Office Location: Virtual/Zoom
Student Support Hours: Wednesday, 4pm-6 pm & By appointment
Email: eacebedogonzalez@csufresno

Fall 2024 Class Schedule

Office Location: Social Science 211

Office Phone: 559.278.2234

Email: realvarado@mail.fresnostate.edu

Office Location: TBA
Student Support Hours: TBA
Email: mballin@mail.fresnostate.edu

Fall 2024 Class Schedule:

Office Location: Virtual / Zoom
Student Support Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2pm-3pm
Email: rbecerra2@mail.fresnostate.edu

Fall 2024 Class Schedule:

Office Location: Social Science 224
Office Phone: 559-278-6365
Student Support Hours: Mondays/Wednesdays 10:15am-12pm & 2:00pm-3:30pm
Email: sophiaboutilier@csufresno.edu

Fall 2024 Class Schedule:

Personal Biography

Beginning a career in international development, Sophia Boutilier worked on gender equality and education projects in Kenya and Ghana, and studied international development at McGill University in Canada and the London School of Economics (Gender Institute) in the UK. Realizing that the structure of development work chronically overvalued the contributions of foreign “experts” at the expense of the communities they were meant to serve, Sophia spent time re-evaluating her career progression. A love of learning, communicating scientific information, and engaging in social justice issues led her to a career in sociology. She completed her PhD in Sociology at Stony Brook University in New York in 2023. When she’s not reading books about inequalities, she loves to sing in a choir, chat to her sister (and niblings!), and see live music with her partner.

Areas of Specialty

International development, emotions, solidarity, gender inequalities, privilege

Research Focus

Sophia Boutilier’s work examines promising social policies that fail to reach their potential. Focusing on the international development industry and efforts to advance gender equality, she unpacks the limitations and unintended consequences of policies ranging from affirmative consent to sexual contact to the promotion of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) amongst women’s groups in the Global South. A common theme in her work is how underlying power dynamics are often reinforced by new policies, rather than dismantled. For example, in her paper, What do you mean by that? Solidarity in Canadian development practice, she shows how the aspiration for solidarity is not matched by a reorganization of institutional priorities or leadership. The result is that bureaucratic and budgetary norms continue to center Canadian interests over and above development partners with whom Canada claims to be in solidarity. Despite the resilience of these underlying value systems, her work aims not only to uncover obstacles to social change, but also opportunities for advancement. Indeed, her research on emotions and solidarity speaks to how enduring patterns of inequality can be confronted by privileged individuals.

Alongside her academic work, she has partnered with gender equality and development organizations such as Shift: The Project to End Domestic Violence, and Right to Play.

Recent Publications

2024              Boutilier, S. “What do you mean by that? Solidarity in Canadian development practice.” International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy.

2023              Woodson, T. and Boutilier, S. “From Intent to Impact: The Decline of Broader Impacts Throughout an NSF Project Life-Cycle.” Research Evaluation. 32(2): 348–355. 

2022              Boutilier, S. “‘Just Push it Through’: How Emotions Shape Solidarity for Canadian Development Workers.” Sociology of Development. 8(4): 355–378.

2022              Woodson, T. and Boutilier, S. “Impacts for Whom? Assessing Inequalities in NSF-Funded Broader Impacts Using the Inclusion-Immediacy Criterion.” Science and Public Policy. 49(2). 168-178.

2021              Fallon, K. and Boutilier, S. (equal co-authors) “The Digital Divide Within the Women’s Movement in Ghana: Implications for Voice and Inclusion.” Social Movement Studies. 21(5). 677-696.

2020              Woodson, T., Hoffman, E. and Boutilier, S. “Evaluating the NSF Broader Impacts with the Inclusion-Immediacy Criterion: A Retrospective Analysis of Nanotechnology Grants.” Technovation. 101.

2020              Boutilier, S. “Growing Up Malala: Is Today’s Educated Girl Tomorrow’s Neoliberal Woman?” Journal of International Development, 32. 186– 206. 

Office Location: Social Science 218
Office Phone: 559-278-2275
Student Support Hours: Friday 2pm-4pm & By appointment
Email: acrowell@csufresno.edu

Fall 2024 Class Schedule

Personal Biography & Areas of Specialty 

Dr. Amber R. Crowell is Associate Professor of Sociology at California State University, Fresno. She earned her PhD in Sociology from Texas A&M University. Her research focuses on residential segregation, social inequality, and housing justice. She recently published a co-authored book titled Racial and Ethnic Residential Segregation across the United States (2023), which reexamines segregation patterns using new methods for measurement and analysis. Her recent article publications also feature innovative methods for residential segregation analysis. She has also published other publications that focus on evictions, rent exploitation, and other inequalities in rental housing. She is principal investigator of a National Science Foundation funded project to create boundary maps for neighborhoods in 1940 and analyze residential segregation outcomes in urban areas using the 1940 census. She is a founding co-director of the Center for Community Voices at Fresno State, which supports projects led by community leaders in the Central Valley of California. She is originally from Texas and now enjoys living in Fresno with her spouse, two young children, and two cats. 

