Jeanne Ballantine (Ph.D. 1970), Jenny Stuber (Ph.D. 2006) and Judson Everitt (Ph.D. 2009): The Sociology of Education, New 9^th edition IS NOW AVAILABLE!

This classic in the field, extensively updated for the 9^th edition, is used in upper level undergraduate classes, graduate classes, and in universities around the world, and has been translated into many languages. The goal is to present an overview of the field--its varying perspectives, theories, and topics--to sociology, education, and other undergraduate and graduate students. Major theoretical approaches and key topics in the field are presented—from class, gender, race and ethnic differences and inequalities, to the organization of and roles in schools, informal system and educational environments, higher education and international systems, to movements and reforms.  This balanced and comprehensive overview is held together through an “open systems approach”, placing topics within a framework that allows instructors to present topics in a systematic format of their choice and expand on any topics, showing the relationships and interactions between key topics in a coherent presentation. Published by Routledge--Taylor and Francis (2022), and written and revised by Sociologists of Education Jeanne Ballantine, Jenny Stuber, and Judson Everitt.

David K. Baltz (B.A. 1969): After graduation I spent three years as a Welfare Caseworker in Chicago and in the Bay Area.  I then went to Grad school at U.C. Berkeley graduating in 1974 with a Master of City Planning (MCP) Degree.  Most of my career was spent on the West Coast working in Transportation Planning, my focus area at Berkeley.  For several years while living in the Seattle area I was the President IU Alumni Club of the Puget Sound.

I retired about twelve years ago moving back to Modesto where I worked for nine years following graduation from Berkeley.  Since then I have taken more than two dozen music courses at Modesto Junior College and California State University, Stanislaus.  My hobbies include singing, songwriting, music recording, and golf among others.  That's about it! 

Leslie Barnet (1967) MSW from CA State University and JD from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles.  Certified as an Elder Law Attorney by the National Elder Law Foundation. I am a sole practitioner.  Sill practicing and listed for at least the 15th year in the area of Elder Law and Trusts and Estates.  Retirement looming in the future. 

Marni Blair (B.A. 2000), working at the IU Office of Admissions for over 20 years. I am a part of the undergraduate recruitment team with a focus of on campus events along with recruitment territories in and out of state. My husband and I live here in Bloomington with our 6 year old son Henry.

Michael K. Blanchard (B.A. 1989) As a 1989 graduate I want to update you on my personal and professional accomplishments since then. Publications:

• “Bump Fire Stocks: Finding a Way to Outlaw Their Usage.” The Journal of the National Black Nurses Association. December 2017, Vol 28, No 2, vi. Located on PubMed.
• “We Ain't No Ways Tired: We Demand a Ban on the AR-15 Rifle Now.” Williams E, Giger JN, Brannon C, Blanchard M. The Journal of the National Black Nurses Association. July 2018, Vol 29, No 1, vi-viii. Located on PubMed.
• “The Persistence Of Community College Students: A Single Site Case Study” (2018). All Theses and Dissertations. 171.
• “Only 22% of all students who enroll in community colleges complete an associate degree within three years, and only 16% of students at urban community colleges earn a degree in the same time frame.”
• “Care of the Frail Elderly, the Mentally Ill, and the Disabled in Nursing Homes: A Clarion Call to Arms.” Williams E, Giger JN, Brannon C, Blanchard M. The Journal of the National Black Nurses Association. December 2018, Vol 29, No 2. Located on PubMed.
• The Black Book of Lamentations, covered here by the South Bend Tribune: “South Bend native's book collects 'Lamentations' from Black scholars, activists”
• A Community Research Guide to Student Persistence: Research-based Strategies to Improve Student Persistence
• “Are Current Security Protocols The Best Use of Funds In Public Schools.” Michael K Blanchard, Ed.D.; Rick Wallace Ph.D, Psy.D. AltBlackNews.com

Curtis Child (Ph.D. 2011) I am in London for spring 2022, co-directing a study abroad. Besides teaching and research, I am also the department chair of the sociology department at Brigham Young University.

