Summer 2019 Newsletter from Sociology

Dear Alumni & Friends,
 
The Department of Sociology has had another exceptional year, and we are pleased to share some of the exciting things that have been happening with our faculty and students. Here's a small sampling, followed by a few stories highlighting our community:

• Sociology Professor and Minnesota Population Center (MPC) Director Rob Warren was presented with the prestigious CLA Scholar of the College Award by Dean John Coleman at the Faculty Excellence Luncheon on May 8, 2019. One of the leading demographers of his generation, this award recognizes Professor Warren as a scholar of astonishing creativity and productivity and represents the high esteem in which he is held by his colleagues throughout the College of Liberal Arts. 
• Associate Professor Carolyn Liebler was also honored on May 8 with an inaugural Career Readiness Teaching Award. With her outstanding dedication to student development and her always-evolving teaching innovation, Professor Liebler continues to lead the way in our department and the college by bringing life-shaping conversations about the value of an undergraduate sociology degree into her courses and classrooms. 
• Many of our PhD graduates are preparing to embark upon exciting new careers in 2019, including Erin Hoekstra (Assistant Professor, Marquette University); Veronica Horowitz (Assistant Professor, The State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo); Anthony Jimenez (Assistant Professor, Rochester Institute of Technology); Alex Manning (Assistant Professor, Jacksonville University); Suzy McElrath (Assistant Professor, Montana State University), and Evan Stewart (Assistant Professor, University of Massachusetts). We are proud to share this news and we thank them for the countless contributions towards the growth and development of our department.
• In addition to receiving the Outstanding Graduate Instructor Award at this year’s Sociology Research Institute (SRI), recent PhD graduate Rahsaan Mahadeo and some of his students were also the recipients of our Department Service Award. Rahsaan and his undergraduates petitioned for a new course title for SOC 3211W, one of our most enduring and popular courses covering the evolution of race relations in the U.S. As a result of their hard work and leadership, what was formally called “American Race Relations” is now “Race & Racism in the U.S.”. 
• With Kenneth Shimota and Myrtle (Kit) Shimota’s recent endowment, our department is working to create Shimota Family Fellowships, enabling us to provide dissertation support for our more advanced graduate students. We are grateful to Shimota family representative Katherine MacEachern for joining us at our annual awards ceremony this spring to honor the Shimota family with our thanks for their generous gift and for the opportunity to enhance our reputation as a national leader in providing students with an innovative, cutting-edge education. 
• As we continue our plans to expand our alumni and community outreach, we encourage you to visit our website for future events and opportunities to engage with our students and faculty. For those attending the American Sociological Association (ASA) annual meeting in New York August 10-13, be sure to join us on Saturday, August 10 at 7:30pm at The Winslow in the East Side of Manhattan for our Annual Alumni Event. For additional details, and to view our schedule of ASA presenters, please visit our website.  

Above all else, we would like to thank our alumni for their role in sustaining and promoting our one-of-a-kind departmental culture. We look forward to sharing another remarkable year. 

Sincerely,

Douglas Hartmann
Professor and Chair of Sociology