Sociology Department Welcomes New Graduate Students

By Jordan Rinehart

The WSU Department of Sociology welcomed eight new PhD students at the beginning of the Fall 2013 semester. These students came from across the United States and abroad to pursue a variety of sociological research interests, including environmental and political sociology, inequality, education, and crime.

These members of the new graduate studies cohort brings the total number of sociology graduate students at WSU to 39, all of whom are at various stages of completing their programs of study. Environmental sociology, political sociology, criminology, deviance, and stratification are among the major interests of this student cohort. The research activity of all WSU Sociology graduate students includes these issues and more, with major emphases on social issues faced by today’s society. Whether examining the effect of mass incarceration on the wellbeing of underserved communities, or exploring the proximity of environmental disasters to high crime neighborhoods, the 2013 cohort has their future academic work cut out for them.

Joining the department from as far away as China and as nearby as Idaho, the 2013 WSU Sociology cohort is prepared to tackle issues of social development and equity. To view the profiles of these and other graduate students in Sociology, visit the department’s website. Here is a snapshot of the new cohort.

Yikang Bai (MA in Translation Studies, Shandong University; research focus in stratification and education)

Lindsey Beltz (BA in Sociology and Anthropology, College of Idaho; research focus in crime and deviance, mass incarceration, and law and society)

Pierce Greenberg (BS in Journalism, Belmont University; research focus in political sociology and criminology)

Nathan Lindstedt (BA in Sociology, University of Idaho; research focus in environmental and political sociology and social movements)

Thomas Marlow (BA in Environmental Studies, Illinois Wesleyan University; research focus in environmental and political sociology)

Sarah Miley (BA in Sociology, Colorado State University; research focus in environmental sociology, sociology of risk, and social norms)

Jarred Williams (BA in Sociology with summa cum laude, University of Hawaii; research focus in criminology and stratification)

Darcy Hauslik (BA in Sociology and Political Science, University of San Diego; research focus in environmental and political sociology)