Sarah Quinn
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sarahquinn.bsky.social
Sarah Quinn
@sarahquinn.bsky.social
3.8K followers 1.3K following 740 posts
Sociologist who studies American politics, finance, and political economy. Broadly interested in cultural categories and power.
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sarahquinn.bsky.social
During the AIDS epidemic a gay church in the Castro recoded its services for people too sick to attend. When We All Get to Heaven is a podcast that tells their story, and it drops Outward from @slate.com tomorrow (Oct 15th).
Title: OUTWARD presents WHEN WE ALL GET TO HEAVEN The title is over a picture of a people in casual clothes at a choir practice, who are facing a choir director whose back is to the camera. The choir director is in jeans and chaps.
October 14, 2025 at 5:57 PM
sarahquinn.bsky.social
Book cover for They Thought They Were Free" The Germans, 1933-45 by Milton Mayer "What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could not understand it, it could not be released because of national security. And their sense of identification with Hitler, their trust in him, made it easier to widen this gap and reassured those who would otherwise have worried about it. "This separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter." ""You will understand me when I say that my Middle High German was my life. It was all I cared about. I was a scholar, a specialist. Then, suddenly, I was plunged into all the new activity, as the university was drawn into the new situation; meetings, conferences, interviews, ceremonies, and, above all, papers to be filled out, reports, bibliographies, lists, questionnaires. And on top of that were the demands in the community, the things in which one had to, was ‘expected to’ participate that had not been there or had not been important before. It was all rigmarole, of course, but it consumed all one’s energies, coming on top of the work one really wanted to do. You can see how easy it was, then, not to think about fundamental things. One had no time." "Those," I said, "are the words of my friend the baker. ‘One had no time to think. There was so much going on.’" "You see," my colleague went on, "one doesn’t see exactly where or how to move. Believe me, this is true. Each act, each occasion, is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join with you in resisting somehow. You don’t want to act, or even talk, alone; you don’t want to ‘go out of your way to make trouble.’ Why not?—Well, you are not in the habit of doing it. And it is not just fear, fear of standing alone, that restrains you; it is also genuine uncertainty. "Uncertainty is a very important factor, and, instead of decreasing as time goes on, it grows. Outside, in the streets, in the general community, ‘everyone’ is happy. One hears no protest, and certainly sees none. You know, in France or Italy there would be slogans against the government painted on walls and fences; in Germany, outside the great cities, perhaps, there is not even this. In the university community, in your own community, you speak privately to your colleagues, some of whom certainly feel as you do; but what do they say? They say, ‘It’s not so bad’ or ‘You’re seeing things’ or ‘You’re an alarmist.’
October 5, 2025 at 5:45 AM
sarahquinn.bsky.social
What movie do you consider “perfect?”
Denzel Washington talks to a masked and hooded man in front of a bank vault
September 21, 2025 at 10:29 PM
sarahquinn.bsky.social
Third runner up: someone/everyone takes the game too far
August 24, 2025 at 12:20 AM
sarahquinn.bsky.social
Runner up: teen learns painful life lessons at a dance
Still from the Gilmore Girls, with a teenage girl crying in her mother's arm on an empty dance floor.
August 23, 2025 at 11:54 PM
sarahquinn.bsky.social
Bonding over a late night snack
A picture of the golden girls sitting around a table eating cheesecake
August 23, 2025 at 11:50 PM
sarahquinn.bsky.social
he was just hanging out like this
Brindle dog looks out the window from a sofa in a half crouched position
August 22, 2025 at 4:01 AM
sarahquinn.bsky.social
A little break
Portrait of a brindle mixed breed dog stretched out in a patch of green
June 29, 2025 at 12:42 AM
sarahquinn.bsky.social
Yes, and . . . here's a version of this where cold/bitchy/selfish women are humbled and then softened by childrearing. I remember this being a thing in the 80s.
Poster for the movie Baby Boom with Diane Keaton dressed in a suit with a briefcase holding a baby Poster for Look Who's Talking Poster for Overboard
June 26, 2025 at 12:07 AM
sarahquinn.bsky.social
close up picture of a man in glasses and a hat whose face is melting off , from Raiders of the Lost Arc
June 24, 2025 at 4:42 PM
sarahquinn.bsky.social
This one needs its morning coffee
June 18, 2025 at 4:21 AM
sarahquinn.bsky.social
"Musk has clarified something once and for all: libertarianism doesn’t actually liberate anyone from the state. It simply destroys the last remnants of the social state, installing in its place an intensely autocratic, patrimonial form of state rule, in which personal subordination is enforced at every level of society." - Miranda Cooper, from https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/trumps-antisocial-state/
May 10, 2025 at 3:30 PM
sarahquinn.bsky.social
I don't know that one. But if we are collecting wonderful older children's books about liberation, may I suggest The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes.
The cover of the Country Bunny and the Little Gold shoes, by Du Bose Heyward. A pink cover has a brown mother bunny in a line with 21 little kid bunnies, all of them dressed up.
May 4, 2025 at 3:35 AM
sarahquinn.bsky.social
The average American has three friends.
A screen shot of Susan Sarandon, Cher and Michelle Pfeiffer from the movie witches of Eastwick. They are drinking martinis and looking at a spellbook.
May 2, 2025 at 1:57 AM
sarahquinn.bsky.social
Self soothing as I watch the Canadian elections
Jennifer Tilly at the RHOBH reunion, bejeweled and in a gold dress, and eating a candy as she watches other cast members fight
April 28, 2025 at 3:37 PM
sarahquinn.bsky.social
April 27, 2025 at 4:27 PM
sarahquinn.bsky.social
Look at those elegant paws
April 27, 2025 at 1:54 AM
sarahquinn.bsky.social
This one was fun to write - with Francisca Gómez Baeza, and Devin Collins
Screenshot of the title and abstract of an article Title: The Longue Durée of Finance: New Research on Old Financial Markets Written by: Sarah Quinn Francisca Gómez Baeza, and Devin Collins Abstract: Scholarship on finance has flourished in the aftermath of the Great Recession. While the sociology of finance typically centers developments since the financial turn of the 1970s, a burgeoning body of interdisciplinary scholarship sheds new light on the evolution of financial practices, institutions, and relations in earlier years. This review explores key contributions and themes from the new histories of finance, focusing on works published in the past decade that offer valuable insights for sociologists. We first review new contributions on ancient, medieval, and early modern finance, which illuminate the origins of money and credit, the development of financial thinking, and the relationship between finance and imperialism, colonialism, and slavery. Second, we survey new work on the development of modern financial markets in the long road to the financial turn of the 1970s. Together, these studies reveal how money, credit, and finance are embedded in political and legal institutions, and how financial systems act as tools of social policy, economic growth, war, and racial subjugation. Finally, long-run perspectives on finance provide an important reminder that borrowing, lending, and the management of attendant risks are not new phenomena unique to our neoliberal era.
April 11, 2025 at 6:05 PM
sarahquinn.bsky.social
Sometimes when he's afraid of the loud clangs and bangs coming from the construction next door, my dog will place his paw on my foot for comfort. I think it's his version of holding hands.
A brindle dog with white spots sits on a couch taken from the back. It's paw rests on a human foot.
February 19, 2025 at 8:04 PM
sarahquinn.bsky.social
Incredible news - Nathan Tankus will be joining this panel!