Christy L. Erving (Ph.D. 2014) This fall, I will be appointed Associate Professor (with tenure) at University of Texas at Austin in the Department of Sociology. I was hired through a Health Disparities cluster hire initiative at UT-Austin, and I'm looking forward to extending my program of research and teaching on Black women's physical and psychological health over the life course in this new role.

I'm elated about this professional and personal transition. I'm also grateful for my time at IU which laid the foundation for the work I'm doing now.

Gary also leads the Cozen O'Connor LGBTQ Attorney Resource Group and was recently spotlighted in a feature article by the national LGBT Bar Association (linked here).  Last summer, he was featured in a Q&A column in Chicago Lawyer Magazine.

More recently, he has been further appointed to Co-Vice Chair of the firm’s Global Insurance Department. Gassman focuses his practice in the areas of insurance coverage, counseling, and litigation.

Steven E. Gunkel, (Ph.D. 1996) Full Teaching Professor, Department of Sociology served as the Wake Washington Resident Professor in the Fall of 2021. As such, he taught two classes at the Wake Washington Center. This included a course on white collar crime and a course on corrections.  In addition, he supervised 16 students who worked as interns on Capitol Hill and at federal agencies as well as think tanks. 

Pamela Jackson (Ph.D. 1993) was named the first Associate Vice President for Faculty and Belonging. Read our announcement here.

Walt Jacobs (Ph.D., 1999) On July 1 I'll become the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at California State University East Bay. Read more here.

Edward L. Kick (Ph.D. 1980) I went on to head the sociology departments at Utah, Middle TN State and North Carolina State.  I am now the Guest Editor for the journal Sustainability, which comes to us from Switzerland, and has a power score of 3.3.  Interested faculty may contact me regarding publishing on any issues related to Industrial Agriculture and Farming.   Lest potential contributors have a circumscribed view of what the journal might publish, let me say I will be contributing a manuscript on U.S. Multinationals (e.g., Bayer) and their historical contributions to pesticides for agriculture and Zyklon B for the mass extermination of humanity. Interested faculty should contact me at elkick@ncsu.edu. 

Gary LaFree (Ph.D. 1979) recently received the Edwin H. Sutherland Award from the American Society of Criminology, which recognizes outstanding contributions to theory or research in criminology.  His address, “In the shadow of 9/11: How the study of political extremism has reshaped criminology,” was published in the February 2022 issue of Criminology.

Trenton D. Mize (Ph.D. 2017) was just promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure at Purdue University. 

Brea Perry (Ph.D. 2008) was named the next Allen D. and Polly S. Grimshaw Professor. Read our announcement here.

Jean Ross (B.A. 2003) I have focused on healthcare and family caregiving since leaving IU-Bloomington. I am currently developing an application to help families organize, discuss, and share their health information for better access and experience with healthcare called Primary Record. We recently won an INTAP grant to help us integrate directly with the patient portals for families to have one place to source their health information. We are hoping to launch to the public by winter 2022.

Shawna Smith (Ph.D. 2014) joined the Department of Health Management and Policy at University of Michigan’s School of Public Health as an Assistant Professor in September 2020. In September 2021, she was named the John G. Searle Assistant Professor of Health Management & Policy. She continues to work in health services research and implementation science, and currently holds grants as a PI from AHRQ, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation of Michigan, with projects largely focused on improving equitable access to high-quality behavioral health services.

Alicia Suarez (Ph.D 2006) Dr. Alicia Suarez was selected to receive the Journal of Correctional Health Care award for her 2021 paper “I Wish I Could Hold Your Hand: Inconsistent Interactions Between Pregnant Women and Prison Officers.” Looking forward to the interviews she’ll be giving in collaboration with Liebert Publications and the National Commission on Correctional Health Care.

