Alumni News

ASA 2012 Presenters and Participants: Alumni

The following recent UT alumni will be presenting and participating at the 2012 ASA annual meeting. (For current faculty and students at ASA, click here.)

For the full conference schedule, click here.

Angotti, Nicole (PhD 2010), Post-doctoral Fellow, Institute of Behavioral Studies, University of Colorado at Boulder
Elliott, Sinikka (PhD 2007), Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, North Carolina State University
Hamilton, Erin R. (PhD 2008), Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, University of California at Davis
Kim, ChangHwan (PhD 2007), Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Kansas
Masters, Ryan Kelly (PhD 2011), Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholar, Columbia University
Montez, Jennifer Karas (PhD 2011), Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholar, Harvard University, 2011-2013; beginning Fall 2013, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Case Western Reserve University
Mueller, Anna Strassmann (PhD 2011), Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Memphis
Reczek, Corinne (PhD 2011), Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Cincinnati
Trinitapoli, Jenny (PhD 2007), Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Pennsylvania State University
Woo, Hyeyoung (PhD 2008), Assistant Professors in the Department of Sociology at Portland State University
Yeatman, Sara (PhD 2007), Assistant Professor, Department of Health and Behavioral Sciences, University of Colorado at Denver
Zhang, Wei (PhD 2007), Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Hawaii-Manoa

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Congratulations to UT Alum Ed Morris for his tenure and promotion to Associate Professor at the University of Kentucky. Watch for his forthcoming book from Rutgers University Press in September.

Rutgers University book series in Childhood Studies

Edward Morris’s second book, Country Boys, City Boys: Masculinity, Place, and the Gender Gap in Education, examines the purported “gender gap” between boys and girls in educational achievement at two low-income high schools. This gender gap – in which girls outperform boys academically – has been much-discussed in the popular media, and has also been treated in a few academic books, but Morris’s exceptional ethnographic study brings a new perspective to this discussion by advancing a more theoretically grounded approach, allowing him to document this gender gap in achievement using contemporary gender theories. The author spent time in two low-income schools, one rural and predominantly white, the other urban and mostly African-American, and uses his in-depth, on-the-scene research to explain how race, class, and geographic location combine to influence and complicate the construction of gender identities among high school students. .

Sociology PhD Alum Receives Early Career Award

Sociology 2006 PhD alum and Assistant Professor at University of Kansas, ChangHwan Kim, received the 2012 Midwest Sociological Society Early Career Scholarship Award. The MSS Early Career Scholarship Award recognizes a number of publications by a younger scholar, working alone or with collaborators, which are particularly meritorious, creative or enlightening. The Midwest Sociological Society offers the Early Career Scholarship Award in order to draw attention to the quality of scholarship being produced by younger scholars and to underscore the Society’s commitment to the professional development of younger scholars and researchers. Congratulations to Dr Kim on this prestigious honor!

UT Austin Alumni Dr. Jenny Trinitapoli and Dr. Sara Yeatman‘s article: “Uncertainty and Fertility in a Generalized AIDS Epidemic,” coming out in the December issue of the American Sociological Review

Article Abstract:
How does what people know they don’t know influence decision-making? A recent study published in the American Sociological Review addresses this question by looking at how young adults in Malawi think about AIDS and childbearing. The Malawian setting is characterized by high HIV prevalence—about 12 percent of the adult population is infected—and widespread worry about the disease. Previous research has examined the influence of AIDS on childbearing by distinguishing between people who test positive for HIV and those who test negative. But this approach ignores the fact that many people don’t know—and know they don’t know—their HIV status. In this study, sociologists Jenny Trinitapoli and Sara Yeatman measure uncertainty by giving their study respondents 10 beans and asking them to use the beans to indicate their likelihood of having and getting HIV. Those who were certain they were HIV positive put 10 beans, those who believed there was no chance they were infected put 0 beans, and responses between 1 and 9 indicated varying degrees of uncertainty. Trinitapoli and Yeatman find that over 30 percent of young Malawians are uncertain (i.e., “know they don’t know”) of their current status and that close to 70 percent are uncertain about what their status will be in the future. They argue that uncertainty is not something that is spread evenly across a population, but rather, is something that is differentially experienced by individuals. This type of personal uncertainty is relevant for how people think about their lives and make decisions. For example, compared to those who are certain they are uninfected, Malawian adults who are uncertain about their HIV status express a desire to accelerate their childbearing—to have their first or next child sooner than others. The authors argue that this acceleration serves a number of purposes including allowing those who are uncertain to have children while they are still healthy.

