Faculty Research Interest:Dr. Bearden's research interests include the involvement of large corporations in the weapons business (the "military industrial complex"), the measurement of unemployment and the social construction of unemployment as a statistical fact. He has also worked with a series of students in joint research on student attitudes and knowledge about HIV, AIDS, and sexual behavior.
Dr. Cleeton studies the regulation of women's lives through medicine and the law. In her work on the pregnancy and delivery experiences of minority women living in poor urban neighborhoods, she argues that relations of race, class and gender shape the focus of personal responsibility for poor birth outcomes. This, in lieu of examining the links between poverty and infant mortality.
Dr. Cylke's research focuses on the environmental movement and the social construction of environmental concerns. He studies how the mass media and the environmental movement present scientific findings so that people become concerned about problems they can't see for themselves (e.g. air and water pollution, the depletion of the ozone layer).
Dr. Derne's study of family life in India explores the interconnections between culture, family, gender and emotion. His study of filmgoing in India examines how mass media consumption shapes family, emotion, sexuality and male dominance. His study of globalization considers the transformation of class, culture, and gender in India since economic liberalization. He has recently completed interviews and fieldwork aimed at understanding conceptions of well being in India. While the study is based largely on indepth interviews in the city of Dehra Dun, he also examines the experiences of pilgrims at several Himalayan holy sites.
Dr. Eisenberg's research interests center on two areas in social psychology and one area of focus in theory. First, Dr. Eisenberg has initiated a new research program in the area of neurosociology which examines the impact that social interactions have on cognitive and neural processes. She is using the experimental laboratory space in Sturges basement as part of the Center for Cognitive and Social Sciences (CCSS). Dr. Eisenberg's second area of research in social psychology concerns issues of power--who has it, how do you get it, and how do you maintain it. Her on-going research examines how fringe scientists, such as parapsychologists, have contributed to debates concerning what constitutes legitimate science. Finally, Dr. Eisenberg actively conducts research examining the links between classical sociological theory and contemporary sociological theory.
Dr. Glass focuses her research on family policy and family law. She has used data from the Office of Child Support Enforcement to characterize the differences between fathers who do pay the required child support and fathers who neglect to do so.
Dr. Lofquist's research deals with historical and contemporary patterns of death penalty use, particularly the relationship between systems of racial control such as slavery and lynching and the death penalty. He also researches wrongful convictions.
Dr. Meyer's research is in the area of economic globalization, specifically the relationship between trade and investment liberalization and gender relations in national labor markets. Feminist, world system, and international political economy models are central to her analyses. In addition, she is interested in the rise of global social movements (e.g. labor, feminist, environmental) as they relate to global economic processes that have taken shape over the last twenty years.
Dr. Murphy's research deals with women, mothers, and the law and how mothers are held to different standards under the law than are fathers. She also examines the changing characteristics of women in Congress and the effects that their presence in Congress has on policy decisions.
Dr. Scott's recent research has been on women in corporate government affairs, specifically gender differences in the work and family connections of government affairs managers. Using in-depth interviews and a mail survey, she finds that both women and men are highly involved in networking at all levels of business and government yet the character of their connections differ significantly. Her research interests include the study of women's organizations and relations between legislative staff and government relations manager.
Dr. Tamura's research interests center on the consequences of globalization on schools in various societies including Japan and the United States. He has also worked on and is planning to continue a comparative examination of social movements and revolutions.
Dr. Watson's current research involves the engineering and science professions. Using in-depth interviews, he collects information on career and job satisfaction from engineers and scientists. In addition, Dr. Watson is studying changes in white attitudes towards blacks using the General Social Survey as well as information collected from Geneseo freshman. He has just completed a study about Chicano attitudes toward and use of alcohol.
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