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Dr Yuchen Yang

@dr-yang.bsky.social

1.3K followers 380 following 230 posts

Assistant Professor in Sociology at University of Birmingham | UChicago PhD '24 | UC Berkeley BA '17 | interactionist scholar of gender, sexualities, culture, semiotics, and childhood | friend of EMCA who stumbled into linguistic anthropology

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Dr Yuchen Yang @dr-yang.bsky.social · 27d

After 3 years, 14 drafts, and 3 paper awards, I finally published this paper on the semiotics of (un)doing gender in my favorite journal—Sociological Theory! @sociologicaltheory.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1177/0735...

Sociological Theory - Original Article
Gender Uptake: Theorizing the Semiotics of (Un)Doing Gender
Yuchen Yang
Abstract
“Doing Gender” is often read as a theory of how people signify femininity/masculinity via expressive “performances.” This prevailing interpretation falls short of what the theory calls for—an ethnomethodologically informed analysis of gender’s emergent “naturalness.” To further this agenda, I theorize the audience’s “gender uptake” as a central component of doing gender by elaborating ethnomethodology’s attention to interpretive acts. Integrating Dorothy Smith’s intellectual legacy for feminist interpretive sociology, ethnomethodology’s neglected insight on categorization, and cultural sociology’s recent rediscovery of Peircean semiotics, I argue the facticity of gender’s “naturalness” remains underdetermined until the audience makes a series of ideological moves that cannot be predetermined by the performer. With case studies of how feminist parents account for their children’s gender-stereotypical interests, I illustrate how this audience-centered approach helps us unpack the interactional production/naturalization of categorical differences processually as open-ended negotiation of sign relations, where meaning emerges from selective attention.
Keywords
accounts, categorization, childhood, doing gender, ethnomethodology, pragmatist semiotics

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Dr Yuchen Yang @dr-yang.bsky.social · 19h

"There are very few infallible rules in intellectual life, but a surely robust one would be to close any book on Northeast Asia as soon as it begins to hold forth on Confucius and Confucianism and their relevance to the contemporary era." ——John Lie, The Dream of East Asia (2018)

Reposted by Dr Yuchen Yang

Michel Estefan @mestefan.bsky.social · 4d

Social theory is as hard to teach as it is to learn.

The hardest part? When students do everything right—read every page, show up every time—and still feel theory won’t open up for them.

Seven Principles for Teaching Social Theory - First Publics

The Society Pages (TSP) is an open-access social science project headquartered in the Department of Sociology at the University of Minnesota

thesocietypages.org

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Reposted by Dr Yuchen Yang

Rue @rue-burch.bsky.social · 4d

#EMCA
One of my 2nd year students mentioned in her homework about how she tried out a breaching experiment (in this case speaking in honorifics with her sister) and the reaction, and started diving deeper into the ideas.

I'm such a bad influence sometimes, but I love it.

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Dr Yuchen Yang @dr-yang.bsky.social · 4d

I think it's from Forms of Talk 😁

Dr Yuchen Yang @dr-yang.bsky.social · 4d

Have you seen this acknowledgement from Goffman 🤣

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Reposted by Dr Yuchen Yang

Heba Gowayed هبة جويد @hebagowayed.bsky.social · 5d

This is who @emanabdelhadi.bsky.social is. Brilliant. Fearless. I fucking hate typing this shit out: Free Eman.

Amplify amplify amplify please.

Preorder Read This When Things Fall Apart @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 5d

@emanabdelhadi.bsky.social tells these cops about themselves.

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Dr Yuchen Yang @dr-yang.bsky.social · 4d

WTF 😡

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 5d

🚨🚨 My dear friend and fellow academic, the Palestinian American sociologist @emanabdelhadi.bsky.social has been taken by the Cook County Sheriff near Chicago. They have not mirandized her. Please signal boost. All eyes on Broadview for Eman and the community she was defending 🚨🚨

Dr Yuchen Yang @dr-yang.bsky.social · 5d

In Week 2, we will read West & Zimmerman's early work on interruption in cross-gender conversation, Goffman's work on Gender Display, and a chapter from Thorne's Gender Play. Hopefully these texts will prepare the students for reading "Doing Gender" in the first week of Gender & Sexuality next year.

Week 2: Gender in Everyday Life
West, Candace, and Don H. Zimmerman. 1977. “Women’s Place in Everyday Talk: Reflections on Parent-Child Interaction.” Social Problems 24(5):521–29.
Goffman, Erving. 1976. “Gender Display.” Studies in the Anthropology of Visual Communication 3:69–77.
Thorne, Barrie. 1993. “Creating a Sense of ‘Opposite Sides.’” Pp. 63–88 in Gender Play: Girls and Boys in School. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Recommended:
Goffman, Erving. 1956. “Introduction.” Pp. 1–9 in The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Social Research Center.
West, Candace, and Don H. Zimmerman. 1987. “Doing Gender.” Gender & Society 1(2):125–151.
Messner, Michael A. 2000. "Barbie Girls versus Sea Monsters: Children Constructing Gender." Gender & Society 14(6):765-784.
Lucal, Betsy. 1999. “What It Means to Be Gendered Me: Life on the Boundaries of a Dichotomous Gender System.” Gender & Society 13(6):781–797.

Dr Yuchen Yang @dr-yang.bsky.social · 10d

Achievement Unlocked: I watched 6 films by Shinkai Makoto yesterday at the Birmingham Anime Film Festival! Their Shinkai Makoto Marathon included The Place Promised in Our Early Days, The Garden of Words, 5 Centimeter Per Second, Children Who Chase Lost Voices, Your Name, and Weathering with You.