Miranda Waggoner, UT Alumna and NIH Postdoctoral Fellow at Princeton University is featured in a conversation with Christine Morton about her research on preconception/interconception in Lamaze International’s Science and Sensibility blog.

UT Alumni Julie Reid, Sinikka Elliott and Gretchen Weber publish their research in October’s issue of Gender and Society “Casual Hookups to Formal Dates Refining the Boundaries of the Sexual Double Standard”

UT SOC Alumna Corinne Reczek‘s research on Marriage’s Dark Side cited on MSNBC.com

UT SOC Alumna Nicole Angotti teaching African Sociologists qualitative methods

UT SOC Alumnus Oliver Fischer profiled in Washington Post

Saturday, August 20th – Departmental Alumni Night at ASA

Elyshia Aseltine – Lycoming College
Regular Session. Law and Society
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 21 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Presenter: “Tooled for Capacity: Subverting Justice for Juveniles in Texas’ Municipal Courts”

Matt Bradshaw – Carolina Population Center
Family Session Table 7- Open Refereed Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 21 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Non-Presenter: “Social Status and Fertility: Moderation by a Polymorphism in the Serotonin Transporter Gene”

Amy Burdette – Florida State University
Table 17. Neighborhood Context and Health Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Session Submission Role: Table Presider
Presenter: “Neighborhood Environment and BMI Trajectories from Adolescence to Adulthood”
Table 23. Religion and Health
Section on Medical Sociology Refereed Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Non-Presenter: “Religious Involvement and Biological Risk”

Cati Connell – Boston University
Section on Sex and Gender Paper Session. Gender Identities/Expressions and Social Conflict (co-sponsored with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, Queer Caucus)
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 20 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Session Submission Role: Session Organizer

Sinikka Elliott – North Carolina State University
Theory Section.Sociological Theory and Race, Class, and Gender
Scheduled Time: Tue, Aug 23 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Session Submission Role: Discussant

Chris Ellison – University of Texas, San Antonio
Section on Sociology of Religion Paper Session. Religious Movements and Institutions
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Non-Presenter: “Education and Religion: Compromises toward the Preservation of a Separatist Community”
Table 23. Religion and Health
Section on Medical Sociology Refereed Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Non-Presenter: “Does a Cancer Diagnosis Influence Religiosity? Integrating a Life Course Perspective”
Non-Presenter: “Religious Involvement and Biological Risk”

Sonia Frias – Universidad Autonoma Nacional de Mexico
Table 02. Family in Cross-Cultural Encounters Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Tue, Aug 23 – 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Presenter: Ethnic “Heterogamy and Partner Violence in Mexico”

Erin Hamilton – University of California, Davis
Regular Session. International Migration
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 21 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Session Submission Role: Session Organizer
Regular Session. International Migration II
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 21 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Session Submission Role: Session Organizer

Tod Hamilton – Harvard University
Regular Session. International Migration II
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 21 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Presenter: “Selective Migration and the Earnings Assimilation of Black Immigrants in the United States”

Terrence Hill – Florida State University
Journal of Health and Social Behavior Editorial Board
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 20 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Session Submission Role: Participant
Table 23. Religion and Health
Section on Medical Sociology Refereed Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Session Submission Role: Table Presider
Presenter: “Religious Involvement and Biological Risk”