Recent Publications

• Crowell, Amber R. and Mark Fossett. 2023. Racial and Ethnic Residential Segregation Across the United States: New Approaches to Understanding Trends and Patterns. New York: Springer
• Dueñas, Maria and Amber R. Crowell. 2022.  “Resisting Racist Discourses with Research Methods, Active Learning, and Storytelling.” Sociology of Race and Ethnicity 9(1): 103-8.
• Crowell, Amber R. 2022. “Renting Under Racial Capitalism: Residential Segregation and Rent Exploitation in the United States.” Sociological Spectrum 42: 95-118.
• Crowell, Amber R. and Mark Fossett. 2022. “Metropolitan Racial Residential Segregation in the United States: A Microlevel and Cross-Context Analysis of Black, Latino, and Asian Segregation.” Demographic Research 46: 217-60.
• Crowell, Amber R. and Janine Nkosi. 2020. “Evicted in the Central Valley: The Avoidable Crisis and Systemic Injustice of Housing Displacement.” Boom California.

Current Funded Projects
“Economic Opportunity Landscape Analysis of Central Valley Communities.” The James Irvine Foundation. (Co-PI: Andy Levine)

“Mapping the Origins of Segregation in US Urban Areas: Historical Segregation Research and GIS Resources for Collaboration Across MSIs.” National Science Foundation, Build and Broaden 3.0.

Office Location: Social Science 223
Student Support Hours: Tuesdays & Thursdays 5:00-6:00pm; Wednesday 9 am - 12 pm & 3 pm-4 pm

Office Phone: 559.278.5144
Email: wforce@csufresno.edu

Fall 2024 Class Schedule

Personal Biography
Dr. William Ryan Force is a student of social life. Dr. Force earned his BA and MA at the University of South Florida and completed his PhD at the University of Missouri. His academic training is in sociology, religious studies, feminism, and critical theory. In his unstructured time he enjoys bad reality TV, used bookstores, and searching for the perfect cheeseburger. Dr. Force lives in Fresno with his partner and two mongrels.

Areas of Specialty 
Culture, Subculture, & Pop Culture; the Sociology of Everyday Life; Qualitative Methods; Gender; Identity; Radical Criminology; Comparative Religion

Research Focus
Dr. Force’s research and teaching explore the accomplishment of identity at the intersection of language, power, and culture. He has studied a variety of empirical contexts: tattoo culture, punk/indie rock, transgressive TV, bar culture, trick-or-treating, and the supernatural. His current projects include a book examining the influence of social media on the tattoo subculture, and a critical interactionist analysis of the relationship between gangsta rap and outlaw country music.

Recent Publications
2022. “Tattooing in the Age of Instagram.” Deviant Behavior 43(4): 415-31. (Published online in 2020.)

2021. The Oxford Handbook of Symbolic Interaction. Co-edited with Dr. Thomas DeGloma & Dr. Wayne Brekhus. 

2018. “Toward a Cryptoscience.” Chapter in The Supernatural in History, Society, and Culture (edited by Dennis Waskul & Marc Eaton). Temple University Press.

2015. “Trick-or-Treating.” Chapter in Popular Culture as Everyday Life (edited by Dennis Waskul & Phillip Vannini). Routledge Press.

Office Location: Social Sciences 129A
Student Support Hours: Tuesday/Thursday 4:30pm-6:00pm (appointments preferred)
Email: adriang0mez@mail.fresnostate.edu

Fall 2024 Class Schedule

Office Location: MCF 214 & Virtual/Zoom
Student Support Hours: In person- Tuesdays/Thursdays 11 am-12 pm; Zoom Wednesday 2 pm-3 pm                                 
Email: nhagaman@mail.fresnostate.edu

Fall 2024 Class Schedule

Biography
Natasha Hagaman is a full-time lecturer in Sociology at Fresno State. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology
from UC Merced in May 2022. Prior to teaching, her past experience included working for lobbying
associations in Sacramento and for public agencies. Dr. Hagaman worked in the Fresno County
Administrative Office and the Department of Behavioral Health for 14 years. Ms. Hagaman has a B.A. in
Gender Studies (Sonoma State) and an M.A. in Public Policy (Claremont Graduate University). Dr.
Hagaman teaches classes in critical thinking, the sociology of sex and gender, the family, and qualitative
research methods. Her research interests are gender, sexuality, work, and family.

Her recent publications include:

Hagaman, Natasha. 2023. "Daytime dads and do‐it‐all dads: Understanding lead‐dad families." Sociology Compass, p.e13164. https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.13164

Beattie, Irenee, Nella Van Dyke, and Natasha Hagaman. 2021. “What Do We Know about LGBQ+ College Student Academic Experiences and Outcomes?” Sociology Compass. 15(3): e12862. https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12862

Van Dyke, Nella, Natasha Hagaman, Irenee R. Beattie, and Hala Alnagar. 2021. "Coming Out (or not) on College Applications: Institutional and Interpersonal Dimensions of Disclosing LGBQ+ Identities." Socius 7: https://doi.org/10.1177%2F23780231211054641

Office Location: Social Science 219
Student Support Hours: Tuesday/Thursday 8:30am-9:00am & 1pm-2pm
Office Phone: 559.278.2005
Email: aseemhasnain@csufresno.edu

Fall 2024 Class Schedule

Education
PhD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , 2016
PG Diploma in Forest Management, Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal, 2001
Bachelor of Science (Physics, Math), University of Lucknow, 1998

Personal Biography
I grew up in Lucknow, India where I stumbled through Physics, Math, and Finance before a deeply enriching training in community based natural resources management. I worked as a community organizer and program manager with indigenous communities and non-profits in Western, Central, and North India. After seven years of work in the field, I went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for my Ph.D, where I trained in sociology, religion, and South Asian history. I live in Fresno with my partner and school age twins.

Areas of Specialty 
I am a political sociologist interested in politics and culture broadly defined. My current projects include environmentalism; decolonization; politics of food; ideology; cultural nationalism; and the connections between race, caste, gender and capitalism.

