Contexts Magazine
LightNews LightNews
banner
contexts.org
Contexts Magazine
@contexts.org
2.7K followers 3.9K following 240 posts
A quarterly magazine that believes public sociology can be both approachable and applicable! Edited by Amin Ghaziani, Seth Abrutyn, and Letta Page, with incoming editors David Grazian and Elena G. van Stee.

contexts.org
Posts Replies Media Videos
contexts.org
In case you'd like to read our entire note of apology regarding our Summer 2025 cover (as seen in our current profile images):
A screenshot reads: Dear Readers, Let’s start by saying that we owe you an apology. Recently, we received an email from Laurel Davis-Delano, Professor of Sociology at Springfield College. In it, Dr. Davis-Delano explains that she studies White Americans’ beliefs, representations, and practices that they associate with Native Americans and that, while she is happy to see that our Summer 2025 issue features two articles on Indigenous issues, she is concerned about our cover image choice. By raising a series of questions about the image—from its content to its creator—Prof. Davis-Delano takes a thoughtful approach, full of curiosity it is clear our team did not explore when it came to our pick for a cover image. We are immensely grateful. We are grateful, too, to our editorial board member Kimberly Huyser (Navajo), Professor of Sociology at the University of British Columbia, who spoke with us further about our cover, helping us to understand it as a controlling image that stands as an example of racial ignorance of the sort written about in Stephanie Bohon and Shaylee Hodges’ feature article in this issue, “Digging Into Indigenous History.” Among the additional problems Drs. Davis-Delano and Huyser raised with our Summer 2025 cover was that a tipi is not representative of the ancestral or current dwellings of a number of the Native American peoples featured in the issue’s content. Additionally, the photo, sourced through online stock image service iStockPhoto, was taken by a non-Indigenous photographer who, when contacted by Dr. Davis-Delano (who worked with a reference librarian to provide initial context), explained that the structure was not created by Native Americans but was, instead, an imitation tipi made in Canada by members of a marginalized, though not Indigenous, ethnic group. With each new facet of this image reinforcing its poor fit for the Summer 2025 issue, it’s clear that this picture is worth far more than 1,000 words. To that end, we thank Dr.… A screenshot reads: We emphasize “soon” not only because our misstep demands a prompt response, but also because we want to be sure that this piece is published on our website while our Summer 2025 issue is still open-access at journals.sagepub.com/toc/ctxa/24/3 (no paywall through November 17, 2025). As we told Dr. Davis-Delano, had we taken the time to reach out to a Native American photographer to discuss licensing an image from them on the theme of Indigenous erasure, we surely would have been informed of the wrong-headedness of our image idea while also directly supporting both an Indigenous artist and the representation of Native peoples by Native peoples. Again, we want to extend our thanks for Dr. Davis-Delano’s kind and thought-provoking email and for her ongoing willingness to be a part of our learning, helping Contexts do better, issue by issue. With deepest appreciation, Seth Abrutyn Amin Ghaziani Letta Page
November 5, 2025 at 5:45 PM
contexts.org
@stanfordpress.bsky.social
October 24, 2025 at 6:23 PM