Recent Graduates

All UT Sociology Theses and Dissertations, as well as undergrad honor's theses, are now deposited electronically in TRACE and are available at: http://trace.tennessee.edu/socioetds/. Information on our graduates is divided into graduation year.

2018

Name	Degree	Thesis/Dissertation Title	Major Professor	Current Position
Joel Michael Crombez	PhD	The Anxiety and the Ecstasy of Technical Vertigo: Psychological and Sociological Foundations of Critical Socioanalysis from the Italian Renaissance to the 21st Century	Harry F. Dahms	Visiting Assistant Professor, Grinnell College
Nuray Karaman	PhD	Experiences of Musliim Female Students in Knoxville: At the Intersection of Race, Gender, and Religion	Michelle Christian	Assistant Professor, Usak University, Turkey
Zachary Joseph McKenney	PhD	The State of the Union? Transnational Manufacturing and the US Labor Movement	Jon Shefner	Instructor, University of Tennessee
Holly Ningard	PhD	Attorney Stories of Environmental Crime: Harms, Agents, and Ideal Cases	Lois Presser	Lecturer, Ohio University
William Taylor	PhD	High Stakes Education: The Business of Reform, Grassroots Organizing and the Community School Alternative	Jon Shefner
Jessica West	MA	Meet the Duggars: The Reproduction of Gender Privilege in the Popular Construction of Sibling Sexual Abuse	Lo Presser	Adjunct Instructor, University of North Carolina-Asheville

2017

Name	Degree	Thesis/Dissertation Title	Major Professor	Current Position
Landon Bevier	PhD	Never Forget: The Meaning of the Global War on Terror in Post-9/11 U.S. Presidential Discourse.	Michelle Brown	Public School Teacher - Stewart County TN
Sarah D’Onofrio	MA	“Only the Intervenor Cared”: Critical Junctures in the Rise of Dairy CAFOs and Neoliberal Environmental Policy in Wisconsin.”	Paul K. Gellert	Doctoral Student, University of Tennessee
Sylvia Isabel Duluc-Silva	MA	“Food Justice and Practices in the Five Points Community of Knoxville, Tennessee: A Survey of Residents Living in an Urban Food Desert.”	Robert Emmet Jones	Law Clerk, US Environmental Protection Agency
Elizabeth A. East	PhD	Capitalist Organizing and Organizations: The Case of the American Petroleum Institute.	Paul K. Gellert	Post-doctoral scholar in the green economy project working for Dr. Shefner
Ahmet Fidan	PhD	Women’s Help-Seeking Behavior for Intimate Partner Violence in Sub-Saharan Africa.	Stephanie A. Bohon	Assistant Professor, Adiyaman University, Turkey
Katherine Gerlaugh	PhD	Twenty-First Century Deindustrialization and Uneven Development in Appalachia.	Stephanie A. Bohon	Assistant Professor, Lenoir Rhyne College
Anthony Knowles	MA	“Automation, Work, and Ideology: The Next Industrial Revolution and the Transformation of Labor.”	Harry Dahms	Doctoral Student, University of Tennessee
Steven Alfonso Panageotou	PhD	The Three Dimensions of Political Action in the United States Democracy: Corporations as Political Actors and "Franchise Governments"	Jon Shefner & Harry Dahms	Assistant Professor, Arkansas State University
Shannon Williams	PhD	A Contribution to the Critique of Labor Share Analyses.	Paul K. Gellert	Instructor/lecturer at School of Justice and Safety, Eastern Kentucky University

2016

Name	Degree	Thesis/Dissertation Title	Major Professor	Current Position
Katie Marie Highbaugh	MA	“A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival Website: A Cultural Criminology of Peace- and Community-Building.”	Lois Presser
Jenna Ann Lamphere	PhD	"Shades of Green: A Comparative Analysis of the US Green Economies"	Jon Shefner	Assistant Professor, University of Texas-Galveston
Aaron Robert Lemelin	MA	“Young Adults and the Consequences of Precarious Work.”	Jon Shefner	Freelance web developer, Tampa Bay area
Katherine Leigh Morris	PhD	The Scruffy City: Development in Knoxville, TN.	Jon Shefner	see above
Douglas Ray Oeser	MA	“The Rhetoric of Perpetual Warfare: A Political Discourse Analysis of the Obama Administration’s Legitimation of U.S. Drone Strikes.”	Lois Presser	Crime Analyst, Asheville (NC) Police Department

