Author Interview: Stan Weeber

by Sylvia Ney

Stan C. Weeber is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana. His interests in sociology include political sociology, sociology of education, and social movements. The author or editor of 20 books, his work has appeared in The American Sociologist, The Sociological Quarterly, the Journal of Public Management and Social Policy, the International Review of Modern Sociology, and several other journals. Dr. Weeber serves on the editorial boards of six international sociology journals. You can find him on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/stan.weeber , twitter: http://www.twitter.com/StanWeeber , LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/Stanweeber and his blog: http://www.sweeber.blogspot.com/ .

1. How did you develop an interest in writing? I read a lot as a child. I was enrolled in a lab school associated with the University of Iowa, and we were encouraged to do a lot of reading. I was not really sure I could write a book length manuscript until graduate school, when I had to write a Master’s Thesis. The thesis was 86 pages long, and after that, I knew I could write longer manuscripts.

2. I see you are writing a MS. Please tell me a little about it. I am currently writing a book called Sadie American, Pioneer of Visual Sociology. It is a biography of Sadie American, who pioneered the field of visual sociology and is also credited with founding “vacation schools” for young people, now known as summer school. I got the idea for this book back in 1995 when I was in graduate school, working on my doctorate. As you can see, it takes me a while to finish off some of my projects.

3. What do you do when you have writer’s block? I take a long vacation from writing. The worst case I had was in 1977, right after I finished my Master’s Thesis. I was a visiting grad student at the University of Alabama, there for the summer term only. My home was in Mississippi. There must have been something about the new environment that was not writer friendly. I took the summer off from writing (and from school) and used the time in Tuscaloosa to start running and working out. I was in great shape physically, but could not write a word. Once back in Mississippi, I started to write again.

4. What is your writing process like? I have a routine that is built around my job as a college professor. I work on the preparations for teaching first. When that is all taken care of, I go into writing mode. I have to admit this is the best part of my day. I do better when I can transition into writing mode before 12 noon as I seem sharpest in the morning. I write from about 11 (or sometimes earlier) to 6, with classes breaking up this long period for writing. I go home to have dinner with my family, and I do not go back in to the office to write unless I’m facing a stiff deadline and I’m unprepared to meet it. Writing goes smoother on weekends as there are no classes to interrupt the writing process. The time for writing is about the same, 11-6, and more hours if I can manage it.

5. What are you reading now? I’m reading new and old books: Oversharing by Ben Agger (2012) and Frederich Engels’ Socialism, Utopian and Scientific (1892).

Check out his book: In Search of Derrick Todd Lee: The Internet Social Movement that Made a Difference. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2007.