News Editors

Nicole Barreto McCoy (nmccoy1) is a Doctoral Student in the Sociology program at George Mason Univerisity in Fairfax, Virginia. She received her Masters degree in 2008 with the completion of a feminist interview- based study of domestic servants in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Her thesis entitled, “Voices From the Slums: Brazilian Women on Domestic Service and Favela Life,” won the Outstanding Thesis Award for George Mason University. Currently, Nicole is working towards her dissertation in the area of critical theory and social philosophy.

Her project examines the recognition and redistribution debate surrounding strategies in identity politics. This work focuses on Afro-Brazilian women living in poverty in the favelas. Nicole has presented her work at national and local conferences and has taught in the field of Women and Gender Studies. Areas of interest: gender, race and ethnicity, critical theory, sociology of culture, stratification, and feminist research methods.

Sara Moore (theoryforthemasses) is a doctoral student in Sociology at George Mason University in Virginia. She received a Master of Arts degree from The New School for Social Research in New York City in 2006, where her research interests were social theory, migration and network formation. During her time at The New School, Sara was also able to study abroad in Dublin, Ireland where she researched historical patterns of Irish migration to the United States. Sara is currently beginning research on women who choose to give birth at home. For her dissertation, she hopes to extend this research to include birth environment choices made by first generation immigrant women, and how those choices reflect and create their identities as mothers.

She lives in Alexandria, VA with her partner, Zeke.

Marie Bozin (PlantingSeedsFromUA) is a Doctoral student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Akron. She received her Bachelorette degree in psychology in 2005 and her Masters degree in Sociology in 2007. Marie’s areas of interest include gender and criminology. Specifically, she has conducted research and/or presented on topics including: gender differences in the reaction to social ostracism, the racial differences in the effect type of foster care placement has on delinquency outcomes, the role of patriarchy in rape during a time of war, and the use of pornography in heterosexual relationships. Marie is presently working on a qualitative research project concerning the lived experiences of womyn residing in a local battered womyn’s shelter.

Brian McKernan (bmckernan) is a Doctoral student in the Department of Sociology at the University at Albany – State University of New York. Brian completed his MA in Sociology at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Fordham University in 2006. He is currently working on several research projects, including a study of the social meanings of celebrity invoked in popular “highbrow” American magazines, a critical assessment of videogames as an aesthetic sphere, as well as an examination into the role of American television in assisting with the construction of a global public sphere. His areas of interests include social theory and cultural sociology, particularly in relation to mass media and popular culture.

Daniel Santore (dsantore) is a doctoral student in Sociology at the University at Albany, SUNY. His research focuses on the character of individualism in modernity and post-modernity. Daniel has published on the gendered construction of individual rights in relationships, and the problematic of individualism in classical and contemporary social theories. His most current (dissertation) research in based on interviews with heterosexuals in long-term romantic relationships; the goal was to learn about how individuals manage self-development and shared obligations in intimate bonds. Daniel is a sports fan, and is growing to really like cooking.

Paula Bowles In 2007, I graduated from the University of Northampton with a First Class degree in Criminology. Currently, I am studying MA History of Medicine at Oxford Brookes University.

My research interests primarily focus on issues of exclusion, religious and racial intolerance, the Holocaust, historical explanations for crime and criminality, together with eugenics.

Post graduation, my dissertation entitled “Thinking the Unthinkable”: Criminology and the Holocaust was published by the Holocaust Education and Archive Research Team. [Available here]. More recently, I have contributed a book review to the journal Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions 9, 4, (2008), and have also been commissioned to proofread various academic texts including A Fascist Century: Essays by Roger Griffin (ed. Matthew Feldman), Palgrave, Basingstoke, 2008.

Paolo Cardullo (kiddingthecity) is studying a practice based Doctoral degree in Visual Sociology at the Centre for Urban and Community Research (CUCR), Goldsmiths, University of London. There, he completed his MA in Photography and Urban Culture in 2006. His research project is concerned with youth geographies in and around Greenwich Peninsula (London) as well as with mapping the dramatic regeneration of the area.

