Click on the students names to learn more!
|
Annette M. MackayFaculty Mentor: Katie Corcoran
Annette M. Mackay is a doctoral candidate in the department of Sociology and Anthropology. She holds a B.A. in Sociology from Penn West Edinboro University (formerly Edinboro Univesity of Pennsylvania) and an M.A. in Social and Public Policy from Duquesne University. Annette is interested in communities and how social structures affect relationships and inequality. Her doctoral research explores socio-cultural and econmic variations in gentrification, including effects on church congregations and other faith-based organizations. She is a member of the Amish Research Team and studies impacts of COVID-19, public policy, and demographic change on Amish communities. |
|
Bernard DiGregorioFaculty Mentor: Katie Corcoran
Bernard is a PhD student in the Sociology and Anthropology department, whose current research focuses on religious victimization, differences in views on current issues according to different Christian traditions, and perceptions of in/out-group differences among more closed religious groups. He received his BA in sociology with a minor in computer science from Duquesne University in 2018, and his MA in sociology from West Virginia University in 2020. He currently works as a Graduate Research Assistant in the SOCA department. He conducts work with the Amish Research Team, and also on the Religion, Science, and Enchanted Worldviews project. His broad interests include, but are not limited to, the sociology of religion, criminology and deviance, victimization, the sociology of mental health, sociological theory, and group dynamics. |
|
Carina PerroneFaculty Mentor: Rachel Stein
Carina is a Ph.D. candidate in sociology focused on crime and deviance. She received her BA in Psychology and BA in Criminology and Criminal Justice from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2017. She then obtained a master’s degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice from IUP in 2018. Her synthesis project focused on various prison programs offered inside correctional facilities and their effectiveness on recidivism rates. Carina's thesis focuses on attraction and dating desirability for those who were previously incarcerated using an online dating platform. Her interests include (but are not limited to) incarceration, white-collar crime, and criminological theory. Recently, she has been expanding her research interests by exploring the Amish community. |
|
Ellory DabbsFaculty Mentor: Chris Scheitle
Ellory is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in sociology. She graduated with a BA in criminology and a minor in sociology from the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown in December of 2016 and received her MA in sociology in May of 2018. She is currently working towards the completion of her dissertation on juror's perceptions of forensic expert testimony. Ellory has worked with Dr. Chris Scheitle since 2017 studying graduate students' perceptions of their academic experiences. Particularly, how have students religiosity (or lace thereof) affect their experiences as a graduate student. |
|
Sara GuthrieFaculty Mentor: Katie Corcoran
Sara is a 6th year student in sociology with a certificate in university teaching. Her dissertation explores changes in political discourse in closed religious communities. More broadly, she is interested in the intersections of politics and religion, social movements, inequality, and rural communities. Sara completed her BS in sociology with minors in history and women and gender studies from Lock Haven University in 2015. She then attended the University of Massachusetts Boston and completed her MA in applied sociology in 2017. At UMB her thesis focused on marginalization within queer student groups. Currently, Sara serves as a graduate research assistant for the RADx-UP research project. In this role, she is responsible for qualitative data collection and analysis. Previously, Sara served as a graduate research assistant for the Amish Research Team and currently still is a member of the research team. |
|
Stephanie House-NiamkeFaculty Mentor: Katie Corcoran
House-Niamke is a doctoral student in sociology at West Virginia University and is a W.E.B. Du Bois Fellow. She received her Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing in 2012 from Radford University and her Master of Public Administration from Virginia Tech in May 2017. Additionally, she has two graduate certificates in Women's and Gender Studies as well as Higher Education Administration. She has facilitated conversations across difference focusing on race, gender and religion for the past five years. She has worked with pre-service teachers to develop inclusive classroom practices and curriculum and has guest-lectured on Critical Race Theory (CRT) at Virginia Tech and American University. Since arriving in Morgantown, she has worked with Dr. Katie Corcoran as a summer graduate research assistant and has been invited to speak at workshops addressing systemic racism in business and technology fields. House-Niamke’s research interests concern power, access, and choice across the areas of race, gender, and religion. This includes social policy on a university campus, anti-racist pedagogy and identity development for melanin-dominant communities and women who participate in religious institutions. Additionally, she has published work on teachers of color's resistance to Critical Race Theory in curriculum. She has also published on CRT in public policy and environmental policy decisions and has presented at several conferences about womanism, womanist theology, and educational support for melanin-dominant communities. |