OUR PHD CANDIDATES ON THE JOB MARKET
FALL 2008 (C.V.'S ARE .PDF FORMAT)

 LYNDI HEWITT -- HIRED!!!
Assistant Professor of Sociology at Hofstra University

 DISSERTATION TITLE/TOPIC: "The Politics of Transnational Feminist Discourse: Framing Across Differences, Building Solidarities"

I build on existing knowledge about determinants of framing among social movement organizations, and specifically address the often neglected issue of intra-movement variation, investigating the nature of and influences on the framing strategies of different organizations that work both independently and collaboratively as part of the same broader global social movement for women's rights. I situate my research at the nexus of literatures in social movement framing, transnational activism, and feminist theory, and use a mixed-method approach to explain discursive variation across transnational women's movement organizations and over time. I argue that organizational characteristics and interests help us to understand the complex layers of framing variation among movement groups, and that the challenges of framing effectively within a transnational identity-based movement include moral concerns about reflecting and pushing theories that underpin movement action.

RESEARCH INTERESTS: Social Movements, Global Politics, Gender, Feminist Theory and Methodology


 COURTNEY MUSE

 DISSERTATION TITLE/TOPIC: "Elephant in the Room: Organizational Framing and Personal and Collective Identity Conflict Resolution Among Log Cabin Republicans"

This dissertation focuses on a largely unexplored area of social movement research - the relationship between organizational framing and personal and collective identity conflict resolution among social movement participants. The Log Cabin Republicans (LCR) offers a rich environment for studying the processes involved in resolving conflicts between personal and collective identities. Examination of this movement group allowed me to better understand the relationships between organizational framing, individual-level identity management processes and movement participation. Based on in-depth interviews with LCR members, I show that LCR framing plays a critical role in reducing its constituents' identity conflicts. In the end, I demonstrate that the success of organizational framing efforts is reflected in the degree to which these frames are emphasized by individual members in order to reduce identity conflicts and thus to continue their participation in the LCR. This dissertation contributes to the renewed interest in individual-level processes occurring in social movements and thus informs the social movements literature by bridging the discussions of organizational framing and identity..

DISSERTATION ADVISOR: Holly McCammon

RESEARCH INTERESTS: Social Movements; Social Psychology; Personal and Collective Identity Conflict Negotiation; Gender, Sexuality, and Sexual Identity; Sociology of Mental Health; Research Methods

E-MAIL: courtney.e.muse@vanderbilt.edu

CourtneyMuseCV.pdf


 HARMONY NEWMAN

 DISSERTATION TITLE/TOPIC: "Constructions of Risk: Strategic Framing in Breastfeeding Discourses"

The author uses breastfeeding advocacy arguments and interpretations of those arguments to investigate the power dynamics between medical and governmental discourses and individual agency. Building on theories of public health movements, discursive power, and gender, this research examines the ways in which medical and governmental institutions and organizations construct or "frame" formula feeding as risky behavior and how mothers interpret, and possibly resisit, these arguments.

DISSERTATION ADVISOR: Laura Carpenter

RESEARCH INTERESTS: Sociology of Gender, Health, Social Movements, Motherhood, Qualitative Methods

E-MAIL: harmony.d.newman@vanderbilt.edu

HarmonyNewmanCV.pdf


 HEATHER TALLEY -- HIRED!!!
Assistant Professor of Sociology at Western Carolina University

 DISSERTATION TITLE/TOPIC: "Face Work: Cultural, Technical, and Surgical Interventions for Facial 'Disfigurement' "

This sociological and cultural analysis of facial disfigurement employs multi-sited ethnographic methods, participant-obvservation, content analysis, interviews, and autoethnography to examine four sites in which faces defined as disfigured are "repaired." Characterizing work aimed at repairing the face as "face work," I demonstrate that face work is a multifaceted, complex, and contradictory process wherein the face is technically repaired and what disfigurement means is negotiated. I examine an emerging and contested biomedical technology, face transplantation; facial feminization surgery aimed at and used by male-to-female transsexuals; reality television show Extreme Makeover; and international not-for-profit Operation Smile. I argue that face work is not simply a conglomeration of reconstructive techniques aimed at the human face but rather the work of making the disfigured human.

DISSERTATION ADVISOR: Monica Casper

RESEARCH INTERESTS: Sociology of the Body, Gender and Sexuality, Medical Sociology, Science and Technology, Qualitative Sociology, Queer Sociology, Disability Studies, Feminist Pedagogy, and Symbolic Interactionism

E-MAIL: heather.l.talley@vanderbilt.edu

HeatherTalleyCV.pdf