Come hear the brilliant @epopppp.bsky.social, @abenewman.bsky.social, @nathantankus.bsky.social and moderator @pardoguerra.bsky.social explain what's been happening at the Treasury and why it matters.

RSVP at shorturl.at/B9QWI
What is at stake with the Treasury's payment systems? Recent events make this question more pertinent than ever before. Cutting across governance, policy, economic regulation, and the bureaucracies that sit at the core of the democratic state, the Treasury's financial pipes and plumbing are critical for the nation's well-being. In this special session, Elizabeth Popp Berman (U Michigan), Abraham Newman (Georgetown U) and Nathan Tankus (Notes on the Crisis) will discuss why these systems matter as well as the risks posed by their capture by non-state actors. Please join us on Thursday, February 6 at 11 AM PST/ 2 PM EST for what will surely be an excellent conversation.
February 6, 2025 at 4:13 PM
sarahquinn.bsky.social
A panel on the Treasury this Thursday, with the incredible @epopppp.bsky.social and @abenewman.bsky.social.

This is not just for academics. Everyone needs to understand what's happening right now. Spread the word!
Announcement for a SPECIAL PANEL ON THE TREASURY with pictures of two speakers. About this event: What is at stake with the Treasury's payment systems? Recent events make this question more pertinent than ever before. Cutting across governance, policy, economic regulation, and the bureaucracies that sit at the core of the democratic state, the Treasury's financial pipes and plumbing are critical for the nation's well-being. In this special session, Elizabeth Popp Berman (U Michigan) and Abraham Newman (Georgetown U) will discuss why these systems matter as well as the risks posed by their capture by non-state actors. Please join us on Thursday, February 6 at 11 AM PST/ 2 PM EST for what will surely be an excellent conversation. Please register here: https://ucsd.zoom.us/meeting/register/uSxuanM2TEWy5Hqn4-7KVg
February 4, 2025 at 6:44 PM
sarahquinn.bsky.social
tis a season of excess
A brindle dog with white patches stares into the camera. He is sitting on a blue dog bed covered in stuffed toys
December 29, 2024 at 6:34 PM
sarahquinn.bsky.social
if you see this, post a vampire
Jordon Peterson with a grimace on his face and his arms crossed over his torso with his hands curled inward, as if he just snatched the soul of an angry and confused young man is and is clutching it to his chest.
November 27, 2024 at 4:43 PM
sarahquinn.bsky.social
if you see this, post a vampire
Screen shot of George Hamilton as a vampire
November 27, 2024 at 5:20 AM
sarahquinn.bsky.social
i was just talking about John Levi Martin's 'Is power sexy?" article. It's a great read and uses Zablocki’s urban communes dataset.
screenhot of the abstract for the article: Is Power Sexy? John Levi Martin University of Wisconsin—Madison Abstract Using a set of network data from a large number of naturally occurring groups, this study seeks to determine whether powerful people are more likely to be seen as sexy by others than are persons without power. In particular, this study disentangles two aspects of power that are often confused, namely power as a dyadic relationship and power as an individual characteristic or position (which the author calls “status”). Most sociological theories that predict a relationship between power and sexiness argue that the connection will involve men of high status being sexier—or at least more attractive as partners—to women than will men of low status. While this study finds that there is indeed a connection between sexiness and power, it is instead women whose high status increases their sexiness (to men), while it is the interpersonal power of men that makes them sexy, both to men and to women.
November 24, 2024 at 7:57 PM