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Current and Future News & Events 

 

The Sociology Department Welcomes Two New Faculty Members:  Manisha Desai and Wan-Zi Lu


Wan-Zi LuWan-Zi Lu received her PhD in Sociology from the University of Chicago (2021) and was a
postdoctoral fellow at the Polonsky Academy for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences, the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. With interests in global health and comparative political economy, she has co-organized the Health Network in the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics. Wan-Zi is currently working on her book project, “The Many Hands of the Healthcare State,” where she compares organ donation policies and outcomes worldwide, with a focus on Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Her exploration of how the effects of governmental approaches have been influenced by social structures and cultural understanding stems from her research across indigenous tribes in Taiwan. She is excited about bringing her passion for theories and global comparisons into the classroom. When taking breaks from her research, Wan-Zi enjoys swimming, cycling, jogging, and may other kinds of sports.

Manisha DesaiManisha Desai joins Stony Brook University from University of Connecticut and serves as the new director of the Center for Changing Systems of Power on campus, with her affiliation in Sociology. In addition to her academic appointment, Manisha is a Senior Research Fellow at the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) in Geneva, Switzerland. Her areas of research and teaching include gender and globalization, transnational feminisms, global justice, particularly climate justice movements, human rights, and contemporary Indiansociety in India. Her current research includes women’s rights, land rights, and climate justice in India and NE United States. As a member of UNRISD’s Global Network for Research and Action she also chairs their gender and human rights working group. She is also working on contemporary feminist campaigns against Hindu fundamentalism in India and the post-secular turn in feminism. Her most recent book is Subaltern Movements in India: The Gendered Geography of Struggles Against Neoliberal Development (Routledge 2016). In addition, she has 4 other single authored or edited and co-edited books and numerous articles and book chapters. Committed to decolonizing knowledge production and the academy she is on the Steering Committee of the Federation of Feminist Journal Editors that seeks to establish a feminist knowledge commons outside commercial publishing to ensure the free circulation of feminist knowledge across borders and language barriers. In recognition of her contribution to feminist scholarship, she was awarded the Sociologist for Women in Society’s 2015 Distinguished Feminist Award. She is also the recipient of the 2016 Faculty Mentor Award from the Compact for Faculty Diversity in the United States. She has served in various leadership capacities including as President of Sociologist for Women in Society.

Welcome to the Department Our New Chair:  Tim Liao

Tim Liao This January we are welcoming our new Chair, Professor Tim Liao.  Tim has a wealth of administrative experience at the departmental level, having served two terms as department head at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has also provided consistent service over the past three decades to disciplinary associations and journals, notably as a former editor of Sociological Methodology (2009–2015) and currently a deputy editor of Demography and an associate editor of Advances in Life Course Research, as well as an editorial board member of the American Sociological Review. He has also recently been elected President of the Sequence Analysis Association.

Tim’s research spans collective memory, inequality, life course, methodology and socialdemography. Of the many publications he is proud of, several research articles from the past 10 years are noted here. The first is Tim’s 2013 Time & Society paper, which he wrote with five undergraduate students, and defined and analyzed the meaning of social time on a university campus. It is one of two papers he has published with undergraduate students. The second is Tim’s 2021 piece in JAMA Network Open, coauthored with a former PhD student, which has broadened his research into health and the pandemic. Since that paper, Tim has published two more pandemic-related papers. The third is his 2021 Socius paper on income inequality and happiness, based on his research during a Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences Fellowship (2017–2018) and his methodological proposal for measuring inequality at the individual level. Finally, Tim is particularly proud of this long in-press overview/review paper on sequence analysis that celebrates the 50th anniversary of Social Science Research, for which he successfully coordinated a dream team of a dozen international scholars, all of whom contributed meaningfully to the paper!

Tim loves teaching, especially engaging students who love to learn. Three of his popular courses are advanced social statistics, which has attracted graduate students from multiple disciplines; social photography at both the undergraduate and graduate level, with one of these classes producing the first paper above; and a publication workshop which offers a boot camp for writing, revising and reviewing graduate student research papers with the sole purpose of getting them published.

