Spring 2020 Sociology Newsletter
Note from the Chair
Greetings! I hope that this newsletter finds you and your loved ones safe and well.

This last semester has been most unusual, to say the least. The COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S. early this Spring, forcing the University to alter its usual operations and move to an all-remote teaching and work schedule immediately following Spring Break. This transition led to some serious challenges and a lot of extra labor for many of the faculty, staff, and students in our department. I have been truly humbled by the dedication, creativity, and generosity of spirit I have seen within my colleagues as they have risen to meet all of these new and unanticipated challenges. I can say, without a doubt, that I would not want to be chair of any other department during this unprecdented time!

Overall, our Spring semester ended very well, with numerous accolades for both research and teaching accomplishments and excellent course evaluations for our instructors. We also celebrated the graduation of more than 80 undergraduate students and four PhD students. Although we were not able to celebrate with our graduates in person at a formal ceremony, the University hosted a virtual commencement address and the College of Social Sciences and Public Policy posted messages from each department and a video in which the names of all graduates were read individually ( Check them out here! ). Our department also was able to host our first-ever Zoom celebratory toast for our graduating PhD students. We are very proud of each and every one of these students!

Looking forward, we will be continuing on with remote teaching and work throughout the summer and fall semesters. While this situation brings with it a great deal of uncertainty, we will persevere in our mission to provide excellent educational experiences for our students and to engage in meaningful and important research. Given the precarious financial situation within the U.S. at this time, we likely will be doing so with more limited acccess to funding for student training, enrichment activites, and recruitment expenses. If it is within your means, please consider making a donation to the department to help us maintain our programs and build a strong future. Each gift has a direct, immediate impact on FSU Sociology students.

I encourage you to read further into this newsletter to learn about the many prestigious fellowships, grants, contracts, awards and recognitions recently garnered by our faculty and students. I also encourage you to keep up with the Department on twitter @FSUSociology and Facebook ( FSU Sociology ). There we provide regular updates on the goings-on of the department, as well as links to many of the newspaper articles, magazines, and online media sites that quote or discuss the work of FSU Sociology members. The work of our faculty and students has recently been featured in outlets such as The Conversation, Harvard Business Review, Huffington Post, The Tallahassee Democrat, Science News Magazine, Linkedin, bitchmedia, and Next Avenue. Finally, I urge you to check out the College of Social Science and Public Policy's online blog, "Wicked Problems, Wicked Solutions," which features compelling new scholarship that is useful and relevant to the work of fellow academics, policy makers, and community leaders, as well as to the lives of those in the general public. This is a wonderfully engaging way to see how current research is connected to the major social problems of our time.

In closing, I invite you to share updates about your own accomplishments and life events in our next newsletter by contacting me at ktillman@fsu.edu .

Stay safe and well,
Kathi Tillman
Professor and Chair of Sociology
In this issue…
  • Meet Our Spring 2020 Graduates
  • Open House
  • SWS Update
  • AKD Update
  • Spring Colloquium
  • Alumni Spotlight
  • Alumni in the News
  • Faculty Spotlight
  • Newsworthy News
  • Thank You to our Donors
  • Celebrations
Meet our Spring 2020 Graduates
Dissertation: The Influence of Security & Support on Performance, Punishment, & Parental Engagement in Majority White & Majority Minority Schools

Chair – John Reynolds

My research interests include school violence, school security, and sociological implications of public policy.

My dissertation explores the relationship between school security, academic performance, rates of disciplinary action, and parental involvement.

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Dr. Erichsen is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Florida State University Center for Postsecondary Success. Her research focuses on interventions to recruit and retrain women in computing majors and careers.

Dissertation: Reproducing Gender Inequality in Gaming: A Dual Analysis of the Gaming Hierarchy and Gamer Identity

Chair – Douglas Schrock

My research interests include gaming, social psychology, identity, culture and social inequalities. My work broadly explores the construction of identity and inequality through digital, physical, and symbolic interaction.

In my research I integrate sociological approaches with game studies, exploring player dynamics and the (re)production of dominant and marginalized identities in video game culture. I have conducted ethnographic fieldwork and in-depth interviews within collegiate gaming communities. My dissertation analyzes gamers’ identity constructions and their significance in reinforcing gender hierarchies. 

