Alvaro Germán Torres Mora Investigates Social Inequalities

January 10, 2024 by Logan Judy

Alvaro Germán Torres Mora is specializing in political economy and globalization as well as concurrently pursuing a master’s degree in statistics through the Intercollegiate Graduate Statistics and Data Science Program. His research interests are on the impacts of colonialism, land inequality, land use, and land grabs, and he is currently collecting dissertation data in Colombia on a McClure Scholarship and the Dr. Wanda Rushing Sociological Research Award. 

Torres Mora earned a law degree in 2007 from the National University of Colombia. He then worked as a licensed attorney, first for the National Prosecutor’s Office, then in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, where he documented cases of forced displacement and land dispossession. In 2019, he earned a master’s in development studies with minors in data science and French from the University of Helsinki in Finland. He speaks four languages. Since coming to UT, Torres Mora has published four journal articles and book chapters.

In the US, he has presented papers at the annual meetings of the American Sociological Association, the Society for the Study of Social Problems, the Southern Sociological Society and internationally he has presented in conferences in Finland, the Netherlands, and Colombia.

Torres Mora received our department’s Excellence in Research Award in 2021. He is currently teaching social inequalities and has taught introduction to sociology and social justice/social problems. He has also served as a lecturer at the Nueva Granada Military University in Colombia, where he taught international criminal law and juvenile criminal law.

Ten Years of Progress

January 10, 2024 by Logan Judy

“A wonderful pocket of joy and a place where you go to breathe,” is how our department was described in the first line of a recent report to the university as part of our decennial Academic Program Review (APR). This description, which came from interviews with our graduate students, perfectly encapsulates how I feel about our department, so I was delighted to see this reflected in our APR.

An APR is an intensive dive into our department’s progress over the last ten years and our current condition, conducted by a team of highly esteemed sociologists from other research-intensive universities and faculty leaders from within UT. The team spent two days on campus in March 2023 talking to our undergraduate and graduate students, staff, faculty, heads of other social science departments, and leadership in the College of Arts and Sciences as well as the Provost’s Office. They also reviewed a 151-page self-study that our department conducted last fall under the direction of Michelle Brown.

In April, they produced a report to the provost and dean highlighting our significant contributions to the university, profession, and community. The report provides external validation for something that I already know: UT’s Department of Sociology is a special place where scholars—both established and in training—work every day in a collegial, caring, and conscientious way to make the world a better place.

In a recent address to the state, our chancellor confirmed that UT has been ranked as one of the top producers of student Fulbright scholarships, and our sociology and global studies students are among these recipients. The report highlights how we provide high-quality educational opportunities by noting that undergraduate students in the program “are trained to think as change actors, with skills and critical perspectives appropriate for entry-level workforce positions across multiple domains.” They note how excited these students are about what they study and how prepared they feel for their future. That our undergraduate students in both sociology and global studies are first-rate is hard to refute. It is a joy for me to interact with our great students.

The report also underscores how we conduct research that makes life and lives better, calling our research record “impressive” and making the following assessment:

We are small but mighty. Although we have a much smaller faculty and graduate program than our peers, in the last decade we have collectively published nearly 200 journal articles, more than 100 book chapters, and 52 books. Our faculty members have submitted 157 research proposals and amassed $4.2 million in funding. Additionally, last year we tenured four of our highly productive assistant (now associate) professors, and two of our professors were named distinguished professors, joining the two who already hold this title.

Finally, the report highlights the ways in which we demonstrate that diversity and community are enduring sources of strength as well as the way in which we serve as role models for other departments “at a time when such role models are desperately needed.” The reviewers conclude, “The Department of Sociology is a wonderfully vibrant, consciously cultivated community, dedicated to a liberation-centered sociology.”

I am proud to be part of this community—a community that has grown this fall with the addition of three new faculty and 13 incoming graduate students. We plan to grow our faculty more this year as we search for three new assistant professors. We are strong because we all work together, and together we will face an even brighter future.

Stephanie Bohon,
Department Head

Colleagues Fulfill Late Alumna’s Research Legacy with New Book

January 10, 2024 by Logan Judy

The Department of Sociology lost a cherished alumna when Regina (Gina) White Benedict passed away suddenly on March 31, 2021. She was assistant professor of criminal justice and coordinator of the Criminal Justice program at Maryville College in Maryville, Tennessee, having earned her PhD in sociology at UT in 2009.

Benedict was loved and admired by her academic and home communities (including a softball community) and especially by the hundreds of students she taught through the years—with deep respect for the students and for their subject matter in all its complexity.

Benedict’s knowledge and wisdom live on in her research. Her dissertation, based on in-depth interviews with women in prison in Kentucky, was motivated by a desire to understand how people make meaning of their lives while living in captivity. Benedict had always intended to publish the dissertation as a book. In the past year, a communal effort made the book a reality.

Lois (Lo) Presser, Distinguished Professor of the humanities and professor of sociology at UT and Benedict’s advisor from 2005–2009, teamed up with Beth Easterling, visiting associate professor of criminal justice at Roanoke College, to find a publisher, adapt Benedict’s original work to its specifications, and prepare, with heavy hearts, the foreword and afterword. Presser and Easterling had been close both to Benedict and to the project: They knew its potential. So, they conferred with Benedict’s husband Travis, her daughters, Zoe and Mia, and her parents, Mickey and Cookie White. The group set a plan in motion.

Incarceration and Older Women: Giving Back, Not Giving Up was published by Bristol University Press in the summer of 2023. The book is built on Benedict’s rigorous research, Presser and Easterling’s editorial efforts, the steady encouragement of Benedict’s family, and the intelligent and compassionate stewardship of the publishers. Most of all, the book owes its existence to the candor and generosity of the women who agreed to be interviewed by Benedict. 

These women spoke of hardships that began early in life and were compounded by incarceration. However, they also spoke of making positive meaning of their circumstances. They told stories of helping and supporting, now and in future, fellow prisoners, family members on the outside, and others. Benedict understood these stories as inspired by an impulse toward generativity, of guiding and nurturing generations to come.

Benedict passed away at 44, the same age as Evelyn (a pseudonym) when she and Benedict sat down for an interview. Evelyn was serving a 70-year sentence for murder and attempted murder. When Evelyn met Benedict, she had recently learned that she would not be considered for parole for another 20 years. But Evelyn worked hard on personal growth while in prison and envisioned the contributions she might one day make: “I think I’ll be a good influence when I get out, even if I’m 100 years old. I’ve set a goal. I’ll do it.” 

Prison researchers before Gina Benedict have illuminated how people “cope with” or “adapt” to prison life. They have illuminated resilience in prison, and hard-won desistance and reintegration after release. Yet, these studies and perspectives could never adequately depict the resolve to make a difference held by people like Evelyn.

In her book, Benedict wrote that she had motherhood in common with most of her research participants. We, her community, would state the matter differently: Both she and her participants had an unshakeable will to give to others. We received Benedict’s care and will pass her legacy of care further on.