Department of Sociology

Jane D. McLeod, who joined the IU Bloomington faculty in 1998, became the associate executive dean of the College of Arts and Sciences on July 1, 2020. Prior to this appointment, she served three years as chair of Sociology, four years as associate dean for Social and Historical Sciences and Graduate Education in the College, and one year as associate vice provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs.

During her tenure as associate dean, she and her colleagues Joyce Alexander and Laura Plummer established the IUB faculty writing program in the College and School of Education, which has blossomed into the campus Scholarly Writing Program and now engages over 300 faculty each semester. Throughout her time in administration, McLeod has worked to support effective collaboration between faculty and administration and, in 2019-20, served as co-chair of the Bloomington Faculty Council Faculty Affairs committee and as a member of the BFC Executive Committee.

McLeod’s research traverses the areas of social psychology, medical sociology, sociology of mental health, stratification, and the life course. She is currently PI of a National Institutes of Health-funded study of the college experiences of youth on the autism spectrum and is also involved in research on racial/ethnic health disparities and the social psychology of inequality. She has been honored with the James R. Greenley Award for Distinguished Contributions to the Sociology of Mental Health (from the Society for the Study of Social Problems) and the Leonard I. Pearlin Award for Distinguished Contributions to the Sociological Study of Mental Health.

When not at work, McLeod loves to spend time in her house near the woods, cooking, hiking, singing in a choir, and playing with her dogs.