NEWS FROM THE OHIO STATE DEPARTMENT OF
SOCIOLOGY FALL 2018
GENOCIDE AND ITS AFTERMATH IN RWANDA Assistant Professor Hollie Nyseth Brehm established Ohio State’s first study abroad program in Rwanda to immerse students in the historical context and repercussions of the 1994 Rwandan genocide [read more on pg. 4].
A MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR In 2004, I left Duke University as an assistant professor of sociology to embark on a career here at Ohio State. Why leave the comfort of a top-ranked private school? Because of this department’s rich history of academic excellence combined with its very special culture of collegiality, collaboration and passion. I wanted to build my career in a department that was on the move and striving for excellence at the same time it had heart; in short, I wanted it all — to work with a community of top-notch scholars and students who also cared about and supported one another while doing their part to make the world a better place. How fortunate I was to land at Ohio State. Now, nearly 15 years later, the excellence and “heart” of our department are stronger than ever. As you will see in the stories that follow, our faculty and students, with the help of our excellent staff, are gaining more national and international attention than ever for groundbreaking research that has far-reaching impacts on society. Our students are being trained to develop evidence-based arguments, rigorously evaluate different research methods, interpret data and work with diverse populations. But we don’t stop there. Through service-learning and internships, sociology-based study abroad opportunities and immersive research experiences, our students have a myriad of ways to find their unique path to contribute to society. As department chair, one of my priorities has been to find new ways to connect to our large, diverse alumni community and to tap their enormous talents to help advance our department’s mission. In 2015, we established our inaugural Sociology Advisory Board. In a short time, the board has accomplished so much — they are a source of knowledge for our students and a sounding board for the department and they help generate resources for student-based initiatives. As you read more about the board and its activities, I invite you to think of how you might want to connect with the department — please take a moment to visit our website, sociology.osu.edu, and complete our alumni survey. If you are a department alumnus, I hope you feel the same pride that I do being a part of this amazing, vibrant and caring community that is Ohio State Sociology! GO BUCKS!
Claudia Buchmann Department Chair
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OHIO STATE SOCIOLOGY BY THE NUMBERS #17
Best Graduate Programs in the U.S. (#8 Among Public Universities)
#10
Best Graduate Program in the Social Stratification Specialty
More than 3 million grant dollars awarded to faculty members annually
In the Top 10% for Publications per Faculty Member
16:1
100 percent: Sociology and criminology students complete an internship, undergraduate research or service learning project or study abroad!
In the Top 10% for Faculty Research Grants
Undergraduate Student-to-Faculty Ratio
More than 800 undergraduate sociology and criminology majors
2:1
Graduate Student-to-Faculty Ratio
29
Professors Nearly 300 undergraduate minors
65
PhD Students
CONTENTS
4
On the Cover: Genocide and Rwanda
5
Our Students
10
Department Honors and Recognition
11 Research
17
22
Our Alumni Invest in Ohio State Sociology
sociology.osu.edu | 3
Hollie Nyseth Brehm with Ohio State students at the main genocide memorial in Kigali, Rwanda, June 2018.
ON THE COVER
GENOCIDE AND ITS AFTERMATH IN RWANDA Assistant Professor Hollie Nyseth Brehm established Ohio State’s Genocide and its Aftermath in Rwanda study abroad program to immerse students in the historical context and repercussions of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The program — now in its second year — introduces students to the causes of genocide, how genocides unfold and how countries rebuild in the aftermath of violence. Students spend a week with homestay families and attend lectures at the School for International Training (SIT) headquarters in the Rwandan capital, Kigali. They learn about Rwandan culture and spend a day at the national university in an exchange with local university students. They travel to genocide memorials, museums, Rwandan government offices, survivor organizations and women’s cooperatives, among others. Finally, they are witness to the testimonies from people who were rescued during the genocide, those who participated in the violence and those who survived.
Coming to Rwanda and fully entrenching myself into its history and culture has shown me a new dimension to what it means to be open, especially with my education. I hope that I can carry on all the lessons I’ve learned to build a future where we can be just a little bit better than we were yesterday.
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OUR STUDENTS
UNDERGRADUATE: EDITH FUENTES Since Edith Fuentes was a young girl, she has been inspired by social justice issues. While a student at Westerville South High School, Fuentes was selected to serve a one-year term on the prestigious Teen Ambassador Board of the Ohio Attorney General’s Office. For a young teenager fascinated with crime and justice, it was an unparalleled opportunity to engage in government and law. “I met with Attorney General Mike DeWine and became actively involved in helping draft policies addressing issues that affect teens like the importance of mental health awareness,” said Fuentes. “It gave me an opportunity to learn firsthand about the importance of public service and the critical role that law and policing have on the function of government.” By the time Fuentes enrolled at Ohio State, she knew what she wanted to accomplish — gain “real-world” experience addressing some of the greatest issues facing our communities, excel academically and seize every opportunity to learn about different cultures and communities. Now in her final year in the Department of Sociology, this first-generation student is well on her way to achieving those goals before she graduates in 2019. Between her sophomore and junior years, Fuentes studied abroad in Costa Rica. Also, before her senior year she participated in the Race, Revolution and Culture education abroad program in Cuba. “The experience to study abroad is such a privilege,” said Fuentes. “It’s not only a great opportunity to learn and to travel but to find a little bit of yourself in your expeditions as a student who represents The Ohio State University.” “Edith has shown herself to be an exceptional student,” said Susan Van Pelt, Fuentes’ academic advisor for the past four years. “She has been recognized with dean’s list distinction each semester, all while working one — sometimes two — part-time jobs and studying abroad. She has impressed me with her work ethic and personal vision.” Fuentes’ efforts led Van Pelt to recommend her for a coveted spot in the John Glenn Washington Academic Internship Program. From January 2018 through April 2018, Fuentes interned with the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington and focused on criminal cases involving immigration issues. From June to early fall, she worked with the U.S. Department of Transportation, learning the process and
Edith Fuentes at the U.S. Department of Justice, April 15, 2018. Fuentes worked in the office of international affairs where she focused on criminal cases in Latin America.
