The methodological diversity with which our faculty approach important sociology topics is a valuable and generative strength — deploying ethnography, network analysis, historical comparative, advanced statistical methods, interviewing, focus groups, and spatial analysis. The visibility afforded by our publications, public sociology, and methodological and substantive diversity attracts strong graduate applicants. This strength translates into doctoral students who are unusually well placed in academic positions upon graduation for a department of our size and rank.
Our research ranges from broad, global sweeps of social change to micro-level social interaction, using an array of theories and methods. The results of our research help people to understand the evolving social, political, economic, technological, and physical environment, to respect the dignity and essential worth of all individuals, to value a diversity of opinions and ideas, and to formulate public policies that reject discrimination, bigotry, and violence.
Our department plays a key role within the university, teaching a large number of students, contributing to interdisciplinary programs, and taking on leadership roles across campus.
Find below the latest publications and research areas by our sociology faculty members, arranged in alphabetical order.
Michael Aguilera
Associate Professor
PhD from Stony Brook University
Areas: Economic Sociology, Social Inequality and Race and Ethnicity
Research Activities: Social Networks and Economic Behavior, Labor Markets, Immigrant Adaptation and Ethnic Relations
Recent Publications:
Aguilera, MB, & Contreras-Medrano, D. (2022). Colombian international migration: The impact of information networks on migration. Migraciones Internacionales, 13, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.33679/rmi.v1i1.2462.
Aguilera, MB. (February 2020). Global horse trade in the United States: 1981-2013.” Society and Animals, 29(1), 63–85. doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/15685306-00001446.
Oluwakemi Balogun
Associate Professor
PhD from University of California, Berkeley
Areas: Gender and Feminist Theory, Cultural Sociology, Race/Ethnicity, Immigration and Qualitative Methods
Research Activities: Globalization, Nationalism, Body and Embodiment, and Africana studies
Michael C. Dreiling
Professor
PhD from University of Michigan
Areas: Political and Environmental Sociology, Social Movements and Social Network Analysis
Research Activities: Corporate Political Action and US Trade Policy, Nonviolence and Social Change, and Network Analysis of Collective Action
Recent Publications:
Dreiling, M. & Garcia-Caro, P. (eds.). (2023) “Editors’ Introduction: Landscapes of Power and Academic Freedom.” Journal of Academic Freedom, 14. Online.
Dreiling, M.C., Nakamura, T. & Braun, Y.A. Nuclear denial in Japan: the network power of an energy industrial complex. Theory & Society (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-023-09513-8
Cunningham, J. & Dreiling, M. (July 2021). Elite networks for environmental philanthropy: Shaping environmental agendas in the twenty-first century. Environmental Sociology, 7(3), 351–367. https://doi.org/10.1080/23251042.2021.1942604.
Dreiling, M. (2020). Liberalizing trade and finance: Corporate class agency and the neoliberal era. In T. Janoski, C. de Leon, J. Misra, & I. William Martin (Eds.), The new handbook of political sociology (pp. 973–1002). Cambridge University Press.
Dreiling, M. (2020). Trade globalization and its consequences. In I. Rossi (Ed.), Challenges of globalization and prospects for an inter-civilizational world order (pp. 263–292). Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
Dreiling, M., & Darves, D. (2016) Agents of neoliberal globalization: Corporate networks, state structures, and trade policy. Cambridge University Press.
Dreiling, M. (producer and co-director) & Eddy, M. (producer and director). (2016). A bold peace [Motion picture]. Award-winning feature length film on Costa Rica’s 1948 revolution, abolition of the army, and expansion of social democracy. 105/89/56/52-minute versions.
Clare Evans
Assistant Professor
ScD from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Areas: Medical and Health Sociology, Social Networks, and Research Methods
Research Activities: The Social Determinants of Health, Intersectionality and Health Inequality, Place and Area Effects, Social Networks and Quantitative Method Development
Recent Publications:
Evans, C, Nieves, C., Erickson, N., & Borell, L. (August 2023). “Intersectional inequities in the birthweight gap between twin and singleton births: A random effects MAIHDA analysis of 2012–2018 New York City birth data.” Social Science & Medicine, 331, 116063. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.116063.
