The Department of Sociology and Anthropology at West Virginia University welcomed five new faculty members this fall as it launches its doctoral program.

Chris Scheitle and Katie Corcoran have come on board as assistant professors in the Department. Amanda Hall-Sanchez, Kirsten Song, and Victoria Velding joined the Department as visiting assistant professors.

• Scheitle received his doctorate and master’s degree in sociology from Pennsylvania State University. His research interests include crimes against religious organizations, religion and science, and the religious nonprofit sector.

• Corcoran received her doctorate in sociology from the University of Washington, where she also received a master’s degree in international studies and sociology, and a bachelor’s degree in sociology. Her research interests include theory, criminology and deviance, organizations, inequality, social networks, social movements, emotion and health and the sociology of religion.

• Sanchez received her doctorate degree in sociology, with a specialization in criminology and women’s studies, from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, her master’s degree in sociology from Ohio University and her bachelor’s degree in sociology and psychology from Muskingum University. Her research and teaching interests include violence against women, feminist and critical criminologies, rural masculinities/femininities, and sociological and criminological theories. She was previously a post-doctoral research fellow in the department.

• Song received her doctorate and master’s degrees in sociology from Rutgers University, a master’s degree in gerontology from Miami University and a bachelor’s degree in sociology and public administration from Dongguk University in Seoul, South Korea. Her research interests include transnationalism, international migration, culture, identity and life course. Song’s recent work examines the transition to adulthood among Korean educational migrants in the United States and how economic, social, cultural and institutional resources and constraints shape their every-day decision-making.

• Velding received her doctorate and master’s degree in sociology from Wayne State University and a bachelor’s degree in psychology and sociology from Grand Valley State University. Her research interests include social inequality, gender, femininity and masculinity, media influence and consumption, female reproductive health, sexuality, children and adolescents, popular culture, and qualitative methods.

The doctoral program will launch in Fall 2016, and will train students to conduct research in three areas of specialization: crime, community and culture.

The application deadline for the doctoral program is February 2016.

-WVU-

as/10/19/2015

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304.293.6867, Devon.Copeland@mail.wvu.edu

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