Global Dimensions
and Social Inequalities

Welcome to the Department of Sociology at Stony Brook University!

Our department focuses on global phenomena, as well as their connection to national dynamics.  We thus hold a leading position in the discipline of sociology and, as such, are integral to the university's global focus. Our faculty expertise is concentrated in Computational Social Science, Environment, Health, International Development, Inequality, and Politics and Culture.  We are a methodologically diverse department that spans both quantitative and qualitative methods. We aim to teach students how to use the best methods available to inform the most pressing policy and social issues of our time.

The Sociology Department at Stony Brook University is committed to advancing equity and justice.  We acknowledge that social justice oriented scholarship has a long tradition in sociology, including contributions from members of historically marginalized groups, such as W.E.B. Du Bois and Jane Addams.  We thus affirm the value of a wide variety of approaches to sociological research, including scholarship that is explicitly oriented toward addressing and dismantling injustice alongside inequalities. We are committed to rigorous research and teaching that seeks to improve both global and local conditions for everyone.

Leadership

Address

Department of Sociology
S401 Social & Behavioral Sciences
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, New York 11794-4356
Telephone: (631) 632-7700
Fax: (631) 632-8203

July 2024

• Daniel Levy has been elected to serve on the Executive Committee of the Memory Studies Association.
• Carrie Shandra has been selected to be a Visiting Professor at the AxPo Observatory of Marked Society Polarization at SciencesPo in Fall 2025.

April 2024

• Cathy Marrone has been selected as a recipient of SBU's 2024 Excellence in Educational Effectiveness Award.  This award recognizes members of the campus community who demonstrate a commitment to best practices in academic assessment and use assessment results to drive programmatic excellence.
• Kelly Haller, Sociology Department Academic Programs Coordinator, has received the "Supervisor of the Year" award at the Student Employee, Intern, and Community Service Awards Ceremony at Stony Brook.  She was nominated by Higher Education Administration Intern Jennie Hauk.
• Christopher Browning (Ohio State University) Sociology Department Colloquium, April 24th, 1:00 - 2:30 PM, SBS N403 "Racial Segregation and Urban Youth Wellbeing:  The Case for a Mobility-Based Approach"

March 2024

• Siwei Cheng, (New York University)  Sociology Department Colloquium, March 20th, 1:00 - 2:30 PM, SBS N403  "Beyond High-Paying Jobs: The Rise of Within-job Skill Diversity and Its Implications for Labor Market Inequality."
• Professor and Chair Tim Liao has been selected as the next editor of the ASA's Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World

December 2023

• A review of Nicholas Wilson's new book, "Modernity's Corruption:  Empire and Morality in the Making of British India" has been publishe online in "Sociology of Race and Ethnicity"

November 2023

• Elizabeth Hordge-Freeman (University of South Florida) Sociology Departmental Colloquium, November 8th, 1:00 - 2:30 PM, SBS N403: "Second-Class Daughters:  Black Brazilian Women and Informal Adoption as Modern Slavery"

October 2023

• This video shows the queue of people lining up for our own Oyeronke Oyewumi to sign the Portuguese translation of her classic The Invention of Women

September 2023

• Nicholas Wilson has been interviewed about his new book,"Modernity's Corruption"  in the ASA Theory Section's fall newsletter, Perspectives
• Menisha Desai has been elected Co-President of the International Sociological Association's RC32 Women, Gender, and Society
• Giselle Gerardi, (Stony Brook University School of Nursing, Office of Nursing Research)  Sociology Department Colloquium, September 27th, 1:00 - 2:30 PM, SBS N403  "Achieving Health Equity in Perinatal Populations:  A Call for Collaboration."

August 2023

• Rebekah Burroway's "My Turn" piece on the social construction of beauty featured in Newsweek - "I Was Diagnosed with Skin Cancer.  All I Cared About Was My Looks".

July 2023

• Crystal Fleming and Jennifer Heerwig have accepted invitations to serve as consulting editors for the American Journal of Sociology (AJS).
• Crystal Fleming was recently featured on a number of national and international media outlets discussing her work on racism in France after the police killing of Nahel, a French Arab teenager.  These outlets include:

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The Sociology Department Welcomes Two New Faculty Members: Cristine Khan and Nicholas Bascuñan-Wiley.

Cristine Khan joins the Department as a PROTiG Fellow in Fall 2024. Cristine recently received her PhD in Sociology from The Graduate Center, CUNY. Her dissertation examines how racialized colonial legacies and global anti-Blackness impact second-generation Indo-Caribbean identity movements in New York and Toronto. Her research has been funded by the Russell Sage Foundation and the Social Science Research Council. Her academic work is embedded in her personal biography growing up in Queens, New York and her work with multiple community organizations centered on Indo-Caribbean communities in South Richmond Hill, Queens. Her most recent publication in the Journal of Ethnic and Racial Studies examines intergenerational differences in anti-Black ideologies within the Indo-Caribbean community in New York City. She has also published with Social Identities. Prior to this research, she published within the field of critical linguistic studies in Colombia, underscoring how structures of racism and gender discrimination impact English language teaching.

Cristine is a passionate educator who also worked for five years as the Program Coordinator for the Teaching and Learning Center where she ran a pilot mentorship program to provide support for BIPOC graduate students as they enter their first year of teaching. She has taught at Hunter College and Queens College. Additionally, she was the coordinator and doctoral fellow for the Black, Race, and Ethnic Studies Collaboration Hub at CUNY Graduate Center. Her passion for teaching and pedagogy stems from her work with immigrant learners at the NYC Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, where she worked before pursuing her PhD. 

Nicholas Bascuñan-Wiley joins the Department as Assistant Professor of Sociology in Fall 2024. Nicholas received his PhD in Sociology and a certificate in Middle East and North African Studies from Northwestern University. Through ethnographic and interview-based research in restaurants, markets, and home kitchens, Nick’s scholarship examines how migrants' everyday, embodied food practices foster connectivity within local and global communities. His current book project, Sensing the Mahjar, looks at the culinary and gastronomic practices of the Palestinian community in Chile and how mobility, belonging, and power operate within diasporic contexts and through the senses. Nick is also interested in critical interpretive methods and, in March 2024, led the organization of the 25^th Annual Chicago Ethnography Conference on the theme of “Worlds of Culture.” Food, migration, global culture, and qualitative methods are central topics in Nick’s teaching, and he is always keen to implement new hands-on and real-world instruction techniques. Outside of the classroom, you can find Nick watching or playing soccer.