He has lately published a photo essay on the Italian magazine Una Citta’ and regularly collaborates to the CUCR journal Street Signs. During his spare time, he helps at building an open wireless network across Deptford and Greenwich (London) and participates in community based Linux, FLOSS, and creative writing workshops. He currently works part time for the New Deal for Lone Parents team in a Social Security office in inner city London.

Rachel Bobbitt (rbobbitt) is a doctoral student of sociology at George Mason University. She received both her bachelor’s in religious studies and master’s in sociology from Virginia Commonwealth University. Her master’s thesis focused on applying movement success models to Marian apparition religious groups and she has conducted research in varying areas of new religious movements. She has been involved in several projects and grants that study the intersections of science and religion. Her current research interests focus around conservative religious movements, stratification, and faith-based organizations. She is currently a teaching assistant at George Mason University.

Jodi A. Ross (socmatters) is a doctoral student in the Department of Sociology at The University of Akron in Akron, Ohio. She is currently the Undergraduate Advisor for the department and teaches part-time for both sociology and women’s studies. Jodi’s speciality areas include criminology & deviance and qualitative methodology. She is currently collecting ethnographic data for her dissertation which examines the exercise of informal social control in a gentrifying neighborhood. Her master’s research looked at accounts offered by battered women who had killed their abusive spouses. She has also written about and presented on mothering and breastfeeding in contemporary American society. When not consumed with the demands of graduate school Jodi enjoys cooking, gardening, seeing live music and making up stories about female super-heros for her daughter.

Brian Chung (socanonymous) is an undergraduate Sociology student at the University of Toronto. Although young, he has a fair amount of research and work experience at several federal government departments in Canada. He is also currently a research assistant in the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto. His research interests include deviance, race and ethnicity, immigration, and policy. He is currently working in Ottawa on regulatory policy and socio-economic research at a Canadian federal government department. He is also currently working on a personal research paper examining the health and safety of temporary foreign migrant workers in Canada.

Perry Threlfall is a doctoral student of Public Sociology at George Mason University in the suburbs of Washington, DC. She completed her Masters degree in Sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia in 2007. Her studies have primarily centered on cultural, social, and economic stratification by race, class, and gender. She is involved in projects that critique the debates surrounding theories of social capital and the intersection of social capital in single mothers and public welfare policy. Ms. Threlfall has taught undergraduate courses in Stratification and Feminist Research Methods at Virginia Commonwealth University and is currently teaching an introductory course in Sociology at George Mason University.

Nickie Michaud Wild (NickieWild) is a Doctoral student in the Department of Sociology at the University at Albany, SUNY. She received a B.A. in English and American Literature from NYU in 1995.

After a few years spent as a freelance writer, Emergency Medical Technician, and then a social worker, she decided to go back to school. Initially going back for a Master’s of Social Work, she found Sociology more appealing. Nickie received an M.A. in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2006. Her interests include Culture, Political Sociology, and the media. She is currently working on a narrative analysis of domestic violence portrayals on television.

She has also been a contributor to the books, radio shows, and events of the satirist organization, the SubGenius Foundation, since 1994.

Nickie lives in the tiny village of Scotia, NY with her husband Bob, and their beloved cats and dog.

Anne Lin is a Doctoral student in Sociology at SUNY, Albany. She is also planning to get a joint Master’s degree in Women’s Studies. Anne was born in the United States and went back to Taiwan for most of her education, growing up with an instrinsic conflict of cultural identities. She picked up most of the sociological concepts in postcolonialiam and poststructuralism from this particular background. Gender, sexuality, popular culture and the media are areas of her more focused interest. She is currently doing research on Asian meida and the transnational flow of culture. She is also working on a project about prostitution, concerning the intersection of race, class and gender.

Nathan Jurgenson (nathanjurgenson) is a doctoral student in sociology at the University of Maryland where he is working with George Ritzer on the theoretical implications of the bottom-up turn taken by the Internet—what has come to be known as Web 2.0. His future work will involve rethinking how sociological theory (especially postmodern thought) orients our understanding of Web 2.0, and, in turn, how Web 2.0 provides fertile ground to rethink sociological theory in areas such as knowledge production, the presentation of self, consumption, authority, exploitation, and many others. Other current pursuits deal with the philosophy of science, feminist theory, identity, and survey research methodology. He received his M.A. in sociology from Northern Illinois University in 2007. Nathan is also a musician and his recent obsession is the history of punk and street art in New York City.

