Faculty
Our faculty members serve on advisory boards, travel the globe to speak at conferences, appear in the media, and publish the books and articles that drive the direction of the discipline. We share the University's commitment to value a diversity of viewpoints and experiences, and to strive to provide a productive work environment for all University of Minnesota scholars from varying racial, ethnic, religious, social class, sexual identity, and national backgrounds.
You can also review our recent Faculty Publications and our Faculty Research Brochure to learn more about faculty members and their areas of interest.
Regular Faculty
Cawo Abdi
Specialties
Migration; Gender, Race, and Class; Family; Islam; Education, Development Studies; Human Rights; Globalization; Africa; Middle East
Elizabeth Heger Boyle
Specialties
Children’s and Women’s Rights; Reproductive Health; Sociology of Law; Globalization
Ed Cornelius
Specialties
Sociology of Law; Sociology of Punishment; Sociological Theory
Penny Edgell
Specialties
Culture; Sociology of Religion & Nonreligion, Focus on the United States; Gender & Family; Symbolic Boundaries & Inequality
Joseph Gerteis
Specialties
Diversity and Solidarity in American Society; Historical Sociology; Politics and Social Movements; Social Theory
Michael Goldman
Specialties
Transnational, Political Economic and Urban Sociology; Expert Networks of Finance, Development, Knowledge, and Power
Douglas Hartmann
Specialties
Race, Ethnicity, and Racism; Sport Studies; American Society; Cultural Sociology; Public Engagement; Field Methods
Kathy Hull
Specialties
Culture; Gender and Sexuality; Family; Social Movements; Law
Claire Kamp Dush
Specialties
Family & Life Course; Population Health; Human Development & Family Studies; Intimacy & Sexuality; Gender & Work; Sex & Gender Minorities and Health; Marriage & Intimate Relationships
David Knoke
Specialties
Social Networks; Political Sociology; Economic Sociology; Organizations
Carolyn Liebler
Specialties
Race and Ethnicity; Social Demography; Sociology of the Family and Life Course; Social Stratification; Indigenous Peoples; Social Support
Enid Logan
Specialties
Race & Electoral Politics; Blackness in the U.S. and Latin America, White Liberalism & White Conservatism, Racial Rhetoric, Emotions & Identities; The Racialization of Indigeneity; Blacks and Social Class; Race & the Body
Ann Meier
Specialties
Family and Life Course; Adolescent and Young Adult Development; Gender
Natália Otto
Specialties
Transnational drug economies; Violence against women and girls; Narrative methods; Latin American studies
Joshua Page
Specialties
Law, Criminology, and Justice; Labor and Unionization; Political Economy; Qualitative Research Methods; Social Theory
Michelle Phelps
Specialties
Punishment, Policing, Prisons; Inequality, Race and Racism; Social Movements; Mixed Methods Research, Qualitative Research
Teresa Swartz
Specialties
Intergenerational Relations; Families; Race and Ethnicity; Asian American Studies; Well-being; Youth and Young Adulthood; Social Inequality
Christopher Uggen
Specialties
Crime, Law, Justice; Life Course; Inequality; Methods; Policy
Tom VanHeuvelen
Specialties
Stratification and Inequality; Comparative and Historical Sociology; Quantitative Methodology; Sociology of Development
Jane VanHeuvelen
Specialties
Organizations; Mental Health and Illness; Medical Sociology; Health Disparities; Work and Occupations
Michael Walker
Specialties
Social Stratification; Inequality; Social Control; Sociological Methodology; Urban Sociology
Rob Warren
Specialties
Population Health; Demography; Education; Data Infrastructure
Lecturers
Gabrielle Ferrales
Specialties
International Criminal Law; Quantitative and Qualitative Methods; Factorial Survey Methods for Empirical Analysis; Law and Society; Gender; Criminology and Criminal Justice
Austin Luzbetak
Specialties
Environmental Justice; Critical Criminology; Green Criminology; Punishment and Society; Human Dimensions of Climate Change
Affiliate Faculty
Ryan Allen
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon
Specialties
Journalism; Media management; Innovation; Well being; Work and labor
Rose Brewer
Specialties
Social transformation; Critical theory; African American women's studies; Black family life; Class; Gender; Intersection of economy; Race; Racism; Sociology; Women's studies
Christina Ewig
Andrew Fenelon
Sarah Flood
Karen Ho
Specialties
Ethnography; Feminist studies; Political economy; United States; Cultural studies of finance capital; Finance, globalization, and capitalism; Comparative race and ethnicity
Carrie Oelberger
Heather Randell
Evan Roberts
Steven Ruggles
Specialties
U. S. census research; U. S. social history; Historical demography; History of the family
Tetyana Shippee
Joe Soss
Specialties
welfare reform; public service; organization and governance of social policy; politics of inequality and poverty; role of race, class and gender in public affairs
Emeriti Faculty
Ron Aminzade
Specialties
Historical and Comparative; Political Sociology; Sociology of Development; Nationalism and Citizenship; Race Relations; Social Movements; Democratic Theory
Yanjie Bian
Specialties
Economic Sociology; Social Stratification; Social Networks; Chinese Society
Jeffrey Broadbent
Specialties
Environmental Sociology; Political Sociology; Social Movements; Climate Change; Network Analysis; Discourse Analysis; Qualitative Methods; Unified FieldTheory for political sociology and political science; Japan; East Asia
Phyllis Moen
Specialties
Work and Retirement; Work-Family Interface; Subjective Well-Being; Health; Corporate and Social Policy; Life Course Dynamics/Gendered Careers; Aging; Social Psychology
Jeylan Mortimer
Specialties
Life Course, Inequality, and Health; Social Psychology; Transition to Adulthood; Intergenerational Transmission
Joel Nelson
Specialties
comparative community organization; consumer behavior; occupations; social stratification
Joachim Savelsberg
Specialties
Sociology of Knowledge, Memory & Representations; Law, Crime & Punishment; Human Rights; Comparative; Theory