Our Students
Graduate Students
Cynthia Lynn Beavin
Graduate Assistant, Sociology
Their MA thesis explored how people conceptualize their pregnancy intentions through qualitative interviews and how these conceptualizations compared and contrasted with how the National Survey of Family Growth categorizes pregnancy intentions. Their other projects include a paper on how intention has becomed (bio)medicalized as a way to enforce social norms and a paper on how their experience as an abortion doula has improved their reserach interviewing skills.
Their current research interests include medical sociology, sociology of reproduction, and sociology of science, knowledge, and technology, with focuses in abortion and unintended pregnancy. Her dissertation project will be a genealogical study of unintended pregnancy using discourse analysis of expert-produced documents.
Cynthia has published in the Lancet Global Health, BMJ Global Health, BMJ Sexual and Reproductive Health, Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters, Contraception: X, Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Undeserved, and Qualitative Resarch in Health.
Miracle-Eunice Bolorunduro
Graduate Assistant, Sociology
Aalap Bommaraju
Sociology
A nationally recognized researcher studying US abortion and contraception policy, Aalap Ooha Bommaraju (they/them) examines how activists challenge race, gender, and class-based inequalities in access to reproductive healthcare within healthcare organizations, health policy institutions, and the broader culture.
Contact:
email: bommarap@ucmail.uc.edu
Recent Journal Articles:
Jeyifo, Megan, Aalap Ooha Bommaraju, and Qudsiyyah Shariyf. 2023. “Chicago Abortion Fund: Shaping Change: 99 Steps Towards Justice.” Portable Gray 6 (1): 70–95. https://doi.org/10.1086/725616
Zuniga, Carmela, Aalap Bommaraju, Lee Hasselbacher, Debra Stulberg, and Terri-Ann Thompson. 2022. “Provider and Community Stakeholder Perspectives of Expanding Medicaid Coverage of Abortion in Illinois.” BMC Health Services Research 22 (March): 413. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8960679/
Hasselbacher, Lee, Carmela Zuniga, Aalap Bommaraju, Terri-Ann Thompson, and Debra Stulberg. 2021. “Lessons Learned: Illinois Providers’ Perspectives on Implementation of Medicaid Coverage for Abortion.” Contraception 103 (6): 414–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.contraception.2021.02.008
Kim, Emily, Sachika Singh, Aalap Bommaraju, Alison H. Norris, and Danielle Bessett. 2021. “‘We Have to Respect That Option’: The Abortion Aversion Complex in Safety-Net Healthcare Organizations.” Social Science & Medicine 291 (December): 114468. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114468
Sarah Elizabeth Bostic
Graduate Assistant, Sociology
I do qualitative research primarily in the realm of medical sociology and the body. Specifically, I seek to better understand the experiences of people with chronic illness, their interactions with medical providers, and how they navigate accessing the care they need. I am interested in their diagnostic journeys, development of cultural health capital, and how stigmas related to mental illness and body-size might shape these experiences.
Sarah Bostic's CV
Molly Rose Broscoe
Asst Professor - Visiting, Sociology
BA MUNTZ
Brianna Marie Cerbantec
Graduate Assistant, Sociology
In her spare time, Brianna enjoys cooking, walking, and browsing film recommendations. Her name pronunciation is (bree-AH-nuh ser-VAN-tees).
Mab Davoodifar
Graduate Assistant, Sociology
Harold F Dawson
Instructor - Adjunct, Sociology
Crosley Tower
Harold has presented his work at gatherings of the North Central Sociological Association. His current research interests include media, popular culture, social movements, sociological theory, and social stratification.
Kate Durso
Asst Professor - Educator, Sociology
130.1 University Pavilion
Alexa J Friesen-Haarer
Graduate Assistant, Sociology
CV: https://alexafriesen-haarercv.tiiny.site
Kiki B. Higgins
Sociology
Currently, Kiki is working to complete their research related to consensual monogamy (CNM): How CNM practitioners arrange and navigate their lives and relationships in a monogamous-centered society.
