Sociology Faculty and Students
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Department of Sociology

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  • Ceesay, Fatoumata M.

    • Fatoumata M. Ceesay
    • Fatoumata M. Ceesay
    • Fatoumata M. "Ceesay" is a doctoral student in the Department of Sociology. Ceesay’s interests in criminal justice encompass both theory-guided empirical research and evidence-based policy and strategy. Her focus areas are incarceration, policing and community safety, behavioral health justice, and racial justice. She is also interested in other issues of democracy, such as felony disenfranchisement and advancing the rights of citizens with felony convictions.

      She received the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF GRFP) (2020) and was recently awarded an honorable mention for the Ford Predoctoral Fellowship (2023). She also completed a graduate certification in Public Policy at the Edward J. Bloustein School at Rutgers University (2023). She holds a BA in Sociology, with minors in Gender Studies and African American Studies from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY (2018), where she was also a Ronald E. McNair Scholar.

      Her dissertation will explore the implementation of a single co-responder model (CRM) program in New Jersey and its effect on arrest, use of force, and pre-arrest diversion outcomes for NJ residents experiencing mental health crises, as well as examine the interplay of officers' and suspects' race on referral discretion and outcomes.

  • Cerulo, Karen A.

    • Karen A. Cerulo
    • Karen A. Cerulo
    • Professor Emeritus
    • Ph.D. Princeton, 1985
    • Curriculum Vitae
    •  

       

      Professor Cerulo has authored several books and articles in the areas of culture and cognition, symbol systems and meaning, media and technology, social change, decision making, identity construction, and measurement techniques.

      Professor Cerulo's research addresses a variety of themes within the sociology of culture and cognition. Some of her works explore the social foundations of symbol systems -- music, scent, verbal scripts, and visual images. Her research examines the ways in which social actors use such symbols to construct personal identity, collective identity, and the identity of eras, events, and places. Her work also charts the ways in which social factors -- i.e. the nature of social ties, the stability of social environments, power structures, economic systems of exchange, and technological innovations – help to shape the content, form, meaning, and effectiveness of symbols. Her prizewinning article entitled “Scents and Sensibility: Olfaction, Sense-making and Meaning Attribution” (American Sociological Review) uses focus group data to understand the role played by neural, physical, and sociocultural elements when we process and racialize the messages contained in commercial perfume scents.

      Professor Cerulo's writings are often noted for their contributions to the literature on measurement. She has developed a number of indicators designed to systematically capture verbal and non-verbal symbol structure. These measures render aural, olfactory, literary, and visual objects extremely accessible sources of social science data, amenable to all of the rigorous methods that are central to the social science tradition.

      In recent years, Professor Cerulo has turned her attentions to the social and cultural foundations of cognitive concepts and schema. Her work pays special attention to the links between cultural sociology and cognitive neuroscience. She has edited and contributed both to special issues and special sections on this topic published in Poetics (2010) and Sociological Forum (2014; 2021). She also co-authored a review piece, “Rethinking Culture and Cognition” published in the Annual Review of Sociology (2021).

      One prominent theme in Professor Cerulo's work on conceptualization concerns new communication technologies. Specifically, she explores how emerging communication media can change the ways in which individuals perceive social actors and social groups, experience social connectedness, and define forums of social action.

      Some of Professor Cerulo's work explores the conceptualization of the best and worst of people, places, objects and events. Her book Never Saw It Coming builds on theories and ideas forwarded by both cultural and cognitive sociologists. Professor Cerulo argues that the inability to envision and specify the worst is a sociocultural phenomenon. Indeed, in a broad array of social situations, she discovers that conceptions of the worst represent a gap in many cultures' shared frames of reference. The worst is a "blind spot" created by a variety of normative and patterned sociocultural practices – practices that, despite any single individual's intentions, keep the worst veiled and difficult to define. In her work, Professor Cerulo itemizes and unpacks these practices. She explores as well the ways in which certain elements of social structure may encourage this biased perspective. Finally, she considers the social consequences and pitfalls that masking the worst can exact. In so doing, she questions whether a more symmetrical view of quality is an achievable ... or a desirable social goal.

