My Sociological Eye

My name is Drew (or Dov) Katz. I am a senior at Augsburg and a Sociology and Religion Major. I am also part of the StepUP program here as well! The blog post to follow is about my sense of sociological inquiry and curiosity, and how my early life and the beginning of my college career influenced the development of these parts of myself. I hope you enjoy it! 

I have always had an innate curiosity about the world, how it works, and why it functions in the ways that it does. My curious disposition was always encouraged by my parents, who were ideal primary caregivers that fostered my love for the pursuit of knowledge ever since I was a small child. The first place where I was encouraged to think deeply was probably Hebrew school. I grew up in Philadelphia, in a fairly Jewish area, so being in community with other Jews was easily accessible to me. What I have gathered from the kind of Judaism I grew up with, challenging and interacting with ancient texts, stories, and values is integral to the practice of this religion. 

When I was in Hebrew school, my curious mind flourished under the tutelage of my

enthusiastic teachers. They encouraged me to critically analyze ancient texts and stories. They taught me about injustices in the world and how Judaism’s core principle of tikkun olam (repairing the world) guides the Jewish imperative to be proactively on the side of the righteous. In this way, my Hebrew school teachers helped me formulate a value system that aligned with my passions for intellectual pursuits and understanding how my learning fit into a greater context. Judaism for me is a kind of spiritual, and at times liturgical, sociological study. Much of the way that I still interact with my Jewishness is through acting from my values and continuing to explore the world througha curious and justice oriented lens. 

There is not an exact explanation for why I connected so much with Judaism growing up. My family is not very religious, and my sister certainly did not feel as intense a connection with the religion as I did. I have always been a hypersensitive person; I tend to feel and think very deeply.
The intergenerational trauma that comes with being genetically connected to a long line of Jews
who experienced a great depth of displacement, loss, and grief, greatly impacted me from a young age. I felt like my Jewish connection ran deeper than just being born into a Jewish household; I felt deeply, intrinsically connected to my ancestors and my culture. My given name, Dana, is named for my great grandmother Devora, who escaped Nazi Poland where all of her siblings and parents died at the hands of the Nazis. So before I even came into this world, my connection to the trauma, grief, and sorrow related to the Holocaust fell into place. I wonder if my passion for sociological inquiry in part stems from my connection to the injustices done to my people throughout time. I have always had this strong sense of wanting to fight against injustice and inequality, and I find that sociology has given me tools to better understand how I can actually engage in this fight.

My first experience with sociology came in my freshman year of high school when I took an introductory sociology course. I felt invigorated by what I was learning, and for the first time in my life, I felt inspired to make something of myself in the future that aligned with the principles I was taught. I had this feeling like one day I’d find a cause that I could really sink my teeth into and my life would become built around fighting for what I believed in. Sociology ignited this spark in me when I was a teenager, and after I enrolled in Augsburg, that spark came to life once again.

Though I cannot remember much, of the time I spent in Elysium, I can still hear the bitterness lay hefty on tongue. I can still recoil, I am the smashing plates, ceramic masterpiece, I am the dancing candlelight, the unbothered flame at ease. Though I cannot remember much, of the time I spent in Elysium, I cannot reconcile fevered revelry for having been. I am the daunting soldier, who shone with flawless steel, I am the drink poured eagerly down pipes lined with zeal and though for the sake of my life I cannot remember much of the time I spent in Elysium, I’m happy now it has ceased, for I recall a piece of my

time in Elysium, but I cannot remember me.