mechanics of civil cases while working with attorneys, field specialists and senior executives. “My experience in Washington, D.C., was incredibly rewarding,” said Fuentes. “As a Mexican-American, working with lawyers on issues around immigration, poverty and race, it was really personal for me.” Fuentes is back in Columbus for her final year in the Department of Sociology. She has decided to add an economics minor to her plate to expand her focus on issues related to immigration. In addition, she will be traveling to Tijuana, Mexico, for an intense study program on immigration and poverty. She is contemplating a career in law. Fuentes will tell you that only four percent of the lawyers in the United States are Hispanic, and of that four percent, only one percent are women. “The odds have never scared me,” she said. “Instead, they motivate me to change history.” sociology.osu.edu | 5
OUR STUDENTS
UNDERGRADUATE: LEROY RICKSY JR. Unlike most high school students, LeRoy Ricksy Jr. (criminology and criminal justice, 2018) knew before he came to Ohio State that the Department of Sociology was his destination. “I wanted to major in a field that was close to forensic science,” he said. “My mom is a corrections officer, and almost all of my aunts and uncles are in the police force around the country — I knew sociology would help me better understand people, policing and its impact on communities.” The Harlem, New York, native found his way to Ohio State through the Morrill Scholarship Program, the university’s premier merit scholarship program, rewarding academically talented students engaged in diversitybased leadership, service and social justice activities. Once on campus, Ricksy met Susan Van Pelt, one of the department’s academic advisors, and their relationship over the next four years allowed Ricksy to flourish and build an outstanding academic and research portfolio. “Susan was a great mentor and advocate for me,” said Ricksy. “She knew my passions and my vision, and she was always following up with me on opportunities and experiences to build my career. She made sure that the classes I took were crucial and significant to my career plans.” One of the classes that Van Pelt recommended was Introduction to Law & Society, taught by Ryan King, professor of sociology. “Professor King really challenged me to think critically and engage in debate,” said Ricksy. “The opportunity to write a legal brief as an undergraduate was amazing — most of my friends at other schools never got that chance. I made sure right then and there to take all of his courses.” During Ricksy’s first year, he took a trip to Chillicothe, Ohio, as part of a course on leadership and poverty. For
LeRoy Ricksy at the 26th Annual Ohio State Afrikan American Farewell Celebration, spring 2018. With Ricksy is Ohio State’s Dr. James L. Moore III, vice provost and chief diversity officer, Office of Academic Affairs and Dr. Javaune Adams-Gaston, senior vice president for student life.
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the first time in his life, he met students and teachers from Appalachia — a part of the country unknown to him. “It was a real eye-opening experience,” he said. “I met people who didn’t look a thing like me but were struggling with similar problems that inner-city residents face.” As a result of his experience in Chillicothe, Ricksy became a coordinator of Ohio State’s A Day in the Life of a Buckeye program, working with Appalachian and urban high school students to experience life at Ohio State. He also served as an inclusion advisor for the Undergraduate Student Government and president of the student organization, Band of Brothers, providing resources for the development of African American men on campus. In 2017, Ohio State honored Ricksy with the Distinguished Diversity Enhancement Award. One of the things Ricksy hoped to do before he graduated was study abroad to enhance his course work in law and criminal justice. With Van Pelt’s encouragement and support, Ricksy applied and was accepted to the Ohio State/University of Oxford Summer Pre-Law Program, the oldest overseas pre-law program in existence. Before his last year as an undergraduate, Ricksy spent his summer in England, gaining invaluable, hands-on experience in Great Britain’s legal system. “Studying in a university that has had a major role in developing our current legal system was really valuable preparation for me for law school,” Ricksy said. Ricksy began his first year at Ohio State’s Moritz College of Law in August. King, one of Ricksy’s faculty mentors, wrote Ricksy a letter of recommendation. “I have no doubt that LeRoy will be an outstanding lawyer,” he said. “LeRoy’s motivation to learn about the law is coupled with integrity and leadership qualities. He sets the bar high for himself as a student and as a citizen.”
David Martinez (MA, anthropology, The Ohio State University), academic advisor; Susan Van Pelt (MA, educational psychology, University of Nebraska), academic advisor; Andrew Martin (PhD, sociology, Pennsylvania State University), professor and director, undergraduate studies.
OUR UNDERGRADUATE ADVISING STAFF The undergraduate advising staff in the Department of Sociology is located on the first floor of Townshend Hall. It’s where every year, more than 800 sociology and criminology majors go to share their dreams, talk about their concerns and map out their futures. They meet their advisors before they ever step foot into a classroom; they circle back with them again and again as they navigate their way toward graduation. “Advising is so much more than directing students to the right class,” said Susan Van Pelt, academic advisor. “It’s about helping them to understand all of the opportunities available to them and challenging them to do more than they think they can.” Van Pelt has been in the advising arena for more than 20 years; the last five in the sociology department. She chose the field because of her own experience as an undergraduate at Bowling Green. “When I was a student, I was keenly aware of how important extracurricular experiences were in helping me develop personally and professionally,” she said. “I wanted to become a part of making the college experience for other students equally fulfilling.” David Martinez, academic advisor, found his way into advising by mere happenstance. As a graduate student in anthropology at Ohio State, Martinez took on the role of unofficial advisor and mentor to several undergraduates while working on his MA research and during his time as a course instructor. It was an eye-opening experience.
