Voyeurism, Ethics, and the Lure of the Extraordinary: Lessons from Studying America s Underground

Joane Nagel: Welcome to the 8th Annual Clark Lecture, sponsored by the Sociology Department here at the University of Kansas where we bring in a sociological luminary to spread the word about the sociological perspective and to, we hope, illuminate some things about what is going on in contemporary society. The Clark Lecture was established with an endowment gift from Pauline Ebstein Gardside in honor of Dr. Carol Clark who was a longstanding member of the sociology department from 1930 to 1968, chairing the department for many of those years. Ms. Gardside was a student of Dr. Clark. Our Clark Lecture this year is Professor Kathy Blee from the University of Pittsburgh. She is not only a distinguished scholar; she is a fine teacher and academic leader. I don't want to use the word administrator, so many people shame under that name, although I've certainly served in that role. So, Kathy, when I met her in 1999 when I visited Pittsburgh, she was chairing the Women's Studies program—she was in the Sociology department there — she's since ducked the bullet of chairing the sociology department, at least for the moment, but she's also served as an associate Dean when she was at the University of Kentucky before