Alvarez, C., Calasanti, A., Evans, C., & Ard, K. (September 2022). Intersectional inequalities in industrial air toxics exposure in the United States. Health & Place, 77, 102886. doi: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2022.102886.
Silva, T., & Evans, C. (May 2022). How do adolescent social determinants and social contexts shape adult sexual identification? Social Problems, 69(2), 817–840. doi: 10.1093/socpro/spaa074.
Liévanos, R., Evans, C., & Light, R. (February 2021). An intercategorical ecology of lead exposure: Complex environmental health vulnerabilities in the Flint water crisis. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(5), 2217. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18052217.
Alvarez, C., & Evans, C. (January 2021). Intersectional environmental justice and population health inequalities: A novel approach. Social Science & Medicine, 269, 113559. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113559.
Barker, K., Dunn, E., Richmond, T., Ahmed, S., Hawrilenko, M., & Evans, C. (August 2020). Cross-classified multilevel models (CCMM) in health research: A systematic review of published empirical studies and recommendations for best practices. SSM – Population Health, 12, 100661. doi: 10.1016/j.ssmph.2020.100661.
Silva, T., & Evans, C. (March 2020). Sexual identification in the United States at the intersections of gender, race/ethnicity, immigration, and education. Sex Roles, 83, 722–738. doi: 10.1007/s11199-020-01145.
John Bellamy Foster
Professor
PhD from York University
Areas: Environmental Sociology, Social Theory, Marxism and Political Economy
Research Activities: Ecological Crisis, Economic Crisis, Imperialism, and Social Theory
Aaron Gullickson
Associate Professor
PhD from University of California, Berkeley
Areas: Social Demography, Race and Ethnicity, Stratification, and Family
Research Activities: Racial Inequality, Interracial Families, Racial Boundary Formation, and Kinship Health.
Recent Publications:
Gullickson, A. (October 2022). Patterns of panethnic intermarriage in the United States, 1980-2018. Demography, 59(5), 1929–1951. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48687821.
Gullickson, A., & Ahmed, S. (November 2021). The role of education, religiosity and development on support for violent practices among Muslims in thirty-five countries. PLOS ONE, 16(11), e0260429. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0260429.
Gullickson, A. (March 2021). A counterfactual choice approach to the study of partner selection. Demographic Research, 44(3), 513–536.
Jill Ann Harrison
Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies
PhD from Ohio State University
Areas: Work and Labor, Globalization and Social Change, Organizations, Research Methods, Sociology of Everyday Life and Ethnography
Research Activities: Globalization and Social Change, Labor Movements, Working Class Issues, Qualitative Methods, Work, Economy, & Organizations
Recent Publications:
Harrison, J. (2020). “Down here we rely on fishing and oil”: Work identity and fishers' responses to the BP oil spill disaster. Sociological Perspectives, 63(2), 333–350. doi.org/10.1177/0731121419881.
Claire Herbert
Assistant Professor
PhD from University of Michigan
Areas: Crime and Socio-legal Studies, Property Rights, Housing, Urban Sociology, Race, Poverty and Inequality
Research Activities: Property use and Rights, Gentrification, Environmental Justice, Informal Education, and Homelessness
Jocelyn A. Hollander
Professor
PhD from University of Washington
Areas: Gender, Social Psychology, Social Inequality, Violence against Women, Sociology of Women, Social Psychology, Microsociology and Food
Research Activities: Social Construction of Gender, Violence against Women, Language, and Discourse
Recent Publications:
Hollander, J., & Beaujolais, B. (2024). “‘I Have the Right to Defend Myself’: The Underlying Curriculum of Empowerment Self-Defense Training.” Sex Roles, 90, 166-185. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-023-01425-2.