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
August 2023
July 2023
May 2023
  • Jason J. Jones has received a fellowship for the Fall 2023 semester at the Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS) in Bochum, Germany
April 2023
  • Aldon Morris is the first SBU Sociology PhD to be Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation's oldest and most prestigious honorary societies. Morris is the Leon Forrest Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Black Studies, Northwestern University.
  • Cathy Marrone's SOC 339, Sociology of Drugs and Alcoholism and Narcan Training Featured in Newsday on April 27th: "Narcan Training to Prevent OD Deaths"
  • Xiaogang Wu, (New York University Center for Applied Social and Economic Research) Sociology Departmental Colloquium, April 7th, 12:00 - 1:30 PM, SBS N403: "Social and Political Consequences of the COVID-19 Crisis in the United States: Evidence from a Longitudinal Survey in 2020 and 2021."
December 2022
November 2022
  • Nicholas Wilson has been elected to the Executive Committee of the Social Science History Association
  •  RebeccaJohnson, (Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy) Sociology Departmental Colloquium, November 4th, 1:00 - 2:30 PM, SBS N403: "Using Text as Data to Understand Treatments: The Case of an RCT on College Navigators in Public Housing
October 2022

Norman GoodmanThe Sociology Department mourns the passing of Distinguished Teaching and Service Professor Norman Goodman.  Dr. Goodman, who passed away on June 26th, enjoyed a 56-year career at Stony Brook University.  He was a member of the university’s founding generation beginning his career at Stony Brook in 1964 as one of the earliest members of the Sociology Department.  Professor Goodman chaired the department for 20 years (from 1973 to 1989 and again from 2000 to 2004).  He also served as president of the Arts and Sciences Senate, twice president of the University Senate, served as vice president for the senate for three terms and edited the SUNY University Senate Bulletin for more than 20 years.  Goodman was the author/co-author/co-editor of 10 books, including four textbooks in Introductory Sociology and two textbooks in Marriage and the Family. Goodman also served on the SUNY Distinguished Academy Board from its conception until his retirement last year.  Further information on the career of Norman Goodman can be found here.

In dedication to Stony Brook University and the Department of Sociology, Dr. Goodman has generously bequeathed funds to create the “Norman ‘Norm’ Goodman Endowment Excellence Award in Sociology” which will provide annual $1,000 cash awards for one undergraduate and one graduate student in Sociology who “demonstrates high academic achievement as defined by Stony Brook policy…[and] who demonstrates achievement, experience or commitment to academic excellence, leadership or community service”

May 2022

  • Kristen Shorette is the 2022 winner of  the Environmental Sociology's Section of the American Sociological Association  Teaching and Mentorship Award.
  • Nicholas H. Wilson has received a $20,000 Stony Brook Foundation Trustees Faculty Award to pursue research, scholarship and creative art.  Recipients are chosen with an emphasis on the quality of research and publications and scholarship, the institutional impact of achievements and potential for continued professional growth, and the clarity, quality and significance of long-term future research, scholarship and creative activity and their probably impact upon SBU and the scholarly community within the discipline.

April 2022

  • Allison Pugh (University of Virginia), April 4th, 2:30 - 4:00 PM, SBS N403:  "The Stratification of Human Contact:  The Presentand Future of Connective Labor"
  • Tim Liao (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), April 6th, 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM, SBS N403: "Life Course Trajectory Class Crystallization."
  • Prema Kurien (Syracuse University), April 11th, 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM, SBS N403: "The Racial Paradigm and Anti-Caste Activism in the U.S.."
  • Biray Kolluoğlu (Boğaziçi University), April 13th, 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM, SBS N403: "Social Assemblages in Flux: Global Health and Education"
  • Dana Weinberg (CUNY Queens College and The Graduate Center), April 20th, 1:00 - 2:30 PM, N403: "From Anti -Vaxxer Moms to Miltia Men: Social Media Influence Operations and Narrative Weaponization."

September 2021

  • Oyeronke Oyewumi has received the Distinguished Africanist Award of the African Studies Association of the United States.  Established in the 1980s, the award recognizes and honors "scholars who have contributed a lifetime record of outstanding scholarship in their respective field of African Studies and service to thr Africanist community."


June 2021

  • In the recent American Sociological Association election, Crystal Fleming was elected to a three year term as an at-large member of Council, which is the governing body of the association. 

September 2020

  • Jennifer Heerwig, has received a Piper Foundation Research Grant for her work on democracy vouchers, "Comparing Small Donor Public Financing Systems: The Effects of Matching Funds and Democracy Vouchers on Donor Diversity.


June 2020

  • Yongjun Zhang, with his co-author Jeremy E. Fiel, is the co-winner of the 2020 James Coleman Best Article Award in the ASA Sociology of Education Section for his article, "With All Deliberate Speed:  The Reversal of Court-Ordered School Desegregation, 1970-2013." AJS 124(6): 1685-1719.

