Faculty

• Aranda, Elizabeth
  

  Dr. Aranda’s research focuses on immigrant incorporation and the emotional facets of migration.  She is also interested in how race, ethnicity, social class and gender shape the process of immigrant adaptation.  Elizabeth’s book, Emotional Bridges to Puerto Rico:  Migration, Return Migration, and the Struggles of Incorporation, was published in 2006 by Rowman & Littlefield.  Her work is also published in the American Behavioral Scientist, The Sociological Quarterly, and Gender & Society.  Elizabeth teaches courses on immigration, Latinos in the U.S., Race, and Sociology of Families, among others.  She is currently working on a book about ethnic and race relations in Miami.

• Barnshaw, John
  

  John Barnshaw is a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Sociology at the University of South Florida where his research focuses on the cultures and consequences of risk in a variety of contexts ranging from infectious disease, to disasters, to financial crises. Dr. Barnshaw received his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Delaware, where he was Projects Coordinator at the Disaster Research Center (2006 – 2009) and a University Dissertation Fellow (2009 – 2010). Currently, his research blends behavioral finance, public policy and social problems theorizing to explore how financial risk-taking led to the recent economic crisis. Dr. Barnshaw also has ongoing research in understanding how disasters exacerbate social inequality over time at the individual, organizational and societal levels. His research has been recently published in Health Sociology Review, Social Forces, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, and Contemporary Sociology.

• Benford, Robert
  

  Dr. Benford has interests in social movements, war and peace, social psychology, and the sociology of sport. His published works focus on framing processes, narratives, collective identity and other social constructionist issues associated with collective action. His research has appeared in the Annual Review of Sociology, American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, The Sociological Quarterly, Sociological Inquiry, Peace Review, Current Perspectives in Social Theory, International Social Movement Research, and Mobilization . He is the former editor of the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography and editor of Twayne Publishers' Social Movements Past and Present Series. He also served as President of the Midwest Sociological Society, and Chair of the Peace, War & Social Conflict and the Collective Behavior/Social Movements sections of the American Sociological Association.

• Bingham, Shawn
  

  Dr. Bingham’s research interests include pedagogy and the intersections between the humanities and the social sciences. He has served as a research fellow at the Center for Health and Disability Research, and has published articles in the journals Disability and Rehabilitation, Managed Care Quarterly and Humanity and Society. In 2008 Rowman and Littlefield released his first book, Thoreau and the Sociological Imagination: The Wilds of Society.  He is currently researching the role of political art in society.

• Cavendish, James
  

  Dr. Cavendish has primary areas of specialization in sociology of religion, social movements, and race and ethnicity. He has published articles in journals including Sociology of Religion, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, and Social Psychology Quarterly on a mix of topics on religion and community, including Christian communities in Brazil and Chile, Catholic church attendance, the ordination of women, and a movement of gay and lesbian Catholics. Currently he is working with the U.S. Catholic bishops examining that denomination’s inclusion of African Americans in its life and leadership. He was elected to the Council for the Association for the Sociology of Religion, and is currently serving as an Associate Editor for Sociology of Religion.

• Crawley, Sara
  

  Dr. Crawley’s areas of interest include gender and sexualities theories, queer and feminist theory, qualitative methods, social psychology and sociology of sport.  Her work focuses on constructions of self and social impacts on the physical body.  She has published articles in Gender & Society, The Sociological Quarterly, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Journal of Lesbian Studies, Hypatia, Cultural Studies<-->Critical Methodologies, and International Review for the Sociology of Sport.  Her book, Gendering Bodies (Rowman & Littlefield 2008), co-authored with Lara Foley and Constance Shehan, extends existing theories of gender performativity via symbolic interactionism to demonstrate the social impacts of gender on physical bodies in such everyday settings as work, sports and sexuality.  Her current book project, tentatively titled The Butch/Femme Game, is based on interviews and field work with lesbians in the South and theorizes the relationship between heteronormativity in everyday talk and the formation of lesbian selves.

• Friedman, Jennifer
  

  Dr. Friedman’s areas of interest include deviance, substance use, qualitative methods, gender, and Latina studies. With Marissa Alicea she authored Surviving Heroin: Interviews with Women in Methadone Clinics which uses a multi-methodological approach to explore the relationship between heroin use and race, class, and gender oppression. Currently, she is exploring the life history of a poor Puerto Rican woman who is a former heroin user and is now on methadone.