      Spurred by some of the issues raised in Never Saw It Coming, the prizewinning book, Dreams of a Lifetime: How Culture Shapes Our Future Imaginings (with Janet M. Ruane), argues that dreams are thought to be matters of an individual's heart and mind. But in this book, the authors explore the sociocultural dimensions that organize and structure what Americans do (or do not) dream about, the ways in which they dream, variations in dreams according to one's social location, and when, if ever, people stop dreaming.

      Professor Cerulo's articles appear in a wide variety of journals including the American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Social Psychology Quarterly, Sociological Methods and Research, Sociological Forum, Sociological Inquiry, Sociological Focus, Communication Research, Contemporary Sociology, Poetics, Social Science Research, Law and Policy, Science As Culture, and annuals and collections such as the Annual Review of Sociology, the Encyclopedia of Nationalism, the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, the Handbook of Cultural Sociology, the Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Sociology, the Handbook of Social Theory, Research in Political Sociology, and the World Book Encyclopedia. She is the author of Never Saw It Coming: Cultural Challenges to Envisioning the Worst (University of Chicago Press, 2006), Deciphering Violence: The Cognitive Order of Right and Wrong (Routledge,1998), and Identity Designs: The Sights and Sounds of a Nation – winner of these Culture Section's "Best Book Award, 1996" (The Rose Book series of the ASA, Rutgers University Press,1995). She also co-authored Dreams of a Lifetime: How Culture Shapes Our Future Imaginings (Princeton University Press, 2022), Second Thoughts: Seeing Conventional Wisdom through the Sociological Eye (Sage, 2015), and edited a collection entitled Culture in Mind: Toward a Sociology of Culture and Cognition (Routledge, 2002).

      Professor Cerulo served as the Sociology Department Chair from July 2009 to August 2012. She has also served as the Chair of the ASA's Culture section (2009 through 2010), where she also functions as the section's network coordinator, and the director of the Culture and Cognition Network. She is a former Vice President of the Eastern Sociological Society and the current editor of Sociological Forum, the flagship journal of the Eastern Sociological Society. In 2013, she was named the Robin M. Williams Jr. Lecturer by the Eastern Sociological Society and she also won that organization's 2013 Merit Award. In 2012, she received the Rutgers University Scholar-Teacher Award, recognizing both her pedagogy and research in sociology. She was also elected to the Sociological Research Association.

      Professor Cerulo’s work has been widely covered in the media, including venues such as the Chicago Tribune, CNN Travel, The Conversation, DAME magazine, Le Monde, Mycentraljersey.com, The New York Daily News, The New Republic, The New York Times, North Jersey.com, Playboy, Psychology Today, The Post Courier, The Scientific American, Slate Magazine, The Times of India, and USA Today.  She has also been interviewed on 1010 Wins news radio, The Brian Lehrer radio program (WNYC), the Freakonomics podcast/radio program, Jeff Schechtman's Talk Cocktail podcast, Mancow Morning Radio Show (WLUP FM), Matthew Crawford’s The Curious Man podcast, and Thinking Aloud on BBC radio.

    • In the Public Eye:
    • Faculty Article(s):
    • Apologies of the Rich and Famous: Cultural, Cognitive and Social Explanations of Why We Care and Why We Forgive
    • Enduring Relationships: Social Aspects of Perceived Interactions with the Dead
    • Rethinking Culture and Cognition
    • Scents and Sensibility: Olfaction, Sense-making and Meaning Attribution
    • Faculty Bookshelf:
    • Culture in Mind: Toward a Sociology of Culture and Cognition
    • Deciphering Violence: The Cognitive Structure of Right and Wrong
    • Dreams of a Lifetime: How Who We Are Shapes How We Imagine Our Future
    • Identity Designs: The Sights and Sounds of A Nation (The Arnold and Caroline Rose Book Series of the American Sociological Association)
    • Never Saw It Coming: Cultural Challenges to Envisioning the Worst
    • Second Thoughts: Sociology Challenges Conventional Wisdom
    • Program Areas:
    • Culture and Cognition
    • Politics and Social Movements
    • Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration
  • Chae, Youngjin

