Oct 22, 2022
Dr. Jana Mathews is a professor of Medieval Literature and Culture at Rollins College (Winter Park, Florida) who also had the privilege of serving 8 years as a campus fraternity and sorority advisor. In her new book, The Benefits of Friends: Inside the Complicated World of Today's Sororities and Fraternities, Mathews combines ethnographic and archival research with economic, social, and cognitive theory to open up new ways of seeing and understanding the role of these single-sex social groups on campus.
In episode 313 of the Fraternity Foodie Podcast, we find out why Dr. Mathews chose Brigham Young University, what makes Rollins College a special place, how she was initiated into an NPC sorority as an alumnus, some of the problems she saw over a seven year period in working with the fraternities and sororities on campus, how we can change the hookup culture to one of consent and healthy relationships instead, how she believes fraternity and sorority can reinforce insularity and entrench privilege, how she sees hazing as a form of live action video game warfare, how predominantly white fraternities and sororities act as pipelines to Wall Street and Washington, how fraternity and sorority members are restructuring the campus social scene today, and how diversity works in predominantly white fraternities and sororities.