Doctoral Placement

We have a strong record of placing students who graduate. Graduates are employed in academic, research, or administrative positions including several who held post-doctoral fellowships after graduation.
Students walking through Campanile

Doctoral graduates since 2009

Ophra Leyser-Whalen, March 3, 2009: “Choosing” Parenthood through Fertility Treatments: The Importance of Biological Children and the Difficult Roads in Their Pursuits
Associate Professor, University of Texas at El Paso, Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Shelly Koch, April 10, 2009: Shopping is Work: An Institutional Ethnography of Food Shopping
Associate Professor, Emory & Henry College, Department of Sociology

Ayako Mizumura, April 28, 2009: Reversing the Orientalist Gaze: Feminist Approaches to Japanese - U.S. GI’s Intimacy in Post World War II Japan and Contemporary Okinawa
Assistant Director, University of Kansas, Center for East Asian Studies

Loralie Wiebold, Dec. 2, 2009: Safeguarding the Heartland: County Government and Community Survival in the Era of Globalization
Visiting Assistant Professor, Eureka College, Department of Sociology

Melissa Freiburger, April 23, 2010: Mothers as Children's 'First and Best Teachers': An Institutional Ethnography
Director of Programs, Sunrise Project, Lawrence, KS

Elizabeth Legerski, May 7, 2010: Hierarchies of Risk: The Longitudinal Dynamics of Family, Work, Welfare, and Health Insurance in Low-Income Women's Lives
Associate Professor, University of North Dakota, Department of Sociology

Jason Capps, July 28, 2010: Collateral Damage in Iraq and Capital Punishment in the U.S.: How the Public Makes Sense of Extreme Violence and Death
Customer Success Specialist, Crelate Talent

Tori Barnes-Brus, Sept. 23, 2010: Responsible Mothers and Well Born Children: Social Authorities and the Discourses of Nineteenth Century Pregnancy
Associate Professor, Cornell College, Department of Sociology

Evelyn Clark Benavides, Oct. 19, 2010: Victims of Time, Warriors for Change: Chilean Women in a Global, Neoliberal Society
Associate Professor, SUNY Oswego, Department of Sociology

Brian Zirkle, April 7, 2011: Working Temp: How Temporary Employees Find Meaning through Life Course Narratives
Associate Professor, Johnson County Community College, Department of Sociology

Stephanie Decker, August 31, 2012: A Sociology of Public Confessions
Associate Professor, SUNY Cortland, Department of Sociology

Robert Hughes, April 18, 2014: Politics of Ethnic Diversity and Ethnic Rebellion: The Escalation of Ethnic Tensions from 1946 to 2005
Senior IT Manager, Analytic Data Integration Section, Washington State Dept. of Social & Health Services

Lisa-Marie Wright, April 18, 2014: Voices of Empowerment: The Role of Kansas City Based NGOs on Immigrant Women’s Experiences of Empowerment
Associate Teaching Professor, University of Kansas, Department of Sociology

Carrie Wendel-Hummell, April 28, 2015: Journey to Parenthood: How New Fathers and Mothers Make Sense of Perinatal Emotional Distress
Director, University of Kansas, Center for Research on Aging & Disability Options

KuoRay Mao, July 29, 2015: When the Wells Ran Dry: A Treadmill Analysis of Political Capitalism and Environmental Degradation in the Minqin Oasis
Associate Professor, Colorado State University, Department of Sociology

Christy Craig, Aug. 28, 2015: Reading Between the Lines: Social, Cultural, and Erotic Capital in American and Irish Women's Book Clubs
Assistant Professor, Fort Hays State University, Department of Sociology

Aislinn Addington, Oct. 21, 2015: Drawing Lines and Taking Sides: An Examination of Boundary Work among Oppositional Worldviews
Campus Advocate Coordinator, Oregon Sexual Assault Task Force

Jane Webb, Nov. 12, 2015: From Amazon Warriors to Hobbits: Heightism and the Cultural “Staturization” of Identities, Gender, and Sexuality
Therapist, Operation Breakthrough

Nicole Perry, Dec. 4, 2015: Diseased Bodies and Ruined Reputations: Venereal Disease and the Construction of Women's Respectability in Early 20th Century Kansas
Assistant Director for Faculty Initiatives, University of Kansas, Center for Undergraduate Research

James Ordner, Dec. 7, 2015: Grassroots Resistance to the Keystone XL Pipeline in Nebraska
Lecturer, Humboldt State University, Department of Sociology

Pooya Naderi, April 6, 2016: Gender, Martyrdom, and the Management of Stigmatized Identities among Devout Muslims in the U.S.
Assistant Professor, Willamette University, Critical Studies Program

Emily Kennedy, May 4, 2016: Digital Desire: Commercial, Moral, and Political Economies of Sex Work and the Internet
Criminal Justice Data Analyst, City of Lawrence

