IU Southeast, on public attitudes verses the way Congress votes on certain key issues.

They have made a few presentations on this topic, and they have had some students help them during a previous summer with their research.

“We are trying to put together a little paper,” Sloss said.

Evolution and social change is another thing on Sloss’ mind. His main focus is how our evolutionary history affects the way we interact and our social tendencies.

Aside from teaching his social problems, social aspects of health and medicine and research methods courses, Sloss mostly reads in his spare time.

“I have also been doing a little bit of blogging,” he said.

Sloss enjoys teaching non-traditional sociology courses, such as the sociology of food and sociology of humor. He likes to develop new courses.

“Anything can be sociology,” Sloss said.

He is currently developing a course on the sociology of playing. This includes the way animals play together and games humans play. He also mentioned he has been looking at how men are extremely competitive and like to play violent video games.

“I thought of it while watching the Olympics this year,” he said.
Sloss has also shown a gaining interest in the current presidential election.

“I think it is fascinating that the Democratic Party had a woman and a black man as the two leading candidates,” he said. 

As oppose to the Republicans who have recently put a woman on their ticket.

“I think we have some very clear choices and it’s going to be interesting to see how the votes turn out,” he said. “The dynamics are just interesting.”

By NATALIE DEDAS
Staff Writer
natdedas@ius.edu