2015

Name	Degree	Thesis/Dissertation Title	Major Professor	Current Position
Joel Michael Crombez	MA	“After the Human: Theory and Sociology in the Age of Fractal Ambiguity, Dromology, and Emergent Epi-spaces.”	Harry F. Dahms	Doctoral Candidate, University of Tennessee
Nicholas John Hauman	PhD	Social Systems and Psychic Confluence: Flash Mobs, Communications, and Agency.	Harry F. Dahms	Assistant Professor of Sociology, Bethany Lutheran College
Kiam Loong Daniel Lai	PhD	Constructing Victimhood: Opposition to Legislation Protecting LGBT Students against Bullying.	Lois Presser	Internationally acclaimed artist
Rhiannon A. Leebrick	PhD	Environmental Gentrification and Development in a Rural Appalachian Community: Blending Critical Theory and Ethnography.	Harry F. Dahms	Assistant Professor at Wofford College
Kyle Ward Letteney	MA	“America’s Lethal Dilemma: Legitimating Old Methods of Execution in an Era of Abolition.”	Lois Presser	Police Officer, City of Charlotte Government
Benjamin Corey Webster	MA	“Entropy and the Economy of Violence: Anthropophagy and Sacrificial Violence in Late Modernity.”	Michelle Brown

2014

Name	Degree	Thesis/Dissertation Title	Major Professor	Current Position
Lauren Kimberlee Copley, now Lauren Saban	PhD	Uncovering Latino Sex Trafficking in a New Destination Area: A Case Study.	Michelle S. Brown	Assistant Professor, Sociology, University of Arkansas - Fayetteville
Jon Cariba Phoenix	MA	“Using Audio/Visual Media to Increase the Sociological Imagination of an Adolescent Audience.”	Harry F. Dahms	Doctoral Student, Department of Sociology, University of Louisville
Jennifer Lindmar Schally	PhD	Agent of Harm and Good Corporate Citizen? e Case of Tyson Foods.	Lois Presser	Lecturer in Criminal Justice Penn State Harrisburg Middletown, PA.
Tobin N. Walton	PhD	Self, Society, and Environment in the 21st Century: e Development and Assessment of an Ecological Identity Scale.	Robert E. Jones	Assistant Professor, Social Work and Sociology, North Caroline A&T State University.

2013

Name	Degree	Thesis/Dissertation Title	Major Professor	Current Position
Meghan Elizabeth Conley	PhD	Immigrant Rights in the Nuevo South: Enforcement and Resistance at the Borderlands of Illegality	Stephanie A. Bohon	Director of Community Partnerships at Department of Sociology, University of Tennessee
Sarah Ellen Hendricks	PhD	Mobility and Isolation: Latino Immigrant Adjustment in Atlanta, Georgia.	Stephanie A. Bohon	Assistant Professor, Howard Community College, Silver Spring, Maryland
Zachary Joseph McKenney	MA	“Who Supports Labor? The Intersection of Race and Skill in Union Campaigns.”	Jon Shefner	Doctoral Candidate, Department of Sociology, University of Tennessee
Aaron S. Routhe	PhD	Religion’s Influence on Environmental Concern: U.S. Evangelicals’ Construction of Climate Change Perceptions.	Sherry Cable	Lecturer in Sociology, Carroll University
Aaron Thomas Rowland	PhD	How Left a Turn? Legacies of the Neoliberal State in Latin America.	Jon Shefner	Assistant Professor, University of Tennessee-Martin
Alexander Stoner	PhD	Sociobiophysicality, Cold War, and Critical Theory: Human-Ecological Transformation and Contemporary Ecological Subjectivity.	Harry F. Dahms	Assistant Professor of Sociology, Salisbury University
Kayla Marie Stover	MA	“I am Working for the Good Guys: Street-Level Enforcement of the Clean Water Act in East Tennessee.”	Sherry Cable	Doctoral Candidate, Department of Sociology, University of Tennessee