Forthcoming Book 
Decolonizing Environmentalism, my co-authored book is scheduled for publication in early 2025. You can read about it here:

https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/decolonizing-environmentalism-9781350335462/

Published Research
My published research engages with community management of natural resources; indigenous social movements; identity politics, colonialism, democracy, and the public sphere; comparative human rights; and the politics of knowledge production.

My latest publication (November, 2023) discusses Caste and Vegetarianism in India. 

Public Facing Writing
Caste based Discrimination among South Asian Americans, 2023.
Sanitation, Abject labor, and Caste in India, 2020.
Neoliberalism in the times of Covid, 2020.
The Politics of vegetarianism in India, 2018.

Office Location: SS 129
Student Support Hours:  
Office phone: 
Email: cdhill@csufresno.edu

Fall 2024 Class Schedule

Office Location: Library, 2nd Floor, Center for Faculty Excellence
Student Support Hours: Tuesday/Thursday 09:15 am-10:30 am & By appointment
Office Phone: 559-278-2892
Email: robinh@csufresno.edu

Fall 2024 Class Schedule

Office Location: Social Science 225
Student Support Hours: Thursday 09:50am-10:20am, 4pm-6pm, & By appointment

Office Phone: 559-278-2891 
Email: matthewj@csufresno.edu

Fall 2024 Class Schedule

Personal Biography
Matthew Ari Jendian was born and raised in Fresno and received his B.A. in sociology and minor degrees in psychology and Armenian Studies from Fresno State (1991) and his Ph.D. from USC (2001). Dr. Jendian is founding director of the Humanics Program in Community Benefit Administration at Fresno State and serves as a tenured Full Professor and Chair of sociology.

Areas of Specialty
Dr. Jendian regularly teaches courses on the "Sociology of Race & Ethnicity," "Contemporary Social Issues," "Sociology of Terrorism & Genocide," and "Social Policy Analysis, Advocacy, and Community Organizing."  In August 2012, Dr. Jendian was promoted to Full Professor, and he continues to direct the Humanics Program and serve as faculty advisor for the Humanics AFP Collegiate Chapter. 

Dr. Jendian has authored several peer-reviewed journal articles as well as two books: Becoming American, Remaining Ethnic (LFB Scholarly Publishing, 2008) and #Think: Critical Thinking about Social Problems (Kendall Hunt, 2017).  

Dr. Jendian is the recipient of several honors, including the 2012 President’s Award of Excellence presented by the University Advisory Board at Fresno State in recognition of his integrity, leadership and commitment to the university and community, the 2008 “Provost’s Award for Faculty Service,” the 2016 “Together We Win Award” in recognition of his role in civic engagement, the 2014 “Trailblazer for Prosperity” Award from Southeast Fresno Community & Economic Development Association, the 2007 Social Action Award from Temple Beth Israel, and the 2007 “Amigo Award” presented by Vida en El Valle to “a non-Latino individual or organization that has worked tirelessly on behalf of the Latino community.”  He was honored in Menk, an encyclopedia of biographies of prominent Armenian scholars.  He was nominated for the 2009 California Campus Compact Cone Award for Excellence & Leadership in Cultivating Community Partnerships, was selected as part of the first cohort of the Irvine Foundation’s New Leadership Network, and has written and received national and federal grants to develop curricula that engage university students in capacity-building work with Community Benefit Organizations (CBOs) in Central California. 

Dr. Jendian has served as a board member for several CBOs, including Nonprofit Leadership Alliance (formerly American Humanics, Inc.), Buchanan Babe Ruth Baseball Association, Inc., Fresno Nonprofit Advancement Council, Fresno Housing Alliance, Regenerate California Innovation (formerly Relational Culture Institute), and Fresno Metro Ministry and as an external evaluator with local and multinational CBOs, including Porterville College and Armenian General Benevolent Union. 

Office Location: SS129 & Virtual/Zoom
Student Support Hours: In person Wednesday 5pm-6pm. On Zoom: By appointment

Email: cjimenez@csufresno.edu

Fall 2024 Class Schedule

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Office Location: Social Science 221
Student Support Hours: Monday 3pm-5pm, Tuesday 3pm-4pm, Wednesday 4pm-5pm & By appointment
Office Phone: 559-278-8806
Email: anjones@csufresno.edu

Fall 2024 Class Schedule

Personal Biography
Dr. Jones completed his doctorate in sociology in July of 2006 at the University of Oregon (Dissertation title: “How the Media Frame Global Warming: A Harbinger of Human Extinction or Endless Summer Fun?”) and joined the faculty at Fresno State in the fall of 2007. He attained an M.S. in sociology from the University of Oregon in 2003, an M.S. in social science from Pittsburg State University in 1998, and a B.A. in philosophy from the University of Kansas in 1994. In addition to his academic development, Dr. Jones has worked as a newspaper editor and as a branch manager for a multi-national corporation.

Dr. Jones resides in Fresno with his wife, Melissa and their zoo of cats and dogs. His hobbies and interests include tennis, hiking, bicycling, photography, watching movies & playing video games, cooking, sculpting, and painting.

Areas of Specialty
His teaching and research interests include social theory, cultural sociology, mass media, environmental sociology, political economy, and political sociology. Substantively, he specializes in media framing of environmental issues and their impact on social perceptions. Prior to joining Fresno State, Dr. Jones taught courses at the University of Oregon and Pittsburg State University in sociology of mass media, Marxist social theory, crime & deviance, introductory sociology, American government, and introduction to philosophy.