“I had that ‘aha’ moment,” he said. “For the last nine years, I have loved every minute helping students flourish and discover what it is that they love and want to do.” On any given day, Van Pelt and Martinez are helping students connect to study-abroad and service-learning opportunities that challenge and broaden their horizons; apply for research positions and internships that enhance their knowledge; and navigate more than 1,000 student organizations and groups at Ohio State to help them prosper on and off-campus. They write countless letters of recommendation and support students seeking scholarships, grants, graduate school admission and careers. Sociology Professor Andrew Martin is the director of undergraduate studies. He knows how critical advising is to student success. “I think we do a great job training our students for the future,” he said. “At the heart of everything we do is a deep dedication to helping our students realize their full potential and find their path.” Martin, Martinez and Van Pelt have attended so many commencement events in the department that they’ve lost count. What hasn’t been lost on them, however, are the times students bring their parents over to meet them during the celebrations. Those moments are the ones that stick with them for a long time. “When the parents and the students say, ‘Thank you for making such a difference,’ it’s the biggest thrill,” said Van Pelt. “It’s that moment when you know you’re doing it right.” sociology.osu.edu | 7
OUR STUDENTS
GRADUATE: SADÉ LINDSAY Sadé Lindsay has persevered through trials few her age have ever known. While lining up for the procession into Ohio Stadium for graduation in 2015, Lindsay got a phone call. Her brother had been killed in a car accident. Within a month of starting her journey as a graduate student, her father lost his battle with cancer. Despite these tragic losses, Lindsay continues to prevail. Since her career as a graduate student began, she has been selected by the American Society of Criminology for a Ruth D. Peterson Fellowship for Racial and Ethnic Diversity and by Ohio State’s College of Arts and Sciences for its Graduate Student Award for Distinguished Service. Lindsay’s research on racial inequities in media coverage of the opioid and crack epidemics garnered her honorable mentions from the National Science Foundation and the Ford Foundation. As judged by her faculty mentors and peers alike, Lindsay has tremendous potential to become a leading scholar in the field of criminology. A Columbus native, Lindsay attended Eastmoor Academy, where she excelled in academics and athletics; as a junior, she was selected to The Columbus Dispatch All-League Girls Basketball team. Her discipline and determination earned her an academic scholarship to Ohio State, which worked out just fine for the avid Buckeye fan. “I have an extreme love for all things Buckeyes,” she said. “My mom went to Ohio State, and growing up in Columbus, you’re all about Buckeye pride.” As an undergraduate, Lindsay discovered her passion for criminology when she took a criminal justice course taught by senior lecturer Deborah Wilson. “I loved the course,” said Lindsay. “I loved learning about legal cases, and my instructor was so inspiring that I started taking as many sociology classes as I could.” Lindsay eventually switched her major to criminology and began formulating ideas for a series of research projects, one of which would become her master’s thesis. When she graduated with her BA in criminology, the opioid epidemic was just beginning to emerge onto the public scene. Lindsay had been following the news as the crisis unfolded and began to question whether race played a role in how the media and public responded 8 | DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY
to the opioid crisis as opposed to how they responded to the crack cocaine epidemic of the late 1980s. “Looking at just the media, I found significant differences in how the epidemics were reported,” said Lindsay. “Cocaine was treated as a public safety issue demanding aggressive police responses whereas opioid use has been framed as a public health issue, requiring a therapeutic approach.” Lindsay’s research revealed the extent to which press coverage would humanize opioid users but demonize or otherwise dismiss crack cocaine users as criminals. “The state’s response to the heroin epidemic has been far less punitive than the crack epidemic; whereas during the crack crisis, the state and federal government focused much more on policing and incarcerating,” Lindsay said. According to Ryan King, professor of sociology who served on Lindsay’s master’s thesis committee, Lindsay has an extraordinary work ethic and ability to envision new and compelling research questions that connect multiple areas of the discipline. “Sadé Lindsay performed brilliantly in my graduate seminar,” King said. “It is precisely this quality — grit and willingness to put in the necessary hours on a project — that separates students who succeed from those who falter during graduate school.”
Lindsay’s adeptness at developing independent research ideas is further demonstrated by her work with fellow graduate students. In a project that has already won both external and internal graduate student paper awards and was recently published in the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, Lindsay and two graduate student peers in her cohort analyzed how mass shootings are covered in the media depending on the race of the perpetrator. The paper demonstrates how white shooters are medicalized, while black shooters are criminalized. “Sadé is developing a coherent research trajectory on cultural representations of race and its implications for racial inequality and public policy,” said Michael Vuolo, associate professor and Lindsay’s faculty advisor. “I believe wholeheartedly in the importance of her research to further both her own career as well as address longstanding issues in social inequality.” In addition to showing tremendous intellectual maturity and diligence, Lindsay is a tireless advocate for underrepresented groups on campus and in her community. For several years, she has been volunteering weekends as a mentor to the young men incarcerated at the Circleville Juvenile Correction Facility in hopes of breaking the cycle of criminal recidivism. “They remind me of my cousins and brother,” she said. “I don’t look at them any differently than many of the people I grew up with — they need guidance and support.”
DOCTORAL STUDENTS PUBLISH STUDY OF MEDIA BIAS IN COVERAGE OF MASS SHOOTINGS White mass shooters receive much more sympathetic treatment in the media than black shooters, according to a new study by sociology doctoral students Scott Duxbury, Laura Frizzell and Sadé Lindsay. Their study appeared online in the July 2018 issue of the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency. Duxbury, lead author of the study, along with Frizzell and Lindsay, analyzed coverage of 219 attacks. Their findings revealed that white shooters were far more likely to be described as “mentally ill” than black shooters. “Much of the media coverage of white shooters framed them as sympathetic characters who were suffering from extreme life circumstances,” said Duxbury. But black shooters were usually made to seem dangerous and a menace to society.” For example, when shooters were framed in the media as mentally ill, 78 percent of white attackers were described as being victims of society — as being under a lot of stress, for example — versus only 17 percent of black shooters. The researchers controlled for a variety of factors that could influence coverage, including the number of victims; whether any victims were women, children, family or romantic partners; whether the perpetrator committed suicide; whether the shooting took place in public; and whether the shooting was framed as gang violence. After taking these factors into account, findings showed that whites were 95 percent more likely than blacks to be described in coverage as mentally ill. Latinos were 92 percent more likely than blacks to be described as mentally ill in media reports. Read more about their research in the July 27, 2018 edition of The Conversation at go.osu.edu/soc-media-bias.