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Dr. B uyukozturk hopes to apply his research training to help make more engaging, meaningful, and socially responsible video games. He also is interested in faculty positions that allow for a mix of sociology and games studies, such as those that emphasize digital inequalities. 
Dissertation: Reshaping the Gun Debate: Race, Gender & Firearms

Chair – Amy Burdette

My research agenda falls into three categories: the social determinants of health over the life-course, social inequalities of health behaviors and personal well-being, and the mechanisms of political mobilization.

Recently, this research has focused on the mechanisms of firearm ownership and gun policy support. I have published on a variety of health-related topics, ranging from firearms and well-being to the social determinants of cognitive functioning in later life. 

In addition, I developed and taught a course that explores the role that firearms play in the broader American culture. This course takes an interdisciplinary approach to the topic, blending sociological concepts with research from public health and criminology.

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Dr. Dowd-Arrow is currently a guest editor for Sociological Inquiry’s Special Issue on “Guns and Society.” This special issue is slated to be published in the first quarter of 2021. 
Dissertation: A Life Course Approach to Child Survival: Incorporating Social and Contextual Inequality
Chair – Karin Brewster

My research focuses on dimensions of family inequality and their consequences for population health and well-being, specifically within the United States and in India.

My current work explores the intergenerational implications of inequality for maternal and child health outcomes using life course principles.

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Dr. Valerio is currently a Survey Statistician for the United States Census Bureau in Suitland, MD. She works as an analyst in the Fertility and Family Statistics Branch, which is responsible for collecting, analyzing, and reporting on data related to family topics for all of the Census Bureau’s demographic surveys. She serves as a subject matter expert for the fertility content of the American Community Survey and the Survey of Income and Program Participation.


Sociology Open House
In early March, the department hosted an open house for prospective students who had been accepted into our program. Visitors traveled from California, Michigan, Ohio, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. They met with faculty members and graduate students, went on a campus tour, sat in on Dr. Ueno’s Sexualities class, and participated in a meeting of our Demography, Health & Aging, or Inequalities working groups.

We also had some fun socializing, too! Those who arrived the night before the event joined our graduate students for off-campus dinner and drinks, and all of our guests joined current students and faculty for an afternoon of bowling. They also attended a SGSU/SWS co-sponsored social and dinner meeting, during which many of us shared a song, poem, photo, story, or piece of artwork that had inspired our feminism. 

We are thrilled to announce that 11 recruits have decided to join our program in the Fall of 2020.  This is an exceptionally strong cohort, and we are excited to welcome them all into the FSU Sociology family! We also are excited to note that two of our incoming students were awarded major University Fellowships: Pablo Gonzalez is a University Legacy Fellow and Bree Salazar is a McNair Fellow. Congratulations to Pablo and Bree!
SWS Update
The Department’s local chapter of Sociologists for Women in Society hosted two events in the spring semester. In January we met to discuss Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale at Prof. Anne Barrett’s house, and in March we held our annual “Open Mic Night,” with prospective graduate students, current students, and faculty, many of whom shared a song, a picture, or a story about their feminist journey.  
Book Club Meeting at Dr. Barrett's Home
Open Mic Night at Dr. Homan's Home
AKD Update
Spring Colloquium
On February 21st, the FSU Sociology Department (with support from the Lawrence Klar Projects) hosted a colloquium lecture delivered by Dr. Mieke Beth Thomeer. Dr. Thomeer is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Her research explores gender, relationships, and health.

In her talk, entitled “Past Events and Anticipated Futures in the Lives of Transgender and Gender Nonconforming People,” Dr. Thomeer presented exciting new research in which she uses timeline interviews to explore the experiences that transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) people distinguish as being important to their identity development. By analyzing the personal narratives and lived experiences of TGNC people, her work helps illuminate the often hidden, multilevel processes through which gender is socially produced and entrenched.
Alumni Spotlight
Dawn Godbolt, PhD is a health policy analyst and maternal health expert at the National Partnership for Women & Families (NPWF), where she co-leads the maternal health portfolio. In this role she advocates for changes that would transform the health care system to better serve pregnant and childbearing women. She also advocates for policies that advance health equity and expand access to high quality affordable health care.
 
In her role at NPWF, Dr. Godbolt regularly writes letters to government agencies advocating for the roll-back of harmful health care policies, attends public stakeholder meetings with the Trump administration to highlight the deleterious consequences of newly proposed rules and regulations, and provides technical assistance to Congressional members as they draft health care legislation. Most recently, she was a key member of the team that drafted nine federal maternal health bills, known as the Momnibus , for Reps. Underwood and Adams and Senator Harris. 
 
