Faculty

People

Mohammed Bamyeh

Director of Graduate Studies
Associate Professor
2423 WWPH
412-648-7591
mab205@pitt.edu

I am oriented to comparative social theory based on cultural histories and cultural sociology. That orientation has generated ongoing research and teaching interests in globalization, Islamic studies, sociology of religion, civil society, and social movements. My current research projects build on earlier work: my interest in global processes has developed into comparative explorations of civil society and non-state centered political life, whereas my interest in religion and secularism in modernity is crystallizing in a forthcoming book on Islam and society.

Kathleen Blee

Chair of the Sociology Department
Distinguished Professor
PhD University of Wisconsin-Madison 1982 (Appointment 1996)
2406 WWPH
412-648-7562
kblee@pitt.edu

Affiliated appointments in History, Psychology, and Women’s Studies. Also associated with Cultural Studies and the Center for Race and Social Problems.

My areas of interest are social movements, including racist/anti-Semitic, and right-wing movements and racial violence. I currently have two research projects: studying new and emerging social movement groups in Pittsburgh and studying unreported racial hate crimes. I teach graduate courses and seminars in research methods, global feminism, qualitative methods, racialization and racial social movements, and writing for publication.

Lisa D. Brush

Associate Professor
PhD University of Wisconsin-Madison 1993 (appointed 1994)
2425 WWPH
412-648-7595
lbrush@pitt.edu

I am interested in structures of inequality and struggles for social justice in complex societies. My training is in a tradition of Marxist class analysis, and I have an abiding interest in issues of race and racism. However, my particular intellectual commitments and research approach are feminist. One of my primary areas of research is gender, government, and social policy. The other is violence against women. To bring them together in a single research program, I have founded the Family Violence & Self-Sufficiency Project, which currently produces policy-oriented research on battering, work, and welfare. My research has been funded by the National Institute of Justice. Undergraduate courses taught: Introduction to Sociology; Sociology of Gender; Theory; Working Women. Graduate courses taught: Theory; Research Design; Gender, Race, Class; Women in Society (Gender and Sexuality; Violence against Women); Gender and Social Policy in Cross-National Perspective.

Suzanna Crage

Assistant Professor
PhD Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 2009 (appointed 2009)
2613 WWPH
412-648-7587
scrage@pitt.edu

I am interested in the ways that cultural processes shape policymaking. My research focuses on issues of national identity, collective memory, place, and refugee policy in Germany. My current projects include a comparison of refugee aid policy development in Berlin and Munich since the mid-1980s; an analysis of how policymakers use claims about collective memories when debating controversial issues; and an exploration of the differing constructions of Germany's past that were expressed during competing Berlin commemorations of the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe.

Undergraduate courses: Sociology of Culture, Sociology of Immigration in the U.S., Introduction to Sociology, and Examining College Life: Problems and Controversies.
Graduate courses:Sociology of Culture, National Identity and Collective Memory.

Mike Epitropoulos

Visiting Lecturer
2434 WWPH
412-648-7118
karp@pitt.edu

My interests are grounded – first and foremost – in teaching Sociology because I sincerely believe in the liberating power of the discipline. In that spirit, I have expressed my training and expertise in the Sociology of Development, State Theory, and Social Movements both inside and outside of the classroom. I have done so in the spirit of Public Sociology, which seeks to engage people from all spheres of society in a multiplicity of ways. I have spent most of my academic career engaging students in the classroom: over 160 courses, in both public and private universities, in the US and Europe, in two languages. I have published books on American Culture and Tourism Development. My current research project focuses on Sustainable Development in small-island, rural communities.

Akiko Hashimoto

Associate Professor
PhD Yale University 1984 (appointed 1989)
2419 WWPH
412-648-7109
ahash@pitt.edu

Affiliated with the University Center for International Studies: Asian Studies Center, Western European Studies Center, and Global Studies Program

My areas of interest are cultural sociology, comparative and global sociology, collective memory and national identity, generational and cultural change, family and education, aging and social welfare, East Asia, Western Europe, and North America.

I was educated at the University of Hamburg, London School of Economics, and Yale University. Before coming to the University of Pittsburgh I was a Research Associate at the United Nations University in Tokyo. My published books are Imagined Families, Lived Families: Culture and kinship in contemporary Japan (SUNY Press, 2008), The Gift of Generations: Japanese and American Perspectives on Aging and the Social Contract (Cambridge University Press, 1996), and Family Support for the Elderly: The International Experience (Oxford University Press, 1992). I am now working on a book tentatively titled: Japan in the Shadow of War Memory: The Moral Recovery of a Defeated Nation.

Graduate courses taught: Culture and Power; Collective Memory; National Identity in a Global World; Qualitative Methods; Global and Comparative Seminar.

