Academic Programs

Department of Sociology/Anthropology

Studying sociology/anthropology at Denison

The Department of Sociology/Anthropology is firmly committed to the principles of a liberal education. We have therefore sought to create a learning environment within which students may critically examine social life, its organization and its meaning.

To this end, our mission is not only to produce knowledgeable social actors, but also social agents who have a self-reflective sense of their empowerment and potential contributions to the enhancement of the human condition.

The sociology/anthropology major and minor

The major in sociology/anthropology is designed to meet the educational needs of three kinds of students:

those whose wish to understand sociocultural institutions and cross-cultural patterns while pursuing a liberal arts education
those who wish to integrate sociology/anthropology with certain occupations such as law, social work, business, public service and human service careers
those who expect to pursue graduate study in sociology or anthropology, leading to a teaching, administrative or research career.

Majors must take each of the following core courses. Minors must take 100, 290 and either 316, 350 or 351.

100: People, Culture and Society
290: Development of Social Thought
316: Contemporary Sociocultural Theory
350: Field Research Methods
351: Survey Research Methods
420/421: Senior Research Seminar (2 credits each semester)
451/452: Senior Research (2 credits each semester)

Majors must take three sociology/anthropology electives, of which two must be at the 300 level.

Minors must take three sociology/anthropology electives, of which one must be at the 300 level.

Opportunities for student research

The department encourages and helps students develop their research skills through their course work and has created a number of opportunities for advanced students to engage in independent research.

All sociology/anthropology majors complete a year-long, independent research project on a topic of their choice. The weekly senior seminar provides the structure for the design and completion of the project, as well as the support needed to sustain quality scholarship.

The following are a few of the many projects undertaken by students in 2007:

"The Future That Wasn't: Mid-century American Attitudes Towards the 2000s and Beyond"
"Illness and Healing: Sociocultural Perceptions of Illness and the Role of Spiritual Healing Among the Giriama People of Coastal Kenya"
"Transforming Tolerance: Islamic Immigration in the Netherlands"
"The Psychosocial Benefits of Surviving Childhood Cancer"
"Protecting Female Migrant Workers: Whose Responsibility Is It Anyway?"

A number of sociology/anthropology majors receive student summer research awards, which consist of a stipend plus room, through the Young Scholar Awards and Ashbrook Summer Internship programs. These awards support either independent research under faculty supervision or collaborative research with faculty. Students participating in summer research are normally in residence on campus from about mid-May to the end of July.

Our majors and minors are encouraged to study off-campus, especially in programs that have independent research components and to enroll in at least one course dealing with that region or culture. In 2007, sociology/anthropology students went to Italy, India, Spain, Morocco, and The Balkans, as well as venues within the United States.

What do sociology/anthropology majors do after Denison?

Students who graduated from Denison with a sociology/anthropology major have become teachers, lawyers, urban planners, investment bankers, public health specialists and psychiatric and substance abuse counselors. Some work with public agencies or private companies while others go on to graduate programs in sociology, anthropology, social work, law and business administration.

The following are some sociology/anthropology majors who graduated in recent years and are pursuing graduate degrees:

Micah Trapp ('02) is in a Ph.D. program in Anthropology at American University
Katie Johnson ('02) is in a Ph.D. program in Islamic Studies at the University of Chicago
Jen Divis ('97) is in an International Affairs program at American University
James Smith ('97) is in a Ph.D. program in Sociology at Binghamton
Rachel Lawless is in law school at Capitol University
Karen Sibley ('00) is at Bolt Law School at the University of California, Berkeley
Tracey Reynolds Zink ('03) is in the Community Counseling program at Detroit-Mercy University
Alexa Plange ('07) SPEA and The Center of Philanthropy at IUPUI
Leah Smith ('02) is in a master's program in rural sociology at Ohio State University

Who are our professors?

