Self-Injury: The Silent Epidemic

Noted ethnographers Patricia A. Adler, professor of sociology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and Peter Adler, professor of sociology and criminology at the University of Denver, will discuss their new book, “The Tender Cut: Inside the Hidden World of Self-Injury.”

The talk will draw on a 10-year longitudinal study that includes 150 interviews with self-injurers from all over the world, along with analysis of more than 30,000 Internet posts in chat rooms and other communiqués. The research follows the practice of self-injury from its early days, when people engaged in it alone, to the present, where a subculture has formed via cyberspace.

The Adlers are the co-authors and co-editors of numerous books, including “Peer Power,” “Paradise Laborers” and “Constructions of Deviance.” Together, they served as co-presidents of the Midwest Sociological Society from 2006-2007 and collaboratively received the 2010 George Herbert Mead Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction. This is the second in an annual series established by the estate of Paul and Eleanora Culver.

Event will take place in the Lundring Events Center at California Lutheran University. Admission is free. Sponsored by the Center for Equality and Justice, Pearson Library and the Communication, Criminal Justice, Political Science, Psychology and Sociology departments. For more information, contact the Center for Equality and Justice at cej@callutheran.edu or 805-493-3694.