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DEPARTMENT HONORS & RECOGNITION Sociology professor and department chair Claudia Buchmann was named Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor by Ohio State’s College of Arts and Sciences. This honorific title is reserved for full professors who have excelled in teaching, service and research/creative activity, and whose work has demonstrated significant impact on their fields, students, college and university, and/or the public. Buchmann is internationally known for her research on gender inequalities in education, which focuses on how women have come to attain more education than men in most regions of the world today. Associate Professor Korie Edwards is serving as the 2018 president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (SSSR), an interdisciplinary academic association that stimulates, promotes and communicates social scientific research about religious institutions and experiences. Edwards is a noted scholar of race and religion in the United States. She leads the Religious Leadership and Diversity Project, a national study of leaders of multiracial congregations. John B. Casterline, the Robert T. Lazarus Professor in Population Studies, Department of Sociology, and director of Ohio State’s Institute for Population Research, was elected president of the Population Association of America, the main scientific organization in the U.S. for
demographers. For more than 30 years, Casterline has been investigating the causes and consequences of fertility decline in developing countries. He will serve as president in 2019. Assistant Professor Hollie Nyseth Brehm received the American Society of Criminology’s 2018 Ruth Shonle Cavan Young Scholar Award, the highest honor a junior scholar can receive in the discipline, for advancing knowledge on the criminology of genocide. She was also recognized with Ohio State’s Honors Faculty Service Award for significant contributions to honors education by advising honors theses, providing in-depth research experiences for undergraduate honors students in the U.S. and abroad, supervising the Social and Behavioral Science Eminence Fellows, and advising several campus organizations led by honors students. Professor Ryan King was selected for the 2018 Joan N. Huber Faculty Fellow Award for Excellence in the Social and Behavioral Sciences. King is an expert on fairness in the administration of justice, the perpetration and prosecution of hate crimes, and topics of fundamental importance in the national discourse about crime and justice. His research is theoretically insightful, empirically rigorous, and allows us to better predict when hate crimes will happen and why racial disparities in criminal sentencing exist.
DEPARTMENT MEMBERS HONORED BY AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION Multiple sociology graduate students, one faculty member and one alumna received awards recognizing their excellent research at the American Sociological Association (ASA) meeting in August. Scott Duxbury received the ASA section on Mathematical Sociology Graduate Student Paper Award and the ASA section on Methodology Clifford C. Clogg Graduate Student Paper Award for his forthcoming paper, “Diagnosing Multicollinearity in Exponential Random Graph Models,” to be published in Sociological Methods and Research. Scott Duxbury, Laura Frizzell and Sadé Lindsay received the ASA section on Communications, Information Technologies and Media Sociology Graduate Student Paper Award for their forthcoming paper, “Mental Illness, the Media, and the Moral Politics of Mass Violence: The Role of Race in Mass Shootings Coverage,” to be published in the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency. Hollie Nyseth Brehm, along with her colleagues Christopher Uggen and Jean-Damascéne Gasanabo, received the James F. Short Distinguished Article Award for “Age, Gender, and the Crime of Crimes: Toward a Life-Course Theory of Genocide Participation” published in Criminology (2016). Michelle Oyakawa, 2017 PhD alumna, received the ASA section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Dissertation Award for her paper “Building A Movement in the Non-Profit Industrial Complex.”
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RESEARCH
THE SOCIOLOGY OF ONLINE CRIMINAL DRUG MARKETS It’s a risky business buying illegal drugs, and more people are turning to the dark web to do so. Accessible only through encrypted internet networks that use anonymous browsers such as Tor, online “darknet” markets offer a relatively safer — and more convenient — option for procuring illicit substances for both vendors and buyers. Despite several large darknet markets being shut down by law enforcement — including Silk Road (coined the “eBay of drugs”) in 2013 — these drug markets are continuing to grow. “More and more people are aware of the ease of accessing them, and we are seeing the number of users rise quite dramatically,” said Dana Haynie, professor of sociology and director of Ohio State's Criminal Justice Research Center (CJRC). Haynie and Scott Duxbury, PhD candidate in sociology, have been observing one of the largest darknet drug markets operating today, with a focus on the social network dynamics that sustain it. Their research was selected to represent the American Sociological Association (ASA) at the Coalition for National Science Funding’s annual exhibition May 9 on Capitol Hill. Haynie and Duxbury met with the offices of Ohio Sens. Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman, as well as Reps. Joyce Beatty and Steve Stivers. In addition, the office of Ohio Congressman Bill Johnson shared Duxbury and Haynie’s research with the Federal Drug Administration, which sent it to the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “Recognizing that the senators and legislators are very concerned about the opioid epidemic in Ohio, they were all very interested in our project and excited about what we are doing,” Haynie said.
Seven years ago, the first market was bringing in $200,000 in annual revenue. Today, the biggest markets are bringing in about 180 million in gross revenue.
Scott Duxbury and Dana Haynie on Capitol Hill, May 9, 2018.
Most drugs bought via darknet markets are recreational substances such as marijuana, LSD and cocaine, but there is “a significant growing market for heroin and other types of opioids,” Duxbury said, adding that heroin and heroin substances including fentanyl are now more popular than prescription opioids on the dark web. Pursuing arrests through the darknet is costly due to dealers’ carefully concealed identities and difficulties catching people over large geographic areas. But Haynie and Duxbury’s research sheds light on another possible avenue of disruption — trust. Trust between buyers and vendors is especially important on darknet drug markets, where buyers risk being scammed or sold inferior or contaminated products, Haynie said. Vendors establish trust through customer and
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administrator reviews like on eBay or Amazon, and without good reviews they tend to have little to no customer base. “As a buyer trying to figure out who you’re going to buy drugs from, the only way to make a logical decision is to look at how other people have rated the trustworthiness of that vendor and the quality of their product,” Haynie said. “Trust is the most important factor sustaining these networks,” Duxbury added. The team hypothesizes that law enforcement efforts aimed at undermining trust may be more effective and cost-efficient than targeted arrests. Such strategies could include impersonating buyers and leaving negative reviews or “trolling” message boards where people get information about the darknet drug trade, Duxbury said. New law enforcement approaches could be critical in curbing the growth of online drug trafficking, especially with the opioid epidemic sweeping from rural landscapes into suburban ones — where more people are presumed to be using the darknet. According to Duxbury, some law enforcement agencies have already started to undermine drug vendors’ reputations through their online message boards. “We’ve been proposing a new policing strategy to handle darknet drug markets and are currently running analyses to evaluate its effectiveness,” said Duxbury. “Undermining
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A re-creation of the darknet drug market network Haynie and Duxbury are studying. Red dots are vendors; yellow dots are buyers. Larger dots have engaged in more transactions. Data is from mid-May to mid-September 2017. Image courtesy Scott Duxbury.