Department Chair and Associate Professor Susan E. Diduk joined the faculty at Denison in 1984. She earned a B.A. at the College of William and Mary, an M.A. at University College London, U.K. and an M.A. and a Ph.D. at Indiana University. She teaches in the areas of comparative social institutions, sociology of art, contemporary sociocultural theory, gender and Africa. Her areas of specialization include classical and contemporary theory, art and society, gender, political economy and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Instructor Todd M. Callais earned his B.A. in Sociology and Public Service at the University of Notre Dame in 2001. He achieved his M.A. in Sociology at The Ohio State University in the summer of 2003 and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology at Ohio State and have taught there and at Kenyon College. His research and teaching interests include Crime and Deviance, Social Inequality, Collective Action and Social Movements, Media and Popular Culture (especially the sociology of music), and Social Theory.

Instructor Caitlin Didier is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Kansas. She earned her M.A. at Wichita State University and a B.A. in anthropology and Spanish at The Ohio State University. Her teaching interests include race and ethnicity, the anthropology of religion, ethnology, immigration and globalization. Her current research concerns the effects of immigration on small rural communities in the United States.

Assistant Professor Veerendra P. Lele joined the faculty at Denison in 2003. He earned an A.B. at Cornell University, an M.A. at Georgetown University, an M.A. at the University of Michigan and an M.Phil. and a Ph.D. at Columbia University. His research interests are in cultural identity, material culture and archeology, issues of racial and ethnic identity, kinship, and religious ritual. Much of his field work has been done in Ireland, exploring issues of identity through the work of certain philosophers.

Assistant Professor Bradley Lepper joined the faculty at Denison in 1998. He earned a B.A. at the University of New Mexico and an M.A. and a Ph.D. at Ohio State University. He is curator of archaeology for the Ohio Historical Society and editor of the international scientific journal Current Research in the Pleistocene.

Professor Kent Maynard joined the faculty at Denison in 1981. He earned a B.A. at the University of Redlands and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Indiana University. He teaches courses in indigenous medicine, social theory, cross-cultural studies of human nature, society and literature, religion, and indigenous societies of Latin America. He also is the Director of the Honors Program at Denison. His research and writing focus on Protestantism in Ecuador, the economic and cultural position of the middle classes in U.S. society, ethnographic poetry, and the history of indigenous medicine in the Republic of Cameroon, West Africa.

Instructor Ruth Toulson is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge, England. Her B.A. and M. Phil. degrees are also from the University of Cambridge, where she is a member of Newnham College. She teaches courses in classical and contemporary social theory, contemporary China, and the anthropology and sociology of cities and complexity. Her dissertation work focuses on visions of death and the afterlife among Chinese diaspora populations in Singapore and in mainland urban China.

Professor Mary Tuominen joined the faculty at Denison in 1993. She earned a B.A. at Western Washington University, an M.A. at Seattle University and a Ph.D. at the University of Oregon. Her teaching and research interests include gender and race ethnicity, political economy, work/family, social change and public policy. In journal articles, as well as a book, she explores the lack of equal and economic value accorded to child care workers. Her most current research includes an analysis of self-advocacy and political mobilization among child care workers.

Professor Anita Waters joined the faculty at Denison in 1992. She earned a B.A. at Mary Washington College and an M.A., an M.Phil. and a Ph.D. at Columbia University. Her research interests concern the role that ideas and beliefs, especially those that coincide with ethnic group membership, play in shaping social and political action. Her most recent projects are an examination of post-colonial Jamaican revisions to its historical narratives and a study of heritage tourism development and unofficial community history in Port Royal, Jamaica.

For more information about the department and curriculum, link to the:

Department of Sociology/Anthropology

or contact:

Susan Diduk, Chair
Department of Sociology/Anthropology
Blair Knapp Hall, Room 101A
Denison University
Granville, Ohio 43023

Phone: (740) 587-6301
Fax: (740) 587-5676
E-mail: diduk@denison.edu