Kyle Chapman, July 14, 2016: Determining Diabetes: The Role of Educational Attainment and Race/Ethnicity in the Link Between Health Behaviors and Diabetes
Assistant Professor, Oregon Institute of Technology, Sociology & Population Health Management

Kevin McCannon, Sept. 30, 2016: Challenges of Health Care Devolution: Problems of Legitimacy, Consumer Knowledge, and Work Transfer in Kansas Medicaid
Assistant Teaching Professor & Academic Program Associate, University of Kansas, Department of Sociology

Brock Ternes, Nov. 28, 2016: Sustainable Practices in the High Plains: A Study of Water Conservation Efforts and Well Ownership
Visiting Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Department of Sociology

Rachel Craft, Dec. 2, 2016: Making the Choice to Use Herbs: Pathways to the Practice of Herbalism
Assistant Teaching Professor, University of Missouri St. Louis, Gerontology Program

Jorge Thieroldt Llanos, June 9, 2017: The Local Dimension of Transnational Activity in Environmental Conflicts: Tambogrande, 1961-2004
Docente, Univresidad de Lima, Communication Studies

Anna Kern, July 2, 2018: Gender and the Green Economy

Natalie Jansen, November 30, 2018: Women’s Hypertension in Indonesia: The Role of Religion, Trust, and Community Involvement ​
Medical school student, University of Illinois at Chicago

Andrea Gómez Cervantes, April 4, 2019: Inflexible Illegality: Immigration and Integration Processes of Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Latina/o Immigrants in the Midwest
Assistant Professor, Wake Forest University, Department of Sociology

Lukas Szrot, April 26, 2019: America versus the Environment? Humanity, Nature, and the Sacred 1973-2014
Assistant Professor, Bemidji State University, Department of Sociology & Communication Studies

Daniel Alvord, June 13, 2019: Reversal of the Kansas Tax "Experiment": The Social Limits of Supply-Side
Visiting Assistant Professor, Bucknell University, Department of Sociology & Anthropology
Assistant Professor, Oklahoma State University, Department of Sociology (starting fall 2023)

Hanhao Wang, December 13, 2019: Producing for what? GDP and Well-being in China's Economic Policies

Jacob Lipsman, April 8, 2020: Investigating Structural Barriers to Community Participation: A Political Ecology Analysis of Risk Reduction in Coastal Louisiana
Impact Analyst, LifeCity

Byeongdon Oh, April 17, 2020: Is College Still the Great Equalizer? Three Essays on Social Stratification among College Graduates in the Twenty-first Century
Postdoctoral Fellow, Portland State University, Department of Sociology. 2020-2022
Postdoctoral Scholar, University of California, Berkeley, Social Science D-Lab. 2022-present
Assistant Professor, SUNY Polytechnic Institute, Department of Sociology (starting spring 2024)

Joelle Spotswood, April 16, 2021: There and Gone: A Portrait of How Social Class Shapes Educational Outcomes in America's Heartland
Instructor, Emporia State University, Department of English, Modern Languages, and Journalism

Emily Morrow, April 30, 2021: Which Meritocracy? An Exploration of Gender Differences in Meritocracy Belief and Experiences in Relation to Advancement in Academic Medicine
Assistant Professor, Kansas City Kansas Community College, Department of Sociology

Sarah Smith, June 4, 2021. Hispanic Health Lifestyles in the US: Associations with Acculturation, Gender, and SES
Social Science Research Analyst, Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General, Office of Evaluations and Inspections

Matt Comi, Jan. 24, 2022. Do Farmers Know Better? Exploring Innovation, Environmental Change, and Rural Livlihoods among US Hop Growers
Koller Postdoctoral Fellow, National Farm Medicine Center, Marshfield Clinic Research Institute
Assistant Professor, Utah Valley University, Department of Behavioral Sciences, starting Fall 2023

Pam Rooks, April 22, 2022. The “Jayhawk Nazi” of Kansas: Gerald Winrod, Antisemitism, and the Evangelical Far Right, 1925-1944
Lecturer, University of Kansas, Department of Sociology

Basil "Bo" Cassell, April 26, 2022. Consumer Individualism and Community Orientation Among Protestant Churches:  A New Typology

Elyse Neumann, July 21, 2022. The Phenomenology of Fat Men’s Health
Assistant Professor, Winston-Salem State University, Department of Behavioral Sciences

Gregory Goldman, September 6, 2022. Civil Judaism in Crisis: Antisemitism, Israel, and American Jewish Identity Politics
Posthumous degree awarded fall 2022

Alexander Myers, December 13, 2022. Laboratories of Bureaucracy: The Development of Labor Market Institutions in Wisconsin, 1900-1940
Lecturer, Washburn University, Department of Sociology and Anthropology