Raoul Liévanos
Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies
PhD from University of California, Davis
Areas: Environment, Urban, and Community, Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration, Organizations and Institutions, Social Movements, Spatial Analysis, Qualitative and Historical Methods
Research Activities: Environmental and Housing Market Inequalities, Environmental and Climate Justice Policy, Disaster Vulnerability, Food Insecurity and Justice, Spatial Pattern Analysis, Qualitative Comparative Analysis.
Recent Publications:
Lubitow, A., Liévanos, R., Carpenter, E., & McGee, JA. (September 2021). Transformative transportation survey methods: Enhancing household transportation survey methods for hard-to-reach populations. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 98, 102953. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2021.102953.
Liévanos, R., Richter, L., Wilder, E., Carrera, J., & Mascarenhas, M. (April 2021). Challenging the white spaces of environmental sociology. Environmental Sociology, 7(2), 103–109. doi: 10.1080/23251042.2021.1902665.
Liévanos, R., Evans, C., & Light, R. (February 2021). An intercategorical ecology of lead exposure: Complex environmental health vulnerabilities in the Flint water crisis. International Journal ofEnvironmental Research and Public Health, 18(5), 2217. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18052217.
Liévanos, R. & Sze, J. (2021). Stockton isn’t Flint, or is it? Race and space in comparative crisisdriven urbanization. In TA Benz & G. Cassano (Eds.), Urban emergency (mis)management and the crisis of neoliberalism: Flint, MI in context (pp. 80–119). Brill Publishers.
Davies, A., Hooks, G., Knox-Hayes, J., & Liévanos, R. (July 2020). Riskscapes and the socio-spatial challenges of climate change. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 13(2), 197–213. https://doi.org/10.1093/cjres/rsaa016.
Liévanos, R. (July 2020). Racialised uneven development and multiple exposure: Sea-level rise and high-risk neighbourhoods in Stockton, CA. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 13(2), 381–404. https://doi.org/10.1093/cjres/rsaa009.
Ryan Light
Associate Professor
PhD from Ohio State University
Areas: Cultural Sociology, Research Methods, Social Networks and Social Theory
Research Activities: Cultural Sociology, Social Inequality, Social Networks, Historical Sociology, Race/Ethnicity, Sociology of Science
Recent Publications:
Light, R., & Moody, J., Eds. (2020). The Oxford Handbook of Social Networks. Oxford University Press.
Moody, J., Edelmann, A., & Light, R. (2022). 100 years of Social Forces as seen throughbibliometric publication patterns. Social Forces, 101(1), 38–75. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soac046.
Light, R., Theis, N., Edelmann, A., Moody, J., & York, R. (December 2021). Clouding climate science: A comparative network and text analysis of consensus and anti-consensus scientists. Social Networks. Online first. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socnet.2021.11.007.
Liévanos, R., Evans, C., & Light, R. (February 2021). An intercategorical ecology of lead exposure: Complex environmental health vulnerabilities in the Flint water crisis. International Journal ofEnvironmental Research and Public Health, 18(5), 2217. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18052217.
adams, j., Light, R., & Theis, N. (Fall 2020). Mobilizing COVID-19 science. Contexts, 19(4), 36–41. doi: 10.1177/1536504220977933.
Light, R., & Moody, J. (2020). Introduction. In R. Light & J. Moody (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Social Networks (pp. 1–15). Oxford University Press.
Krystale Littlejohn
Assistant Professor
PhD from Stanford University
Areas: Fertility, Race, Gender, Class, Health and Medicine, Body and Embodiment, Science, Knowledge, Technology, and Mixed Methods
Research Activities: Race and Social Boundaries, Contraceptive Use, Mixed Methodology, and Qualitative Sociology
Recent Publications:
Littlejohn, K., & Solinger, R. (Eds.). (Expected publication 2023). Resistance!: Health professionals, district attorneys, politicians, religious leaders, community activists, and others fight the end of Roe v. Wade. Under contract with University of California Press.
