Current Graduate Students
See here for PhD Students
See here for MA Students
See here for BA/MA Students
PhD Candidates
William Byrnes
Advisor: Marilyn Krogh, PhD
Research Interests: sociology of race and ethnicity, political sociology, mass incarceration, neoliberalism, poverty and inequality. Bill's current research focuses on middle-class experiences with mass incarceration and the racial state.
Dissertation Title: The Black Middle-Class and Mass Incarceration
Email: wbyrnes@luc.edu
Soulit Chacko
Advisor: Marilyn Krogh, PhD
Research Interests: gender & families, international migration, citizenship, race & ethnicity, and transnational feminism
Dissertation Title: Immigrant Women in the Ethnic Beauty Salon Business
Email: schacko1@luc.edu
Jennifer Cossyleon
Advisor: Kelly Moore, PhD
Research Interests: collective behavior, race, gender, and class, social policy, and family. Through an intersectional lens, my dissertation studies how parents, primarily Black and Latina mothers and grandmothers, participate and experience an understudied family-focused grassroots model of community organizing for social change in Chicago. My research is uncovering the many ways in which community organizing shapes gendered family life and the importance of recognizing organizing impacts beyond publicly stated organizational goals. This work informs discussions of how we can increase and support the democratic participation of immigrant and communities of color.
Dissertation Title: "Hear Us, See Us!”: How Mothers of Color Transform Family and Community Relationships through Grassroots Collective Action
Email: jcossyleon@luc.edu
Beth L. Dougherty
Advisor: Rhys Williams, PhD
Research Interests: Religion, ritual, embodiment, symbolic interaction, gender, politics, and technology. Beth’s dissertation examines the relationship between sensory narratives and religious experience, with a focus on the social elements of bodily meaning-making.
Dissertation Title: “Can you feel the spirit?" Towards a sensory sociology of religious experience
Email: bdougherty1@luc.edu
Christopher Duncan
Advisor: Judson Everitt, PhD & Anne Figert, PhD
Dissertation Title: The Inhabited School in the Era of Accountability
Email: cduncan2@luc.edu
Catherine Gillis
Advisor: Phillip Nyden, PhD
Research Interests: Urban studies, social inequality, housing and social welfare policy, community organizations
Dissertation Title: Conceptualizing “Productive Use”: Dominant Narratives and Alternative Visions of Land Use in Detroit
Email: cgillis@luc.edu
Nathalia Hernandez Vidal
Advisor: Kelly Moore, PhD
Dissertation Title: Community Knowledge and Political Mobilization: A study of La Red de Semillas Libres de Colombia
Email: nhernandezvidal@luc.edu
Joel Ritsema
Advisor: Marilyn Krogh, PhD
Dissertation Title: Paradise for Whom?: Lifestyle Migration Discourse in the Caribbean
Email: jritsema@luc.edu
Steven Sacco
Advisor: Kelly Moore, PhD
Research Interests: Economic sociology, sociology of science and technology, organizational sociology
Dissertation Title: Computer Fabricated/Hand Made: Kit Boats and the Evolution of Production and Consumption
Email: ssacco@luc.edu
Serhan Tanriverdi
Advisor: Rhys Williams, PhD
Research Interests: Sociology of Religion, Qualitative Research Methods, Islam and Muslims in the West
Dissertation Title: The New Voices of Islam: American Muslim Intellectuals
Email: stanriverdi@luc.edu
Steven Tuttle
Advisor: Phillip Nyden, PhD
Research Interests: Urban sociology, race/ethnicity, inequality, culture and media
Dissertation Title: Storefront: Local Businesses Acting Locally in Two Chicago Neighborhoods
Email: stuttle2@luc.edu
Cameron Williams
Advisor: Ayana Karanja, PhD
Research Interests: Race/ethnicity, urban housing, stratification, black masculinity
Dissertation Title: The Contested Community: An Analysis of the Lathrop Homes Preservation Campaign
Email: cwilliams22@luc.edu
Kyle Woolley
Advisor: Kelly Moore, PhD
Research Interests: political sociology, social movements, families, development, globalization, Latin America, urban marginality with a focus on the politics of water in informal urban settlements in the Global South
Dissertation Title: Spaces of Liberation: Women's Activism in Lima, Peru
Email: kwoolley@luc.edu
Sean Young
Advisor: Phillip Nyden, PhD
Research Interests: Public and applied sociology, urban theory, social movements, housing and gentrification, collaborative community based research, political sociology, sociology of culture and media, race/ethnicity
Dissertation Title: Pathways For Democracy: Organizational and Individual Impacts of Community Organizing
Email: syoung@luc.edu
PhD Students
Ashely Baber
Advisor: Rhys Williams, PhD
Research Interests: Urban Sociology, Political Sociology and Political Economy. More specifically, I am interested in changing urban landscapes and the intersection of labor informality and public space.