Dr. Jones is currently working on multi-disciplinary research through a grant from the National Science Foundation, examining human water use behaviors and their impacts on biodiversity in an urban environment. The Urban Long Term Research Area - Fresno And Clovis Ecosocial Study (ULTRA-FACES) team has collected bird, tree, and social data for the Fresno and Clovis Metropolitan Area and is examining the interactions between water policy, residential water use, and urban biodiversity.

Recent Publications
Jones, Andrew R. “Using news media content analysis as a teaching tool in sociology of popular culture.” National Social Science Journal, Vol. 50, No. 2., pp. 19-24.

Madhusudan Katti, Andrew R. Jones, Derya Özgoç Çağlar, Henry D. Delcore, and Kaberi Kar Gupta. 2017. “The Influence of Structural Conditions and Cultural Inertia on Water Usage and Landscape Decision-Making in a California Metropolitan Area.” Sustainability, 9(9).

Madhusudan Katti, Andrew R. Jones, Mara Brady, and Beth Weinman. 2016. “From Tropical Plantations to K-cups: A socio-environmental analysis of the global journey of coffee.” National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC), 2015-10.

Jones, Andrew R.  2014. “Framing global warming: An international comparison of the influence of climate contrarians on news media coverage.” National Social Science Journal, Vol. 41, No.2, pp. 49-65.

Jones, Andrew R. 2009. “The Next Mass Extinction: Human Evolution or Human Eradication.” Journal of Cosmology, Vol. 2, November, pp. 316- 333.

Jones, Andrew R. 2009. Fads, Fetishes & Fun: A Sociological Analysis of Pop Culture. Cognella Press: San Diego, CA.

Office Location: Virtual
Student Support Hours: On Zoom Thursday 10am-12pm, & Byappointment 
Email: gregoryk@csufresno.edu

Fall 2024 Class Schedule

Office Location: Virtual

Student Support Hours: On Zoom: By appointment only

Email: vekennedy@csufresno.edu

Fall 2024 Class Schedule

Personal Biography
Vera G. Kennedy is a Lecturer at California State University, Fresno and a tenured faculty at West Hills Community College Lemoore. Dr. Kennedy received her Bachelor’s Degree in sociology and Masters in Political Science with an emphasis in Public Administration from California State University, Fresno and her doctorate from Argosy University in Education with an emphasis in Teaching and Learning.

Areas of Specialty
Dr. Kennedy teaches courses in cultural diversity, deviance, drugs and society, mental health, social problems, and applied sociology. She received the 2010 National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD) Excellence Award and was recognized by the West Hills College Lemoore Team TEACH program as an All-star in Teaching. Her most recent publication was on The Influence of Cultural Capital on Hispanic Student College Graduation Rates.

She has experience working with nonprofit and public agencies in organizational development, grant writing, program evaluation, and social research. Dr. Kennedy is certified by the National Grant Writers Association as a Senior Certified Grants Specialist and Certified Grants Reviewer. Before teaching full-time, she worked as the Juvenile Justice Services Coordinator for the Fresno Superior Court and assisted in the establishment and facilitation of the Juvenile Mental Health Court for Fresno County. Prior to the Court, Dr. Kennedy owned and operated a private consulting firm for six years. From 1999-2002, she was the Associate Director for the Central California Center for Health and Human Services at California State University, Fresno.

Dr. Kennedy served on the Board of Directors for Comprehensive Youth Services, a child abuse prevention agency for eight years. She was appointed by the Fresno County Board of Supervisors to serve on the Fresno County Foster Care Oversight Committee for six years. She most recently served as a member of the Fresno County Human Resources Advisory Board responsible for reviewing and recommending local grant funding administered by the County of Fresno.

Office Location: Science 2: Room 252

Student Support Hours:  In Person: Monday/Wednesday/Friday 11:00am-12:30pm

Email: lkhang@csufresno.edu

Fall 2024 Class Schedule

Office Location: Social Science TBA
Student Support Hours: Monday 1pm-1:50 pm & By appointment
Office Phone: 559-278-5145 
Email: tkubal@csufresno.edu

Fall 2024 Class Schedule

Personal Biography
Ph.D. in Sociology, 2001. Southern Illinois University. I taught at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln for two years before coming to Fresno State in 2002.

My hobbies include bicycling, downhill skiing, and cooking.

Areas of Specialty
Journal editor (social movements section), Sociology Compass (2016-2017)

President, California Sociological Association (2016-2017)

Chair, Social Science Research and Instructional Council (2017)

I currently teach courses such as social movements, social change, gender, race, and critical thinking about society. I have published on the topic of "diversity and learning outcomes," and I am analyzing variations in learning outcomes in traditional and online classes. I am also developing content for the textbook market.

My main research area is social movements.  My 2008 book, Cultural Movements and Collective Memory: Christopher Columbus and the Rewriting of the National Origin Myth examines the patriotic, religious, ethnic, and anti-colonial movements that have successfully mobilized to shape public commemoration of Columbus Day.

I have published research on cultural processes within environmental movements.

I am participating with colleagues and students in research projects on self efficacy, sexual abstinence movements, and homelessness.

I have developed community statistics sites as well as a Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) software package, among other small pieces of software.  I have been training students to use the CATI software to collect interviews from residents in the Central Valley to understand public attitudes about social issues such as police misconduct, homelessness, and environmental problems.