Kimport, K., & Littlejohn, K. (2022). Abortion as obtainable: Insights into how pregnant people in the United States who considered abortion understand abortion availability. Contraception, 106, 45–48.
Littlejohn, K. (2021). Just get on the pill: The uneven burden of reproductive politics. University of California Press.
--Featured in: Mashable, Ms. Magazine, Salon, Times Literary Supplement
--Positively reviewed in: CHOICE; Gender, Place, and Culture; Social Force.
Kimport, K., & Littlejohn, K. (2021). What are we forgetting?: Sexuality, sex, and embodiment in abortion research. Annual Review of Sex Research, 58(7), 863–873. doi: 10.1080/00224499.2021.1925620.
Kari Marie Norgaard
Professor
PhD from University of Oregon
Areas: Environmental Sociology, Environmental Justice, Gender, Sociology of Emotions, Sociology of Culture
Research Activities: Tribal Environmental Health, Race and Environment, Gender and Environment, Climate Change Denial, Emotions and Social Movements
Matthew Norton
Associate Professor
PhD from Yale University
Areas: Political Sociology, Cultural Sociology, Historical Sociology, and Social Theory
Research Activities: Cultural Dimensions of State Power, State Formation, Empires, Comparative Historical Methods, and Social Theory
Recent Publications:
Norton, M. (2023). The punishment of pirates: Interpretation and institutional order in the early modern British empire. University of Chicago Press.
Norton, M. (2021). Analytical Sociology and Pragmatism. In G. Manzo (Ed.), Research handbook on analytical sociology (pp. 170–184). Edward Elgar Press.
Norton, M. (2020). Cultural sociology meets the cognitive wild: Advantages of the distributed cognition framework for analyzing the intersection of culture and cognition. American Journal of Cultural Sociology, 8(1), 45–62. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41290-019-00075-w.
C.J. Pascoe
Associate Professor
PhD from University of California, Berkeley
Areas: Sexuality & Gender, Childhood & Youth, New Media, and Ethnography
Research Activities: Gender, Sexuality, Masculinity, Schools, Bullying, and Eating Disorders
Recent Publications:
Pascoe, CJ. (2023). Nice Is Not Enough. University of California Press.
Pascoe, CJ. (2022). Bullying as a social problem: Interactional homophobia and institutional heteronormativity in schools. In C. Donaghue (Ed.), The sociology of bullying: Power, status and aggression among adolescents (pp. 76–94). New York University Press. https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9781479803873.003.0006.
Pascoe, CJ. (2021). Going back to high school: Lessons from classroom teaching 2021 for ethnographic practice. In J. Aurini, M. Heath, & S. Howells (Eds.), The how to of qualitative research, second edition. Sage Publications.
Pascoe, CJ. (June 2021). Masculinity, fun and social change: Reflections on The Men and the Boys. Boyhood Studies, 14(1), 121–124. doi:10.3167/bhs.2020.140110.
Pascoe, CJ, & Bridges, T. (Eds). (2016). Exploring masculinities: Identity, inequality, continuity and change. Oxford University Press.
Elaine Replogle
Senior Instructor
PhD from Rutgers University
Areas: Sociology of Health and Medicine, Social Inequality, Sociology of Mental Health, Experiences of Second-Generation South Asian Americans, Bystander and Mob Behavior, and Sociology of Media
Research Activities: Experiences of Racism among Second-Generation South Asian Americans, Election Outcomes and Racism Experience
Ellen Scott
Professor
PhD from University of California, Davis
Areas: Social inequality; gender; race and ethnicity; welfare policy; feminist theory; social movements; qualitative methods.
Research Activities: Intersections of gender, race, class, and sexualities; poverty, low-wage labor, and family life, welfare reform; feminist organizations and social movements; qualitative methods.
Recent Publications:
Petrucci, L., Loustaunau, L., King, M., Dodson, L., & Scott, E. (July 2022). A labor crisis within the child care crisis: Growing need for “non-traditional hours” met by underpaid in-home providers, 1–45. University of Oregon Labor Education & Research Center.