the trust in the network is probably the biggest policy recommendation that we can offer at this time.” Haynie and Duxbury were interviewed about their research by ASA News. You can watch the segment here: vimeo. com/276523380. Collaborators on this research are Srinivasan Parthasarathy and Mohit Jangid, professor and graduate student, respectively, in Ohio State's Department of Computer Science and Engineering.
RESEARCH
HIGH GPA COULD WORK AGAINST YOUNG WOMEN JOB HUNTERS Women earn better grades than men across levels of education — but to what end? Natasha Quadlin, assistant professor of sociology, designed a novel study to find out. She set out to get a job. Quadlin submitted 2,106 dummy job applications to more than 1,000 entry-level positions around the country. The “candidates,” whose resumes indicated that they were recent college grads, were grouped into one of three majors (English, business and math). Within each major, they were either given a grade point average that was “low” (2.50 to 2.83 GPA), “moderate” (2.84 to 3.59 GPA) or “high” (3.60 to 3.95). For each position applied for, Quadlin sent two resumes that were essentially the same, except for the applicant’s gender, major and GPA. What happened next disheartened, but didn’t necessarily surprise, Quadlin. Male college graduates were called back at about the same rate regardless of their grades. The highest-achieving men received callbacks 16 percent of the time, and the men with the lowest grades still received callbacks at a rate of about 12 percent — rates that were not statistically different from each other. “For men, GPA didn’t really matter that much,” Quadlin said. For women, however, things went a bit differently, regardless of their outstanding academic profile. “If women had grade point averages in the A or A-minus range, they tended to be called back less often
than their male counterparts,” said Quadlin.” A lot less, in fact. The difference in the rate of callbacks between men and women with high grades was nearly 2-to-1. And the difference was even greater for math majors. To try to figure out why women were receiving fewer callbacks, Quadlin followed up on her job applications with a survey. She asked 260 hiring managers to look at the resumes and rate the candidates on qualities such as competence and social skills, and indicate how likely they would be to recommend each person for an interview. Quadlin found clear evidence of discrepancies in how the hiring managers perceived male applicants and women applicants when gender was the only thing that set these applicants apart from each other. For example, the hiring managers were more likely to recommend male applicants for an interview when they viewed them as “competent” or “committed.” But when it came to female applicants, managers were most likely to want to interview candidates they perceived as “likeable.” According to Quadlin, managers seemed to be relying on gendered stereotypes that penalize women for having good grades. And that was true regardless of the manager’s gender. “Regardless of whether men or women were making the hiring decisions in the follow-up survey experiment, they penalized high-
achieving women approximately equally,” Quadlin said. The research also found that employers were more likely to call back moderate-achieving women, who are often perceived as “likeable,” over the top performers. “Employers value competence and commitment among male applicants, but instead privilege female applicants who are perceived as likeable,” Quadlin said. “This standard helps moderate-achieving women, who are often described as sociable and outgoing, but hurts high-achieving women, whose personalities are viewed with more skepticism.” “We think gender inequality is something that we’ve really solved as a society and we’ve moved past it,” she said, “but there are still subtle ways that biases emerge to penalize women.” Quadlin’s study appeared in the April 2018 issue of the American Sociological Review, available to read here: go.osu.edu/soc-gpa. sociology.osu.edu | 13
RESEARCH
IPR: LEADING THE WAY ON RESEARCH IN THE DEMOGRAPHY OF AFRICA John Casterline is director of Ohio State’s Institute for Population Research (IPR), one of the premier population and health research centers in the world and one of only a handful with concentrated expertise in the demography of Africa. Casterline and IPR affiliates Samuel Clark, professor of sociology, and Sarah Hayford, associate professor of sociology, are at the forefront of investigating a broad range of population and health issues that bear on the well-being of families and communities in Africa. While population growth slows in much of the world, it continues to rise in Africa. What are the implications? The number of children the average African woman has in her lifetime remains high from a global standpoint: 4.7 children per woman in Africa compared to 2.5 children per woman globally. Due to the success in recent decades in reducing death rates in Africa (except where HIV/AIDS has taken a heavy toll), the high birth rate generates rapid population growth. Scholars and policymakers expected Africa’s fertility to follow the path of Asian and Latin American countries in the 1960s and 1970s, where birth rates rapidly declined when women became better educated and gained access to modern contraception. Instead, birth rates in Africa have remained stubbornly high. According to Casterline, the bonds and exchanges in traditional kinship systems may partly explain the persistence of the desire to bear a large number of children in many parts of Africa. “There is a need for labor, sharing of resources to take care of the family, and perpetuating the family lineage.” Casterline points out that a preference for a large family has been a central feature of many African social and cultural systems. How, then, to disrupt the forces that reinforce large family size in Africa? A crucial catalyst, Casterline argues in a recent volume on fertility transition in Africa, would be recognition by policymakers in Africa that the current demographic trajectory is a major obstacle to improvement in the wellbeing of their populations. The United Nation projects Africa’s population will triple between 2000 and 2050, going from roughly 800 million to roughly 2.4 billion. It will then nearly double between 2050 and 2100, to 4.2 billion. At the end of the century, Africa is projected to have nearly as many people as all of Asia, and roughly as many as the entire world did in 14 | DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY
1980. Nearly two out of every five people on earth in 2100 will be African. The demographic challenge is not simply a problem of numbers. In many low- and middle-income countries, most deaths happen at home and are not officially recorded or given an autopsy and cause of death. The resulting lack of information about priority diseases makes health system decision-making challenging. In much of Africa, researchers rely on verbal autopsy as the method to ascertain cause of death. Although imperfect, it is the best alternative in the absence of autopsy and medical certification. “Roughly two thirds to three quarters of the world’s deaths don’t get recorded,” leaving researchers without critical data and information, says Clark. “Cause-of-death information is some of the most basic and most essential for informing public health policy, estimating the burden of disease and planning health services.” Clark, who has conducted research on the population impact of HIV, is a member of the World Health Organization’s Verbal Autopsy Working Group, which is developing standards for verbal autopsy. With colleagues at Ohio State, other universities and in Africa, Clark is developing statistical methods for automated cause of death assignment using verbal autopsy data. Understanding fertility and mortality is critical for economic planning and forecasting. “The size and age structure of the population can constrain peoples’ lives or give them opportunities,” Clark said. “When mortality and fertility fall in the right sequence there is a brief time with a surplus of healthy working-age people, and this sets the stage for rapid economic growth — the so-called ‘demographic dividend.’ Africa has the potential for a large demographic dividend.” Migration is currently at the center of fierce debates between the mainly poor sending countries, many in Africa, and the richer receiving nations. But what happens to the children of those families when an adult must migrate to another country for work? Hayford, who has been studying family structure across a wide variety of countries for more than 10 years, is addressing this issue as part of a five-year, $5 million study funded by the National Institutes for Health. “Migration is an increasing global phenomenon affecting individuals and families in most regions of the world,” Hayford said. “However, there is limited understanding of
how these dynamics influence the lives of children and adolescents beyond the material impact on household economies.” Drawing on theoretical frameworks of migration, child development and the early life course, Hayford and 15 project personnel from across four countries will examine how migration of family members alter children’s development, aspirations, education and subsequent life course transitions. “Does the presence of a migrant in the household change the way young children and teenagers think about their future? Do they envision a future at all?” New information gathered on the role of familial migration and children’s development can help inform programs and policies directed at children in areas with a high prevalence of labor migration.
Sociology Professors Samuel Clark, Sarah Hayford and John Casterline are at the forefront of research on a broad range of population and health issues in Africa.
Globally, there are just a handful of university research centers with a critical mass of scholars and students conducting research on African demography. Since its inception in 2000, Ohio State’s IPR has garnered international recognition as a global multidisciplinary population and health research center. “Our vision,” says Casterline, “is to build on this momentum and catapult Ohio State into the top tier of North American universities active in Africa.”
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RESEARCH
ROLE OF RACISM IN HEALTH INEQUALITIES Lower levels of education and income are often associated with worse health outcomes. However, research by Associate Professor Cynthia Colen reveals that even among nonpoor residents of the U.S., African Americans and Latinos often have worse health outcomes than white Americans, likely due to chronic and widespread discrimination. “People assume that as your socioeconomic status improves, your health will improve as well. Unfortunately, that doesn’t appear to be the case for Americans who aren’t white,” said Colen, the lead author of the study. Colen and her co-authors, Ohio State sociology professor and director of the Center for Human Resources Research Elizabeth Cooksey; former Ohio State sociology graduate student David Ramey, now assistant professor at Penn State; and David Williams, professor at Harvard University, found a significant connection between discrimination and poor health for those who were young, black and upwardly mobile, challenging the idea that poverty is at the root of black Americans’ experiences, in health care and beyond. “Upward mobility is certainly better than the alternative,” Colen said, “but it doesn’t make everything better — particularly health outcomes.” The study evaluated responses from participants in the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. It combined 33 years of data, which allowed the researchers to analyze how socioeconomic status changed over time. According to the data, more money isn’t enough to rid black Americans of higher rates of chronic disease or shorter life expectancy. Black women with a graduate degree are still at higher risk for preterm birth and infant and maternal mortality than white women with a high school diploma. Black women with a PhD and high take-home pay are also more likely than white women who have only a high school diploma to die from birthrelated complications. The study, published in the February 2018 issue of Social Science & Medicine (available to read here: go.osu.edu/soc-health), highlights the importance of tackling health inequities with an eye on discrimination and racism and not just poverty. Colen and her colleagues looked at both acute discrimination (being fired from a job without good cause or being passed over for a deserved promotion) and chronic discrimination (daily slights such as being
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treated with less respect than others, or as if others fear you). They found higher acute discrimination scores for blacks on an upward socioeconomic trajectory and higher chronic discrimination scores for Hispanics whose incomes increased over time. According to Colen, this type of data is vital to improving future health initiatives — by examining both the nuances in the disparities between race, and why those disparities exist, researchers can begin to more accurately address the root of these issues. It also reminds policymakers of the importance of tailoring projects to focus on the oftenoverlooked black middle class. “Too often what happens when we are designing health and prevention programs is we ignore the needs of nonpoor racial and ethnic minorities,” Colen said. “These disparities are not going to go away simply by anti-poverty campaigns.”
OUR ALUMNI
SHELLEY ZIMMERMAN (BA, CRIMINOLOGY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE, 1981) In 2014, Shelley Zimmerman made history when she was named San Diego’s first female chief of police. On March 1, 2018, Zimmerman officially retired her post, completing a 35-year policing career that began, rather serendipitously, in 1982.
Internal Affairs, Multi-Cultural Community Relations Office, the Mayor’s Executive Protection Detail, the Narcotics Task Force and the Field Lieutenant position. And she called upon her experience and training in sociology to help navigate those jobs.
“I never could have predicted that my journey would have taken me into the field of policing and to San Diego,” said Zimmerman. “It was a football game that changed my life.”
“My entire Ohio State experience helped me as a police officer and then as an administrator,” Zimmerman said. “Police work is not just about responding and reacting to crime. It is about figuring out why and then preventing the why. This is where the study of sociology is very valuable. Not everyone reacts the same to similar situations.” Zimmerman reflected on the classes she took as a sociology student, sharing different viewpoints and opinions with classmates and professors.