    • Youngjin (YJ) Chae
    • Youngjin (YJ) Chae
    • Curriculum Vitae
    • Youngjin's research interests include various topics in family demography and child development, with particular focuses on mothers' nonmaritral birth and repartnering, (non)residential father involvement, social fatherhood, and stepfamily dynamics. He has completed an M.A. in Sociology from Yonsei University, Republic of Korea, and his master's thesis investigated how longer coresidence with social fathers is associated with children's behavior problems. For his doctoral research, using causal inference methods, Youngjin plans on investigating how the intersections of family, neighborhood, and social policy affect children's life trajectories and outcomes.

  • Chang, Yung-Ying

    • Yung-Ying Chang
    • Yung-Ying Chang
    • Personal Website
    • Curriculum Vitae
    • Yung-Ying’s research interests lie at the intersections of sociology of culture, emotions, migration, and transnational sociology with a focus on using meso-level, group-focused approaches to studying mechanisms through which beliefs and actions at the individual level create the conditions for larger consequences on the macro level. Her pre-dissertation research explores the role of group cultures and emotional commitments in how political beliefs develop in cultural areas of social life, such as Korean popular culture consumption in global contexts, where how ones perceive politics and the existence of political talk itself are debated. Her dissertation focuses on the dynamics, interactions, and conflicts between the perceptions Asian Americans and Asians have regarding the political and cultural interactions between sending and host countries. She holds a B.A. and an M.A. in Sociology from the National Taiwan University. She is now a member of the Rutgers Digital Ethnography Working Group.

  • Chaudhary, Ali R.

  • Chayko, Mary

    • Mary Chayko
    • Mary Chayko
    • Distinguished Teaching Professor of Communication and Information, School of Communication and Information, Rutgers University
    • Personal Website
    • Curriculum Vitae
    • Mary Chayko (M.Ed, Counseling Psychology; M.A., Ph.D., Sociology; Rutgers University) is a Distinguished Teaching Professor of Communication and Information and Director at Rutgers' School of Communication and Information (SC&I). She was formerly the Chairperson and Professor of Sociology at Saint Elizabeth University. Her research explores the impact of the internet and digital technology on society, self and identity in the digital age, tech access and inequality, and the use of digital technologies in education. It has contributed to current understandings of the reality of the online experience, the intersection of the online and the offline, and opportunities for and consequences of digital social connectedness. Her book Superconnected: The Internet, Digital Media and Techno-Social Life (Sage Publications; third edition), is a broad-based interdisciplinary primer on technologically mediated communication and society rooted primarily in the fields of sociology, psychology, and communication. She is also the author of Connecting: How We Form Social Bonds and Communities in the Internet Age and the award-winning social science bestseller Portable Communities: The Social Dynamics of Online and Mobile Connectedness, both with SUNY Press, and many published articles. Dr. Chayko is a participant in the "public sociology" movement and has co-edited (with Corey Dolgon) the anthology Pioneers of Public Sociology: Thirty Years of Humanity and Society. Honored with the Rutgers University Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching (2019) and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Award for Distinguished Contributors to Undergraduate Education (1993), Dr. Chayko directs and teaches in the SC&I Digital Communication, Information & Media program and Gender & Media programs and is known for using social media in her classes in innovative ways.

  • Choi, Hanee

    • Hanee Choi
    • Hanee Choi
    • Hanee is interested in the intersection of bodies and the environment. At present, her work explores feminist environmental activism including women’s leading role in alternative food networks. She earned a BA in sociology, Hanshin University (South Korea) and a Masters in City and Regional Planning, Seoul National University (South Korea). For her Ph.D. research, Hanee would like to explore the cultural-political issues of alternative food initiatives, especially women farmers in food practices.