Petrucci, L., Loustaunau, L., Scott, E., & Stepick, L. (2022). Persistent unpredictability: Analyzing experiences with the first statewide scheduling legislation in Oregon. ILR Review, 75(5), 1133–1158. https://doi.org/10.1177/00197939211064902.
Loustaunau, L., Stepick, L., Scott, E., Petrucci, L., & Henifin, M. (April 2021). No choice but to be essential: Expanding dimensions of precarity during COVID-19. Sociological Perspectives, 64(5), 857–875. https://doi.org/10.1177/07311214211005491.
Loustaunau, L., Petrucci, L., Scott, E., & Stepick, L. (November 2020). Persistent unpredictability: Assessing the impacts of Oregon’s employee work schedules law, 1–19. UFCW.
Loustaunau, L., Petrucci, L., Scott, E., & Stepick, L. (October 2020). Assessing the Initial Impacts of the First Statewide Scheduling Law, 1–7. University of Oregon Labor Education & Research Center.
Loustaunau, L., Petrucci, L., Coffey, A., Lauderback, E., Peteres, HE, Scott, E., & Stepick, L. (August 2020). Combating unstable schedules for low-wage workers in Oregon, 1–45. Urban Institute.
Jiannbin “J” Shiao
Professor and Department Head
Ph.D. from University of California, Berkeley
Areas: Race & ethnicity; Asian American studies; research methods.
Research Activities: Social demography of race/ethnicity; race/ethnicity in the life course; race/ethnicity in organizations; racial/ethnic theory.
Recent Publications:
Shiao, J. L. (2024). “Over-educated or Overly Invested in Education? The Role of Educational Commitment in Asian American Socioeconomic Attainment.” Race and Social Problems 16, 167–184. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12552-023-09403-9.
Shiao, Jiannbin Lee. 2023. “Measuring Hispanics/Latinxs: Racial Heterogeneity and Its Consequences for Modeling Social Outcomes in U.S. Population Samples.” Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World 9:1–18. doi: 10.1177/23780231231174830.
Shiao, Jiannbin Lee, and Ashley Woody. 2020. “The Meaning of ‘Racism.’” Sociological Perspectives 495–517. doi: 10.1177/0731121420964239.
Shiao, Jiannbin Lee. 2019. “When (In)Consistency Matters: Racial Identification and Specification.” Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World 5:1–18. doi: 10.1177/2378023119848268.
Shiao, Jiannbin Lee. 2018. “It Starts Early: Toward a Longitudinal Analysis of Interracial Intimacy.” Sociology of Race and Ethnicity 4(4):508–26. doi: 10.1177/2332649218769440.
Shiao, Jiannbin Lee. 2017. “The Meaning of Honorary Whiteness for Asian Americans: Boundary Expansion or Something Else?” Comparative Sociology 16(6):788–813. doi: 10.1163/15691330-12341445.
Jessica Vasquez-Tokos
Professor
PhD from University of California, Berkeley
Areas: Race/Ethnicity, Latino/as, International Migration and Family
Research Activities: Race/Ethnicity, Latino/as, Intermarriage, International Migration & Incorporation, Family, and Identity
Recent Publications:
Vasquez-Tokos, J., & Yamin, P. (2021). The racialization of privacy: Racial formation as a family affair. Theory and Society, 50(5), 717–740. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-020-09427-9.
--Awarded: Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Article Award – Race, Gender, and Class Section of the American Sociological Association.
Vasquez-Tokos, J. (2020). Do Latinos consider themselves mainstream? The influence of region. Sociological Perspectives, 63(4), 571–88. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/0731121419881139
Vasquez-Tokos, J. (2017). Marriage Vows and Racial Choices. Russell Sage Foundation.