 May 2020

  • Crystal Fleming, has received a Stony Brook Mid-Career Diversity Award, recognizing a faculty member at the mid-career stage who has a strong record of research and service while also advancing Stony Brook's goals of a diverse and inclusive campus.

 

March 2020

  • Sarah Bush, (Yale University) Sociology Departmental Colloquium Speaker, March 4th, 1:00 - 2:30 PM, SBS N403: "Gender Quotas and International Reputation"



January 2020

  • Michael Schwartz, Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus, has received the American Sociological Association's 2020 Award for Distinguished Contributions to Teaching.

December 2019

October 2019

  • Ivan Chase, Professor Emeritus, has received the best paper award in the 2019 Visualization in Data Science section of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers conference for his paper entitled, "PeckVis: A Visual Analytics Tool to Analyze Dominance Hierarchies in Small Groups."  The authors are Darius Coelho, Ivan Chase, and Klaus Mueller.
  • Said Arjomand Distinguished Service Professor, Stony Brook University) Sociology Department Book Presentation, "Revolution: Structure and Meaning in World History".

June 2019

  • Carrie Shandra has been elected Chair of the Disability and Society Section of the American Sociological Association for 2019-2020.


April 2019

March 2019

  • Sarah Cowan (New York University), Sociology Departmental Colloquim Speaker, March 6th, 1:00 - 2:30 PM, SBS N403: "Intergroup Contact and Competing Allegiances in a Complex World."
  • Vered Vinitzky-Seroussi  (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Sociology Departmental Colloqium Speaker, March 27th, 1:00-12:30 PM, SBS N403:  "We Hereby Neglect:  The Israeli Hall of Independence and the Social Construction of Commemoration."


February 2019

  • Jochem Kotthaus (University of Dortmund)), Sociology Departmental Colloqium Speaker, February 6th, 1:00-2:30 PM, SBS N403:  "The Transformation of Mundane Knowledge.  Reflections on the Globalization of Sport Fans."

  • Nitsan Chorev (Brown University), Sociology Department Colloquium Speaker, February 11th, 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM, SBS N403: "Making Medicines in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda:  Toward a Sociology of Developmental Foreign Aid."

Past Events and News



October 2018

  • Yasemin Besen-Cassino (Montclair State University), Sociology Departmental Colloqium Speaker, October 1st, 1:00-12:30 PM, SBS N403: "The Cost of Being a Girl: Working Teens and the Origins of the Gender Wage Gap."


September 2018

  • Sociology Brown Bag Series, Monday, September 10th, 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM - Discussion of two papers and the connections between them:  Kevin McElrath, "College Preparation Intensity and Socioeconomic Background: A Mechanism for Equal Access?" and Kristen Shorette, "Degrees of Change: Publicly  Educated Legislators' Support for Higher Education Spending in the US


April 2018

  • Rachel Sherman (The New School), April 16th, 1:00 - 2:30 PM, SBS N403"A Very Expensive Ordinary Life:  Consumption and Moral Legitimacy among New York Elites."

March 2018

February 2018

  • Julian Go (Boston University), Sociology Departmental Colloqium Speaker, February 28th, 1-2:30 PM, SBS N403


November 2017

  • Brian Powell (Indiana University Bloomington and Russell Sage Foundation), Sociology Departmental Colloqium Speaker, November 29th, 1-2:15 PM, SBS N403
  • Crystal Fleming has been selected as one of the inaugural group of faculty to participate in the SBU Leadership Academy Fellows program.
  • Jennifer Heerwig has been selected to be a Visiting Scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation for the 2018-2019 Academic Year.
  • Carrie Shandra has been selected to be a Visiting Scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation for the 2018-2019 Academic Year.
  • Jason Jones and John Shandra have received Stony Brook FAHSS (Faculty in the Arts, Humanities, and lettered Social Sciences) Research and Interdisciplinary Initiatives Awards

October 2017

  • Shamus Khan, Sociology Departmental Colloqium Speaker, October 16th, 1-2:15 PM, SBS N403
  • Suzie Walters, Sociology Departmental Brown-Bag Series, October 18th, 1-2:15PM, SBS N405
  • Kent HendersonSociology Departmental Brown-Bag Series, October 25th, 1-2:15PM, SBS N403

September 2017

  • Richard Lachmann, Initiative for Historical Social Science, September 20th, 1-2:15, SBS N320