Office Location: TBD
Student Support Hours:  By appointment only
Email: alevine@mail.fresnostate.edu

Fall 2024 Class Schedule

Student Support Hours: Before and after class, & By appointment

Email: bloera08@mail.fresnostate.edu

Fall 2024 Class Schedule

Student Support Hours:  In person & on Zoom Tuesday 10am-10:30am, Wednesday 2:30pm-5:30pm

Email: minter@mail.fresnostate.edu 

Fall 2024 Class Schedule

Personal Biography:

Austin Minter is a Lecturer at California State University, Fresno, and adjunct faculty at West Hills Community College Lemoore and College of the Sequoias in Visalia. Austin Minter received his Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science and a Master’s in Sociology with an emphasis in Geography from Arizona State University. He is currently a doctoral student at Liberty University in Public Administration.

His hobbies include flying. He has always loved aviation; he is currently in an aircraft partnership out of the Visalia airport. In his free time, he enjoys sports, primarily baseball and hockey.

Areas of Specialty:

Austin Minter teaches Political Science, Ethnic Studies, and Sociology courses across three college systems. In addition, he has experience working with nonprofits and public agencies in organizational development and research. Before teaching at the college level, he worked as a curriculum coordinator assistant for the Kings County Office of Education and as a substitute teacher.

In his doctoral program, he is researching air traffic management and environmental policies, specifically, the role of public administration in reducing aviation-related emissions, improving airspace efficiency, and promoting environmentally sustainable practices in the aviation sector.

Student Support Hours: On Zoom: By appointment only

Email: jessicamorgan@mail.fresnostate.edu

Fall 2024 Class Schedule

Office Location: Social Science 129B
Student Support Hours: In person, Monday/Wednesday 12pm-1pm, Wednesday 4pm-5pm
Office Phone: 559-278-7346
Email: justinmyers@csufresno.edu

Fall 2024 Class Schedule

Personal Biography
A born and raised Californian, Dr. Myers graduated from Santa Rosa Junior College (AA), Sonoma State (BA), and San Diego State (MA).  He received his PhD from The City University of New York (CUNY) in 2013 and taught for five years at Marist College before starting at Fresno State in the Fall of 2018.

Areas of Specialty 
Environmental Sociology, Sociology of Food & Agriculture, Environmental Justice & Food Justice, Social Inequality, Social Movements, Work & Labor, Urban Sociology, Critical Theory.

Research Focus
His work investigates the relationship between oppression and resistance through exploring how social movements are utilizing food as a means to address social, economic, and environmental injustice.  

His primary research project is focused on East New York Farms (ENYF!), a longstanding food justice organization in the Black, Caribbean, and Latinx community of East New York, Brooklyn, and analyzes their efforts to build a community food system premised on farmers markets, urban farms, and market-oriented community gardens to address a legacy of political and economic marginalization. 

Recent Publications
Myers, Justin Sean. 2023. Growing Gardens, Building Power: Food Justice and Urban Agriculture in Brooklyn.  Rutgers University Press.

Aptekar, Sofya and Justin Sean Myers.  2020. “The Tale of Two Gardens: Green Aesthetics vs Food Justice in the Big Apple.” Agriculture & Human Values 37 (3): 779-792.

Myers, Justin Sean. 2020. “Theories in Environmental Sociology” Pp. 28-56 in Twenty Lessons in Environmental Sociology, edited by Kenneth Gould and Tammy Lewis, third edition. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Myers, Justin Sean, Prita Lal, and Sofya Aptekar. 2020. “Community Gardens and Gentrification in New York City: The Uneven Politics of Facilitation, Accommodation, and Resistance.” Pp. 245-265 in A Recipe for Gentrification: Food, Power, and Resistance in the City, edited by Alison Hope Alkon, Yuki Kato, and Joshua Sbicca.  New York: NYU Press.

Myers, Justin Sean.  2018. “Food and Hunger.” In Twenty Lessons in Food and Agriculture, edited by Jason Konefal and Maki Hatanaka. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Myers, Justin Sean. 2018. “The CUNY Open Admissions Strike, 1969.” Pp. 191-199 in Revolting New York, edited by Neil Smith and Don Mitchell. Athens GA: University of Georgia Press .

Myers, Justin Sean. 2018. “Neoliberalism, Debt, and Class Power.” Pp. 337-352 in Class: The Anthology, edited by Michael Roberts and Stanley Aronowitz. New York, NY: Wiley-Blackwell.

Sbicca, Joshua and Justin Sean Myers. 2017. “Food Justice Racial Projects: Fighting Racial Neoliberalism from the Bay to the Big Apple.” Environmental Sociology 3(1): 30-41.

Office Location: Virtual On Zoom Monday 12pm-1pm & By appointment 

Student Support Hours: On Zoom: TBA

Office Phone: 559-278-2892

Email: ednelson@csufresno.edu

Fall 2024 Class Schedule

Personal Biography
Ph.D., University of California at Los Angeles, 1968. He taught at Rutgers for five years before coming to California State University, Fresno in 1973.

Areas of Specialty
Currently he teaches courses in research methods, quantitative methods, and critical thinking. He serves on the Academic Information Technology subcommittee and is the co-chair of the Consortium of Applied Social Science Research Centers. He is also the campus representative to the Social Science

Research and Instructional Council of the CSU and is the Executive Director of the California Sociological Association.