Email: ababer@luc.edu
Christine Breit
Advisor: Marilyn Krogh, PhD
Research Interests: Urban Sociology; Public and Applied Sociology; Housing, Community Development, and Neighborhood Change
Email: cbreit@luc.edu
William Burr
Advisor: Rhys Williams, PhD
Research Interests: Political economy
Email: wburr@luc.edu
Joseph Butler
Advisor: Peter Rosenblatt, PhD
Email: jbutler2@luc.edu
Michelle Dodson
Advisor: Rhys Williams, PhD
Email: mdodson@luc.edu
William Drust
Advisor: Anne Figert, PhD
Research Interests: medical sociology, science and technology studies (STS), and qualitative methods
Email: wdrust@luc.edu
Bilal Hussain
Advisor: Rhys Williams, PhD
Research Interests: Race and ethnic relations, sociology of religion, racial and religious identity
Email: bhussain1@luc.edu
Stephanie Jean-Baptiste
Advisor: Rhys Williams, PhD
Email: sjeanbaptiste@luc.edu
Melissa Kinsella
Advisor: Anne Figert, PhD
Research Interests: Gender and sexuality, sociology of violence, social policy
Email: mkinsella1@luc.edu
Skky Martin
Advisor: Anne Figert, PhD
Email: smartin16@luc.edu
Julia Mendes
Advisor: Helena Dagadu, PhD
Research Interests: Race and Ethnicity, Immigration and Migration, Gender, Sociology of the Body
Email: jmendes@luc.edu
Richard Rodriguez
Advisor: Marilyn Krogh, PhD
Email: rrodriguez7@luc.edu
John Henry Sienkiewicz III
Advisor: Marilyn Krogh, PhD
Research Interests: labor, urban sociology, and public sociology
Email: jsienkiewicz1@luc.edu
Leslie Erin Watland
Advisor: Marilyn Krogh, PhD
Research Interests: Gender/Sexuality, LGBTQ, Sociology of Higher Education, Sociology of Violence, Policy Studies
Email: lwatland@luc.edu
Quintin Williams
Advisor: Rhys Williams, PhD
Research Interests: Race/ethnicity, religion in politics, political culture, medical sociology
Email: qwilliams@luc.edu
Ryan SC Wong
Advisor: Marilyn Krogh, PhD
Research Interests: Sociology of Religion, social theory, deviant and delinquent
Email: rwong1@luc.edu
Fatema Zohara
Advisor: Rhys Williams, PhD
Email: fzohara@luc.edu
MA Students
Sylvia Acosta Chavez
Research Interests: Human Rights, Immigration, Culture, Stratification and Inequality, Mixed Methods Research
Email: sacostachavez@luc.edu
Megan Daly
Research Interests: Families, social psychology, education
Email: mdaly3@luc.edu
Jinjin Du
Research Interests: Urban Sociology; Public and Applied Sociology; Housing, Community Development, and Neighborhood Change
Email: jdu5@luc.edu
Lynsey Ellingwood
Email: lellingwood@luc.edu
Jaspreet Kaur
Email: jkaur@luc.edu
Dana LaVergne
Research Interests: Gender, sexuality, and medical sociology
Thesis Title: Queer Women Navigating Experience with Health Care Providers and Contraception
Email: dlavergne@luc.edu
Jessica Ordinario
Email: ordinario@luc.edu
Monica A. Reyna
Research Interests: sociology of knowledge, cultural sociology, political sociology and social science research methods
Email: mreyna1@luc.edu
Brittany Terry
Research Interests: affordable housing, homelessness, race relations, urban studies
Thesis Title: That Bitch! The Depiction of Black Women through Film Media
Email: bterry1@luc.edu
Sarah Thorngate, Sarah
Research Interests: religion, education, culture, class, and social theory
Thesis Title: Social Class and the Liberal Arts
Email: sthorngate@luc.edu
Joshua Turner
Research Interests: Sex, gender, sexuality, race
Email: Jturner9@luc.edu
BA/MA Students
Alexander James Baker
Email: abaker4@luc.edu
Yasmeen Khayr
Email: ykhayr@luc.edu
Silvia Valadez
Email: svaladez@luc.edu