In addition to her work at NPWF, Dr. Godbolt sits on the National Quality Forum's Maternal Morbidity and Mortality Committee, a multi-stakeholder body that provides recommendations to improve quality measures to evaluate maternal health experiences and outcomes. She also participates in the Ford Foundation’s Women of Color Maternal Health Convening, a gathering of maternal health experts who share and learn from one another, and the Women’s Health Defense Table, an advocacy organization that provides rapid-fire response to harmful federal regulations that could negatively affect women and families. Dr. Godbolt is currently a member of the March4Moms 2020 steering committee, one of Washington D.C.’s premier day-of-action advocacy organizers, and was part of a project team that secured a multi-year grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to research and promote best practices for health care providers. As a maternal health expert and advocate, her participation in these groups gives her the opportunity to advance recommendations that are patient-centered and focused on the needs of women of color, a group disproportionately impacted by systemic racism and social risk factors, including poverty, unstable housing and insufficient access to insurance.
 
While working on her Ph.D. in the Department of Sociology at Florida State University, Dr. Godbolt's research examined racial differences in mothers’ fears about allowing children to be outside, racial disparities in neighborhood conditions, and the connections between stereotypes, religion and obesity. Upon completion of her doctorate, she worked as a health equity fellow with the Center for Global Policy Solutions and completed a fellowship with the OpEd Project. Prior to her work at NPWF, Dr. Godbolt also worked in homeless services, an experience that helped her to gain a better understanding of the social determinants of health among marginalized communities. Over the past few years, she has been featured in the Huffington Post, the Hill, Bustle, Forbes and Rewire News. 
 
Dr. Godbolt’s advice to current PhD students is to outline what success post-PhD looks like for them as an individual. There are many different pathways to successful, fulfilling careers!
Alumni in the News
Frank Coto , B.S. 2001, was recently recognized as a #Seminole100 business leader. Congratulations to Frank on this wonderful recognition of his success!
Dawn Godbolt , Ph.D. 2017, worked on a package of nine bills--the “momnibus”--designed to address the maternal mortality crisis in the US that disproportionately affects Black and Native American women. In the picture at right, Dr. Godbolt (3rd from the left) is at a March 2020 reception at the US Capitol following the introduction of the The Black Maternal Health Congressional Caucus’ legislative package to the Senate and House.
Faculty Spotlight
Dr. Teresa Roach serves as teaching faculty to the Department of Sociology at Florida State University. Teresa earned her Ph.D. in Sociology at FSU in 2015. Following the completion of her graduate program, Dr. Roach held a Teaching Faculty position at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina and then served as the Assistant Director for Academic and Student Affairs for the Florida Board of Governors. In the Fall of 2018, we were fortunate to be able to bring her back to our department, this time as a faculty member.

Dr. Roach's primary areas of expertise include the sociology of gender and sexuality, families, and intimate relationships. While at Appalachian State University she was awarded a departmental grant to study hook up culture amongst LGBTQ+ students.

Dr. Roach is passionate about teaching and strives to engage students in learning activities that help them to develop their sociological imagination and teach them skills for analyzing inequality in the social world. She currently teaches a large number of popular courses in the Sociology Department, including Sociological Theory, Social Problems, Sex and Gender, Introduction to Sociology, and Marriage and Family. She also teaches a course on Health Behavior and Health Promotion in the new Bachelor of Science in Public Health program. Recently, Dr. Roach developed a new Sociology Skills seminar , a one-credit seminar intended to help upper-level sociology majors to prepare for careers and/or further education once they graduate from FSU. In this course, students prepare materials such as cover letters, resumes, and personal statements and guest speakers meet with students to discuss post-baccalaureate professional and academic opportunities. Students then create a portfolio that will be used as they prepare their post-graduate plans. Courses like this one are an important part of FSU's goal to enhance student success .

Dr. Roach also chairs the Sociology Department’s Internship Committee, where work has begun to develop an internship program so that undergraduate students can apply what they learn in the classroom to real world opportunities and experiences that will set them up for success after graduation. She is now in the midst of developing an upper-level course that will provide a structured internship opportunity for sociology students.
Newsworthy News...
Recent Faculty Promotions
Dr. Paromita Sanyal learned that she is to be promoted to the rank of Professor, effective Fall 2020.

Dr. Michael McFarland and Dr. Miranda Waggoner both learned that they will be promoted to the rank of Associate Professor and granted tenure, effective Fall 2020.
Recent Faculty Awards and Honors
(Spring 2020)
Dr. Anne Barrett was awarded the College of Social Sciences and Public Policy's 2020 Research Award for Late-Career Faculty. Dr. Barrett also won the Sociology Graduate Student Union's 2020 Faculty Mentor Award.