Dr Yuchen Yang @dr-yang.bsky.social · 12d

Teaching starts next Monday, so I'm PINK again! ✧٩(ˊωˋ*)و✧

Dr Yuchen Yang @dr-yang.bsky.social · 14d

Fishman's article is quite short and based on a "small" sample of three couples (according to the standards of mainstream sociology today), but its depth and attentiveness to details are unparalleled. We really need more articles like this in our discipline.

Dr Yuchen Yang @dr-yang.bsky.social · 14d

I'm revamping our Sociology of Everyday Life module at @birminghamschool.bsky.social this semester to make it more interactionist and ethnomethodological. For our first lecture next week, we'll read Adler et al.'s Annual Review article and Fishman's classic piece, "Interaction: The Work Women Do." 🤩

Week 1: Introducing the Sociology of Everyday Life
Adler, Patricia A., Peter Adler, and Andrea Fontana. 1987. “Everyday Life Sociology.” Annual Review of Sociology 13:217–235.
Fishman, Pamela M. 1978. “Interaction: The Work Women Do.” Social Problems 25(4):397–406.
Antaki, Charles. 2007. “Basic Transcription Notation Conventions.” https://learn.lboro.ac.uk/ludata/cx/ca-tutorials/notation.htm
Recommended:
Thorne, Barrie. 1997. “Brandeis as a Generative Institution: Critical Perspectives, Marginality, and Feminism.” Pp. 103–25 in Feminist Sociology: Life Histories of a Movement, edited by B. Laslett and B. Thorne. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Collins, Randall. 2004. “The Program of Interaction Ritual Theory.” Pp. 3–46 in Interaction Ritual Chains. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Jefferson, Gail. 2004. “Glossary of Transcript Symbols with an Introduction.” Pp. 13–31 in Conversation Analysis: Studies from the First Generation, edited by G. H. Lerner. Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

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Dr Yuchen Yang @dr-yang.bsky.social · 15d

Congratulations!!! @stephanieternullo.bsky.social

Consortium on the American Political Economy (CAPE) @cape-team.bsky.social · 16d

A huge congrats to this year’s APE section award winners 🏆🎉: @stephanieternullo.bsky.social and Trellace Lawrimore!

We loved celebrating their amazing work and seeing everyone who attended #APSA2025.

www.americanpoliticaleconomy.org/post/ape-at-...

APE at APSA 2025 | Consortium on the American Political Economy

Celebrating a Fantastic APSA with the APE Organized Section's 2025 Award Winners and CAPE's Junior Working Group's Meetup

www.americanpoliticaleconomy.org

Reposted by Dr Yuchen Yang

Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 22d

ICE killed a Chicago area man last week. His name was Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez. He wasn't "the worst of the worst." He was a cook. ICE hopes we'll forget about him. We won't.

Pritzker slams feds' silence on fatal ICE shooting in Franklin Park

"This is the most unusual situation I've seen in my entire lifetime," the governor said Monday of what appears to be the first fatal shooting by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent this y...

chicago.suntimes.com

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Reposted by Dr Yuchen Yang

American Sociological Association @asanews.bsky.social · 23d

Take action for international students! Proposed DHS rule eliminating Duration of Status is detrimental for international students. Submit public comment (naming Docket No. ICEB-2025-0001) before 11:59 pm EDT, Sept. 29: https://bit.ly/3KoPB0w. Context: https://bit.ly/42nbq6Y.

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Reposted by Dr Yuchen Yang

Mo Moulton @momoulton.bsky.social · 23d

Some big news: the University of Birmingham is launching a new MA in Gender & Sexuality. It's interdisciplinary, with a focus on combining theory & practice. It's going to be amazing. I'm convening it: message or email with questions. www.birmingham.ac.uk/study/postgr... @unibirmingham.bsky.social

Gender and Sexuality MA - University of Birmingham

Course information for prospective postgraduate students on our MA History taught masters degree programme at the University of Birmingham.

www.birmingham.ac.uk

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Dr Yuchen Yang @dr-yang.bsky.social · 23d

YESSS!!!

Dr Yuchen Yang @dr-yang.bsky.social · 23d

@kefanxue.bsky.social

Dr Yuchen Yang @dr-yang.bsky.social · 23d

Reunion of three sociologists of childhood from Hangzhou in Birmingham!

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Dr Yuchen Yang @dr-yang.bsky.social · 23d

Apparently, Google AI has already learned what I mean by "gender uptake" (mostly) within 3 days of the publication of my article 😲

Dr Yuchen Yang @dr-yang.bsky.social · 24d

This article is a must-read for anyone interested in media, platform, nationalism, or China!!! anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Dr Yuchen Yang @dr-yang.bsky.social · 27d

Thank you!!!

Dr Yuchen Yang @dr-yang.bsky.social · 27d

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Dr Yuchen Yang @dr-yang.bsky.social · Sep 3

And then my cat sealed me onto my keyboard. I guess she's saying, "You shall never stop writing."

Reposted by Dr Yuchen Yang

Chenchen Zhang 🤦🏻‍♀️ @chenchenzhang.net · Sep 3

officially, the military parade is to mark "the 80th Anniversary of the Victory of Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War.” it's not WWII, but world anti-fascist war. but does it tell us anything about fascism? no. but on my fav social media..

What does fascism looks like? Extreme nationalism, cult of personality, statism, elimination of political opponents, militarism, state capitalism, false social mobilization, fear of difference, reify gender order, philosophy of existential struggles

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