Ph.D. Students 2009-2010
Sean Currie received his B.A. degree (Anthropology/Philosophy) from Washburn University (Topeka, Kansas), and his M.A. degree (Sociology) from the University of South Florida. His thesis, “Sacred Selves: An Ethnographic Study of Narratives and Community Practices at a Spiritual Center,” is a study of identity and community. He has presented papers at the annual meetings of the Association for the Sociology of Religion and the American Sociological Association. With a continuing interest in the sociology of religion, he is interested in exploring relationships between religion and globalization, particularly the problems and issues facing religious communities and movements in post-industrial societies.
Hilary Dotson received her B.A. and M.A. degree in Sociology from the University of Central Florida. She was the 2007-2008 recipient of the Provost Fellowship and she has presented papers at the 2007 and the 2008 annual meetings of the Mid-South Sociological Association. Her thesis, “Homeless Women in the Orlando Shelter System: A Comparison of Single Women, Families, and Women Separated from Their Children,” is an analysis of fertility and life circumstances and develops a typology to determine differences based on how women enter a shelter (with or without children), and whether or not they are separated from any other children. Her primary research interest is in social inequality and social policy with an emphasis on class, race, and ethnicity.
Jennifer Earles received her B.A. Journalism from the University of Central Florida and her M.A. in Women’s Studies from the University of South Florida. She has published papers in The Socialist, Poetry’s Elite, and America at the Millennium and has presented papers about the intersections of gender, race, and class for Florida’s Hispanic women, women’s heart health as a representation of global sustainable communities, and gender trouble in Northern Ireland. Her thesis, “Gender Trouble in Northern Ireland: A Look at Women’s Participation in the Provisional Irish Republican Army,” uses feminist sociological content analysis to highlight the gendered and bodily tactics used by women of the 1970s and 1980s PIRA in Northern Ireland. Her primary interest is in the ways in which identity categories are socially constructed by dominant cultures to protect power and create hierarchical structures.
Brenda Mason received her B.A. in Marketing and her M.A. in Sociology from the University of South Florida. She has presented papers at the meetings of the Southern Sociological Association and the Society for the Study of Social Problems. She also has served as the Managing Editor of Social Psychology Quarterly and is the author of an instructor’s manual for a widely used sociological psychological textbook (Oxford University Press). Her thesis, “The Social Construction of Workplace Diversity,” demonstrates that although the social value of “diversity in the workplace” is taken for granted, in practice, talk about diversity reproduces race and gender divisions and their accompanying inequalities. With a substantive interest in protecting the vitality of water resources, her focus is on developing sound social policy responsive to political, economic, social, and technical environments.
David Zeller received his B.S. degree in Sociology from the University of Idaho and his M.A. degree from the University of Central Florida. Since 2006 he has served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Central Florida teaching courses in Urban Sociology and Social Stratification. His thesis, “Does HOPE VI Deep-Six the Poor? Analyzing the Effects of Displacement on Former Residents of Distressed Public Housing” evaluates the implementation of federal public housing policy in Orlando. He continues to be interested in examining the ways in which social policy and social policy implementation too often fail to directly address social problems such as homelessness, drugs, and juvenile delinquency.