• Graham, Laurel
  

  Dr. Graham has interests in contemporary sociological theory, consumer culture, gender, the sociology of scientific knowledge, the sociology of work, biography, cultural studies, and interactionism. She is the author of a historical biography, Managing On Her Own: Dr. Lillian Gilbreth and Women’s Work in the Interwar Era, as well as articles in Journal of Management History, The Sociological Quarterly, and Signs: Journal of Women in Culture & Society. Her current research examines the consumption parents do on behalf of their children.

• Green, Sara
  

  Dr. Green has research interests that center on the social experience of health, illness and disability both across the life span and in elderly populations. She is particularly interested in care-giver/care-recipient relationships. She is a member of USF’s Institute on Aging and is affiliated with the interdisciplinary Ph.D. program in Aging studies. She is the author of articles in journals including Sociological Inquiry, The Clinical Gerontologist, Journal of Loss and Trauma, Sociology of Health & Illness and the International Journal of Aging and Development, and Social Science and Medicine.

• Hughes Miller, Michelle
  

  Michelle Hughes Miller was most recently an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, where she taught and researched issues related to gender and justice. She also designed and taught a seminar for graduate students on pedagogy. Her current research projects include a feminist critique of mothers of criminals in film, a situational analysis of hiring practices in higher education, mothering under state paternalism and competing definitions of sexual harassment.

  For the past three years she also spent half of her time as the Director of University Women's Professional Advancement (UWPA). Her director responsibilities involved creating and implementing programming such as the UWPA Women's Leadership Series, development of a campus Status of Women report, and working with faculty in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) to further the advancement of women in those disciplines. She is really excited to join the faculty at the University of South Florida as a tenured Associate Professor of Sociology and Women's and Gender Studies.

• Jacobson, David
  

  Born in South Africa, David Jacobson received his graduate training at the London School of Economics and Princeton University. He was recently appointed Professor of Sociology at the University of South Florida. He is a Fellow at the Exeter Center of Ethno-Political Studies at the University of Exeter, and Visiting Researcher at Sciences Po (Paris).

  A political sociologist, he works in the areas of immigration and citizenship, international institutions and law, human rights and woman's status in global conflict. He is one of the senior principal investigators on a nearly $6 million project researching Muslim communities and their responses to different challenges in Western Europe, West Africa and Southeast Asia. He directs surveys across the three continents, and research teams in Europe and the United States. Professor Jacobson has also directed a federally funded, national group of scholars and government analysts considering the impacts of global climate change on humanity.

  Professor Jacobson is the author of, among other works, Rights Across Borders: Immigration and the Decline of Citizenship (one of the most highly cited books in the area) and Place and Belonging in America, both published by the Johns Hopkins University Press.

  At invitation, he has made presentations at, inter alia, CERI-Sciences Po (Paris), UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, Yale University, University of Chicago, University of Geneva, Columbia University, University of British Columbia (Vancouver), Hebrew University, New School of Social Research, University of Florida, European University Institute, NYU, UC San Diego, University of Bath, University of Heidelberg, University of Neuchatel, NMSU, University of Munich, UC Irvine, and others.

  He also presented the Haar Lecture in International Sociology at Princeton University. He has had visiting appointments at the Copenhagen Peace Research Institute, Sciences Po and the Leonard Davis Institute of International Relations. He was the founding director of the School of Global Studies at Arizona State University, where he was Professor of Global Studies.

  He is presently completing a book entitled, "Of Virgins and Martyrs: Woman's Status in Global Conflict."

  He is presently developing, with colleagues, a citizenship initiative, global in reach and with international partnerships, that will have traveling meetings, a global indexing and analysis, "global classrooms," and a journal/portal.

  He also co-founded the Global Resolve Initiative, which helps villagers in developing countries develop alternative energy technologies, with a pilot project in Ghana. Global Resolve received the 2009 Creasman Award for Excellence. More information can be found at http://globalresolve.asu.edu.

• Kleiman, Michael
  

  Dr. Kleiman has interests that include statistics, survey design, secondary data analysis, and social psychology. Recent and past areas of research include health care use, education, and fear of crime. His most recent publication in the Review of Religious Research was co-authored with two of our former graduate students.

• Kusenbach, Margarethe
  

  Dr. Kusenbach’s current research focuses on community issues.  In 2007 she received an NSF grant to conduct an interdisciplinary study of community resources and disaster resilience in Florida mobile home parks.  Her other areas of interest include urban neighborhoods, emotions, and qualitative methods.  She has published papers in City & Community, Symbolic Interaction, Qualitative Sociology, Forum Qualitative Social Research (FQS), Ethnography and Studies in Symbolic Interaction. She is also working on two co-authored books.