Stephanie Teixeira-Poit (smteixeirapoit) is a doctoral student in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at North Carolina State University. Her research interests include social change, development, indigenous peoples, poverty, and gender.

In 2008, Stephanie received a Master of Science in Sociology from North Carolina State University. Her master’s thesis examined the influence of spatial location, local opportunity structure, and household composition on poverty and working poverty. In 2006, she graduated summa cum laude from Stonehill College, with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and Sociology.

Nicole Barreto McCoy (nmccoy1) is a Doctoral Student in the Sociology program at George Mason Univerisity in Fairfax, Virginia. She received her Masters degree in 2008 with the completion of a feminist interview- based study of domestic servants in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Her thesis entitled, Voices From the Slums: Brazilian Women on Domestic Service and Favela Life, won the Outstanding Thesis Award for George Mason University. Currently, Nicole is working towards her dissertation in the area of critical theory and social philosophy.

Her project examines the recognition and redistribution debate surrounding strategies in identity politics. This work focuses on Afro-Brazilian women living in poverty in the favelas. Nicole has presented her work at national and local conferences and has taught in the field of Women and Gender Studies. Areas of interest: gender, race and ethnicity, critical theory, sociology of culture, stratification, and feminist research methods.

Marie Bozin (PlantingSeedsFromUA) is a Doctoral student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Akron. She received her Bachelorette degree in psychology in 2005 and her Masters degree in Sociology in 2007. Marie’s areas of interest include gender and criminology. Specifically, she has conducted research and/or presented on topics including: gender differences in the reaction to social ostracism, the racial differences in the effect type of foster care placement has on delinquency outcomes, the role of patriarchy in rape during a time of war, and the use of pornography in heterosexual relationships. Marie is presently working on a qualitative research project concerning the lived experiences of womyn residing in a local battered womyn’s shelter.

Brian McKernan (bmckernan) is a Doctoral student in the Department of Sociology at the University at Albany – State University of New York. Brian completed his MA in Sociology at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Fordham University in 2006. He is currently working on several research projects, including a study of the social meanings of celebrity invoked in popular “highbrow” American magazines, a critical assessment of videogames as an aesthetic sphere, as well as an examination into the role of American television in assisting with the construction of a global public sphere. His areas of interests include social theory and cultural sociology, particularly in relation to mass media and popular culture.

Paula Bowles In 2007, I graduated from the University of Northampton with a First Class degree in Criminology. Currently, I am studying MA History of Medicine at Oxford Brookes University.

My research interests primarily focus on issues of exclusion, religious and racial intolerance, the Holocaust, historical explanations for crime and criminality, together with eugenics.

Post graduation, my dissertation entitled Thinking the Unthinkable: Criminology and the Holocaust was published by the Holocaust Education and Archive Research Team. More recently, I have contributed a book review to the journal Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions 9, 4, (2008), and have also been commissioned to proofread various academic texts including A Fascist Century: Essays by Roger Griffin (ed. Matthew Feldman), Palgrave, Basingstoke, 2008.

Rachel Bobbitt (rbobbitt) is a doctoral student of sociology at George Mason University. She received both her bachelor’s in religious studies and master’s in sociology from Virginia Commonwealth University. Her master’s thesis focused on applying movement success models to Marian apparition religious groups and she has conducted research in varying areas of new religious movements. She has been involved in several projects and grants that study the intersections of science and religion. Her current research interests focus around conservative religious movements, stratification, and faith-based organizations. She is currently a teaching assistant at George Mason University.

Brian Chung (socanonymous) is an undergraduate Sociology student at the University of Toronto. Although young, he has a fair amount of research and work experience at several federal government departments in Canada. He is also currently a research assistant in the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto. His research interests include deviance, race and ethnicity, immigration, and policy. He is currently working in Ottawa on regulatory policy and socio-economic research at a Canadian federal government department. He is also currently working on a personal research paper examining the health and safety of temporary foreign migrant workers in Canada.

