We are excited to share our accomplishments for the Spring 2026 semester! In this feature, we would also like to give a special thank you to our program coordinator, Sydney Davies, who will be leaving after this semester. Sydney was an invaluable part of the department, knowledgeable and helpful to faculty, staff, graduate students, and undergraduate students. Alongside facilitating many departmental tasks and operations, each semester Sydney helped compile the achievements of the department that comprise the list. We will dearly miss her many contributions to the department and wish Sydney the best in all future endeavors.
‡ Faculty
* Graduate Students
Congratulations
Vanessa Delgado‡ was awarded a Borchard Foundation Grant.
Anne Johnson‡ was awarded the ADVANCE External Mentorship grant.
Jennifer Schwartz’s‡ article, co-authored with Darrell Steffensmeier, Jessie Slepicka, and Yunmei Lu, titled “Has Postponed Entry into Adult Roles Modified Age-Crime Curves? Age-Arrest Patterns of Teens, Emerging Adults and Adult Age Groups, 1980-2019” published in Justice Quarterly was selected by the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences as the 2026 recipient of the Donal MacNamara Award for Outstanding Journal Publication.
Xinyue Wu* has been accepted to the 2026 Population and Social Data Science Summer Incubator Program at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) in Rostock, Germany, focusing on “Digitalization, AI, and Inequalities.”
Thomas Rotolo‡, Sadie Ridgeway (PhD 2023), and Jennifer Schwartz’s‡ article “Teaching with Inclusivity: Examining Flexible Pedagogical Techniques That Amplify Accessibility While Retaining Engagement” was the featured article by the American Sociological Association for Teaching Sociology in January.
Vanessa Delgado‡ is a collaborator for a WSU President’s Big Ideas Initiative Award.
Jingyu Lang* was accepted into the Methodology Center at the Summer Institute on Longitudinal Data Analysis at Purdue University.
Bronwyn Valentine* won the GPSA Presidential Election and will be serving as President of GPSA for the 2026-2027 Academic Year.
Safiya Hafiz* won first place in the College of Arts and Sciences 3 Minute Thesis competition. She went on to represent the College of Arts and Sciences at the University-wide 3 Minute Thesis competition.
Christian Maynard* successfully defended his dissertation, titled “Dazed and Confused: How Criminalization and Legalization of Cannabis Shape Use, Perceived Risks, and Reported Availability”.
Tinashe Chirume* successfully defended his dissertation, titled “State-Society Relations and Fragile Durability in Zimbabwe: Legitimation, Contention, and State Response Across Historical Periods”.
Ash Plummer* successfully defended their MA thesis, titled “Developing Queer Identity in the Rural Inland Pacific Northwest”.
Audrey Bruening* successfully defended her MA thesis, titled “Fluidity of Adolescent Latine Identity”.
Azdren Coma (PhD 2025) accepted a position at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.
Publications
Anne Johnson‡ had her paper ““Significant bodily intrusions”: A theoretical exploration of law enforcement phlebotomy and the creation of the patient/suspect” accepted for publication at Theoretical Criminology.
Steven Mejia‡ had an article, “Dependent Development and Economic Inequality,” accepted for publication at the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Sociology.
Sherman, Jennifer‡ and Jennifer Schwartz‡. 2025. “‘Good Old Boys from Good Old Families’: Rural Criminal-Legal Involvements and the Reproduction of Social Inequality.” Rural Sociology 90(4): 1-16.
Sherman, Jennifer‡, Michelle Weston*, and Jennifer Schwartz‡. Forthcoming (2026). “‘A System that Keeps You Stuck’: Rural Poverty and the Criminal-Legal System.” In Understanding Poverty through Lived Experiences, E. Brooke Kelly, Matthew Jerome Schneider, Tracy Vargas, and Julia Waity, editors. Rowman and Littlefield Press.
Sherman, Jennifer‡, Ish Green*, Whitney Shervey*,and Michelle Weston*. Forthcoming. “Rural Communities.” In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Sociology. New York: Oxford University Press.
Xinyue Wu* and Mariana Amorim‡ had a paper titled “Return Migration and Educational Investments in Children in China: Hukou Differences and the Role of Parental Coresidence” accepted for publication at Demographic Research.
Justin Denney‡ had a paper accepted in the American Journal of Public Health entitled “Food Security by Racial and Ethnic Identity Among Lower-Income Adults”.
Justin Denney‡, with colleagues from the University of Colorado and Western Washington University, had a paper accepted in the Journals of Gerontology: Social Sciences entitled “Hearing Impairment and Adult Mortality: The Role of Co-Impairments in Understanding Risk”.
Steven Mejia‡ had an article, “Economic Development and the Environment: Revisiting Ecological Modernization Theory and the Environmental Kuznets Curve, 1990-2010,” accepted for publication at Social Science Quarterly.
