$1.3 MILLION IN GRANTS
The Department is above the median in faculty awards and federal grant dollars per faculty. Our faculty have received four NIH R01 grants and other significant foundation grants.
10:1 ratio of enrolled students to faculty
In Spring 2019, 357 students (331 undergraduates and 26 graduates) were seeking degrees through the Department of Sociology. We currently have 21 core and 13 auxiliary faculty members.
Overall our students benefit from a 10.5:1 ratio of students to faculty. While undergraduates experience a 9.7:1 ratio, graduate students enjoy a .76:1 ratio.
TOP 5%
#1 undergraduate sociology program in Utah, #25 overall and #1 online in the nation
College Factual ranks programs offered by 4-year U.S. colleges and universities based on student satisfaction markers. Our undergraduate program ranked 25 out of 552 nationwide placing it in the top 5% of U.S. sociology programs.
200+ PUBLICATIONS BY FACULTY
In the past 20 years, new faculty members with strong scholarly records were hired from top U.S. graduate programs and faculty productivity in terms of research output has remained one of the top records in the nation in the recent decade. According to the most recent data from the Academic Analytics, across the 205 sociology department in the United States, the Department of Sociology is ranked the 1st in terms of articles per faculty, the 7th in citations per faculty, and the 7th in scholarly research index which is a metric designed to create benchmark standards for the measurement of academic and scholarly quality within and among United States research universities.
PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY WINS UNIVERSITY OF UTAH'S DISTINGUISHED TEACHING AWARD FOR
2023-2024
Frank Page, Associate Professor of Sociology, wins This award recognizes a consistent record of outstanding teaching performance and the implementation of effective and innovative teaching methods which demonstrate exceptional abilities to motivate student learning. Recipients must show a concern for students and their wider education as well as their career preparation and must also contribute to the educational process outside of the classroom.
ASSISTANT SOCIOLOGY PROFESSOR IS THIS YEARS RECIPIENT OF THE ACADEMY OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE
SCIENCES WILLIAM L. SIMON/ROUTLEDGE PAPER AWARD.
Katie Durante received this award for her paper, “Supportive communication skills as a protective factor among couples experiencing incarceration,” which appears in the November 2023 issue of Criminal Justice and Behavior.
Sara Grineski, Professor of Sociology, WINS MULTIPLE AWARDS
2023 Recipient of the CSBS Award for Advancing Equity and Connecting Communities. Sara Grineski also recieved the 2023 Outstanding Undergraduate Research Mentor Award.
Camden Alexander, undergraduate student, has been selected for the Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award for 2023. Camden was mentored by Sara Grineski.
Angela Midgley, Administrative Officer, Department of Sociology is winner of the 2018 College of Social and Behavioral Science Staff Excellence Award.
Sociology welcomes newest addition to our faculty
Max Coleman, Ph.D.is an incoming Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Utah. His research examines inequalities in mental health and their structural and cultural
determinants. He is especially interested in "health paradoxes" that existing theories
of inequality can't easily explain. Before coming to the University of Utah, Max received
training from Indiana University, the University of Wisconsin, and Oberlin College—all
midwestern universities; and is looking forward to being closer to his hometown in
Northern California. Max recently pulished "Mental Health in the College Classroom: Best Practices for
Instructors." Teaching Sociology 50(20):168-82. It was in the top 5% of all publications scored by Altmetric, a measure
of the "attention surrounding scholarly content." Top-scoring of all publications
in Teaching Sociology (#1 of 483 as of July 2022). While not teaching or conducting research, Max enjoys listening to jazz, drinking
tea, hiking, and playing piano.
Faculty Awards and Grants
Over the past several years, few public research universities have risen in stature as quickly for both academic excellence and the creation of life-changing technological and medical innovation as the University of Utah.
Faculty Awards
Frank Page
University of Utah Distinguished Teaching Award 2023-2024
Sara Grineski
CSBS Award for Advancing Equity and Connecting Communities 2023
Brett Clark
University of Utah Distinguished Research Award 2023
Akiko Kamimura
John G. Francis Prize for Undergraduate Student Mentoring 2023
Guangzhen Wu
Junior Scholar Award forthe ASA Section on Drugs and Society 2023. Finalist for Superior
Teaching Award for Junior Tenure-Line Faculty 2023
Katie Durante
Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences William L. Simon/Routledge Outstanding Paper
Award 2023
Marcel Paret
Presidential Scholar Award 2022
Daniel Adkins
Extraordinary Research Productivity Incentive Award 2022
Grants
Daniel Adkins
2021-2024 Craig H. Neilsen Foundation
Testing SupportGroove: A novel mhealth intervention for couples with spinal cord injuries
2018-2021 NIH/NICHD
The role of stress in shaping maternal, infant, and child health outcomes
Claudia Geist
2022 CSBS/VPR
Attitudes towards gender among health professionals
2021 CARI Grant American Sociological Association
Understanding family member’ supportive behaviors and attitudes towards gender diverse youth and young adults
Guagnzhen Wu
2022-2023 University of Utah
Effects of recreational marijuana legalization on drug- related offenses and racial/ethnic disparities in incarceration: A multi-state study
Sara Grineski
2017-2020 National Science Foundation (NSF) Center for Education Research and Policy Studies
Building Capacity for Interdisciplinary Analysis of Longitudinal Data for Education Policy Research: Understanding science and math teacher labor markets.
