Department of Sociology Newsletter - Summer 2026

Message from the Chair

Greetings from Fraser Hall! I hope this letter finds everyone well. 2025-26 academic year has been a very busy year and we continue to thrive, despite the ongoing challenges to the field of higher education. As always, we have numerous milestones to announce and celebrate but this year, we also have some bittersweet news as two of our most senior and valued colleagues have decided to retire.   

First, some updates and celebrations: our new interdisciplinary undergraduate major, the Health and Society major, was officially launched past fall and has already attracted a number of majors. Our new minor in Critical Criminology Concentration, housed in the School of Professional Studies Criminal Justice Program, is also doing well. Many thanks to everyone who has worked hard to bring these programs to fruition. During the past academic year, the department has successfully completed the required academic program review. 

On the faculty front, we welcomed three new junior faculty members to the department in the fall of 2025! We welcomed Assistant Professor Elizabeth Anderson and Assistant Professor Tyler Myroniuk, both of whom conduct research and teach in the field of Sociology of Health and Medicine. We also welcomed our newest multi-term lecturer, Pam Rooks. They have all been wonderful additions to the department. We would also like to extend the warmest congratulations to Professor Tracey LaPierre, who has been promoted to full professor.

On the student front, we welcomed seven new graduate students into our program, Hameed Bakare, Sarah Bujarski, Rachael Hampton, Xiaoyan Liang, Tristan McCulloch, Gabriel Patino Rodriguez, and Grace Price-Brown. Throughout the academic year, our impressive graduate students, as usual, have published, defended proposals and theses, won awards, and got jobs. In the spring of 2026, we graduated four Ph.D. students, and three M.A. students. We congratulate all the new graduates and look forward to their future successes. We also extend hearty congratulations to the graduating senior class of 2026. 

I would like to extend special thanks to the department committee chairs for their leadership in the department: Brian Donovan (Associate Chair), ChangHwan Kim (Director of Graduate Studies), and Tracey LaPierre (Director of Undergraduate Studies), and Joane Nagel (Director of Personnel Committee). In the upcoming year, Professor Argun Saatcioglu will step in as the new Director of Graduate Studies while Professor ChangHwan Kim will become the new Director of the Personnel Committee. I want to express my gratitude to every faculty member for their contributions to the work and the culture of our department.  Special appreciation goes out to our amazing staff members for their indispensable role in keeping the department running smoothly: office manager Bethany Engel, our new Graduate Program Coordinator, Audrey McDonald, and student office assistants. We are also very happy to welcome back Jan Emerson, our office associate, after her one-year “loan” to another department. We will also miss our outgoing Graduate Program Coordinator, Corinne Butler, who has contributed many years to the Sociology Department.

Last but not least, our long-standing and distinguished Professors Joane Nagel, who has been with us since 1977, and David Smith, who has been with us since 1990, have retired from KU at the end of the 2026 academic year. Both Professor Nagel and Professor Smith have contributed enormously to the KU Sociology Department over their many decades at KU and they will be sorely missed (see their profiles).

Best wishes,

Kelly H. Chong

Professor and Chair