Faculty Accomplishments

Damon Mayrl, associate professor of sociology, has coauthored a new study, "Visualizing the Expanding Space of Consecration in American Sociology, 1980-2020," which was recently published in Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World. "We show that the number of award-winning books and articles in sociology has continued to increase, even as membership in the discipline's flagship association, the American Sociological Association [ASA], has declined," explained Mayrl. "We suggest that these trends are related to pressures toward isomorphism within the ASA, symbolic inflation, and a deteriorating job market."

Associate Professor of Sociology Damon Mayrl has coauthored a new paper, "Religion at the Frontline," forthcoming in the journal Sociology of Religion. The study examines how religion mattered to local officials' responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. "We found that overall, local officials personally and publicly complied with public health recommendations," said Mayrl, "but that religious affiliation and religious nationalism distinguished those who did from those who did not." This research was recently picked up in an article in the Washington Post.

Joanna Weidler-Lewis, visiting assistant professor of education, was the lead author of a paper published in the journal Mind, Culture, and Activity. Titled "The identity affordances of tools: an examination of visual design tool use in STEM," the article "compares how visual design tools are used during an internship for high schoolers co-researching science journalism through infographics" and encourages educators to "be mindful of, if not make explicit, properties of tools when designing for learning."

Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Stacy-ann Robinson has been invited to visit Perry World House at the University of Pennsylvania. Through its rich programming, Perry World House facilitates critical conversations about global policy challenges and fosters interdisciplinary research on these topics. It presents workshops and colloquia, welcomes distinguished visitors, and produces content for global audiences and policy leaders around the world. While at Penn, Robinson will contribute to the "Global Shifts: Migration, Urbanization, and Climate Change" research theme and present a series of workshops on climate diplomacy, environmental policy, and climate change adaptation.

Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Stacy-ann Robinson delivered the keynote address at the Conference on Climate Adaptation Finance, held Sept. 7, 2021. In her address, she stressed that "the time is right for a new justice paradigm" for financing climate change adaptation in small island developing states and called for "more creative strategies to expand the ways in which we can deliver justice." The conference was organized by the University of Kiel in Germany and was held online.

Assistant Professor of Government Nicholas Jacobs had a paper published in Publius: The Journal of Federalism. Titled "Federalism, Polarization, and Policy Responsibility during COVID-19: Experimental and Observational Evidence from the United States," the paper "considers the ways in which partisanship structured public attitudes about the United States’ multiple governments as each tried to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 during the spring and summer of 2020."

Lauren Yoshizawa, assistant professor of education, had a paper published in the journal Educational Policy. Titled "Fidelity, Rigor, and Relevance: How SEAs are Approaching the ESSA Evidence Requirements," the paper discusses her study of eight states and their three different approaches to the evidence requirements as mandated by the Every Student Succeeds Act. "Through interviews with state administrators, [Yoshizawa] shows how each approach relied on different understandings and prioritizations of research rigor and local relevance," according to the paper's abstract.

Associate Professor of Psychology Christopher Soto coauthored a new paper, "An integrative framework for conceptualizing and assessing social, emotional, and behavioral skills: The BESSI," accepted to the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. "As the title suggests, it describes the development and validation of a conceptual framework for personality-related skills (e.g., social engagement, emotional resilience, self-management) and an inventory for measuring these skills (the BESSI)," Soto explained.

Associate Professor of English Elizabeth Sagaser gave a presentation, "Generative Reading: Shakespeare, Dickinson, Shockley,” at the Emily Dickinson International Society Annual Meeting Aug. 7-8. Integrating cognitive poetics, history, and literary experiment, Sagaser explored 19th-century American poet Emily Dickinson’s critical, creative reading of Shakespeare's Sonnets, particularly those that figure and address future readers. She then turned to 21st-century poet Evie Shockley’s critical, creative approach to Dickinson and the compelling ways Shockley’s poems “Tell all the truth/But tell it slant,” stirring or startling readers into thinking more complexly and historically about racial injustice. The talk is available on the EDIS youtube channel, here.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics Benjamin Scharadin has coauthored a paper, "Household time activities, food waste, and diet quality: the impact of non-marginal changes due to COVID-19," in Review of Economics of the Household. "This paper looks at how members of households' time allocations changed with Covid-19 (time spent on grocery shopping, childcare, going out to eat, etc.) and the impact these shifts have had on household food waste and diet quality," he explained.