2017-2018 National Science Foundation (NSF) Infrastructure Management and Extreme Events
Trajectories of social vulnerability among Houston area households: A pre- and post-event study of Hurricane Harvey.
Kim Korinek
2022-2027 The Henry Luce Foundation
Southeast Asia, Health, Environment and Development (SEA-AHEAD) Grant for new Faculty Hire
2022-2026 U.S. Department of Education, Title VI program
Intermountain Consortium for Asian and Pacific Studies, National Resource Center and Foreign Language and Area Studies Grants
Bethany Everett
Interdisciplinary Innovation grant from the Society of Family Planning (Co-PI)
Akiko Kamimura
2020 Semnani Family Foundation Grant Program
Social stress among free clinic patients
Marcel Paret
Faculty Research and Creative Grant, University Research Committee, University of
Utah, 2016
Law and Society Association Travel Grant, 2015
Ming Wen
Scholar Grant from the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation (PI)
Academic Engagement
Sociologists in the Media
Sara Grineski
Radio Interview. America’s toxic schools. Living on Earth with Steve Curwood. (broadcast on 250 public radio stations) February 9, 2018. http://www.loe.org/shows/shows.html?programID=18-P13-00006#feature1
Review of research study in the Guardian. February 1, 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/feb/01/schools-across-the-us-exposed-to-air-pollution-hildren-are-facing-risks
Community Presentations
Sara Grineski
Air Pollution in El Paso and its Impact on Children's School Performance. Joint Advisory Committee for the Improvement of Air Quality in the Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua / El Paso, Texas / Doña Ana County, New México Air Basin (http://www.cccjac.org/). Cd. Juarez, Mexico. (Remote Participant) 18 January 2018.
Invited Grand Rounds Speaker. Boise Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Boise, Idaho. 2 May 2018.
Marcel Paret
Guest Editor of Special Issue Journals:
“Politics of Precarity: Critical Engagements with Guy Standing.” Global Labor Journal 7(2), 2016.
“Building Citizenship From Below: Precarity, Migration, Agency.” Citizenship Studies 29(3-4), 2016. Co-edited with Shannon Gleeson.
Brett Clark
Chair, Marxist Sociology section of the American Sociological Association
FACULTY PUBLICATIONS
Graduate Student Spotlight
Fellowships and Grants
Zobayer Ahmmad was awarded a Consortium for Families and Health Research (C-FAHR). Fellowship 2018
Daniel Auerbach received a Graduate Research Fellowship from the Tanner Humanities Center for his work Agent Orange: And the Treadmill of Destruction
Amanda Bertana received the 2015 “Doctoral Dissertation Research: Environmentally Induced Migration.” (PI Sarita Gaytan), National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant, the 2015 “Doctoral Dissertation Research: Environmentally Induced Migration.” University of Utah Global Climate Change and Sustainability Center Grant and the 2016-2017 Utah Scholar Strategy Network Graduate Fellow.
She has also co-authored a peer-reviewed journal article: Jorgenson, Andrew K. and Amanda Bertana. 2013. “The Sociology of Greenhouse Gas Emissions: A Brief Overview.” Rural Connections 7(2): 15-18.
Alla Chernenko was awarded the Graduate Research Fellowship from the University of Utah Graduate School 2018-2019.
Graduate Student Publications
Kamimura, A., Ahmmad, Z., Pye, M., & Gull, B. (2018). Peer Smoking and Smoking- related Beliefs Among College Students in Bangladesh. Journal of preventive medicine and public health = Yebang Uihakhoe chi, 51(1), 51. doi:10.3961/jpmph.17.146
Kamimura, A., Panahi, S., Ahmmad, Z., Pye, M., & Ashby, J. (2018). Transportation and Other Nonfinancial Barriers Among Uninsured Primary Care Patients. Health services research and managerial epidemiology, 5, 2333392817749681. doi:10.1177/2333392817749681
Graduate Student Conferences
Bethany Gull presented "Coming Out" Narratives: Similarities and Differences in Identity Development Between Disaffiliating Mormon Women and LGB Individuals" at the 2018 Mormon Social Science Conference, Utah Valley University, Orem Utah.
Rebecca Owen co-presented with Ed Muñoz at the annual American Society of Criminology conference back in November in Philadelphia, PA. We presented on our ongoing Salt Lake Peer Court project, specifically looking at what kinds of dispositions were associated with successful completion of the program or reduced recidivism within 1 year.