Melanie Hughes

Assistant Professor
PhD The Ohio State University 2008 (appointed 2008)
2611 WWPH
412-383-9488
hughesm@pitt.edu

My primary interests lie in the study of gender and politics across countries. I have published extensively on the topic, including a coauthored book titled Women, Politics, and Power: A Global Perspective (Sociology for a New Century Series, Pine Forge Press 2007), as well as articles in journals such as American Sociological Review, Social Problems, International Journal of Sociology, and Politics & Gender. My main interest is how gender intersects with other forces of marginalization to influence women’s political power. For example, I have researched the effects of armed conflict on women’s election to national legislatures in less developed countries. Currently, I am investigating the political representation of women from racial, ethnic, and religious minority groups worldwide. This research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, PEO International, and the Coca-Cola Critical Difference for Women Program. I am also studying political outcomes of women from predominantly Muslim immigrant groups in the West. My secondary interests are in the study of international organizational activity and human rights.

Rachel Kutz- Flamenbaum

Assistant Professor
2421 WWPH
412-648-7592
rflamenb@pitt.edu

My research centers around social movements, gender and women’s studies, and global studies. I am particularly interested in the intersection and interaction of different social movements and the ways that social movements adapt to changing political environments. I am currently involved in a research project that examines the impact of the contemporary movement against war in Iraq on the U.S. women’s movement. I am also in the preliminary stages of a project on women’s peace movements from an international comparative perspective.
I am teaching Peace Movements and Peace Education in the Fall 2008 semester.

John Markoff

University Professor
PhD Johns Hopkins University 1972 (appointed 1972)
2605 WWPH
412-648-7570
jm2@pitt.edu

I’m interested in the history of democracy as a transnational social process that has involved social movements and elites, has extended over several centuries, and faces new challenges in an era of globalization. Recent writing and current research include studies of peasant movements in the French Revolution, the significance of lesser powers on the world stage in the history of democracy, the political roles recently assumed by professional economists, and the implications for democratic politics of a transnationalized economy. Undergraduate courses taught: Two Centuries of Democratization; French Revolution; Social and the Child; Global Society; Social Problems. Graduate Courses taught: Global and Comparative Seminar; Political Sociology; Social Movements; Revolutions.

Rodney Nelson

Lecture
2413 WWPH
412-624-2003
rdn8@pitt.edu

My areas of interest are social theory, the sociology of knowledge, and the sociology of culture. My current research interests are in the sociology of philosophical movements and in the sociology of literature.

Undergraduate courses taught: Social Theory, Sociology of Culture, Television and Society, Popular Culture, Sociology of Knowledge, Sociology of Literature.

Dan Romesberg

Director of Undergraduate Studies
2411 WWPH
412-648-7586
romesber@pitt.edu

I am interested in family studies, deviance and social control, social problems and the sociology of science/scientific controversy. Recent undergraduate courses taught include Sociology of the Family, and Deviance and Social Control. I am also Undergraduate Advisor and Internship Coordinator. We encourage our majors to participate in a wide variety of sociologically relevant internships.

Vijai Singh

Professor and Associate Chancellor
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison (appointed 1971)
2607 WWPH
412-648-7563
singh@pitt.edu

In addition to Social Stratification and Mobility, my research interests include the study of Sociology of Science. I am engaged in a comparative study of the processes of production of scientific knowledge in the U.S. and Western Europe. More specifically, I am collaborating with academics in Germany, U.K., France, and Denmark to compare the locational endowments that are directly related to the development of scientific institutions, scientific collaborations, and scientific and technological innovations. The role of political, economic, and social institutions in each of these countries is being analyzed. We have published research papers and currently are working on a book which should be completed by 2009. In addition, I am also collaborating with a few academics in India on three different research and publication projects that deal with sustainable development, poverty, and economic policies at federal and local levels. My long-term plan is to compare wage inequality in the U.S., U.K., Germany, and France beginning in the middle of the 1970s. The roles of the labor market, wage-setting institutions, and education will be systematically analyzed in each of these countries. Much of the Data for this study will come from the OECD and at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Undergraduate courses taught: Introduction to Sociology, Social Problems, Marriage, and Family, Social Stratification, Planning and Policy, and Population. Graduate courses taught: Statistics, Demography, Comparative Sociology, Comparative Sociological Methodology, Modernization, Social Stratification, Survey and Research.

Suzanne Staggenborg

Professor
PhD Northwestern University 1985, Professor (appointed 2008)
2409 WWPH
412-648-7582
suzstagg@pitt.edu

My areas of interest are social movements, political sociology, social problems, gender and family. My research is primarily in the area of social movements, including studies of abortion politics and women’s movements. My current projects include a comparative study of the women’s movements in the US and Canada and a study of local environmental movements. I teach graduate courses in social movements and qualitative methods.