Dr. Shantel Buggs was awarded the prestigious 2020 Career Enhancement Fellowship for Junior Faculty by the  Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation ( funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation) . This prestigious and competitive program “seeks to increase the presence of minority junior faculty members and other faculty members committed to eradicating racial disparities in core fields in the arts and humanities." The award provides a six-month sabbatical grant, a stipend for research and travel or publication, and participation in an annual conference/retreat. Dr. Buggs also was awarded both the College of Social Sciences and Public Policy's 2020 Teaching Award for Tenure-Track Faculty and the Sociology Department's 2020 Michael J. Armer Teaching Award.

Dr. Amy Burdette was awarded the College of Social Sciences and Public Policy's 2020 Research Award for Mid-Career Faculty. Dr. Burdette also was nominated for a University Teaching Award.

Dr. Amy Burdette and Dr. Miles Taylor completed the 2019-2020 FSU Emerging Leaders Program.

Dr. Dawn Carr won the prestigious 2020 University Developing Scholar Award from the FSU Office of Research and the Council on Research and Creativity. This competitive award is intended to help identify and honor FSU's future academic leaders. She also was awarded a College of Social Sciences and Public Policy Research Support Award for the Summer 2020.

Dr. Gloria Lessan was granted a professional development leave from the University for Spring 2021.

Dr. Lisa Munson was nominated for FSU’s 2020 Innovation in Teaching Award. She also was granted a professional development leave from the University for Fall 2020.

Dr. Irene Padavic was nominated for FSU’s 2020 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Distinguished Service Award, which recognizes excellence and service on campus.

Dr. John Reynolds was nominated for a University Teaching Award.

Dr. Teresa Roach was nominated for FSU's 2020 Foundational Course Excellence Award for undergraduate teaching.

Dr. Koji Ueno was awarded the Sociology Graduate Student Union's 2020 Faculty Exceptional Instruction Award.
Recent Faculty Grants and Contracts
(Fall 2019 - Spring 2020 )
Dr. Anne Barrett had a contract (2019–2021) funded by the Florida Department of Transportation to work on the project Transportation-related Behaviors and Attitudes: A Survey of Florida's Aging Road Users .

Dr. Shantel Buggs received a grant from FSU's Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) to help fund a research project involving undergraduate students ( Perceptions of Place: Black Students at FSU).

Dr. Mathew Hauer, along with two different teams of researchers from across several universities and institutes, received two grants from the National Science Foundation : a $500,000 grant (2019-2023) to study migration and climate change and a $250,000 grant (2019-2021) for research on sea level change, commuting and climate gentrification.

Dr. Patricia Homan was awarded research funding through the Network on Life Course Health Dynamics and Disparities in 21st Century America (Research network sponsored by NIA) for her project, Exploring the Role of Structural Sexism in Health & Mortality Across U.S. States (2019-2020).

Dr. Paromita Sanyal was awarded research funding for Summer 2020 through the University’s Committee on Faculty Research Support (COFRS) program.

Dr. Miranda Waggoner recently received a prestigious CAREER award from the National Science Foundation . This highly competitive five-year grant (2020-2025) will provide roughly $450,000 to support Professor Waggoner’s research and teaching activities on the social dimensions of biomedical research ethics. Her research project examines past and present changes in biomedical research regulations pertaining to “vulnerable populations,” with a specific focus on obstetric patients and clinical trials. Professor Waggoner’s award is the first CAREER award ever to be received by a faculty member in the College of Social Sciences and Public Policy. Congratulations, Dr. Waggoner!
Recent Staff Accomplishments and Updates
(Spring 2020)
Kimberly Taylor McClellan was nominated for the 2020 University Staff Seminole Award for her enthusiastic and supportive work with students.
Recent Graduate Student Accomplishments and Updates (Spring 2020)
Tyler Breufach (2nd year), Roxie Brookshire (2nd year), and Cherish Michael (3rd year) were all nominated for a 2019-20 Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award.

Harry Barbee (6th year), recently accepted a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship with the Center for Medicine, Health, and Society at Vanderbilt University. They will work on an NIH grant to study the health and aging of older LGBTQ people living in the U.S. South. Harry also won the Sociology Department's 2020 Graduate Student Teaching Award.

