Current and Future News & Events
The Sociology Department Welcomes Two New Faculty Members: Manisha Desai and Wan-Zi Lu
Wan-Zi Lu received her PhD in Sociology from the University of Chicago (2021) and was a
postdoctoral fellow at the Polonsky Academy for Advanced Study in the Humanities and
Social Sciences, the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. With interests in global health
and comparative political economy, she has co-organized the Health Network in the
Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics. Wan-Zi is currently working on her
book project, “The Many Hands of the Healthcare State,” where she compares organ donation
policies and outcomes worldwide, with a focus on Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
Her exploration of how the effects of governmental approaches have been influenced
by social structures and cultural understanding stems from her research across indigenous
tribes in Taiwan. She is excited about bringing her passion for theories and global
comparisons into the classroom. When taking breaks from her research, Wan-Zi enjoys
swimming, cycling, jogging, and may other kinds of sports.
Manisha Desai joins Stony Brook University from University of Connecticut and serves as the new
director of the Center for Changing Systems of Power on campus, with her affiliation
in Sociology. In addition to her academic appointment, Manisha is a Senior Research
Fellow at the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) in
Geneva, Switzerland. Her areas of research and teaching include gender and globalization,
transnational feminisms, global justice, particularly climate justice movements, human
rights, and contemporary Indiansociety in India. Her current research includes women’s
rights, land rights, and climate justice in India and NE United States. As a member
of UNRISD’s Global Network for Research and Action she also chairs their gender and
human rights working group. She is also working on contemporary feminist campaigns
against Hindu fundamentalism in India and the post-secular turn in feminism. Her most
recent book is Subaltern Movements in India: The Gendered Geography of Struggles Against
Neoliberal Development (Routledge 2016). In addition, she has 4 other single authored
or edited and co-edited books and numerous articles and book chapters. Committed to
decolonizing knowledge production and the academy she is on the Steering Committee
of the Federation of Feminist Journal Editors that seeks to establish a feminist knowledge
commons outside commercial publishing to ensure the free circulation of feminist knowledge
across borders and language barriers. In recognition of her contribution to feminist
scholarship, she was awarded the Sociologist for Women in Society’s 2015 Distinguished
Feminist Award. She is also the recipient of the 2016 Faculty Mentor Award from the
Compact for Faculty Diversity in the United States. She has served in various leadership
capacities including as President of Sociologist for Women in Society.
July 2024
- Daniel Levy has been elected to serve on the Executive Committee of the Memory Studies Association.
- Carrie Shandra has been selected to be a Visiting Professor at the AxPo Observatory of Marked Society Polarization at SciencesPo in Fall 2025.
April 2024
- Cathy Marrone has been selected as a recipient of SBU's 2024 Excellence in Educational Effectiveness Award. This award recognizes members of the campus community who demonstrate a commitment to best practices in academic assessment and use assessment results to drive programmatic excellence.
- Kelly Haller, Sociology Department Academic Programs Coordinator, has received the "Supervisor of the Year" award at the Student Employee, Intern, and Community Service Awards Ceremony at Stony Brook. She was nominated by Higher Education Administration Intern Jennie Hauk.
- Christopher Browning (Ohio State University) Sociology Department Colloquium, April 24th, 1:00 - 2:30 PM, SBS N403 "Racial Segregation and Urban Youth Wellbeing: The Case for a Mobility-Based Approach"
March 2024
- Siwei Cheng, (New York University) Sociology Department Colloquium, March 20th, 1:00 - 2:30 PM, SBS N403 "Beyond High-Paying Jobs: The Rise of Within-job Skill Diversity and Its Implications for Labor Market Inequality."
November 2023
- Elizabeth Hordge-Freeman (University of South Florida) Sociology Departmental Colloquium, November 8th, 1:00 - 2:30 PM, SBS N403: "Second-Class Daughters: Black Brazilian Women and Informal Adoption as Modern Slavery"
October 2023
- This video shows the queue of people lining up for our own Oyeronke Oyewumi to sign the Portuguese translation of her classic The Invention of Women
- Nicholas Wilson has been interviewed about his new book,"Modernity's Corruption" in the ASA Theory Section's fall newsletter, Perspectives
- Menisha Desai has been elected Co-President of the International Sociological Association's RC32 Women, Gender, and Society
- Giselle Gerardi (Stony Brook University School of Nursing, Office of Nursing Research) Sociology Department Colloquium, September 27th, 1:00 - 2:30 PM, SBS N403 "Achieving Health Equity in Perinatal Populations: A Call for Collaboration."
August 2023
- Rebekah Burroway's "My Turn" piece on the social construction of beauty featured in Newsweek - "I Was Diagnosed with Skin Cancer. All I Cared About Was My Looks".
July 2023
- Crystal Fleming and Jennifer Heerwig have accepted invitations to serve as a consulting editors for the American Journal of Sociology (AJS).