Steven Mejia‡ had a paper, “The Domestic and Global Determinants of Hunger: Homogeneous Liberal and Illiberal World Society Effects, 2001-2019,” accepted at the International Journal of Comparative Sociology.
Presentations
Jingyu Lang* had a poster Parental Emotional Support and Racial Disparities in Health in Early Adulthood: A Preliminary Examination, accepted for presentation at the Population Association of America 2026.
Steven Mejia‡ was accepted to present a paper entitled “The Structural Sources of Democratic Backsliding, 1960-2022” at the 2026 Future of World Society Conference in March 2026 at Stanford University.
Anna Zamora-Kapoor‡ was interviewed and quoted in: “Smart homes, sensor tech help people live healthy lives”, by Shawn Vestal, WSU Insider
Jenn Sherman‡ gave the talk, “Rural Gentrification, Symbolic Capital, and Housing Insecurity.” Presented to Reimagining the Future of Rural Economies, Housing, and Education in the United States Webinar, Institute for Research on Poverty at University of Wisconsin-Madison. February 25, Zoom.
Jenn Sherman‡ gave the talk, “Bad People and Good Ol’ Boys: The Criminalization of Rural Disadvantage.” Presented to Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center, February 12, Wenatchee, WA.
Vanessa Delgado‡ was an invited speaker for the UC Berkeley Immigration Working Group.
Vanessa Delgado‡ was an invited speaker for the University of Massachusetts, Amherst Edwin C. Gentzler Translation Center.
Steven Mejia‡ presented his manuscript entitled “The Structural Sources of Democratic Backsliding, 1960-2022” at the 2026 Future of World Society Conference at Stanford University.
Steven Mejia‡had a paper/abstract for the manuscript entitled “The Structural Sources of Democratic Backsliding, 1960-2022” accepted for the Democratic Backsliding and the Erosion of Human Rights panel of the Political Sociology section of the 2026 American Sociological Association meeting in New York.
Xinyue Wu* has a paper accepted for presentation at ASA 2026 in the Methodology Section, titled “Learning Personalized Retirement Policies from Observational Data using Offline Reinforcement Learning.”
Andrew Myers* presented a poster titled: “Who Counts? Health and Disability Measurement” at the WSU GPSA Research Expo.
Jingyu Lang* presented a poster titled: “Parental Emotional Support and Racial Disparities in Health” at the WSU GPSA Research Expo.
Bronwyn Valentine* presented a poster titled: “The Association of Depression Symptoms and Depression Diagnosis with Socioeconomic Attainment from Childhood to Adulthood” at the WSU GPSA Research Expo.
Jasmine Wiillis* presented a poster titled: “The Implications of Political Affiliation and Age on Environmental Ambivalence: A Cross-National Study” at the WSU GPSA Research Expo.
Spring 2026 Department Annual Awards
olivia pavek received the College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Senior award.
Taryn Yeater received the Sociology Academic Achievement Recognition.
Isha Snow and Madeline Fagglioni-Fischer received the Marjorie Taylor Tripp Scholarship.
Madeline Fagglioni-Fischer, Kaylee Adam, and graduate student Kayla Lendy* received the Paul and Bessie Landis Scholarship.
Claire Force, Isha Snow, Liliana Rodriguez, and Troy Siemers received the Jeanne Jewett Scholarship.
Eli Becerril and Kaylee Adam received the Ruth Magnuson Roberts Scholarship.
Isha Snow, Eli Becerril, Kaylee Adam, Kaelin Cobb, Gillian Myers, Jayden Leighton, and graduate students Andrew Myers*, Ash Plummer*, Paisley Smith*, Bronwyn Valentine*, and Jasmine Willis* received the Herbert and May Neil Scholarship.
Isha Snow, Eli Becerril, and graduate students Andrew Myers*, Ash Plummer*, and Jasmine Willis* received the Roberta Cline Frasier Anderson Scholarship.
Audrey Bruening*, Cassie Rueda*, Michaela McParland*, Joao Augusto Rodrigues*, Paisley Smith*, Bronwyn Valentine*, and Jasmine Willis* received the Fred R. Yoder Memorial Graduate Fellowship in Sociology.
Jingyu Lang* received the Karen Jennison & Kenneth Johnson Graduate Student Travel award.
Kayla Lendy* and Joao Augusto Rodrigues* received the Gordon D. and Izola P. Graduate Student Fellowship in Sociology.
Bronwyn Valentine* and Seth Wood* received the Milton Rokeach and Sandra Ball-Rokeach Graduate Student Fellowship.
Safiya Hafiz* received the Joseph R. DeMartini Travel Grant.
Jingyu Lang* and Xinyue Wu* received the Don Dillman Fellowship.
Xinyue Wu* received the James F. Short Jr. Research Award.
Audrey Bruening* and Safiya Hafiz* received the Susan and Sarah Dolan Memorial award.
Jennifer Sherman‡ received the Louis N. Gray Graduate Student Advocate Award.