  • Cohen, Ira

    • Ira Cohen
    • Ira Cohen
    • Associate Professor
    • Ph.D. University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1980
    • Office: Hill Hall, 621, Newark, 732-445-4047 & 732-122-5422
    • Curriculum Vitae
    • Associate Professor of Sociology, teaches Sociology in the Graduate Program and teaches his undergraduate courses on the faculty in Sociology at Rutgers in Newark. His Graduate Program courses include classical and contemporary social theory. His research interests include the sociology of everyday life, contemporary and classical social theory, the sociology of modernity, and the history of social thought. His new book Solitary Action is forthcoming from Oxford University Press.

      Professor Cohen’s major interests include the sociology of action in everyday life, contemporary and classical social theory, the sociology of modernity, and the distory of social thought. Professor Cohen’s book, Solitary Action: Acting on Our Own in Everyday Life, is recently published by Oxford University Press. The work marks a new direction in Professor Cohen’s research combining theoretical innovations with examples that illustrate the rich diversity and social complexity of solitary action in everyday life. The book proposes a new way of conceiving solitary action as a substantial previously unexamined realm of social behavior. Innovating a new model of actions performed by individuals on their own, Professor Cohen distinguishes and brings to life four diverse forms of solitary action: peripatetics, regimens, engrossments, and reflexives. An epilogue distinguishes solitary action from long-term solitary withdrawals from interaction with others. A further publication in this project is: “Three Forms of Deep Solitude: Religious Quests, Aesthetic Retreats, and Withdrawals Due to Personal Distress” in Cultures of Solitude: Loneliness – Limitation – Liberation, Ina Bergamann and Stefan Hippler (eds.). Bern: Peter Lang, forthcoming.

      Professor Cohen is well known for his publications on structuration theory. They include: Structuration Theory: Anthony Giddens and the Constitution of Social Life (London: Macmillan/New York: St. Martens). A Spanish translation is also available (Universidad Autonoma Metropolitant); “Struturation Theory” in George Ritzer (ed.), Encyclopedia of Social Theory (London: Sage); “Anthony Giddens” in Rob Stones (ed.), Key Sociological Thinkers (London: Macmillan). (Translated into Farsi). “Structuration Theory and Social Order” in Clark and Modgil (eds.), Anthony Giddens Critical Assessments (Philadelphia: Falmer); “La sécurité ontologique, la face sociale et la question de la motication dans la théorie de la structuration” in Michel Audet and Hamid Bouchiki (eds.), Structuration du social et modernité avanceée; “Structuration Theory and Social Praxis” in Giddens and Turner (eds.), Social Theory Today (Cambridge: Polity). (Translated into Spanish). “The Status of Structuration Theory” Theory, Culture, and Society.

      Professor Cohe Has published widely on a variety of other topics in social theory including: “Theories of Action and Praxis” in Bryan Turner (ed.), A Companion to SocialTheory: Second Edition (Oxford: Basil Blackwell); “Autonomy and Credibility: Voice As Method” (with Mary F. Rogers), Sociological Theory (November 1994); “The Underemphasis on Democracy in Marx and Weber” Antonio and Glassman (eds.), A Weber-Marx Dialogue (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas); “Max Weber on Modern Western Capitalism” introductory essay in the Transaction Press edition of Max Weber, General Economic History, pp. XV-LXXXIII. Additional publications include articles on Wittgenstein and sociological method and the historical sociology of state intervention.

      Professor Cohen served as a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for the Cambridge Dictionary of Sociology. He also served as General Editor of the Modernity and Society series for Blackwell Publishers. He serves as Associate Editor of Theory, Culture, and Society and he served a term as a member of the International Advisory Board of Sociology: The Journal of the British Sociological Association. He was elected to a three-year term as Member of the Council Theory Section, American Sociological Association and he has chaired both the Nominations Committee and the Theory Prize Committee for the section. Professor Cohen has given lectures at the Department of Sociology, Tblisi State University, Republic of Georgia (2002); Department of Sociology, University of Naples Federico II (2008); Department of Sociology, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart Milan (2009); Department of Sociology, University of Genoa (2009); Department of Sociology, University of Milan Biccoca (2009); Department of Sociology, University of Pisa (2009).