In 1980, Zimmerman attended the Rose Bowl and watched as her beloved Buckeyes lost to USC. While the loss was devastating, a side trip to San Diego helped assuage the pain. And it transformed her life. “I returned to Ohio State and after graduating, jumped on a plane with only $200 dollars, one suitcase and my guitar and headed to San Diego. When I got off the plane, I didn’t know anyone, didn’t have a job — I didn’t even have a place to stay.” Zimmerman’s father was a trial attorney in her hometown of Cleveland, so she considered following in his footsteps. But she needed a job first to help pay for law school. She applied to become a San Diego police officer. “From day one, I fell in love with being a police officer,” she said. “What I fell in love with was the opportunity to make a positive difference in someone’s life every single day.” Zimmerman worked many of the San Diego Police Department’s patrol commands, as well as Vice, Narcotics,
“Having a civil dialogue is what our country is all about. I remember numerous sociology classes where we exchanged different experiences and opinions and worked hard to find common ground. I used those lessons in my career by giving as many stake holders as possible a seat at the table.” The journey of life — like Zimmerman’s — rarely follows a straight line; there are always twists and turns. Zimmerman believes that now, more than ever, law enforcement needs sociology graduates. “Today’s law enforcement professionals have to be more complete in their capabilities and more global in their perspective in order to succeed in keeping our communities safe.” sociology.osu.edu | 17
OUR ALUMNI
CHIBUNDU NNAKE (BA, SOCIOLOGY, 2005) Chibundu Nnake is an education advocate. As the manager of advocacy and policy for FOCUS (Friends of Choice in Urban Schools), a nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C., Nnake works to empower marginalized communities in the nation’s capital, by ensuring equal access to quality schools for every child. He works with more than 50 charter school leaders; a variety of teachers and parents; members of Congress; the district’s 13 council members; organizations representing children; other governmental agencies; and countless government administrators. As one can imagine, he must navigate and negotiate diverse interests and demands to increase their understanding of and support for public charter schools. “When things become contentious, I really try to understand where each person is coming from. It’s easier to navigate a space when you understand underlying motivations and I hope that we are all trying to improve and enrich the education of the children in the District,” Nnake said. To do that, Nnake compiles a scouting report of sorts on each person and organization he works with. The analytical and critical thinking skills he learned as an undergraduate studying sociology infuses his work.
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“I studied sociology because I loved observing and interacting with people,” he said. “I learned that in addition to understanding where people are coming from, you must look for and build upon commonalities.” Children in D.C.’s public charter school sector makes up nearly half of all public school students there. Nnake advocates for these children, solves problems that may negatively impact the sector, and more importantly, works to increase the quality of school options so that more outstanding schools exist in every quadrant of the city. “The four years I spent at Ohio State forged many of my ideals, value systems and taught me how to better traverse the world,” said Nnake. “Ohio State made me a better leader and gave me the confidence to create opportunities to pay it forward.” Nnake earned a JD from the Southern Methodist University (SMU) Dedman School of Law and an MBA from SMU Cox School of Business. He recently married Ohio State alumna Katelyn Jackson (public affairs journalism, 2006).
Chibundu Nnake with some of his students. Nnake works to empower marginalized communities in D.C.
OUR ALUMNI
HEIDI GOSSETT (CRIMINOLOGY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE, 1995)
Heidi Gossett, claims manager for NiSource, Inc., is responsible for the strategy, investigation and settlement of the NiSource insured claim portfolio, including all casualty and disability lines. Prior to joining NiSource, Gossett served as senior director of claims administration for DHL Global Business Services, where she led a multicultural team of 27 people across three different countries. Her career has given her the opportunity to travel to many different countries all over the world, interacting with business partners in many different cultures.
“You’re dealing with people every day with very different life experiences,” said Gossett. “They all have an issue — they have a claim, which means in some way something has gone wrong. Learning how to have empathy for people’s situations requires you to adapt and adjust. Different people are motivated by different things.”
“My education in sociology and criminology has been instrumental to my success,” said Gossett. “I gained invaluable analytical skills and learned to see things from all perspectives.”
“Most students who graduate with a sociology degree don’t always know what they want to do but they really have an advantage because the skills they learn translate into so many fields. It helped me tremendously, and I want to inspire today’s students to think more broadly about their career options.”
In addition to Gossett’s daily claim responsibilities, she has been tasked with establishing and sustaining performance standards, leveraging quantitative and qualitative data to fuel informed business and continuous improvement decisions. She manages people both internally and externally and must balance competing interests and demands from multiple constituencies.
Gossett knows most people don’t expect a sociology graduate to land in the arena of casualty and disability claims. But, it’s the versatility of the discipline that paved the way for her career.
Gossett joined the Sociology Advisory Board last year as a way to give back to the school she loves so much. If she can provide any feedback or guidance that can help the future of today’s students, she has accomplished what she set out to do. sociology.osu.edu | 19
OUR ALUMNI
SOCIOLOGY ADVISORY BOARD
Sociology Advisory Board members with professors Andrew Martin, Hollie Nyseth Brehm, Ryan King and Claudia Buchmann. From left to right: Brian Hunt, Pam Conrad, Michael Brooks, Dean Gibson and Heidi Gossett. Advisory board members not pictured: Risa Dinitz Lazaroff, Jose Lopez and Ramiro Martinez.
The Sociology Advisory Board was established in 2015 as the primary alumni service organization for the department. Board members serve by invitation of the department chair and provide advice, financial support and opportunities to advance the long-term goals of the department.
