Degree & Year in the Program
5th Year PhD
Advisors
Christina Falci, Jeffrey Smith
Areas of Specialization
Family
About Me
I am originally from the Dallas-Fort Worth area in Texas, and I obtained my Master's degree in Sociology from the University of Texas at Arlington. In moving to Nebraska, I was the awarded the Othmer Fellowship as I entered the UNL Sociology program. I was Treasurer/Secretary of the Nebraska Association of Sociology Graduate Students in 2015 and the Vice-President in 2016. In 2018 I received the Nicholas Babchuk Endowment for Excellence in Research, and I have been a recipient of the J.J. & Elanor S. Ogle Summer Fellowship.
My primary focus of research is on housework and the intersection of family and economics, and most of my academic projects center around some aspect of this area of family sociology. My dissertation focuses on the intergenerational transmission of housework behavior using longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. My dissertation additionally considers the mental health effects of these socialization experiences when they are incongruent with current behavior. Outside of my concentration on housework, I have a background in the sociology of race, particularly of African Americans, as well as the sociology of health.
I appreciate the Sociology program at UNL for being rigorous while also being supportive of its students. My own career path has been atypical in that I spent half a decade working low-wage customer service jobs before going on to graduate school in my late twenties. This experience of making a living outside academia has been valuable in informing my own understanding of the field, and the faculty at UNL have allowed me to make the most of this perspective.
I have found that the Sociology department at UNL is small enough to give its students the individual attention they need but also large enough to be well funded with plenty of additional research opportunities. It is a good fit for students entering with a Master’s from a smaller department. Outside of the Sociology department, UNL is in general an active campus with an engaged student body and plenty of things to do. When teaching, I emphasize active engagement with the material from my students, even in online courses, and I am pleased that students seem eager to meet my high standards.
Outside of work, my hobbies include being pretentious about tea, fiction writing, and my cats. I often find myself bringing my knowledge of sociology and sociological analysis to bear in my hobbies as well, which makes me fun at parties. A voracious reader, I will happily read about the sociology of any activity I find interesting.
My goal is to finish my dissertation in the Spring of 2020, and then continue onto a career in data science in the San Francisco Bay Area. During my graduate career, I have become proficient in statistical analysis using SAS or Stata, including advanced statistical techniques such as multiple regression, structural equation modeling, and hierarchical linear modeling. I have also completed courses in survey research, including data collection, total survey error, and researching hidden populations. I have supplemented this academic skillset with additional training in SQL, Python, and R so as to prepare for a career in data science.
Courses Taught
Introduction to Sociology; Sociology of Health; Sociology of Family