News
Recent Announcements
Dr. Kathleen Blee appointed Sociology Chair
Dr. Kathleen Blee has accepted the position of Chair for the Sociology Department effective September 1, 2008. This will be a period of renewal for the department and we are extremely fortunate to have someone so able to take on such a demanding role.
Dr. Dan Romesberg appointed Director of Undergraduate Studies
Congratulations go out to Dr. Romesberg who has been appointed the Director of Undergraduate Studies. Dan is a stellar undergraduate advisor, our Internship Coordinator, and chairs our Undergraduate Committee we look forward to see the Undergraduate Program under his Sociological eye.
Undergraduate Avery Award Celebebration & Graduate Teaching and Research Awards
The Department of Sociology celebrated their annual Robert W. Avery Award this year on February 29th. This year's award went to Ms. Rohini Rajen for her outstanding accomplishments in Sociology. We also had two runners up Mr. Alex Smith and Mr. Taichi Nakatani. All honorees received a monetary award as well as a years subscription to the American Sociological Association journal of their choice. The requirements for these students to be considered for this award is as follows: they must have completed at least 84 credits with a minimum QPA of 3.25 in sociology (including the statistics requirement) and a minimum of 3.25 QPA in all courses.
Ms. Rohini Rajen receiving her award from Dr. Dan Romesberg, Director of Undergraduate Studies. 
One of the many gifts that Rohini has received from the study of sociology, she says, is a fervent curiosity about the world and global social issues such as population and the environment, urbanization, and the impact of globalization on society. As a result, she will be attending the Semester at Sea Fall 2008 program to understand these concepts firsthand before graduating in December 2008. Upon graduation, Rohini hopes to further develop her Chinese language skills by traveling to China and pursuing graduate studies in the future.
Runner up Taichi Nakatani is handed his award by Dr. Romesberg.
Mr. Nakatani is planning on taking a year or two off from school and looking to pursue a position in the field of social research. Since he is planning to stay in Pittsburgh, this will probably entail working in the field of medicine or public health. During the time off, he plans on maintaining a strong reading/writing schedule on Sociological literature (including the subscription that he received from the Avery Award, of course!) and begin applying for Grad School some time around 2010.
Alex Smith accepts his award from Dr. Dan Romesberg.
Now that Mr. Smith has graduated from the University of Pittsburgh, he has been accepted into the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine's School Psychology program. Upon completion of his graduate work, he hopes to become a school psychologist and a licensed clinical psychologist.
Graduate Awards
Every year the department offers two awards to the graduate students, one is the Teaching Fellow Award for Undergraduate Teaching Excellence in recognition for their pedagogical accomplishments and the second award is, The Norman P. Hummon Research Award for an outstanding research project in Sociology. This years recipient of the Teaching Award is Mr. Kia Heidemann (Mr. Heidemann was unable to attend the ceremony) and the Hummon Award went to Mr. Poitr Konieczny.
Piotr Konieczny receives his award from the Director of Graduate Studies Dr. Mohammed Bamyeh
Mr. Konieczny received the research award for his thesis entitled:
"Governance, Organization and Democracy on the Internet: The Iron Law and the Evolution of Wikipedia"