  • Covington, Jeanette

    • Photo not available
    • Jeanette Covington
    • Associate Professor
    • Ph.D. University of Chicago, 1979
    • Office: Davison Hall, 114
    • Phone: (848) 932-4029
    • Dr. Covington is an Associate Professor of Sociology who teaches courses in crime, drugs and race relations.  Her current research examines how crime figures in the construction of race.  In the past few years, she has had several articles published on how criminologists assign meaning to the construction of blackness in their analyses of race differences in crime.  She also examines these issues in greater detail in her book titled Crime and Racial Constructions.  Not only does the book take a look at how criminologists create racial images, but it also considers how many of these same images of criminal blacks are disseminated in popular culture by Hollywood and other media.   

      In earlier work, Dr. Covington has also had a number of articles on fear of crime and neighborhood change and crime appear in various journals, including Social Problems, Sociological Quarterly, Urban Affairs Quarterly and Criminology.  Earlier work on drugs and crime was published in Criminology, Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency and Contemporary Drug Problems.   

  • Crawley, Kayla

    • Kayla Crawley
    • Kayla Crawley
    • Kayla J. Crawley's research interests include the intersection of race and education policy, school discipline and the school-to-prison pipeline. Her Master's thesis focuses on the historical underpinnings of school discipline policy in Virginia, and the barriers to reform. Her dissertation will focus on school discipline policy alternatives in New Jersey, using Karate dojos as a comparative case. She earned her B.A. in political science from the University of Pennsylvania.

  • Crystal, Stephen

    • Stephen Crystal
    • Stephen Crystal
    • Associate Director for Health Services Research, Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research, Board of Governors Professor, School of Social Work
    • Personal Website
    • Dr. Crystal is Board of Governors Professor of Health Services Research; Associate Director for Health Services Research; and Chair of the Division on Aging and AIDS Research Group at the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research. At the Institute he directs the Center for Health Services Research and the AHRQ-funded Center for Education and Research on Mental Health Therapeutics (CERTs), a federally-funded center that develops and analyzes evidence on safe and judicious use of psychotropic medications. Dr. Crystal's research interests focus on mental health services; safety and effectiveness of prescription medication; children's mental health; Medicaid policy; quality improvement; and other areas of health policy and pharmacoepidemiology has had national impact. He is a frequent adviser to federal and state health agencies, congressional committees and foundations, and has served on many NIH and AHRQ study sections and advisory committees. His more than 300 research articles, books and reports have been extensively cited both by researchers and in federal and state policy documents, and have been referenced by more than 7900 papers in the scientific and medical literature. Dr. Crystal's recent work includes directing a major FDA/AHRQ funded multicenter study of comparative safety and effectiveness of antipsychotic drugs in children, adults and the elderly, and a study for the Institute of Medicine on ADHD diagnosis and treatment. Dr. Crystal's work in comparative safety also includes the development of consensus treatment guidelines for maladaptive aggression in youth, and external review of Texas' prescribing parameters for foster care youth. This year, Dr. Crystal became the first investigator in New Jersey to be awarded a grant from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), for a 3-year, 4-state study on "Comparative Effectiveness of State Psychotropic Oversight Systems for Children in Foster Care."

    • Program Areas:
    • Health, Population, and Biomedicine

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In the Public Eye

Featured Courses

Upcoming Events

Culture Workshop
03 Apr 2024
11:30AM - 12:45PM
Undergraduate Honors Presentations
10 Apr 2024
09:00AM - 12:00PM
Department Luncheon
10 Apr 2024
12:00PM - 01:00PM
Executive Committee Meeting
17 Apr 2024
10:00AM -

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