June 2017

  • Michael Schwartz, Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus. and our alumnus Josh Murray(Vanderbilt University) have won the outstanding article award for the ASA Marxist Sociology Section for their paper, "Moral Economy, Structural Leverage, and Organizational Efficacy:  Class Formation and the Great Fling Sit-Down Strike, 1936-37." Critical Historical Studies.
  • Tiffany Joseph (with co-author Helen Marrow) has received the Donald W. Light Award for the Applied or Public Practice of Medical Sociology.  The award was received for their paper, "Excluded and Frozen Out: Unauthorized Immigrants' (Non) Access to Care after Healthcare Reforms." Journal of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

May 2017

  • Carrie Shandra has been awarded a grant under the Department of Labor Scholars Program for a project on Job Characteristics and Job Retention of Young Workers With Disabilities.
  • Jennifer Heerwig (with collaborator Brian McCabe) has been awarded a seed grant from Georgetown's McCourt School Massive Data Institute for their project, "The Seattle Voucher Experiment: Using Big Data to Enhance Local Democracy."
  •  Arnout van de Rijt with our Alumni Eran Shor (McGill University) was awarded the bests paper award from the Communication, Information Technology and Media Studies section of the ASA for their co-authored paper (Eran Shor, Arnoug van de Rijt, Alex Mitsov, Vivek Kulkarni, and Steven Skiena), "A Paper Ceiling:  Explaining the Persistent Underrepresentation of Women in Printed News." American Sociological Review.
  • Carrie Shandra was awarded the 2017 Outstanding Publication in the Sociology of Disability Award from the ASA Section on Disability and Society for her paper "Benefactors and Beneficiaries?  Disability and Care to Others" forthcoming in the Journal of Marriage and Family.
  • Rebekah Burroway has received an "Outstanding Author Contribution" from the Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence for her paper "Empowering Women, Strengthening Children:  A Multi-Level Analysis of Gender Inequality and Child Malnutrition in Developing Countries" published in Advances in Gender Research.
  • Amy Hsin, Queens College, Department of Sociology, May 3rd, 4:00 - 5:30 PM, SBS N403,"The Effects of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals on the Educational Outcomes of Undocumented Students:  Evidence from a Large Public University."

 

     
April 2017
 
       Sociology Brown Bag Series presents Assistant Professor Tiffany Joseph, Wednesday, April 19th, 4:00 - 5:30 PM, SBS N403, "The Growing Citizen-Noncitizen Divide:  Life along the Documentation Status Continuum."  
 
 
 
March 2017
 
       Transforming Sociology (program), Sociology Graduate Student Conference, March 31, 2017, Center for Global Studies at Stony Brook University
 
       Deborah Carr, Rutgers University, Department of Sociology, March 29th, 4:00 - 5:30 PM, SBS N403, "Do Marital and Kin Support Enhance (or Undermine) Older Adults' Well-Being?  New Evidence from the DUST Study."
 
     
December 2016
 
       Nicholas Hoover Wilson selected as a Faculty Fellow at the Humanities Institute of Stony Brook University for 2017-2018.  
     
November 2016 
 
       Sociology Brown Bag Series presents Ph.D. student Helena Darwin, Wednesday, November 30th, 1:00 - 2:20 PM, SBS N403, "Doing Genderqueer"  
      Chandra Muller, University of Texas, Austin, Department of Sociology, November 14th, 4:00 - 5:30 PM, SBS N403, "Education and the Transition Through Adulthood to Midlife in the New Economy."
 
       Sociology Brown Bag Series presents Assistant Professor Jason Jones,
Wednesday, November 2, 1:00 - 2:20 PM, SBS N403, "An Audit Study of Public School Principals:  Evidence for Selective Response."
 
     
October 2016
 
       Mindfulness and Diversity:  Mind-Body Approaches for Enhancing Awareness and Well-Being, Friday, October 28th, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM. For information and to register, please go to
mindfulnessconference
IHSS will present Partha Chatterjee, Columbia University, Professor of Anthropology and of Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies, October 26, 1:00 PM - 2:20 PM, SBS N318, "Governmentality in the East."
Stewart Hoover, University of Colorado-Boulder, Director of the Center for Media, Religion, and Culture, October 24th, 4:00 - 5:30 PM, SBS N403, "Does God Make the Man? Media, Religion, and the Crisis of Masculinity"
Josh Pacewicz, Brown University, Department of Sociology, October 10th, 4:00 - 5:30 PM, SBS N403, "Partisans & Partners:  The Politics of the Post-Keynesian Society."