JoVontae Butts (1st year) was awarded a competitive Diversity Scholarship to attend the 2020 ICPSR Summer Program in Quantitative Methods of Social Research at the University of Michigan.

Brittney Dennis (6th year), and her colleagues in The Diversity & Inclusion in Research and Teaching Organization w on the Mary B. Coburn Student Organization of the Year Award during this year's Leadership Awards Night .

Rachel Douglas (6th year) , recently had a paper---"Bounded Explorers: Online Constructions of Solo Women Travelers"---coauthored with Dr. Barrett accepted in Sociological Forum.

TehQuin Forbes (4th year), won the Sociology Graduate Student Union's 2020 Graduate Student Mentorship Award and the Sociology Department's 2020 Graduate Student Research Award for his paper entitled,  "Sexuality-Free Majors? LGBTQ+ College Students’ Accounts of Academic Disciplines."

Taylor M. Jackson (4th year), won the Sociology Department's 2020 Graduate Student Research Award for her paper entitled,  "Moonlight and Contentious Discourse on Facebook after  #OscarsSoWhite . " She also published a "Wicked Problems, Wicked Solutions" blog piece that sheds light on the challenges and experiences of black women business owners and looks beyond the statistics to explore the complete story behind the start-up numbers.

Derek Leach (3rd year), was awarded a Charles T. Haworth Graduate Scholarship for Student Veterans by the College of Social Sciences and Public Policy. This award will help to support Derek's research, which examines the emotional impact of racialization on the identities of Muslim, Middle-Eastern/North African (MENA), and South Asian people residing in the United States. 

Jessica Noblitt (3rd year), has been studying the psychological impact of LGBTQ partner loss in people 50 and older and was recently quoted in this  Next Avenue article .

Ladanya Ramirez Surmeier (3rd year), was awarded the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Scholarship to support her dissertation research this fall. She also won the Sociology Graduate Student Union's 2020 Graduate Student Exceptional Service Award.


The 2020-2021 Sociology Graduate Student Union Officers are:

Britney Cotton (4th year) - President
Tyler Breufach (3rd year) - Vice President
Rwiti Roy (3rd year) - Secretary
Christine Matragrano ( 2nd year) - Treasurer
Recent Undergraduate Student Awards and Honors (Spring 2020)
Undergraduate Sociology student Anthony Campbell , along with his co-author Lily Parker, were among the 55 students who presented independent research at the Florida Undergraduate Research Conference in February. Their research is titled "How Time and Race Affect Doctor-Patient Relationships."

Rei Myers won the Sociology Department's 2020 Undergraduate Paper Award for their paper entitled, "Latinx Parents’ Engagement in School Choice."
Thank You to Our Donors!
As reported in our last newsletter, our fundraising efforts last fall were a tremendous success! Thank you again to all who gave at that time. As a result of your generosity, we surpassed our goal, raising almost $4000. That money helped us to fund our graduate student recruitment efforts this Spring, and allowed us to provide supplemental workshops and training opportunities for both undergraduate and graduate students. We truly appreciate your investment in the next generation of scholars and professionals!

Here we would like to extend our deepest appreciation to all of those who have donated to the department since our last newsletter update:
  • Dr. Anne Barrett
  • Dr. Dawn Carr
  • Dr. Robert Hummer and Mrs. Dawn Hummer
  • Dr. James Orcutt and Dr. Annette Schwabe
  • Irene Padavic
  • Dr. John Reynolds
  • Mr. Henry and Mrs. Carol Rosen
  • Dr. Kathryn Tillman
  • Dr. Koji Ueno
If you would like to support our student recruitment and training efforts, please donate today!
Celebrations
We were not able to celebrate the end of academic year together, but we can still honor our award winners!
Departmental Awards
Undergraduate Student Paper Award

Rei Myers:
Latinx Parents’ Engagement in School Choice
Graduate Student Paper Award

TehQuin Forbes:
Sexuality-Free Majors? LGBTQ+ College Students’ Accounts of Academic Disciplines
Graduate Student Paper Award

 Taylor Jackson:
Moonlight and Contentious Discourse on Facebook after #OscarsSoWhite
Graduate Student Teaching Award

Harry Barbee
Faculty Teaching Award

Dr. Shantel Buggs 
SGSU Awards
Exceptional Service

Ladanya Ramirez Surmeier
Graduate Mentor

TehQuin Forbes
Exceptional Instruction

Dr. Koji Ueno
Faculty Mentor

Dr. Anne Barrett
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