2012

Name	Degree	Thesis/Dissertation Title	Major Professor	Current Position
Wanjum Cui	PhD	The Effect of Race on Crime: A Multilevel Analysis.	Stephanie A. Bohon	Senior Service Fellow, National Center for Health Statistics Research Data Center, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta Branch.
Elizabeth Ashley East	MA	“The Politics of Protection and Promotion: the Case of the Coal Industry in Environmental Politics.”	Robert Emmet Jones	Lecturer, University of Tennessee
Beth Allen Easterling	PhD	Parenting Behind Bars: A Qualitative Study of Incarcerated Mothers.	Lois Presser	Assistant Professor, Sociology, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC
Andrew Augustus Gunnoe	PhD	Seeing the Forest for the Trees: Finance and Managerial Control in the US Forest Products Industry, 1945-2008.	Paul K. Gellert	Assistant Professor of Sociology, Maryville College, Maryville, TN
Liam Vangsnes Hysjulien	MA	“Growing a Local Movement: New Social Movements, Food, and Activism.”	Jon Shefner	Advisor, Dept. of Political Science, UTK
Robert Michael Keeton	PhD	"To Preserve This Much-Injured Race": Techniques of Neutralization and Indian Removal, 1829-1831.	Lois Presser	Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice, Pellissippi State Community College
Jenna Ann Lamphere	MA	“Understanding Biotechnology: Conceptualizing and Measuring US Public Concern.”	Robert Emmet Jones & Stephanie Bohon	Assistant Professor, University of Texas-Galveston
James N. Maples	PhD	Changes in US Ethnic Niches, 2005-2010	Stephanie A. Bohon	Associate Professor, Eastern Kentucky University
Steven Alfonso Panageotou	MA	“The Global Debt Minotaur: An Analysis of the Greek Financial Crisis.”	Harry Dahms/Jon Shefner	Lecturer, University of Tennessee
Jennifer Rhiannon Scroggins	PhD	Gender, Social Ties, And Reentry Experiences.	Hoan N. Bui	Assistant Professor, Sociology, Montana State University Billings.
William Vaughan Taylor	MA	“Short-Term Missions: Reinforcing Beliefs and Legitimating Poverty.”	Jon Shefner	Assistant Professor, Chattanooga State Community College
Nicholas Ryan Zeller	MA	“New Means, Old Ends? World Bank Governmentality in ailand and Lao People's Democratic Republic.”	Paul K. Gellert	Ph.D. student, History, University of Wisconsin-Madison

2011

Name	Degree	Thesis/Dissertation Title	Major Professor	Current Position
Kimberly Louise Davis	PhD	The Role of “Sense of Place:” A Theoretical Framework to Aid Urban Forest Policy Decision-Making.	Robert Emmet Jones	Senior Research Associate, Energy, Environment, and Resources Center (EERC), University of Tennessee
George Christopher Gondo	MA	“Mediating Justice: Toward A Critical-Reflexive Sociology.”	Harry F. Dahms	Director, Research and Grants, The Amputee Coalition
Larry Curtis Long	MA	“Education & Crime: A Study in Student Perceptions of Culpability.”	Stephanie Bohon	Assistant Director Transfer Admissions, University of Tennessee
Rahim Manji	MA	“Passivity: Looking at Bystanding Through the Lens of Criminological Theory.”	Lois Presser	Law Associate, Corporate Department, Davis-Polk Law Firm
Carmel Elizabeth Price	PhD	Women and the Environment: Mediating and Moderating Effects of Gender and Demographic Characteristics of Environmental Concern.	Stephanie A. Bohon	Assistant Professor, University of Michigan-Dearborn
Stacey U. Tucker	PhD	Unto the Least of These: The Pentecostal Church and Social Ministry.	Asafa Jalata	Owner, To Be Healthy Today, Cleveland, Tennessee
Shane Montgomery Willson	MA	“The Financial Crisis as an Expression of Macrohistorical Trends: World Hegemony, Neoliberal Globalization, and Financialization in 21st Century Capitalism.”	Jon Shefner	Ph.D student, U Kansas Sociology

2010

Name	Degree	Thesis/Dissertation Title	Major Professor	Current Position
John Hamilton Bradford	PhD	Systems, Social Order, and the Global Debt Crisis.	Harry F. Dahms	Associate Professor of Sociology, Mississippi Valley State University
Justin James Gann	MA	“Regulating the Global Politico-Economic Order: The Functioning of the Development Assistance Provision Regime.”	Jon Shefner
Eric Royal Lybeck	MA	“Modernity, Capitalism, and War: Toward a Sociology of War in the Nineteenth Century, 1815-1914.”	Harry F. Dahms	Lecturer (Sociology), University of Exeter
Harwood Schaffer	PhD	The Assumption of Non-coerciveness and the Total Food Market.	Asafa Jalata	Research Assistant Professor, Agricultural and Resources Economics, University of Tennessee.
Alexander M. Stoner	MA	“Georgian's Reaction to Water Shortage: Water Conservation Behavior during the 2007 Drought.”	R. Scott Frey	Assistant Professor of Sociology, Salisbury University
Sarah Gwynne Whiteford	PhD	Adolescent Female Substance Use: An Examination of Male Peer Influences and Parental Control.	Suzaanne B. Kurth	Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice, Midway University
James L. Wright	PhD	"Rapping About Authenticity": Exploring the Differences in Perceptions of "Authenticity" in Rap Music by Consumers.	Suzaanne B. Kurth	Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice, Dalton State University.

