Graduate News

Ph.D. Dissertations

Spring 2019

Jacqueline Henke
Title: PRISONERS’ RIGHTS ACTIVISM IN THE NEW INFORMATION AGE
Major Professor: Jack Spencer

Zachary Palmer
Title: GENDER IN EQUESTRIA: AN EXAMINATION OF RECONSTITUTED FORMS OF MASCULINITY AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES FOR GENDER RELATIONS IN THE BRONY COMMUNITY
Major Professor: Linda Renzulli

Preethi Ramaswamy-Krishnan
Title: FRAMING ENTITLEMENTS, FRAMING INEQUALITY: HOW STATE POLICIES ON FOOD AND CARE ENABLE WOMEN TO CHALLENGE OR ADAPT TO INEQUALITY
Major Professor: Linda Renzulli

Summer 2019

Jun Lu
Title: FRAMING ENTITLEMENTS, FRAMING INEQUALITY: HOW STATE POLICIES ON FOOD AND CARE ENABLE WOMEN TO CHALLENGE OR ADAPT TO INEQUALITY
Major Professor: Fenggang Yang

Soon Seok Park
Title: THREAT, MEMORY, AND FRAMING: THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOUTH KOREA’S DEMOCRACY MOVEMENT, 1979-1987
Major Professor: Rachel Einwohner

Siyun Peng
Title: PATTERNS, PREDICTORS, AND CONSEQUENCES OF INTERGENERATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN MOTHERS AND ADULT CHILDREN IN LATER LIFE
Major Professor: Jill Suitor

Job Placements

Our recent PhDs (graduated in 2019) have found jobs in a range of academic and non-academic institutions after completing dissertations on a wide variety of topics.

Jacqueline Henke Jacqueline Henke is an Administrative Analyst at Superior Court of Santa Barbara County, Santa Barbara, California.

Preethi Krishnan Preethi Krishnan is an Assistant Professor in the Anthropology and Sociology Department at Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, North Carolina

Zachary Palmer Zachary Palmer is an Assistant Professor at Texas A&M University, Commerce, Texas

Soon Seok Park Soon Seok Park is a Lecturer at Chung-Ang University, Seoul, South Korea

Siyun Peng Siyun Peng is a Post Doctoral Research Associate at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana

Graduate Student Awards

Elle Rochford Outstanding graduate Student Teaching Award – Each year our department recognizes a graduate student who excels in the classroom. Elle Rochford stood out this year by developing a teaching style that draws on a variety of materials and encourages diverse viewpoints. She elicited consistently positive comments in her course evaluations, including: “You were amazing, one of the few professors that left an impact on my life in both the classroom and outside of it.”

Monica Farrelly Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Award – Each year our department recognizes a graduate student who has written a particularly excellent paper as either a sole- or first-author. The committee selected one published paper and one that was in progress. Monica Farrelly’s “Avoiding the Major Causes of Death: Does Childhood Misfortune Reduce the Likelihood of Being Disease Free in Later Life” published in the Journals of Gerontology: Social Sciences. Amy Petts’ “Gender Matters: Racial Variation and Marital Stability among Intraracial Couples” is forthcoming at the Journal of Family Issues.

Marissa Rurka Robert L. Eichhorn Fellowship – Named for medical sociologist Robert Eichhorn, a former member of our department, this award honors PhD students whose work focuses on medical sociology. This year’s winners are Stephanie Wilson, who studies stigma and women’s experiences with pelvic pain, and Marissa Rurka, whose work examines the factors that affect psychological well-being of family members.

Amy Petts Walter Hirsch Dissertation Award – This award provides material support for dissertation research. Stephanie Wilson received funding to support research, including a survey experiment, on women’s pelvic pain. Amy Petts received funding to support a survey experiment involving attitudes toward the use of race in higher education admissions.

Stephanie Wilson Dean Knudsen Dissertation Research Award – This award provides material support for dissertation research for students across the College of Liberal Arts. Stephanie Wilson won this award and the Hirsch Award to support her research on women’s pelvic pain. Anthropology student Elizabeth Hall also won the Knudsen Award to support her work on zoonotic risks that stem from human-primate interactions in central Africa.

Reilly Kincaid SGO Outstanding Service Award – Nominated by members of the Student Government Organization, Reilly Kincaid was recognized for her enthusiastic and significant contributions to the department. She actively participated in department events, volunteered during recruitment weekend, and spearheaded office decorating and appreciation cards and gifts. SGO recognizes her as a valuable member of the graduate community who improves the well-being of those around her.

Siyun Peng Monica Williams-Farrelly Current CALC student Monica Williams-Farrelly and recent alumnus Siyun Peng are recognized as Emerging Scholars in the Summer 2019 newsletter of the American Sociological Association Section on Aging and the Life Course. Congrats Monica and Peng!

Preethi Krishnan Preethi Krishnan – TRIALS (Training Initiative for Asian Law and Society Scholars) has been accepted for the second workshop, to be held at the National University of Singapore, Centre for Asian Legal Studies, from June 29 to July 2, 2020. Over 100 highly qualified young scholars applied to the first two workshops, and we were able to accept only 10 for each session, so we offer our sincere congratulations for surviving this highly competitive selection process.

Yunping Tong (from For the Honor) Yunping Tong won a $28,000 Global Religion Research Initiative (GRRI) Dissertation Fellowship from the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at Notre Dame to support a “writing year” of dissertation work. Tong’s dissertation, “Does Religion Matter? A Study of Sex Ratio at Birth, Son Preference, and Abortion Attitude in Contemporary China,” examines the religions influence on demographic outcomes in China. The GRRI awards an average of eight one-year doctoral dissertation fellowships per academic year to students whose work focuses on contemporary religion(s) in select global regions.

Jared Wright Jared Wright received two (2) awards/honors. He was awarded $600 for the new Purdue Digital Humanities Travel Award to attend the conference “Moral Machines: Ethics and Politics of the Digital World” in Helsinki, Finland and he was accepted to the Oxford Internet Institute’s 2019 Summer Doctoral Programme at Oxford University, UK.