He has been the director of the Social Research Laboratory (SRL) since 1980. The Social Research Laboratory is part of the College of Social Sciences, California State University Fresno. The SRL provides research support to the university, governmental and non-profit agencies, as well as to other local and regional groups. Assistance is provided in a number of areas including sampling design, questionnaire construction, interviewer training, data collection, coding, data entry, statistical analysis, and computer applications. In the last few years, the SRL has focused on conducting telephone surveys for many different agencies and organizations. Recently the SRL initiated another avenue of research support under the direction of Dr. Xuanning Fu. This project examines state mandated exam test scores (such as CST, California Standard Test) and looks for patterns by student characteristics, so that targeted teaching and remedial actions can be taken. These services are provided to local K-12 schools to help school administrators make research-based decisions.

The SRL also provides evaluation services to agencies and organizations.  Currently the lab is the evaluator for Weed and Seed in Modesto and has worked with the Relational Culture Institute in Fresno to analyze data collected from community leaders and with AmeriCorps

Office Location: Virtual

Student Support Hours: On Zoom Wednesday 6:30pm-7pm & By appointment

Email: jnkosi@csufresno.edu

Fall 2024 Class Schedule

 Personal Biography
Greetings students and colleagues! My name is Janine Nkosi and I’m a dedicated and passionate sociologist, activist-educator, and community organizer. I am firmly committed to working alongside my students to develop and deepen their sociological imagination through critical community-based research and organizing. I started teaching Sociology at Fresno State in 2011 and was blessed to join the Merritt College Sociology Department in Spring 2020! I’m a proud first-generation college graduate. I began my higher ed journey at Fresno City College as a single mom of two beautiful children, Asante and Jennifer. My children are my strength, courage, inspiration and determination. I did not achieve a high school diploma or GED, but I did earn an associate degree in Liberal Studies and five additional degrees-- a bachelor’s in Sociology, master’s in Counseling, and doctorate in Educational Leadership from Fresno State (Bulldog pride!), and dual master’s in Sociology, and Chicana and Chicano Studies from my hometown college San José State University (go Spartans!). 

I strive every day to put my sociological knowledge, skills, and passion into action as a regional community organizer with Faith in the Valley– a multiracial, multiethnic, and multifaith grassroots community organization dedicated to working alongside residents to advance racial justice across the Central Valley. My teaching, research, and organizing philosophy is rooted in Critical Race Theory and methodologies, Critical Pedagogy, Community Cultural Wealth and Funds of Knowledge. Collectively, this model centers students’ lived experience, fosters critical consciousness and praxis, is inspiring, loving, joyful, academically rigorous, and aims to advance racial and economic justice. I care very deeply about my family, my students and my community. I’m passionate about connecting classroom learning to meaningful community change. If you’d like to know more about me, check out my ePortfolio: http://bit.ly/JanineNkosi and connect with me on Twitter @JanineNkosi. 

I look forward to working alongside you in the classroom, on campus, and/or in the community!

Office Location: Virtual

Student Support Hours: On Zoom: TBA

Email: cinthiaquesada@mail.fresnostate.edu

Fall 2024 Class Schedule

Email: jrandles@csufresno.edu

Fall 2024 Class Schedule: Not teaching this semester

Personal Biography
Dr. Randles graduated with her doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley in 2011. She taught for two years at Austin College before joining the faculty of California State University, Fresno in 2013.

Areas of Specialty
Dr. Randles specializes in the sociology of family, marriage, gender, social inequality/poverty, childhood, and qualitative methodologies. She teaches classes on family/marriage, inequality, childhood, race/ethnicity, research methods, and critical thinking. Her research addresses how social and economic inequities affect family life in the United States and how public policies address these intimate inequalities. Her book, Proposing Prosperity?: Marriage Education Policy and Inequality in America (Columbia University Press, 2017), is an ethnographic study of the implementation of healthy marriage policy and reveals how government-funded marriage education programs teach that romantic experiences, relationship behaviors, and marital choices are primary mechanisms of inequality.

Recent Publications Include:
Randles, Jennifer, and Kerry Woodward. 2018. “Learning to Labor, Love, and Live: Shaping the  ‘Good Neoliberal Citizen’ in State Work and Marriage Programs.” Sociological Perspectives 61(1): 39-56. (equal co-authorship)

Randles, Jennifer, and Orit Avishai. 2018. “Saving Marriage Culture ‘One Marriage at a Time’: Relationship Education and the Reinstitutionalization of Marriage in an Era of Individualism.” Qualitative Sociology 41: 21-40. 

Randles, Jennifer. 2017. “The Diaper Dilemma.” Contexts 16(4): 66-68.

Randles, Jennifer. 2016. “Redefining the Marital Power Struggle through Relationship Skills: How United States Marriage Education Programs Challenge and Reinforce Gender Inequality.” Gender & Society 30(2): 240-264. 

Avishai, Orit, Melanie Heath, and Jennifer Randles. 2015. “The Marriage Movement.” Pp. 308-320 in Families as They Really Are, Second Edition, edited by Barbara Risman and Virginia Rutter. New York: Norton. (equal co-authorship)

Randles, Jennifer. 2015. “Leaning In and Letting Go: Feminist Tools for Valuing Non-Work.” Pp. 40-50 in Letting Go: Feminist and Social Justice Insights and Activism, edited by Donna King and Kay Valentine. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press.

Randles, Jennifer. 2014. “Partnering and Parenting in Poverty: A Qualitative Analysis of a Relationship Skills Program for Low-Income, Unmarried Families.” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 33(2): 385-412.

Randles, Jennifer. 2013. “Repackaging the ‘Package Deal’: Promoting Marriage for Low-Income Families by Targeting Paternal Identity and Reframing Marital Masculinity.” Gender & Society 27(6): 864-888.  

