Greetings from the master’s degree in sociology program. We have had a lot of “comings and goings” in the last year—new students joining the program and others finishing their degrees. We are excited to see another new cohort of students and look forward to keeping in touch with those who have graduated.
We welcomed one new student in January. Meghna Gogoi joins us from India, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Indraprastha College for Women-Delhi University. Gogoi has already begun her thesis, which is a qualitative study of interfaith marriages.
We welcomed six new students in August. ACED Fellow Rainah Folk joins us from Bradley University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree with majors in sociology and health science. Folk then served in AmeriCorps with City Year Chicago. Sam Kortkamp is also an ACED Fellow and joined us from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology. He then worked at Chestnut Health Systems as an assessment clinician and then as an admissions specialist. In the master’s degree program, we welcomed Erin Hennessy, Taylor Kanuk, and Taylor Starr, all former undergraduate students at Ilinois State with bachelor’s degrees in sociology, and Sarah Sciba, who earned a bachelor’s degree in art education from Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. After graduating, Sarah worked for several years as a substitute teacher and as the education coordinator at the McLean County Arts Center.
Melody Rosche, our second-year ACED Fellow, is working at the Illinois Farm Bureau in Bloomington for their professional practice. We hope Rosche will visit us on campus from time to time.
Congratulations to our nine graduates who finished their degrees in the last year.
December 2022 graduate:
Natasha Moodie, “Steps Toward Liberation for Low-Income Black Residents Through Anti-Racist and Counter-Racial Capitalist Community Development Practices”
May 2023 graduates:
Bree McCall, “Burned Beauty: Stories of How Black Women Burn Survivors Manage Their Trauma and Recovery”
Elise West, “Politics and Parenting: Working-Class Progressives’ Approaches to Parenting”
Courtney Ebersole, “Let’s Talk about Sex(work), Baby: Women College Students and Their Experiences Producing Online Sex Work”
Dani Park, “On the Omnipotent Structure of the Self: A Theory of the Psycho-ontological Development of the Psyche”
August 2023 graduates:
Ryan Maranville, “Idle Hands are the Devil’s Workshop? Exploring the Connections between Prison-Work Release Programming, Post-release Employment and Recidivism”
Mercy Chepkosgei Kiprop, “High-Risk Fertility Behaviors: Impact on Child Mortality and Risk of Maternal Mortality in Kenya”
Kian Gaines, “You Can’t Police Your Way Out of These Problems: Disregarding the Structural Components of Community Problems”
Alexis Lange, “The Social Construction of Defining Sex Trafficking by Three Agencies in Illinois”
