Graduate Studies in Social Inequality: Race/Ethnicity, Class and Gender

 

A student selecting a Ph.D. concentration in the Sociology of Inequality can specialize in one of three related areas or construct a study plan that draws significantly from each.

Specializing in Race/Ethnicity involves examining social phenomena related to the social construction of racial/ethnic categories and consequences for life chances.  Our department is particularly strong in research on health, education and immigration, including differential access to resources.  We have a number of faculty members with joint or affiliated positions with the Institute for Ethnic Studies [http://ethnicstudies.unl.edu/].

The Sociology of Gender specialty considers issues ranging from labor markets, family and economic inequalities, to health care and quality of life.  The emphasis is on a range of research methodologies and theories, including feminist analyses, and the social construction of gender and sexuality.  A Women’s and Gender Studies certificate is available (link) through the interdisciplinary program at UNL:   [http://www.unl.edu/womenssp/graduate.shtml]

The Sociology of Social Class focuses on theory and research associated with economic intersections of inequality, especially labor markets, poverty and life chances.  This specialty emphasizes research identifying how economic factors and social locations vary across gender, age and race/ethnicity.

Students who complete a concentration in this program will have a broad understanding of theory and research on inequality.  Faculty research projects provide students with training and opportunities to work on research considering gender and social class across racial and cultural groups.  The program provides comprehensive training in quantitative survey methods and statistical techniques, historical research methods and qualitative field analyses appropriate to the in-depth study of inequality.

Research Opportunities and Social Inequality Study Group

• Faculty members hold joint appointments with interdisciplinary programs in Ethnic Studies, African and African/American Studies, latino and Latin American Studies and are affiliated faculty with Women’s and Gender Studies and Native American Studies.
• In the Social Inequality Study Group, graduate students and faculty members gather on a monthly basis to hear research colloquia, invite national speakers and provide workshops on teaching topics.
• Several large national and regional longitudinal studies on related topics provide a strong base funding for research opportunities for students.  Students are encouraged to do independent or collaborative research leading to publication in addition to required thesis and dissertation projects.
• The Sociology Department’s Bureau of Sociological Research is a survey research organization equipped with state-of-the-art computer technology. Students gain hands-on experience, participate in bureau projects, and benefit from Bureau staff and facilities to conduct their own research projects.  Faculty  also hold joint appointments with the Survey and Research Methods doctoral program (SRAM) and teach a range of methodological approaches to studying inequality. 

 

Co-authored Publications with Current and Former Graduate Students

Berdahl, Terceira and Julia McQuillan. (Forthcoming). Occupational racial composition and non-fatal work injuries. Social Problems.

McGinnis, Lee, Julia McQuillan and Connie Chapple. 2005. “I Just want to Play: Women and Golf”. Sociology of Sport & Social Issues. 29: (3):313-337.

Chapple, Connie, Julia McQuillan and Terceira Berdahl. 2005. "Gender, Social Bonds and Delinquency: A Comparison of Boys’ and Girls’ Models”. Social Science Research. 34 (2):357-383.

Freng, Adrienne, Scott Freng and Helen Moore. 2007. “Examining American Indians’ Recall of Cultural Inclusion in School” Journal of American Indian Education 46:42-61.

Perry, Gary, Helen Moore, Kathy Acosta, Connie Frey and Crystal Edwards. 2007. "Maintaining Credibility and Authority as an Instructor of Color in Diversity-Education Classrooms:  A Qualitative Inquiry" Journal of Higher Education (Forthcoming).

Terceira Berdahl and Helen A. Moore. 2004   “Job Exit Queues:  How gender, power and status shape post-merger job exits” Equal Opportunities International  (Special issue on Gender & Work) 23:45-66.

Affiliated Faculty

Fourteen Sociology faculty members have research interests in the Sociology of Inequality.  Several studies emphasize research that directly addresses cultural and racial dimensions of education, health and immigration.  This area of strength contributed to the affiliated faculty currently having grants funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), The National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), the National Institute of Child and Human Development (NICHD) as well as seed grants funded by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and contracts supported by the Bureau of Sociological Research. Combined, the research funding associated with these efforts is nearly three million dollars per year.

Miguel A. Carranza, Professor (Ph.D., University of Notre Dame), studies health and education outcomes and disparities in the Latino community.  He is one of the co-investigators on a funded Latino Research Initiative project on the impact of ICE factory raids on family and community stability.  Dr. Carranza holds a joint appointment with Latino and Latin American Studies, and has served as Director of that program.