Kiki Higgins CV
Mario D Ignatov
Sociology
Mario’s research interests include mesosociology, urban and health policies, social exclusion, migration, discrimination and quantitative analysis of secondary data. He presented professional papers at AAPOR’s 66th Annual Conference in Phoenix, AZ and WPSA’s 2011 Annual Meeting in San Antonio, TX.
Mario also brings expertise in survey questionnaire design, cognitive interviewing and consumer marketing.
Anthonia Omotola Ishabiyi
Graduate Assistant, Sociology
Spencer Dean Jarrett
Graduate Assistant, Sociology
His main areas of interest are work, technology, death, and the environment, focusing on how these impact the lives of rural people and communities. Currently, his research is geographically focused in Eastern Appalachian Ohio, where he grew up, and centers around family farming and off-farm occupations.
Annie Katherine McGhee
Graduate Assistant, Sociology
Her broad research interests include race and ethnicity, sex and gender, and cultural and media studies. She's particularly interested in the relationship between people's identities and social institutions.
Her dissertation focuses on how white people interpret depictions of people of color in the media. Drawing from in-depth individual and focus group interviews with approcimately 70 participants, she examines how these representations inform their understanding of race, including their own, and influence their racial attitudes and behaviors.
Her other current projects examine how video games are (re)produced and resisted as whitespaces, how audiences exclude women of color from participating in emerging fashion and beauty trends, and how people with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome understand their bodies, gender, and selves.
Annie McGhee CV
Laetitia Miron
Graduate Assistant, Sociology
Zoe Muzyczka
Sociology
C. James Park
Instructor - Adjunct, Sociology
Crosley Tower
Arti Sandhu
Associate Professor, Sociology
Aronoff Center
Her research is centered on contemporary Indian fashion and related design culture. She is the author of Indian Fashion: Tradition, Innovation, Style (Bloomsbury Academic, 2014). She has also published articles on dress and the Indian Diaspora in New Zealand, Indian Streetstyle, the contemporary Indian catwalk, and Indian drag queens. Arti is currently working on research projects relating to the growing discourse around decolonizing fashion studies, the role craft can play in fashioning sustainable design practices and overall well being, and a digital ethnography on social media saree groups.
In addition to her academic research, Arti's artworks, which explore identity and migration, have been exhibited in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, USA, the Netherlands, and India. In 2011 she curated the exhibition ZER0-Waste: Fashion Re-Patterned for the Averill and Bernard Leviton Gallery in Chicago featuring the groundbreaking work of designers and creatives working with sustainable fashion design strategies. Arti has also been the fashion contributor for Arts Illustrated magazine (Chennai) and occasionally writes for an online column for the digital fashion publication the Voice of Fashion.
Rachel A. Sebastian
Research Associate Child Policy Research Center Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center , Sociology
Tya M Smith
Graduate Assistant, Sociology
Brittany S Theodore
Graduate Assistant, Sociology
Kierra Nicole Toney
Asst Professor - Adj, Sociology
You can learn more about Kierra by visiting her website, KierraNToney.com .
Taylor Rose Underwood
Graduate Assistant, Sociology
Her primary research interests lie in quantitatively exploring how geographic location influences individual outcomes and opportunities. Specifically, she is focused on examining how these outcomes differ across regions, across populations and within historically redlined neighborhoods.
Marcus Christopher Vines
Instructor - Adj Ann, Sociology
Crosley Tower
Janie Elizabeth Wagner
Sociology
Janie is a first-year master's student in sociology, bringing over eight years of professional experience in the product design field. A 2017 DAAP graduate of Communication Design, she has a background in UX and interaction design and has spent the last four years as a Senior User Experience Researcher.
Her professional experience includes conducting mainly qualitative, with light quantitative research for industries such as financial services, IT services, food retail, transporation, and entertainment. She is driven by a deep curiosity about the human-technology relationship and is excited to use her master's program to cultivate a sociological lens. Her current focus is on expanding her research methodology and exploring research opportunities focused on social impact.