• Loseke, Donileen
  

  Dr. Loseke, Director of the Sociology Graduate program, works on questions in topics of social problems, social policy, sociology of social services and identity. Her most recent book is Thinking About Social Problems: An Introduction to Constructionist Perspectives. She is the recipient of the Charles Horton Cooley Award for her book, The Battered Woman and Shelters: The Social Construction of Wife Abuse. Her research also is reported in journals such as Social Problems, Social Psychology Quarterly, Sexualities, and Culture & Society. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Society for the Study of Social Problems (2000-2004), and has been President of the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction (1996-1997). She is a former co-editor of the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography (1994-1999), and is a current member of the editorial boards for Social Problems and The Sociological Quarterly. She also is on the Council of the American Sociological Association for the emotions section.

• Mayberry, Maralee
  

  Dr. Mayberry, has research interests in the sociology of education, feminist science studies, political sociology, and social movements. She has conducted research on the home schooling movement, gay and lesbian student alliances, and applications of feminist approaches to the transformation of science curriculum. Dr. Mayberry has published numerous journal articles in journals such as Journal of Women & Minorities in Science and Engineering, Journal of Research on Science Teaching on these topics and is the author or co-author of four books: Effective Educational Environments, Home Schooling: Parents as Educators, Meeting the Challenge: Feminist Pedagogies in Action, and Feminist Science Studies: A New Generation.

• Partin, Christina
  

  Christina Partin has been with the sociology department for over four years. She completed her M.A. in Sociology in 2006. In her time at USF, she has taught nearly 10,000 undergraduate students in her Introduction to Sociology, Social Problems, and Social Psychology courses. She also mentors the department’s Master’s Teaching Assistants who assist in her large classes. Her research interests include the Sociology of Education and Pedagogy, Social Psychology, and Curriculum Development including Teaching with Technology. She also developed the department’s first web-based course. Christina will be on a Professional Development Leave for the 2011-2012 academic year, as she completes her coursework for her PhD in Curriculum and Instruction. She will be available to contact through email and she will be in her office on campus regularly during this time.

• Ponticelli, Chris
  

  Dr. Ponticelli focuses on issues of identity and identity construction, animals and society, health education and care, and qualitative methodology, including autoethnography. Previous research analyzed identity construction in ex-gay religious communities. Currently she is looking at the ways in which volunteers construct identities through their interactions with shelter animals. This is the culmination of 1 ½ years as a volunteer and participant observer at a Bay area animal shelter. She is also working on an authoethnographic account of constructing a caregiving identity in an intergenerational relationship. She has published Gateways to Improving Lesbian Health and Health Care, and articles in Social Psychology Quarterly and Qualitative Inquiry. She team teaches a multidisciplinary Women’s Health course for 4th year medical students at the USF College of Medicine.

• Skvoretz, John
  

  Dr. Skvoretz is a former dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. His primary areas of specialization include theoretical methods, group processes and social psychology, and network analysis and modeling. He has published in prestigious sociology journals including Social Networks, Sociological Methodology, Sociological Theory, Sociological Perspectives, and the American Sociological Review. Dr. Skvoretz has secured numerous grants from the National Science Foundation to support his research.

• Stamps, S
  

  Dr. Stamps has research interests in urban and community sociology and race and ethnicity. As the former Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs at USF, he has extensive experience in academic leadership. That experience has also included serving as a Special Assistant to the President and as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, USF’s largest college. He recently received the Administrative Leadership Award from the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education.

• Tyson, William
  

  Dr. Tyson’s research examines factors that influence the racial composition of friendship networks among a racially diverse population of students on residential campuses. His areas of interest include social psychology, race and ethnic relations, and the sociology of sport. Currently, he is conducting data analysis for a National Science Foundation Research on Learning and Education project entitled, "Understanding Factors that Sustain Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Career Pathways."

• Vaquera, Elizabeth
  

  Dr. Vaquera's main interests include Hispanics in the U.S., Quantitative Methods, Education, Adolescence, and Interracial Relations. She has conducted research on racial and ethnic identity of Hispanic youth, friendship choices among Hispanic students, and interracial dating among adolescents. Her most recent article examines how friendship reciprocity affects the academic well-being of students. Elizabeth's work has been published in Social Science Quarterly, The Hispanic Journal for Behavioral Sciences, The Sociological Quarterly, and Social Science Research. She is currently analyzing the relationship between friendship choices and racial and ethnic differences in school outcomes of Hispanic adolescents.