The Department of Sociology and Anthropology will soon welcome two new faculty as the department launches its doctoral program.

Chris Scheitle and Katie Corcoran will join the department in the Fall.

Scheitle received his doctorate and master’s degree from Pennsylvania State University, and is currently an adjunct assistant professor at the College of Saint Benedict-St John’s University. His research interests include crimes against religious organizations, religion and science, and the religious nonprofit sector.

His teaching interests include introduction to sociology, data analysis and social statistics, research methods, sociology of religion, sociology of organizations, social movements, crime and deviance, and wealth and poverty.

Corcoran received her doctorate in sociology from the University of Washington, where she also received a Master’s degree in international studies, a Master’s degree in sociology and a Bachelor’s degree in sociology with distinction and comparative religion. She is currently a post-doctoral research fellow for the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University.

Her research interests include theory, criminology and deviance, organizations, inequality, social networks, social movements, emotion and health and the sociology of religion.

“The development of the doctoral program in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology is a significant step toward the future, and recent hiring in that unit, including Professors Scheitle and Corcoran, is really making a difference,” said Rudolph Almasy, interim dean in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences.

Launching in Fall 2016, the new doctoral program in sociology at WVU will train students to conduct sound, independent research in an area related to the department’s specializations in crime, community and culture.

-WVU-

dr/05/07/2015

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