Research & Scholarship
We specialize in the study of social inequality. More specifically, our faculty focus on community and urban sociology, health and medicine, race and ethnicity, and gender. We encourage prospective graduate students interested in these issues to join us! Our urban location and proximity to six major hospitals make UC an ideal place to study urban and health issues, and Sociologists for Women in Society have consistently awarded us their seal of approval for gender scholarship.
The intellectual hub of the department is the Kunz Center for Social Research, an endowed center located within and designated to support the research mission of the department. It provides research funding for faculty and graduate students, and provides an intellectual commons for faculty and students across the university with research interests in urban and race, family and gender, and health issues.
- Jeffrey M. Timberlake has a multi-year grant from the Ohio Colleges of Medicine’s Government Resource Center at the Ohio State University to study the health and health care access of Ohio’s children and adolescents.
- Jeffrey M. Timberlake received a grant from National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to study the mental health and health care access of crop farmworkers in the United States.
- Danielle Bessett has a multi-year grant from the Kentucky health Justice Network’s society of family planning on inequities in abortion access.
- Danielle Bessett has a multi-year grant from the Ohio Policy Evaluation Network to study reproductive health care in Ohio and the region.
- Jules Madzia, research scholar & Danielle Bessett, research sponsor: ASA Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant ($15,912) for “Inequality in Medical Professionalization and Specialization.”
- Sorrels, Katherine, Vanessa Carbonell, Danielle Bessett, Lora Anderson, Edward Wallace, and Michelle L. McGowan, editors. 2023. Ohio Under COVID. University of Michigan Press.
- Casanova, Erynn Masi. 2022. La desigualdad a domicilio: El trabajo remunerado del hogar en el Ecuador contemporáneo. FLACSO Ecuador.
- Casanova, Erynn Masi. 2019. Dust and Dignity: Domestic Employment in Contemporary Ecuador.
- Danielle Bessett, article: Field, Meredith P.; Hillary Gyuras; Danielle Bessett; Meredith J. Pensak; Alison H. Norris; Michelle L. McGowan. “Ohio Abortion Regulations and Ethical Dilemmas for Obstetrician–Gynecologists.” Obstetrics & Gynecology.
- Jeff Timberlake, article (with former UC Sociology PhD student): Pearson, Roderick L. Jr. and Jeffrey M. Timberlake. 2022. “Effects of Police Violence on Citizen Calls for Service: The Killing of Samuel DuBose in Cincinnati, Ohio.” Forthcoming in Race, Ethnicity, and the City.
- Danielle Bessett co-edited a peer-reviewed volume: Arduser, Lora; Danielle Bessett; Vanessa Carbonell; Michelle L. McGowan; Katherine Sorrels; and Edward Wallace (eds.). Ohio Under Covid: Lessons from America’s Heartland in Crisis (University of Michigan Press). Available through open access at: https://www.press.umich.edu/12396322/ohio_under_covid
- Ohio Under Covid features a chapter co-authored by members of our department: Smith, Mikaela; Hillary Guyras; Danielle Czarnecki; Alison H. Norris; Michelle L. McGowan; and Danielle Bessett. “Abortion and the Politics of Care in Ohio During the COVID-19 Pandemic.”
- Steve Carlton-Ford received an advance contract from Routledge for his book-in-progress, tentatively titled Legacies of Injustice: The African Slave Trade, Colonialism, and Today's Human Rights.
- Arti Sandhu, book chapter: 'Fashion for a Cause: Crafting an Image of Authenticity and Wellbeing in Indian Fashion Magazines' published in Insights on Fashion Journalism, edited By Rosie Findlay, Johannes Reponen (Routledge)
- Cynthia Beavin, article: Frohwirth, Lori, Megan L. Kavanaugh, Ayana Douglas-Hall, Katrina MacFarlane, and Cynthia Beavin. 2022. “Access to Preferred Contraceptive Strategies in Iowa: A Longitudinal Qualitative Study of Effects of Shifts in Policy and Healthcare Contexts.” Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved 33(3):1494–1518.
- Jeremy Brenner-Levoy, article: Rivlin, Katherine; Jeremy Brenner-Levoy; Tamika Odum; Zoe Muzyczka; Alison H. Norris; Abigail Norris Turner; and Danielle Bessett. "Provider mistrust and telemedicine abortion preferences among patients in Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky." Telemedicine and e-Health.
- Michael Parrish. 2022. Whiteness interrupted: white teachers and racial identity in predominately Black schools by Marcus Bell. [Book Review] Ethnic and Racial Studies.
- Letisha Brown published an op-ed on the return of WNBA player Britney Griner to the U.S. in First and Pen.
- Zoe Muzyczka, article: Rivlin, Katherine; Jeremy Brenner-Levoy; Tamika Odum; Zoe Muzyczka; Alison H. Norris; Abigail Norris Turner; and Danielle Bessett. "Provider mistrust and telemedicine abortion preferences among patients in Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky." Telemedicine and e-Health.
- Kierra Toney received a Taft Dissertation Fellowship for 2023-2024.
- Michael Parrish received a Taft Dissertation Fellowship for 2023-2024.
- Jeff Timberlake was elected Chair of the Community and Urban Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association for 2023-2024
- Letisha Brown won a 2023-2024 Race B4 Social Media Fellowship, funded by the Mellon Foundation
- Erynn Masi de Casanova won the 2023 Faculty-Faculty Research Mentoring Award from the UC College of Arts & Sciences
- Danielle Bessett won the 2021 Mentor Award from the Society of Family Planning