Kimberly Huyser – University of New Mexico
Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Roundtable
Table 01. Health Disparities
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 21 – 2:30pm – 3:30pm
Session Submission Role: Table Presider

Les Kurtz – George Mason University
Regular Session. Peace and Conflict: Peacebuilding and Nonviolence
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Presenter: “Conflict Resolution, Provocation or Transformation? Ask Gandhi”
Special Session. Nonviolent Strategies and Tactics
Scheduled Time: Tue, Aug 23 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Session Submission Roles: Discussant, Presider and Session Organizer

Hui (Cathy) Liu – Michigan State University
Journal of Health and Social Behavior Editorial Board
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 20 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Session Submission Role: Participant
Regular Session. Health Issues in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Studies
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 20 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Presenter: “Same-Sex Cohabitation and Self-Rated Health”

Belinda Needham – University of Alabama, Birmingham
Table 17. Neighborhood Context and Health Refereed Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Non-Presenter: “Neighborhood Environment and BMI Trajectories from Adolescence to Adulthood”

Jenny Pearson – Wichita State University
Section on Sociology of Education Paper Session. New Perspectives on Gender Inequality in Education
Scheduled Time: Tue, Aug 23 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Presenter: “Same-Sex Attraction and Educational Attainment during the Transition to Adulthood”
Table 17. Schools as Social Contexts: Implications for Inequality Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Session Submission Role: Table Presider

Daniel Ritter – European University Institute
Regular Session. Peace and Conflict: Peacebuilding and Nonviolence
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Non-Presenter: “Conflict Resolution, Provocation or Transformation? Ask Gandhi”
Table 03. Social Movements and Human Rights rountable
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 20 – 10:30am – 11:30am
Presenter: “Direct and Indirect Political Opportunities in Nonviolent Revolution”

Heeju Shin – University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Regular Session. Comparative Sociology: States in the Semi-periphery: Origins, Organization, and Performance
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 20 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Presenter: “Single Motherhood in Mexico and South Korea: Welfare, Labor Market, and Family Practice”

Isao Takei – Nihon University
Table 06. Gender, Race, and Occupational Choices
Section on Asia and Asian America / Section on Asia and Asian America Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Tue, Aug 23 – 2:30pm – 3:30pm
Presenter: “Regional Selectivity and the Earnings of Asian American Men”

Jeremy Uecker – University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Section on Sociology of Religion Paper Session. Gender, Class, and Ethnicity
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 21 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Non-Presenter: “No Money, No Honey, No Church: The Religious Deinstitutionalization of the White Working Class”

Lindsey Wilkinson- Portland State University
Section on Sociology of Education Paper Session. New Perspectives on Gender Inequality in Education
Scheduled Time: Tue, Aug 23 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Non-Presenter: “Same-Sex Attraction and Educational Attainment during the Transition to Adulthood”

Hyeyoung Woo – Portland State University
Regular Session. Gender and Work: Gender, Jobs and Earnings
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Presenter: “Gender Earnings Disparity among College Educated Workers: Fields of Study, Occupational Segregation, and Family Structure”

Meredith Worthen – University of Oklahoma
Table 09. Sexualities on Campus Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 21 – 2:30pm – 3:30pm
Presenter: “College Student Experiences with an LGBTQ Ally Training Program”

Sara Yeatman – University of Colorado, Denver
Regular Session. Fertility
Scheduled Time: Sun, Aug 21 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Non-Presenter: “The Stability of Fertility Preferences and the Determinants of Change Among Young Women in Malawi”
Table 02. Causes and Consequences of Health for Children
Section on Sociology of Population Refereed Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Sat, Aug 20 – 4:30pm – 5:30pm
Non-Presenter: “Ethnic Differences in Children’s Living Arrangements in Rural Malawi”

Wei Zhang – University of Hawaii, Maui
Table 11. Immigration and Health
Section on Medical Sociology Refereed Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Presenter: “Health disparities and a sense of well-being between multi- and mono-ethnic Asian Americans in Hawaii”