Nickie Michaud Wild (NickieWild) is a Doctoral student in the Department of Sociology at the University at Albany, SUNY. She received a B.A. in English and American Literature from NYU in 1995.

After a few years spent as a freelance writer, Emergency Medical Technician, and then a social worker, she decided to go back to school. Initially going back for a Master’s of Social Work, she found Sociology more appealing. Nickie received an M.A. in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2006. Her interests include Culture, Political Sociology, and the media. She is currently working on a narrative analysis of domestic violence portrayals on television.

She has also been a contributor to the books, radio shows, and events of the satirist organization, the SubGenius Foundation, since 1994.

Nickie lives in the tiny village of Scotia, NY with her husband Bob, and their beloved cats and dog.

Nathan Jurgenson (nathanjurgenson) is a doctoral student in sociology at the University of Maryland where he is working with George Ritzer on the theoretical implications of the bottom-up turn taken by the Internet—what has come to be known as Web 2.0. His future work will involve rethinking how sociological theory (especially postmodern thought) orients our understanding of Web 2.0, and, in turn, how Web 2.0 provides fertile ground to rethink sociological theory in areas such as knowledge production, the presentation of self, consumption, authority, exploitation, and many others. Other current pursuits deal with the philosophy of science, feminist theory, identity, and survey research methodology. He received his M.A. in sociology from Northern Illinois University in 2007. Nathan is also a musician and his recent obsession is the history of punk and street art in New York City.

Stephanie Teixeira-Poit (smteixeirapoit) is a doctoral student in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at North Carolina State University. Her research interests include social change, development, indigenous peoples, poverty, and gender.

In 2008, Stephanie received a Master of Science in Sociology from North Carolina State University. Her master’s thesis examined the influence of spatial location, local opportunity structure, and household composition on poverty and working poverty. In 2006, she graduated summa cum laude from Stonehill College, with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and Sociology.

Stephanie enjoys engaging in professional service activities. Currently, she is an assistant editor of the Journal of World-Systems Research and a coordinating committee member of the North Carolina State University Chapter of the Sociologists for Women in Society. This summer, she will become the Co-Managing Editor of Rural Sociology.

Christina Blunt recently graduated from the London School of Economics with an MSc in Human Rights. While at the LSE her academic interests centered on international human rights law, transitional justice, complex emergencies, managing humanitarianism, and the relationship between social theory and human rights discourse. Her dissertation entitled, The Role of Class in Shaping Truth and Reconciliation: The Case of Peru, which explored the transitional justice process that followed the Peruvian civil war, was recognized with distinction. While completing her Master’s degree, Christina served as a research intern for POLIS, the LSE’s media think tank where she examined bothhumanitarian branding as well as the role of new media in the 2008 U.S. presidential election. Prior to attending LSE, she studied at both Stonehill College and Oxford University.

Christina served as the Director of Finance and Development for the American Anti-Slavery Group in 2007. Presently she is conducting research for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Committee on Conscience concerning the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Additionally, she is a co-chair for the Bay Cove Human Services Human Rights Committee where she advocates for the rights of clients with mental and developmental disabilities.

Christina currently resides in Boston, MA.

Dena T. Smith is a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Her interest in Sociology began at Goucher College, where she received a BA in 2003 and lie in the areas of Sociology of Mental Health and Illness, Social Psychology, Cognitive Sociology and Sociological Theory. She completed an MA in

2005 with a thesis on changing conceptualizations of suffering in contemporary psychiatry and is currently writing a dissertation on the practice of psychiatry and psychoanalysis.

PJ Rey (pj.rey) is a graduate sociology student at the University of Maryland. Previously, he completed an MA in Continental Philosophy at Duquesne University in his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He has a great deal of interest in researching the Internet, technology, and prosumption. His analysis tends to be informed by the traditions of Critical Theory, French Post-Structuralism, and Psychoanalysis.

He’s a lover modern art, design, and jazz. Recently, he’s adopted two kittens.