Spring 2022 Issue

Welcome to the Spring 2022 issue of Sociology News. We have a new addition in this newsletter: As part of the regular announcement detailing faculty and student “Publications, Awards, and Other Accomplishments,” you will notice a new section on “Alumni Accomplishments.” If you graduated with a degree from the WSU Department of Sociology and have an accomplishment that relates to the education you received from the department that you would like to share in the newsletter, please send us an email to sociology.news@wsu.edu.

In this issue, we feature an interview with Jennifer Schwartz, inaugural awardee of the James F. Short Professorship, and we announce Erik Johnson as the new director of Graduate Studies.

With great sadness, we share news of the death of Professor Clayton Mosher, who passed away in January 2022.

Mari Amorim talks about her novel article on the effects of the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend on child-related investments across the socioeconomic spectrum, and for our Alumni Spotlight, we catch up with Marcia Gossard, Pui-Yan Lam, and Kevin Wright. It is fantastic to hear about the variety of interesting and important ways our alumni employ their WSU sociology training.

In “Undergraduate Highlights,” we feature two outstanding seniors, Bosco “Xavier” Aburto and Jesse Brazil.

Additionally, the department has continued the popular Sociologists @ Work Series, focused on sociology PhDs working outside of academia, and was honored to have a number of fantastic speakers this academic year.

Finally, we share the many publications, awards, and other accomplishments our faculty and graduate students have received since our Fall edition and highlight the accomplishments of a WSU Sociology alum.

The department wishes you well, wherever you may be, and we hope you have an excellent spring and summer.

Thomas Rotolo, rotolo@wsu.edu

Sadie Ridgeway, sadie.ridgeway@wsu.edu