Graduate Students

2012: B.A. Sociology & Mathematics, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Environmental Sociology, Urbanization, Political-Economic and Demographic Drivers of Environmental Change Quantitative and Spatial Methods

Tracy DeHaan

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Curriculum Vitae

Matthew P. Eddy authored the 2011 article: “Freedom Summer Abroad: Biographical Pathways and Cosmopolitanism Among International Human Rights Workers.” Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change 31: 209-258. This article received the 2011 Elise Boulding Graduate Student Paper Award from the Peace, War & Social Conflict Section of the ASA.

Christina Ergas
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Curriculum Vitae

I am currently working on my dissertation, which I expect to defend in 2013. In my research, I utilize a comparative case-study design that includes fieldwork I conducted in both Cuba and the United States. With these cases I compare urban sustainability projects, particularly urban agriculture and communal living, in two different political and economic contexts to highlight the opportunities and constraints associated with both contexts. My goal with this research is to use this comparison to illuminate the challenges that urban planners and activists must contend with in order to mitigate the social and environmental damages that the legacy of industrial cities has left us.

Beyond my dissertation, some of my research interests include the environment, gender, and the world-system. In research published in Organization and Environment, I investigated an ecovillage, or an intentional community that focuses on tending to the natural environment and building human community. I examined how ecovillagers' negotiated collective goals for sustainability in spite of restrictive regulations and dominant consumer ideologies. In a collaborative project with my mentor, Richard York, we published research utilizing quantitative methods and cross-national data to examine global gender inequality and the social structural forces leading to environmental degradation. Based on this research, we published articles in the Journal of World-Systems Research and in Social Science Research. We published another article in Nature and Culture examining trends in natural resource extraction in Asia.

Gender, Gender and Environment, Environmental Sociology, Environmental Justice, Social Movements, Food Systems, Political Economy of Agriculture, Globalization and Development, and Urbanization

Jeff Ewing
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Curriculum Vitae

Matthew Friesen
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Curriculum Vitae

Matthew completed his Master's Degree in Sociology at the University of Oregon in 2010 with a thesis entitled Contesting Social Violence: Counter Recruitment and Resistance to the ?U.S. Military in Public Education. He completed his Comprehensive Exam in Environmental Sociology in 2011 with a focus on environmental justice and agricultural relationships. Matthew is utilizing the Wasby-Johnson Fellowship Award during 2012 to advance his dissertation research entitled Suturing the Rifts: An Analysis of the U.S. Food Sovereignty Movement which utilizes social network analysis and field research to map the relational structure and framing dynamics of Food Sovereignty and Food Justice organizations. Matthew anticipates graduating in the Spring of 2014 with his PhD and looks forward to teaching and continued social movement research.

Social Movements, Food Systems and Agro-ecology, Environmental Sociology and Justice, Political Economy of Food and Agriculture, Research Methods, Social Network Analysis, Militarism, Peace and Justice Studies.

Ecological Economics, Environmental Sociology, Food Systems and Agriculture, International Development, Latin American Studies, Political Economy of the World-System, Sociology of Science, Knowledge, and Technology

Civil liberties, peace and conflict resolution, democracy reform

David A. Martin Jr.  is currently a PhD candidate in sociology at the University of Oregon. His research and teaching interests involve the synthesis of the study of race and ethnicity with various strands of cultural sociology, critical theory, information and communication and technology studies, and both qualitative and quantitative methods 

Information and Communications Technologies, Racial Stratification, Racial and Ethnic Identity Formation, Social Network Analysis

Environmental sociology and political economy: specifically, the ineffectiveness and problems associated with "green capitalist" development

Race, Ethnicity, Gender, Asian American Studies, Women of Color Feminism, and Intersectionality

Current research focus: Second Generation Vietnamese Americans and ethnic identity formation

Brian Ott
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Curriculum Vitae

Andrea Platt
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I am currently studying the work of the group called the "L.A. Rebellion School". After the 1968 Watts Rebellion, a collection of non-white faculty and student activists responded to the "urban crisis" by promoting the recruitment of non-white MFA students into UCLA's film school. This set the stage for a tradition of radical filmmakers of color to create films of innovative political and aesthetic relevance throughout the 1970's and early 1980's. Through interviews and film analyses, this research hopes to advance our understanding of cultural resistance in anti-racist struggle.

race/ethnicity, immigration, sociology of culture

2011: B.A. Psychology (Minor: Women's & Ethnic Studies), University of Colorado at Colorado Springs

General Research Interests:
Sociology of Development / Globalization, International Aid, Healthcare, Race, Class, Gender, Philippines, Poverty

Labor, Inequality, Globalization, Gender, China.