Risa Dinitz Lazaroff Professor, Legal Research and Writing Capital University Law School (JD, The Ohio State University, 1987)
MEMBERS
Jose M. Lopez Attorney, Lopez, Severt & Pratt Co., L.P.A. (BA, sociology, 1975)
John Michael Brooks Emeritus Professor, Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice Valdosta State University (PhD, sociology, 1970) Pamela Conrad Retired Director, State Government Sales IBM Watson Health (BA, sociology, 1980) H. Dean Gibson, chair Retired Partner, Aon Hewitt (BA, sociology, 1974) Heidi Gossett Claims Manager, NiSource (BA, criminology and criminal justice, 1995) Brian Hunt Retired, U.S. Probation Officer (BA, sociology, 1981)
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Ramiro Martinez Professor, Criminology and Criminal Justice Sociology, and Anthropology Northeastern University (PhD, sociology, 1992)
ROSTER OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS • Funding a new study-abroad scholarship program for students participating in sociology’s exclusive programs in Poland and Rwanda. To date, more than 20 students have been awarded funds. • Helping the department to enhance outreach and messaging to prospective majors. • Consulting with faculty on a new data analytics-based courses to help students broaden their knowledge of social science data sources, sharpen analytic skills and graphically present their research findings. • Launching the Sociology Salon, an annual public lecture on a pressing sociological issue.
Q&A WITH H. DEAN GIBSON, ADVISORY BOARD CHAIR H. Dean Gibson (sociology, 1974) is a retired partner of Aon Hewitt, one of the world's largest human resources, actuarial and risk management consulting firms. For more than 30 years, he served as client relationship manager to many midsize Fortune 500 and 1000 companies and organizations. His experience included publicly traded and privately owned corporations, as well as public-sector and tax-exempt organizations. In 2016, Gibson was finishing up his second and final term on Ohio State’s National Alumni Advisory Council as liaison to the College of Arts and Sciences when sociology chair Claudia Buchmann asked him to help create and chair the advisory board. He shares his thoughts on taking on the role and the mission of the board in supporting the department’s advancement. Why did you choose to accept the leadership role for the Sociology Alumni Advisory Board? I felt truly blessed to have another opportunity to give back to the university and department to help its students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends, the community and the discipline itself. My Ohio State student experience and degree in sociology have given me so much to be thankful for and positive opportunities to have a career I truly enjoyed, a wonderful family and the ability to serve others through community service throughout my life. But for Ohio State and my sociology degree I may not have had these opportunities. I'm extremely passionate about how important the degree and discipline of sociology is — it's foundational, versatile, teaches you to think critically, creatively and strategically, and offers unlimited career possibilities. The department and discipline, through its research, are finding state-ofthe-art solutions to some of society’s most critical issues today. What is the board's role? First, we are a philanthropic board, so our main responsibility is to provide financial support for student and faculty scholarship and research, as well as other department initiatives. An additional significant role is listening and providing advice and encouragement to the department chair, faculty and staff in their critically important roles as teachers, researchers and mentors. We need to keep inspiring an already highly motivated faculty and staff to keep making a difference, every day, in finding best-practice solutions to the world’s most critical and complex societal issues.
We mentor and encourage students through our own personal testimonies. We let them know their sociology, criminology and criminal justice studies education will provide them a strong academic foundation and tools from which to achieve a highly successful career, personal life and in some way, make the world a better place. We also fully support the department’s focus on diversity and inclusion, and the efforts to increase the number of first-generation students both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The backgrounds of the board members are varied — business, law, government, academics and nonprofit — is that by design? It’s important to have a variety of perspectives and careers represented on the board to better support the department and to show students, faculty and alumni that there are many highly successful careers and career paths that await sociology majors. The diversity of our board reflects the array of excellent sociology alumni who have excelled in a wide variety of careers, as well as the vast career opportunities and possibilities sociology majors have after graduation. What are the board's plans to engage alumni? The board is considering a number of ideas to engage and stay connected with sociology, criminology and criminal justice studies alumni. One of them is to sponsor an annual salon-style seminar on trending sociology, criminology and criminal justice topics. Our inaugural Sociology Salon was held last spring and featured Assistant Professor Hollie Nyseth Brehm and her research on understanding genocide. We are currently planning our spring 2019 event, so stay tuned! There's also discussion about hosting a series of book talks, led by a faculty member, one time per semester. We are considering live-streaming talks for alumni who live long distances from main campus. Additional ideas include inviting sociology alumni to participate in career panels for students and other alumni and organizing periodic mentoring events. If you are interested in learning about ways to work with and support the mission of the Sociology Advisory Board, please contact Sociology Professor Ryan King, king.2065@osu.edu.
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GIVE BACK
INVEST IN OHIO STATE SOCIOLOGY Now, more than ever, we need to work hard to ensure that The Ohio State University Department of Sociology can continue on its trajectory of excellence — in teaching, research and service. With federal, state and local funding cutbacks, it’s imperative that alumni and friends invest in the department, its faculty and its students. Please consider supporting our mission in the Department of Sociology. Contact David Precise, senior director of development, College of Arts and Sciences, at (614) 6881044 / precise.2@osu.edu to discuss ways you can make a tangible difference in lives of our students and faculty. 22 | DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY
WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! Share your story — tell us a little bit about yourself. Connect with us. We want to hear from you. Please take a few minutes and share your story with us at sociology.osu.edu.
STUDY ABROAD IN POLAND Since 2008, the Department of Sociology has partnered with the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) in Warsaw, to offer the Study Abroad Program in Poland (CONSIRT.osu.edu), a unique academictraining program focused on quantitative methods, independent research and cultural experiences in the heart of Europe. Field trips include the Warsaw Ghetto and Auschwitz; the Wawel Royal Castle in Krakow; the Museum of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising; the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews; and the Oscar Schindler Factory Museum. The program’s core faculty include Ohio State alumna and associate professor at PAN Irina Tomescu-Dubrow, PAN professor Joshua Dubrow, and Ohio State sociology professor emeritus Kazimierz Slomczynski.
The Warsaw Summer school was an incredible opportunity and has given me valuable research skills, research experience, and of course new friendships and connections. It has cemented my plans for graduate school and taught me necessary research skills. I have grown as a person exponentially faster than I would have at home. The professors are in the top five I have ever had. [This program was] the perfect fusion of research, classwork, cultural immersion and enjoyment.
Ohio State students at Wawel Royal Castle in Krakow, July 2018
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