2009

Name	Degree	Thesis/Dissertation Title	Major Professor	Current Position
Regina White Benedict	PhD	Giving Back Not Giving Up: Generativity Among Older Female Inmates.	Lois Presser	Lecturer in Criminal Justice, Maryville College
Meghan Elizabeth Conley	MA	“The Construction of Social Networks of Support in a New Latino Gateway”	Stephanie A. Bohon	Director of Community Relations at Department of Sociology, University of Tennessee
Dima Noggo Sarbo	PhD	Contested Legitimacy: Coercion and the State in Ethiopia.	Jon Shefner	Research Scholar, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University
Shannon D. Williams	MA	“The Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas: Rethinking Economic Integration After the Failures of Neoliberalism.”	Paul Gellert	continued on for PhD in our department.

2008

Name	Degree	Thesis/Dissertation Title	Major Professor	Current Position
Robert Randall Adams	PhD	"Migrating Money: Remittances in a Global Setting"	Stephanie A. Bohon	Associate Professor, LaGrange College.
Sarah E. Hendricks	MA	“Skin Color Bias in the Immigration Process: A Multi-Methods Approach.”	Stephanie A. Bohon	see below
James Nathaniel Maples	MA	“Industrial Concentration and Quality of Life”	Stephanie A. Bohon	Assistant Professor, Sociology, Eastern Kentucky University.

2007

Name	Degree	Thesis/Dissertation Title	Major Professor	Current Position
Erin Maureen Austin	MA	“Media, Accounts, and Coherence: ‘De Facto’ Impression Management of a Transgressing Sport Star in e Chicago Tribune.”	Lois Presser
Erika Lynn Borek	MA	“Does National Policy Influence Individual Car Driving Behavior: A Cross-National Study of the European Union.”	Stephanie Bohon	Disaster Program Manager, American Red Cross of Eastern Pennsylvania
John Hamilton Bradford	MA	“The Falling Rate of Profit Thesis Reassessed: Toward a Sociology of Marx’s Value Theory of Labor.”	Harry F. Dahms	Assistant Professor of Sociology, Mississippi Valley State University
Nancy D. Brannon	PhD	Groundwater: A Community’s Management of the Invaluable Resource Beneath its Feet.	Sherry Cable
Casey E. Cordy	MA	“Counterterrorism and the Deterrence Doctrine.”	Jon Shefner	Senior Investigative Case Manager at The Robinson Group.
Angel Dawn Geoghagan	PhD	Felony Disenfranchisement Legislation: A Test of the Group Threat Hypothesis.	Hoan Bui
Banu Aysu Kocer	PhD	Eight Karats of Justice: Analysis of the Grassroots Resistance Movement Against Goldmining in the Villages of Bergama, Turkey.	Sherry Cable	Assistant Professor of Sociology at Yeditepe University in Turkey.
Brian Harold Langley	MA	“Meth Epidemic in Rural Tennessee: Construction of a Social Problem.”	Jon Shefner	Independent Private Investigator, Knoxville, TN
Katherine Leigh Morris	MA	“From Gay Street to Turkey Creek: Knoxville’s Urban and Suburban Growth Machines.”	Jon Shefner	Professor, Sociology, Pellissippi State, Knoxville
Julie A. Schluterman	PhD	The Social Ecology of Parenting: Systematically Modeling the Antecedents of Supportive and Intrusive Parenting.	Brian K. Barber	Associate Professor of Sociology at Arkansas Tech University.
William R. Wishart	MA	“Extraction, Ecology, Exploitation, and Oppression: The Political Economy of Coal in Appalachia.”	Robert E. Jones	Assistant Professor of Sociology, Creighton University

2001

Name	Degree	Thesis/Dissertation Title	Major Professor	Current Position
Heith Copes	PhD	Finding a Ride: Decision-Making among Auto Thieves.	Neil Shover	Professor, University of Alabama at Birmingham

The flagship campus of the University of Tennessee System and partner in the Tennessee Transfer Pathway.