Avishai, Orit, Lynne Gerber, and Jennifer Randles. 2013. “The Feminist Ethnographer’s Dilemma: Reconciling Progressive Research Agendas with Fieldwork Realities.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 42(4): 394-426. (Feature article in special symposium issue; equal co-authorship)

Avishai, Orit, Lynne Gerber, and Jennifer Randles. 2013. “Toward a Feminist Ethnography of Feminist Ethnography: A Response.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 42(4): 501-520. (equal co-authorship)

Office Location: Virtual

Student Support Hours:  On Zoom Monday/Wednesday 1pm-2pm & By appointment

Email: sranganathan@csufresno.edu

Fall 2024 Class Schedule

Office Location: Virtual

Student Support Hours: On Zoom Friday 10:00am-11:30am

Email: shankar@csufresno.edu

Fall 2024 Class Schedule

Office Location: SS 129

Student Support Hours: 

In person Wednesday 4:30pm-5:30pm, On Zoom Tuesday 1:30pm-2:30pm, & By appointment

Email: seslusser@mail.fresnostate.edu 

Fall 2024 Class Schedule

Office Location: Social Science 226

Office Phone: 559-278-6877

Student Support Hours: In person Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday 4pm-5pm

Email: csorin@csufresno.edu

Fall 2024 Class Schedule

Personal Biography

Born and raised in California, Dr. Sorin has lived all over the state! She graduated from Cerritos College in Norwalk (AA in English; AA in Anthropology) before transferring to UC San Diego to finish her undergraduate education (BA in Sociology, social inequalities emphasis; minor in Sociocultural Anthropology). Dr. Sorin then completed her graduate studies at UC Santa Barbara (MA and PhD in Sociology; doctoral emphasis in Feminist Studies) where she received her PhD in June 2024 before joining the Sociology Department at Fresno State in Fall 2024. She lives in Fresno with her partner, kiddo, German Shepherd, and elderly black cat. In her free time, Dr. Sorin enjoys playing video games, crafting, cooking, and painting her nails. 

Areas of Specialty

Dr. Sorin is primarily interested in intersectional and interdisciplinary understandings of consent as they relate to sexual activity and gender, and she uses multiple methods to answer questions about sex- and gender-based violence in a variety of contexts. 

Her current projects include (1) a book manuscript about consent practices, knowledge, and education in BDSM communities in the United States, based on in-depth interviews and discourse/content analysis; (2) #metoogradschool, a survey-based project about sexual harassment and violence graduate students face during their programs; and (3) a collaborative content analysis project examining consent in stories on the popular fanfiction website Archive of Our Own (AO3). 

Dr. Sorin is currently teaching Sociology of Sex & Gender and Contemporary Social Issues (Fall 2024). In the next few years, she plans to teach Qualitative Research Methods, Sociology of Sexualities, and Sociology of Sexual Consent. 

Recent Publications

Forthcoming. Cierra Raine Sorin. 2025. “#MeTooUC: An Autoethnographic Analysis of the University of California’s Response to Sexual Violence & Sexual Harassment.” Eds. Rebecca Martínez and Monica J. Casper, Who Belongs? Institutional Betrayal in Higher Education, a peer-reviewed anthology in The Feminist Wire Books: Feminisms, Race, and Social Justice series, University of Arizona Press.

Talia Kieu, Emily Galper, Cierra Raine Sorin, and Brittnie Bloom. 2024. “An Intersectional Qualitative Analysis of Informal Sex Education Experiences of Asian LGBQ+ Undergraduate Students.” Culture, Health & Sexuality. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691058.2024.2341832. 

Brittnie E. Bloom*, Cierra Raine Sorin*, Laury Oaks, Jennifer A. Wagman. 2022. “Graduate Students are ‘Making a Big Fuss’: Responding to Institutional Betrayal Around Campus Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment.” Journal of School Violence, Volume 22(1): 44–60. *Shared first authorship.   

Cierra Raine Sorin. 2022. “Hybrid Masculinities and The Limits of Anti-Violence Efforts in BDSM Communities.” Men and Masculinities. Volume 25(4): 546-565. 

Stoddy Carey, Stephanie Sumstine, Claire Amabile, Heather Helvink, Cierra Raine Sorin, Dallas Swendeman, Eunhee Park and Jennifer A. Wagman. 2022. “Student-Athletes’, Coaches’ and Administrators’ Perspectives of Sexual Violence on Three Campuses with NCAA Division I and II Athletic Programs.” Journal of Interpersonal Violence. Volume 37(13-14): NP10565–NP10593. 

Brittnie E. Bloom*, Cierra Raine Sorin*, Laury Oaks, and Jennifer Wagman. 2021. “Graduate Students’ Knowledge of and Access to Campus SVSH Resources.” Journal of American College Health, Volume 71 (5): 1328–1331. *Shared first authorship.

Brittnie Bloom, Cierra Raine Sorin, Jennifer Wagman, and Laury Oaks. 2021. “Employees, Advisees, and Emerging Scholars: A Qualitative Analysis of Graduate Students’ Roles and Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment on College Campuses.” Sexuality and Culture, Volume 25: 1653–1672. 

Atreyi Mitra, Dallas Swendeman, Stephanie Sumstine, Cierra Raine Sorin, Brittnie Bloom, and Jennifer Wagman. 2021. “Structural Barriers to Accessing the Campus Assault Resources and Education (CARE) Offices at the University of California (UC) Campuses.” Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Volume 37 (21-22): NP19468–NP19490.  