Richard York
Professor
PhD from Washington State University
Areas: Environmental Sociology, Research Methods, and Statistics
Research Activities: Effects of Population, Development, and Capitalism on the Environment, Assessing the Anthropogenic Driving Forces of Global Environmental Change, Connections Between Human Ecology and Historical Materialism, Relationship Between Theory and Research Methodology
Recent Publications:
Ergas, CA, & York, R. (2023). A plant by any other name: …Foundations for materialist sociological plant studies. Journal of Sociology, 59(1), 3–19. https://doi.org/10.1177/14407833211017209.
Clement, M., Pino, N., York, R., DeWaard, J., Dede-Bamfo, N., & McGee, JA. (November 2022). The lagged environmental consequences of demographic and economic change. Sociological Inquiry, 92(4), 1445–1465. https://doi.org/10.1111/soin.12458.
Theis, N., & York, R. (August 2022). How robust are social structural predictors of carbon dioxide emissions? A multiverse analysis. Environmental Sociology, 9(1), 80–92. https://doi.org/10.1080/23251042.2022.2116361.
York, R., Adua, L., & Clark, B. (July/August 2022). The rebound effect and the challenge of moving beyond fossil fuels: A review of empirical and theoretical research. WIREs Climate Change, 13(4), e782. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.782.
Taylor, R., & York, R. (July 2022). Fractal shifts and esthetic rifts: Climate change and emotional well-being. Climatic Change, 173, Article 16. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-022-03414-y.
Longo, S., Isgren, E., & York, R. (April 2022). Key challenges to the corporate biosphere stewardship research program: Inequity, reification, and stakeholder commensurability. Global Sustainability, 5, E9. doi:10.1017/sus.2022.8.
Greiner, P., York, R., & McGee, JA. (January 2022). When are fossil fuels displaced? An exploratory inquiry into the role of nuclear electricity production in the displacement of fossil fuels. Heliyon, 8(1), e08795. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e08795.
Recent Publications by Career and Emeriti Faculty
Michael Brown
Pro Tem Instructor
Val Burris
Professor Emeritus
John Bellamy Foster
Professor Emeritus
Marion Goldman
Professor Emeritus
Elaine Replogle
Career Non-Tenure-Track Faculty
Stephanie Wiley
Instructor
Ken Liberman
Professor Emeritus
Liberman, K. (2024). “Rules as Instructed Actions: The Case of the Surfers’ Lineup.” In M. Lynch and O. Lindwall (Eds.), Instructed and Instructive Actions: The Situated Production, Reproduction, and Subversion of Social Order, 100-117. Routledge Press.
Liberman, K. (in press). “Husserl, Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty” appears in the Routledge International Handbook of Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis.
Liberman, K. (in press). “Negative Dialectics in Madhyamaka Buddhist Practice” is part of the Festschrift, Knowledge and Truth in an Empty World: Essays on Epistemology and Madhyamaka in Honor of Tom Tillemans (Boston: Wisdom Publications)
Liberman, K. (2023). “Rereading ‘Galileo’s Inclined Plane Demonstration,’” in The Anthem Companion to Harold Garfinkel. Edited by Philippe Sormani and Dirk vom Lehn, London: Anthem Press, pp. 201-214.
Liberman, K. (2023). Il Gusto del Caffe (Italian translation of Tasting Coffee: An Inquiry into Objectivity). Edizioni ETS. A Korean translation, published by Coffee Libre, is also forthcoming.
Liberman, K. (2022). Tasting coffee: An inquiry into objectivity. SUNY Press. Italian translation, Edizioni ETS, forthcoming; Korean translation, Coffee Libre, forthcoming.
Liberman, K. (2022). Streams, lakes, trees and trails of the Salmon Mountains: Poems by Kenneth Liberman. Salmon River Restoration Council.
Liberman, K., & Garfinkel, H. (2022). Rereading Galileo’s inclined plane demonstration. In P. Sormani & D. vom Lehn (Eds.), The Anthem Companion to Harold Garfinkel (Chapter 11). Anthem Press.
Bassetti, C., & Liberman, K. (September 2021). Making talk together: Simultaneity and rhythm in mundane Italian conversation. Language & Communication 80, 95–113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2021.06.002.