Mai Thai (Ph.D. 2022) recently published “Policing and Symbolic Control: The Process of Valorization” in The American Journal of Sociology, 27(4): 1183-1220. doi:10.1086/718278. 

Lisa Thomassen (formerly Lisa Thomas, Ph.D. 1996) will receive Indiana University's 2022 President's Award for Distinguished Teaching. Last year she was promoted to Full in the first cohort of Teaching Professors at Indiana University, and she is currently serving as Director of Undergraduate Engagement in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at IU-Bloomington. In other news, Memorial Hall on the Bloomington campus has reverted back to dormitory use, as it was originally intended.  Those of us in the pre-doc programs enjoyed having sinks in our offices, back in the day.

Randall J. Thomson (Ph.D. 1978) Since my retirement from NCSU in 2010, I have been quite active in various community services. In December of 2020 I was recognized for those activities with The William C. Friday Award for Distinguished Service in Retirement.

The award, presented by The North Carolina State University Association of Retired Faculty, is "...in recognition of exemplary accomplishments in retirement and notable activities that have supported as well as inspired contributions by retired faculty or others in retirement."  The bulk of those activities, by the way, involved volunteer work at the North Carolina Museum of History, The Raleigh Little Theatre and the North Carolina Reading Service at which I've just recently finished recording my 765th weekly radio program for the blind and visually impaired.

For me, community service seems to have been a natural outcome of the courses offered at IU, especially those from the Sociology Department and SPEA.

Michael Wallace (M.A. 1979, Ph.D. 1983) recently retired from active duty in the Sociology department at the University of Connecticut. He and his wife Eva Csejtey have taken up residence in Bloomington, IN, where they first met on an adult co-ed soccer team organized by former IU Sociology Professor Bob Althauser in 1978, when Mike was a graduate student and soccer novitiate. Mike and Eva went on to raise three children who played college soccer (one on the 2004 national championship team at IU!). Mike has now achieved the rare trifecta of residing in Bloomington as a graduate student (1976-1982), a faculty member (1990-2001), and a retiree (2020-????). Mike and Eva are still getting re-acquainted with Indiana’s conservative politics after living in progressive Connecticut for 20 years, but they are seeking ways to make their voices heard. Preferring to think of his current life-stage not so much as retirement but as a permanent sabbatical, Mike continues to be actively engaged in research that mostly focuses on conflict and inequality engendered by American capitalism, especially during the neoliberal period. But he hopes his retirement… er, uh…  permanent sabbatical will afford him the opportunity to embark on more fanciful topics that have long been on the back burner such as the impact of hockey fights in the NHL on team success and the causes of the 1974 college streaking fad. Some of Mike’s recent (and more grounded) publications include:

• “States of Inequality: Politics, Labor, and Rising Income Inequality in the U.S. States since 1950,” Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 2022. (with Todd Vachon and Allen Hyde).
• “The Great Recession Index: A Place-based Indicator for Countries, States, and Metropolitan Areas,” Social Indicators Research, 2021. (with Angran Li and Allen Hyde).
• “Red State, Blue State: Neoliberalism, Politics, and Public Sector Union Membership in the U.S. States,” Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 2019. (with Todd Vachon).

And one paper currently under review:

• “Unions, Democracy, and Trump: Deconstructing the COVID-19 Vaccination Crisis of 2021,” (with Todd Vachon and Angran Li).

Jessica (Borchert) Zander (B.A. Dec. 2005) I’m living in the Chicago area with my husband, 2nd grader, and our two rescue dogs. For the past several years I’ve been running my own consulting practice, Propelling Good, working with organizations like The Allstate Foundation and The Mind Gym to develop and support equity-oriented leaders all over the world. I recently started a new full-time role running the Walgreens employee foundation, providing short-term support for Walgreens employees in moments of financial distress. In addition to my full-time role and side consulting, I also run a personal growth and mindfulness business with fellow IU alum, Kelly Jones, called The Six Capacities - we hold monthly mini retreats mixed with yoga, meditation and journaling.