Office Location: Social Science 211A

Student Support Hours: Zoom & In person: Monday 2pm-3pm, Wednesday 6pm-7pm, & by appointment

Zoom link: https://fresnostate.zoom.us/j/3975634610

Email: chsullivan@csufresno.edu

Fall 2024 Class Schedule

Personal Biography

Dr. Sullivan did his graduate work at University of California, Berkeley, where he received his doctorate in Sociology and Demography in 2013. 

Areas of Specialty

Dr. Sullivan’s research focuses on understanding how processes of globalization influence social institutions — from large-scale financial institutions like the World Bank to more local institutions centered around HIV care in California’s Central Valley. His research uses a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Dr. Sullivan lived and conducted research in mainland China for nearly 5 years. He has studied Mandarin Chinese, as well as Uyghur, Turkish, and German.

Recent Publications

Sullivan, Christopher. 2020. “Redefining and Challenging the Boundaries of Chinese Cuisine: A Visually Based Exploration of Uyghur Restaurants in the United States.” In American Chinese Restaurants: Society, Culture and Consumption, edited by Jenny Banh and Haiming Liu. Oxon and New York: Routledge. 

Altholz, Roxanna, and Chris Sullivan. 2017. The Accountability of International Financing Institutions: Community Perspectives on the World Bank’s Compliance/Advisor Ombudsman. Berkeley, CA: Human Rights Center, University of California, Berkeley. 

Office Location: Virtual

Student Support Hours: On Zoom: Thursday 4pm-5pm, & By appointment

Email: lindavan@csufresno.edu

Fall 2024 Class Schedule

My name is Linda Matasic Vang, and I am honored to be a lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Fresno State and a full-time tenured faculty member in Sociology at Fresno City College. I earned my BA in Sociology and Math from Mount Union College in Alliance, Ohio and my MA in Sociology and MSW from the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. After working many years in medical social work (hospitals, nursing homes, home health, and hospice) along with teaching, I decided to return to school and earned my joint doctorate degree in Educational Leadership from UC Davis and Fresno State.

Originally, I hoped to become a high school math teacher but after taking my first college course in sociology, I became inspired by C. Wright Mills’ sociological imagination that urges us to consider how our personal troubles are impacted by public issues. Growing up in Youngstown, Ohio, once a major steel producing town, I observed the devastating impact of deindustrialization on my community; as a teen in the 1960’s, I began to understand the urgent need for racial, gender, and economic equality; and as a first generation college student from a working-class family (my father was a steel mill worker), my parents instilled the importance of obtaining a higher education early on in my life. My teaching and research interests have been informed by my own story, and thus, I help students connect their personal narratives to the sociological imagination; I work to develop course content in collaboration with the community to bring local relevancy to the classroom; and I am a strong advocate for student success. I enjoy mentoring students towards their career goals by providing resource information and social networking. I incorporate the use of various technologies in my classroom for student engagement, and in 2016, I participated in the first cohort of distance education faculty for former Governor Jerry Brown’s Online Education Initiative to increase online course access across California’s community colleges.

I regularly teach courses in sex and gender, writing about social problems, interpersonal relationships, critical thinking, and most recently, medical sociology. I have conducted numerous workshops and in-services to professional groups on the topics of education, diversity, health care, and end-of-life care. My dissertation studied registered nurses and their experiences in advance care planning in home health care (2009), and I recently completed a qualitative research sabbatical (Spring 2023) through Fresno City College, entitled: Promoting Equity and Social Justice: One Visit at a Time--- Lived Experiences of Home Health Nurses. I have been invited to participate in the Sociology Department’s study abroad program in Finland, Summer 2024. 

Office Location: Virtual

Student Support Hours: On Zoom, by appointment only

Email: swhitley@csufresno.edu

Fall 2024 Class Schedule

Personal Biography
Dr. Whitley graduated with her doctoral degree in sociology from Washington State University in 2012. She taught for a year at Washington State University before joining the tenure-track faculty at California State University, Fresno in 2013. She co-founded the Fresno State Chapter of the Food Recovery Network with Dr. Janine Nkosi and together they were recognized by President Joseph I. Castro with the "Spirit of Service" Award in April 2015 for their efforts.  At the end of spring 2016 semester, Dr. Whitley resigned her tenure-track position, but she continues to teach on-line courses as an adjunct faculty member for the Sociology Department at Fresno State.

Areas of Specialty
She specializes in the sociology of education, poverty, qualitative methodologies, rural/urban sociology, social inequality, and stratification. She teaches classes on the sociology of education, gender, introduction to sociology, research methods, rural/urban sociology, social inequality, social problems, and stratification. She emphasizes service learning components in her classes in order to give students real world experience with the course material covered. She has advised student research on education related issues and internships in various community organizations and programs. Her current research addresses food insecurity and hunger issues in rural and urban settings and how public policy addresses the increasing hunger epidemic. Her recent publication includes:

Publications

Whitley, Sarah. 2013. “Changing Times in Rural America: Food Assistance and Food Insecurity in Food Deserts.” Journal of Family Social Work 16(1):36-52.

Alfred J. Claassen (1969-2001), Ph.D., University of Colorado

S. John Dackawich (1970-1994), Ph.D., University of Colorado

Robert D. Fischer (1972-2001), Ph.D., Michigan State University

Deborah Helsel (2001-2021), Ph.D., University of California, San Francisco

Albert I. McLeod (1968-2001), Ph.D., University of Nebraska

Edward E. Nelson (1973-2008), Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles

Elizabeth Ness Nelson (1973-2000), Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles

Robert S. Palacio (1987-2013), Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley

John N. Tinker (1969-2001), Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles

Chandler Washburne (1968-1983), Ph.D., Michigan State University