$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
From 2016-2019, our faculty have produced over 200 publications. According to Academic Analytics, the Department is ranked second (of 201 departments) in articles per faculty and eighth in citations per faculty.
SOCIOLOGY RESEARCHER WINS COLLEGE OF SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES RESEARCH AWARD
FOR JUNIOR SCHOLAR 2019-2020
Bethany Everett, Assistant Professor of Sociology wins College award for her research in LGBT health.
SOCIOLOGIST PLACES FINALIST FOR COLLEGE OF SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES TEACHING
AWARD FOR 2019-2020
Tom Quinn, Assistant Professor Lecturer wins praise from students of his Population and Society and Social Statistics classes.
The Guardian Publishes Article Citing Paper by Sara Grineski, Professor of Sociology
and Tim Collins, Professor of Geography
“This could well be impacting an entire generation of our society,” said Dr Sara Grineski, an academic who has authored the first national study, published in the journal Environmental Research, on air pollution and schools.
Grineski and her University of Utah colleague Timothy Collins grouped schools according to their level of exposure to more than a dozen neurotoxins, including lead, mercury and cyanide compounds.
Jazmine Hurley, undergraduate student, has been selected for the Parent Fund Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program Scholar for 2017-2018 for her project entitled “Evaluation of Intimate Partner Violence Curriculum in Residency Training Programs” with Professor Akiko Kamimura.
Angela Midgley, Administrative Officer, Department of Sociology is winner of the 2018 College of Social and Behavioral Science Staff Excellence Award.
Sociology welcomes recent additions to our faculty
Guangzhen Wu
Guangzhen Wu, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice
who joined the University of Utah in the fall of 2018. Dr. Wu earned his Ph.D. from
Washington State University in 2018 and previously held a tenure position at the Criminal
Investigation Police University of China. His research interests include comparative
criminology/criminal justice, policing (international policing, police integrity,
police stress and job satisfaction, and police-public relations), and the drug policy
(the effects of marijuana legalization). He has taught multiple courses including
Criminological Theory, Introduction to Criminal Justice, Statistics, and Research
Methods.
Lazarus Adua
Lazarus Adua is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Utah.
His research focuses on the human dimensions of energy (energy inequality and the
relative impacts of efficiency improvement and lifestyles on the environment),the
structural drivers and social consequences of global environmental change, and local
governments’ social,developmental, and environmental (land-use) polices. He also conducts
research on environmental concern and activism, using both survey and experimental
research designs. His work as a professor spans several years of teaching experience
in the United States and abroad (Ghana and China).
Sara Grineski
Sara Grineski is a Professor of Sociology and Environmental Studies at the University
of Utah. Her research interests are in environmental health disparities, children’s
health, and environmental justice. Her doctoral education was funded by a five-year
National Science Foundation (NSF) Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training
(IGERT) fellowship in urban ecology at Arizona State University. As a Master’s student,
she collaborated with a neighborhood on a community-based participatory research project
on children’s environmental health, an experience that set the course for Dr. Grineski’s
future career. After graduating in 2006 with her Ph.D. in Sociology with a minor in
Geography, she became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology & Anthropology
at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). While at UTEP, she was a Principal
Investigator (PI) on the Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) award,
which was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). On this award, Dr. Grineski
developed and directed the academic year and summer research mentoring programs for
undergraduate student and faculty mentees, which spanned across 15 colleges and universities.
Separate from the NIH BUILD award, Dr. Grineski has received external research funding
as a PI or Co-PI from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institute
of Health (NIH) and US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). She has published in
outlets ranging from Social Science & Medicine and Social Forces to Environmental Research Letters and Environmental Research. Throughout her faculty career, Dr. Grineski has set as a top priority involving
students in her research; over half of her publications involve student authors.
Faculty Grants and Awards
Over the past five 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
Brett Clark
Winner of 2017 Paul Sweezy Marxist Sociology Book Award, Marxist Sociology Section
of the American Sociological Association. Award received for the book, The Tragedy of the Commodity.
Brett Clark
Honorable Mention for the Allan Schnaiberg Outstanding Publication Award, Environment
and Technology Section of the American Sociological Association.
Sarita Gaytan
Honorable Mention, Best Paper in the Social Sciences, Mexico Section, Latin American
Studies Section for,“The Transformation of Tequila: From Hangover to Highbrow.”Journal
of Consumer Culture, v.17, n.1: 62-84.
Faculty Awards from the University of Utah
Claudia Geist
Winner of the 2017-2018 College of Social and Behavioral Science Superior Teaching
Award
Sarita Gaytan
Finalist for the 2016-2017 CSBS Superior Research Award
Theresa Martinez
Career Services Faculty Recognition Award 2017
Heather Melton
University of Utah Distinguished Teaching Award 2017
Marcel Paret
Finalist for College of Social and Behavioral Science Superior Teaching Award 2016-2017
Rebecca Utz
Graduate School Distinguished Mentor Award 2017
Grants
Daniel Adkins
2017-2021 National Institutes of Health and National Institute of Child Health and Development
Sexual acceptability's role in contraceptive preference and behavior
This study 1) documents sexual acceptability for various contraceptive methods, 2) determines associations between sexual acceptability and continuation over time, and 3) develops new, more valid sexuality measures for reproductive health research and interventions. Role: Co-I
Claudia Geist
2018 University of Utah Consortium for Families and Health Research Pilot Grant
HerStories: Economic Context of Family Planning
Qualitative interviews about how economic circumstances shape ideas about family planning, that is the desire to become pregnant, the anticipated timing of pregnancy, and their long-term desired family size.
Sara Grineski
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.
PI: Tim Collins, Co-Is: Sara Grineski, Jayajit Chakraborty. Start 10/1/2017-End 9/30/2018.
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.
PI: David Knight. Co-I: Sara Grineski, Tom Fullerton. National Science Foundation (NSF) Center for Education Research and Policy Studies. Start 9/1/2017- End 8/31/-2020.
Kim Korinek
Integration of the Undocumented and Documented in a New Destination: Utah
PI: Ken Jameson. Co-PI(s): Kim Korinek, Ming Wen, Julie Stewart, Thomas Maloney, Claudio Holzner. Russell Sage Foundation, 07/15/2008 - 07/15/2010.
Mekong Region Initiative. PI: KORINEK,KIM. HENRY LUCE FOUNDATION, 03/01/2013 - 03/01/2017.
Bethany Everett
Interdisciplinary Innovation grant from the Society of Family Planning (Co-PI)
Akiko Kamimura
Community Health Grant from the Sorenson Legacy Foundations (PI)
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.