Our faculty continue to excel in their diverse endeavors, contributing significantly to their respective fields through impactful research, innovative pedagogy, and dedicated service.
Our faculty continue to excel in their diverse endeavors, contributing significantly to their respective fields through impactful research, innovative pedagogy, and dedicated service. This series of updates highlights some of their recent achievements and ongoing projects, showcasing the breadth and depth of contributions to our students and our institution. Read on to learn more about their exciting work:
Di Di recently published an article titled “Navigating Ethical Boundaries: Subtle Agency and Compliance Among Tech Workers in China and the United States,” co-authored with Bryce Nishikawa ’24 (Sociology, Ethnic Studies) in Big Data & Society. Drawing on 98 interviews with tech workers in both China and the United States, the article examines how these workers experience and respond to ethical tensions in their workplaces. Di Di and Bryce are grateful for the support provided by the Department of Sociology and the College of Arts and Science, which made this collaboration possible. In addition, Di Di participated in Wisdom 2.0 – Disruption, a forum that explores how we can remain meaningfully connected through technology in ways that support personal well-being, productive work, and the global good. In conversation with founder Soren Gordhamer, she discussed the future of AI, technology, and spirituality, reflecting on the ethical implications of a potential algorithmic future for religion and spiritual life. Finally, on April 30, Di Di presented a paper titled “Who Gets Heard? Atheism, Religious Pluralism, and Engagement on Social Media” at the New Directions for Global Research on Religious Violence and Pluralism conference held in Paris.
Maggie Hunter recently published an article titled, “Prescribed, Ritualized, and Activated Belonging: A Qualitative Study of Student Belonging at a Historically Black College and University” with co-authors from Morehouse College and University of Redlands. The article explores the unique practices at HBCUs that create student belonging and lead to student success. Maggie presented a paper at Seattle University’s “Race, Racialization and Resistance Conference” titled, “Diversity Requirements and the Banning of Racial Knowledge” where she explored how universities can teach about diversity and social justice in a context of educational gag orders. Maggie also partnered with Dean of the Library, Nicole Branch, to teach a Spark Seminar called, “Culture Wars: Book Bans, DEI, and the Politics of Information” to help students better understand the rapidly changing federal efforts to censor knowledge and information.
Molly M. King recently published a book chapter “Climate Change, Disasters, and Disability: A Critical View and the Implications for Disability-Inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction” with Ana Martinez ‘23. The chapter explores how mainstream climate-related disaster policies and procedures fail to meet the needs of people with disabilities with other marginalized identities, including gender, race/ethnicity, and LGBTQ+. Molly also continues her research with Postdoctoral Fellow Ruodan Liu; together with research assistant Isa Fernandez ‘25, they presented preliminary results at the Pacific Sociological Association Meetings. Their research examines the role of gender in shaping collaboration patterns in scientific networks. This spring, Molly had the opportunity to teach a new discussion seminar course “(Dis)Ability, Health, and the Commodification of Wellness, designed with the assistance of Peer Educator Annie Yaeger ‘26.
Laura Nichols has been enjoying getting to know our students and their aspirations in her role as chair. As well as connecting with more of our alumni. So many of our alumni volunteered to mentor sociology and other social science students, we are so grateful for your generosity. In terms of teaching, Laura has continued to be inspired by students and the range of topics they chose for their Applied Sociology capstones. She also taught Sociology of Education this past quarter. In terms of research, she finished the first phase of her American Talent Initiative grant on student experiences transferring from community colleges to private selective schools. She was grateful for the partnership with seniors Iliana Rodriguez ‘25 and Alexis Rivera ‘25 as well as San Jose Community College partner (and former SCU employee), William Garcia. The research team was able to present the results of their work in a research brief, webinar, and at the Pacific Sociological Association meetings. Laura is hoping to work with more students this summer and next academic year to implement and evaluate the suggestions that grew out of the findings to make the SCU transfer experience better for current and future students.
Besides working on several academic publications and contributing commentaries for different stations of the Telemundo and Univision networks, Enrique S. Pumar has been preparing to transition to Emeritus Professor at the end of this academic year. He plans to continue his collaboration with Heidi Rademacher, from SUNY Brockport, on two different projects. The first involves editing a second special issue of the journal Sociology of Development for which we wrote the introductive paper. They are also working on co-editing the Handbook of Contemporary Sociology of Development, where I also plan to contribute a chapter on postcolonial theory. This fall, one of his papers on inclusive development in the Dominican Republic will be published in Sociology of Development. In the next two years, he plans to stay busy working on the Handbook, coordinating the Sustainable Development Committee of the Johns Hopkins University Center for Global Poverty, and writing a solo book titled National Development and Social Theory. His last academic project for next year is to write an invited essay on the contemporary scholarship on Goffman for Contemporary Sociology. Very frequently, all these academic endeavors will take second place to his very strong desire to hang around with his grandchildren, especially Landon, the soccer star of the family, while they welcome their fifth grandchild in London this summer.
This year, Laura Robinson was honored to be chosen for the Miller Center Impact Excellence Award. She continues to enjoy working with students to enrich their time at SCU, launch their careers, and/or prepare them for graduate school both in the U.S. and abroad. Continuing work in digital inclusion, one of her recent publications is “Empowering pandemic pivots: the inclusive power of remote work and school” with Bianca Reisdorf in Information, Communication & Society. The article examines how “going remote continues to impact marginalized populations in unexpectedly positive ways and meet needs that are invisible to dominant populations” in order to “make the case for remote work and school as new frontiers in digital inclusion with particular benefit to traditionally underrepresented groups.” Drawing on the Symbolic Interactionist tradition, Hochschild’s emotion work framework and Goffman’s impression management and stigma are deployed “to reveal interactional mechanisms through which digital communication modalities offer a way to circumvent some of the deleterious aspects of face-to-face social interaction that occur in these institutional spheres. Digital interaction tools facilitate flexibility and greater control of impression management to avoid stigma among workers and students who are most at risk of being marginalized or harmed in face-to-face institutionally embedded interactions. Thus, both remote work and school can supply new avenues for institutional inclusion of particular value for those who suffer the most from bias, stigma, and/or discrimination in face-to-face institutional settings governed by norms that were built by those with privilege to serve and replicate their privilege.”