Miguel Ceballos, Assistant Professor (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison), studies demography and sociology of Latino health.  He particularly focuses on health disparities and the process of migration and acculturation among ethnic minority populations in the United States. Currently, he is analyzing the effects of acculturation on Latino maternal and infant health using a NSF and NIH funded survey. Dr. Ceballos has recently expanded this research to include the health outcomes of elderly Latinos. He is also conducting a study investigating the predictors of attitudes in Nebraska on recent immigration trends.Dr. Ceballos holds a joint appointment with Latino and Latin American Studies.

Jacob E. Cheadle, Assistant Professor (Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University), studies the intersection of social class, race/ethnicity, family life, and children's schooling outcomes. His current interests revolve around the different ways parents academically engage their children and the consequences those eductional investments have for the skills children enter school with. Dr. Cheadle is a former Robert Wood Johnson Helath Policy Research Scholar and his published works have appeared in Social Forces, Sociology of Education, The Journal of Marriage and the Family, Sociological Methodology, and the Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness.

L. Janelle Dance, Associate Professor (Ph.D., Harvard University), studies race, gender and working class teens and inequalities in educational outcomes.  She also conducts cross-national studies of Swedish and U.S. immigration policies and outcomes.  She teaches seminars on education and race, and ethnographic field methods.   Dr. Dance is currently Director of African and African American Studies.

Mary Jo Deegan, Professor (Ph.D., University of Chicago), conducts research on gender, race, disability and the history of sociology.  She is an experienced qualitative methodologist and offers seminars in historical research methods and is a faculty member with the Women’s and Gender Studies program.

Christina D. Falci, Assistant Professor (Ph.D., University of Minnesota), studies the social determinants of mental health and health disparities across diverse populations. She focuses on the effects of peer networks and is co-investigator on an NSF grant to study social networks in higher education and retention of women faculty in STEM disciplines.

Bridget J. Goosby, Assistant Professor (Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University), focuses on the Black family, health and educational life chances.  Her most recent as an NIMH Post-doctoral fellow assesses poverty outcomes for minority adolescents.  She teaches graduate courses on Family Diversity and holds a joint appointment with African and African American Studies.   

Kellie J. Hagewen, Assistant Professor (Ph.D., Duke University), has research interests in health and mental health outcomes as well as health care access and utilization among elderly Mexican-Americans. She has taught several classes on minority health at the undergraduate and graduate level.  Dr. Hagewen holds a joint appointment with Latino and Latin American Studies.

Julia McQuillan, Associate Professor and and Director of the Bureau of Sociological Research (Ph.D., University of Connecticut), has research interests in gender, mental health, and gendered networks in higher education.  She is co-investigator of a NICHD grant to study social and behavioral consequences of infertility and an NSF ADVANCE grant to study retention of minority and women faculty in sciences and mathematics. She is a quantitative methodologist who teaches basic and advanced graduate statistics seminars.  Dr. McQuillan is a faculty member with the Women’s and Gender Studies program and is active with the national Sociologists for Women in Society.

Helen A. Moore, Professor (Ph.D., University of California-Riverside), is interested in education and inequality.  She has a multi-year mixed-methods analysis of faculty and graduate students of color and critical education in diversity courses.  Her recent Midwest Sociological Society Presidential Address focused on racialized and gendered splits in the academy.  Dr. Moore is a former Director of the Women’s and Gender Studies program and active with the ASA MOST program (Minority Opportunities through School Transformation).

Jolene D. Smyth, Assistant Professor (Ph.D., Washington State University), holds a joint appointment with Survey Research and Methodology.  She focuses her gender research on rural farm women and sex-atypical tasks in family farming.  She teaches graduate courses on survey data collection methods and questionnaire design.

Les Whitbeck, Professor (Ph.D., Washington State University), is principal investigator on a longitudinal study of adolescent risk factors among American Indian youth (NIDA, NIMH), and a developmental grant for modification of a culturally specific alcohol prevention program for American Indian youth (NIDA). 

J. Allen Williams, Jr., Professor (Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), focuses his research on social change, race, ethnicity, class, and gender inequality, and environmental issues.    He has been active with the American Sociological Association MOST program (Minority Opportunities through School Transformation) and teaches upper-division courses and graduate seminars on Social Change, Environmental Sociology, and Race and Ethnic Relations.

Susan L. Wortmann, Assistant Professor of Practice (Ph.D., Unviersity of Nebraska-Lincoln), with specializations in gender, theory and religion.  Her research focuses on domestic violence and responses of faith communities, and the scholarship of teaching and learning.  Dr. Wortmann is a faculty member with the Women’s and Gender Studies program and teaches the Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies course.