Sociology Department

Sharon Paterson: Vita
Office Hours: By Appointment

Research interests: Sociology, Specializations: Inequality, Work/Occupations, and Higher Education

Arthur Scarritt:  Vita

Office Hours: By Appointment

Research interests: The organization of society perpetuates racial inequalities, and strategies for overcoming these unequal relations.

Rebecca L. Som Castellano: Vita
Office Hours: By Appointment

Research interests: A rural sociologist and agrifood scholar, Dr. Som Castellano studies environmental and agri-food system change, including how stratification and inequality influence experiences with the environment. Current research focuses on 1) well-being among Latina farm workers in Southwestern Idaho, particularly experiences with pesticides and ecological knowledge; 2) land use change and farmland preservation in the Treasure Valley; 3) dynamics of gender and labor among wildland firefighters.

Marty Orr: Vita
Office Hours: By Appointment

Research interests: Social theory, inequality, social movements, the environment, and the mass media.

Dora Ramirez: Vita
Office Hours:   By Appointment

Research Interests: Nation-building while examining the internalization of socio-political global effects and the influence of colonization among Latinx and Indigenous populations in the United States and the U.S./Mexico border.

Raul S. Casarez Vita 

Office Hours by Appointment

Research Interest: Race, Ethnicity, Immigration, Social Inequality, Boundary Making, Intergroup Relationships, Identity Formation

Soulit Chacko Vita

Office Hours by Appointment

Research Interest: Race and Ethnicity; Immigration; Transnationalism; Work; Gender & Sexuality; Body and Embodiment; Ethnography; Asian & South Asian Diaspora

Sarah Mawhirter: Vita
Office Hours: By Appointment

Research interests: Sociology, Gender Studies, Focuses on: Critical Higher Education, Embodied Research Methods, Carceral and Mass Incarceration Activists’ Studies, Higher Education in Prison, and Transformative Criminal Justice Law and Public Policy.

Desiree Brunette: Vita
Office Hours: By Appointment

Research interests: Sociology of the family, Sociology of the Sex, Sociology of Religion, and Medical Sociology,

Michael Kreiter: Vita
Office Hours: By Appointment

Research interests: Inequality; Critical Race Theory; Cultural Studies: Popular Culture; Neoliberalism; Gender; Intersectionality; Mixed Methods

Carissa Wolf: Vita
Office Hours: By Appointment

Research interests: Media Studies, Journalism, Mass media and society, Media Literacy, Sociology of health and medicine, Disability studies, Fringe and extremist groups, Public sociology, Sociology of Food

Julia Broderick: Vita
Office Hours:  By Appointment

Research interests: : inclusion, education, public education, and sociological concepts

Virginia Husting:; Vita

Professor Husting retired in 2023

Hello Past and Present Gender Studies Students!

The Department of Sociology reluctantly announces the retirement of Professor Ginna Husting

Ginna’s contributions over 24 years of service to Boise State cannot be overstated. Most significantly, she has been Director of Gender Studies since 2011, guiding that program through difficult times. Gender Studies is, on all campuses and even in the best of times, devalued relative to its centrality in our lives. It has taken extraordinary effort and personal sacrifice to cultivate this as a center for education, research and community.

As a scholar, her work has received international acclaim. Throughout, Dr. Husting has looked at how self, emotions and subjectivities are shaped by systems of inequality and domination. She has become a recognized expert in the work of Hannah Arendt, applying this to, among other things, the problems of digital capitalism. She has also produced some of the foundational work in the now rapidly growing interdisciplinary study of conspiracy theories. Her scholarship will continue to inform and inspire future research.

Above all, Professor Husting has been motivated by the needs and interests of her students. She is renowned for both her empathy and rigor. In courses like Feminist Theory, Social Inequality, Environmental Sociology, Science and Technology and many more, her students have not just been exposed to theories and skills, but they have learned about themselves and their place in the world. As her students contribute to their families and communities throughout their lives, her impact on her students will reverberate across generations.

Professor Husting’s contributions will continue to shape this campus, scholarship, and the lives of those who have worked with her and learned from her. We can’t thank her enough for everything she has done to advance the mission of Boise State University.

Carolina Valderrama-Echavarria: Vita
Office Hours: By Appointment

Research interests: Applied Sociological Research, and Action Sociology with a particular focus on the areas of relationship development, community building and engagement, and social program analysis.

Carter Ashleigh Merklinghaus: Vita 
Office Hours: By Appointment

Research interests: Military Service, Life Course, Social Psychology, Gender, Substance Use, Masculinity, Social Problems

Chandra Reyna Vita
Office Hours by Appointment

Research Interest: social inequality and stratification, racial and gender socialization, racialization, racial identities, Latinx and multiracial families

Charles Dickinson: Vita
Office Hours: By Appointment

Research interests:Teaching and Learning; Racial and Ethinic Minorities, and Technology and Culture.

Dr. Coline McConnel Vita
Office Hours: By Appointment

Research Interest:  Civil rights law, cultural shifts in environmental sustainability, and global health policy

Jeff Cates: Vita
Office Hours By Appointment

Research Interests: Sociology of work, environmental sociology, and socioeconomic inequality, primarily related to race, ethnicity, and the (mis)use of technology. My Master’s thesis focuses on “rent-to-own” businesses and their relationship to low-income communities, with a heavy reliance on qualitative methods. For more information, check out the recently published article Poverty Delivered in the public sociology journal Contexts 

Jeremy Maxand: Vita
Office Hours: By Appointment

Research interests: Sociology of disability and contemporary political social movements.

John Verburg: Vita
Office Hours: By Appointment

Research interests:

Kimberly Scheffer: Vita
Office Hours: By Appointment

Research interests:

Kristina Jensen: Vita
Office Hours: By Appointment

Research interests:  

Office Hours: by Appointment

Research Interests: Immigration (emphasis on undocumented immigration); Latin Experiences, Medical Sociology.

Robert Reed: Vita
Office Hours: By Appointment

Research interests: -Education and cultural reproduction -Generational differences on the efficacy of mobile devices and learning in the classroom- Teaching sociology-Media socialization

Michael Blain: Vita
Office Hours: By Appointment

Research interests: Imperialism, Terrorism, Politics, Victimage Ritual, and Biopolitics

Angeline Kearns Blain: Vita
Office Hours: By Appointment

Research interests: Gender Studies,  Peace Studies, Immigration, Irish-American Sociology,  Sociology of Ireland