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From the Chair

Department Chair Kyle Crowder

FALL 2023

Savery Hall is bustling with activities this Fall quarter! It’s great to see so many familiar faces return after saying goodbye to some longtime members of our department last year and, welcome two new faculty members, Rosalind Kichler and Sasha Johfre.

Our featured course this fall is being taught by Kichler, SOC364A: Women in The Social Structure which focuses on how gender powerfully shapes our lives and the ways social institutions reproduce inequality. We’re pleased to be offering such a broad array of relevant and challenging courses which allow for new learning opportunities and important discussions.  

Faculty and students are doing amazing things!

Professor Sara Curran was one of eight UW professors elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences this year. She was elected for her “groundbreaking work in demography and the sociology of migration, taking a multi-faceted approach that illuminates the dynamic interplay between demographic conditions and factors such as gender, socio-economic context, and climate change.”

Ramin Jabbarli, UW Sociology graduate student and researcher, took part in “Human Rights Situation in Iran: The Case of Ethnic Azerbaijanis” at the 32nd Economic Forum in Karpacz, Poland on September 7.  The panel gathered several experts from all over the world.

Events are also keeping us busy.

In mid-October, Sociology faculty Nathalie Williams and Sarfraz Khan will host a workshop, Migration & Health: Perspectives from South Asia, co-sponsored by Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology (CSDE) and the South Asia Center. Scholars from around the globe will present exciting and emerging work on the causes and types of migration, a defining issue of our time, and how migration relates to global health.

Visiting lecturer Jennifer Carlson, a professor of sociology at Arizona State University and a MacArthur Fellow, will join us on Friday, October 20 to discuss her book “Merchants of the Right: Gun Sellers and the Crisis of American Democracy.” Her work examines the politics of guns in American life. 

We will also begin three faculty searches beginning in November including an open associate or early stage full professor position, an assistant professor of sociology: climate change and environmental inequality, and an assistant professor of sociology: housing and homelessness.

Our sociology department continues to study and research significant social problems and are committed to working together to seek solutions, locally, nationally and globally.

After a year on the job as Chair of UW Sociology, I am feeling good about the buy-in and support from my colleagues and the collaborative energy of our department and staff and look forward to another productive academic year!

Kyle Crowder

Professor and Chair

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