- Crystal Fleming was recently featured on a number of national and international media outlets discussing her work on racism in France after the police killing of Nahel, a French Arab teenager. These outlets include:
May 2023
- Jason J. Jones has received a fellowship for the Fall 2023 semester at the Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS) in Bochum, Germany
April 2023
- Aldon Morris is the first SBU Sociology PhD to be Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation's oldest and most prestigious honorary societies. Morris is the Leon Forrest Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Black Studies, Northwestern University.
- Cathy Marrone's SOC 339, Sociology of Drugs and Alcoholism and Narcan Training Featured in Newsday on April 27th: "Narcan Training to Prevent OD Deaths"
- Xiaogang Wu, (New York University Center for Applied Social and Economic Research) Sociology Departmental Colloquium, April 7th, 12:00 - 1:30 PM, SBS N403: "Social and Political Consequences of the COVID-19 Crisis in the United States: Evidence from a Longitudinal Survey in 2020 and 2021."
December 2022
- Tim Liao has been elected as the next Chair of the Sequence Analysis Association
November 2022
- Nicholas Wilson has been elected to the Executive Committee of the Social Science History Association
- RebeccaJohnson, (Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy) Sociology Departmental Colloquium, November 4th, 1:00 - 2:30 PM, SBS N403: "Using Text as Data to Understand Treatments: The Case of an RCT on College Navigators in Public Housing
October 2022
- Jessica Halliday Hardie, (Hunter College) Sociology Departmental Colloquium , October 19th, 1:00 - 2:30 PM,
SBS N403: "Best Laid Plans: Women Coming of Age n Uncertain Times"
PROFESSOR NORMAN GOODMAN
The Sociology Department mourns the passing of Distinguished Teaching and Service
Professor Norman Goodman. Dr. Goodman, who passed away on June 26th, enjoyed a 56-year career at Stony Brook
University. He was a member of the university’s founding generation beginning his
career at Stony Brook in 1964 as one of the earliest members of the Sociology Department.
Professor Goodman chaired the department for 20 years (from 1973 to 1989 and again
from 2000 to 2004). He also served as president of the Arts and Sciences Senate,
twice president of the University Senate, served as vice president for the senate
for three terms and edited the SUNY University Senate Bulletin for more than 20 years.
Goodman was the author/co-author/co-editor of 10 books, including four textbooks in
Introductory Sociology and two textbooks in Marriage and the Family. Goodman also
served on the SUNY Distinguished Academy Board from its conception until his retirement
last year. Further information on the career of Norman Goodman can be found here.
In dedication to Stony Brook University and the Department of Sociology, Dr. Goodman has generously bequeathed funds to create the “Norman ‘Norm’ Goodman Endowment Excellence Award in Sociology” which will provide annual $1,000 cash awards for one undergraduate and one graduate student in Sociology who “demonstrates high academic achievement as defined by Stony Brook policy…[and] who demonstrates achievement, experience or commitment to academic excellence, leadership or community service”
May 2022
- Kristen Shorette is the 2022 winner of the Environmental Sociology's Section of the American Sociological Association Teaching and Mentorship Award.
- Nicholas H. Wilson has received a $20,000 Stony Brook Foundation Trustees Faculty Award to pursue research, scholarship and creative art. Recipients are chosen with an emphasis on the quality of research and publications and scholarship, the institutional impact of achievements and potential for continued professional growth, and the clarity, quality and significance of long-term future research, scholarship and creative activity and their probably impact upon SBU and the scholarly community within the discipline.
April 2022
- Allison Pugh (University of Virginia), April 4th, 2:30 - 4:00 PM, SBS N403: "The Stratification of Human Contact: The Presentand Future of Connective Labor"
- Tim Liao (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), April 6th, 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM, SBS N403: "Life Course Trajectory Class Crystallization."
- Prema Kurien (Syracuse University), April 11th, 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM, SBS N403: "The Racial Paradigm and Anti-Caste Activism in the U.S.."
- Biray Kolluoğlu (Boğaziçi University), April 13th, 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM, SBS N403: "Social Assemblages in Flux: Global Health and Education"
- Dana Weinberg (CUNY Queens College and The Graduate Center), April 20th, 1:00 - 2:30 PM, N403: "From Anti -Vaxxer Moms to Miltia Men: Social Media Influence Operations and Narrative Weaponization."
September 2021
- Oyeronke Oyewumi has received the Distinguished Africanist Award of the African Studies Association of the United States. Established in the 1980s, the award recognizes and honors "scholars who have contributed a lifetime record of outstanding scholarship in their respective field of African Studies and service to thr Africanist community."
June 2021
- In the recent American Sociological Association election, Crystal Fleming was elected to a three year term as an at-large member of Council, which is the governing body of the association.