Students On the Market

Find information about current University of Minnesota sociology PhD candidates now or soon to be on the job market.

Sarah Catherine Billups

Billups CV
Advisors: Teresa Swartz & Ann Meier
Research Interests: Gender, culture, and housing.
Dissertation Title: "Mortgages without Marriages: Single Homebuying in the Contemporary U.S."

Edgar Jesus Campos

Campos CV
Advisor: Doug Hartmann
Research Interests:  Culture, Political Sociology/Nationalism, Sociology of Latina/o/x, Latin American Studies, Sociology of Sport, Media/Popular Culture, Food Studies, Racial & Ethnic Conflict, Qualitative Methods (including Historical-Comparative, Ethnographic, and Interviewing)
Dissertation Title: "Lindo y Querido: Nationalism, Latin American Modernity, and the Contested Terrain of the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games"

Erez Garnai

Garnai CV
Advisor: Joachim Savelsberg
Research Interests: Sociology of Law, Punishment, Social Problems, Drug Laws, Legal Consciousness, Institutional Ethnography
Dissertation Title: "The Spirit of the Law: Underage Drinking, Policing and Control on Campus"

Amber Hamilton

Hamilton CV | Personal Website
Advisors: Joyce Bell and Michael Walker
Research Interests: Race, racism, technology, media studies, social media, platform studies
Dissertation Title: "Doing Race Online: An Exploration of Race-Making on Social Media Platforms"

Aimzhan Iztayeva

Iztayeva CV
Advisor: Ann Meier
Research Interests:  Gender, labor market, care work, inequality.
Dissertation Title:  "Custodial Single Fathers and Employment Discrimination: Penalized or Protected?"

Ethan Johnson

Johnson CV
Advisor: Penny Edgell
Research Interests: Culture, Inequality, Urban Sociology, Institutions
Dissertation Title:  “The Friction Between Winning Policy and Winning Results: Reimagining and Rebuilding a Transportation Network during Climate and Racial Justice Crises in Minneapolis”

Ryan Larson

Larson CV | Personal Website
Advisor: Chris Uggen
Research Interests: Crime and Punishment, Quantitative Methodology and Statistics, Causal Inference, Stratification/Inequality
Dissertation Title: "The Iatrogenic Effects of Punishment"

Miray Philips

Philips CV
Advisor: Joachim Savelsberg
Research Interests: Religion; Migration; Human Rights; Knowledge; Culture; Politics; US-Middle East
Dissertation Title: "Politics of Persecution: Contested Advocacy on Middle East Christians in US Foreign Policy"

Amber Powell

Powell CV
Advisors: Chris Uggen
Research Interests:  Sociology of Crime, Law, & Punishment; Race, Gender & Sexuality; Gender-Based Violence; Feminist Methodologies; Qualitative Research Methods
Dissertation Title:  "Hidden in Carceral Sight: Unearthing Coercive Sexual Control in Youth Detention"

Michael Soto

Soto CV
Advisors: Joachim Savelsberg
Research Interests:  Cultural Sociology, Inequality, Latin America (Colombia), Peace and Conflict Studies, Relational Sociology, Social Networks
Dissertation Title:  "The Social Reintegration of Ex-Combatants in Colombia and Northern Ireland"

Caty Taborda

Taborda CV | Personal Website
Advisors: Penny Edgell and Kathy Hull
Research Interests: Medicine; Sociology of the Body; Culture; Race, Class, Gender; Markets; Morality 
Dissertation Title: "The Gift that Pays? Bodily Commodification in Paid Plasma Donation"