Greetings from the third floor of Upham Hall! We are excited to share the latest news from the Department of Sociology and Gerontology at Miami.
It’s been another exciting and productive year here. Our faculty continue to produce groundbreaking research, our alumni doing amazing things, and our students are doing impressive work in and out of the classroom. Our students receive university-wide awards, including several that were awarded the Presidents Distinguished Service Award. As usual, they continue to get accepted to prestigious graduate and law schools. Our faculty are also recognized for their outstanding commitment and contributions. In just this year, Dr. Suzanne Kunkel was named University Distinguished Professor for her outstanding record as a teacher and scholar, and Dr. Janardan Subedi was named a University Distinguished Scholar.
Several exciting developments are underway in the department. In collaboration with the Farmer School of Business, we now offer a graduate certificate in Social Entrepreneurship and Aging, which is open to all and provides coursework and training for a wide variety of audiences, including entrepreneurs interested in the growing market of older adults and individuals interested in new or encore careers. We’ve also begun a new Criminology concentration in the Sociology major. The traditional sociology major and the new criminology concentration share core courses, but the upper-level courses for each specialization are unique. We’ve also worked hard to expand opportunities for students. The Betty Kent Award continues to fund undergraduate research, and now undergraduate internships. The newly formed Ruth Hill Useem scholarship honors an early graduate of our department who went on to a career researching the role that exposure to global culture has on identity and development. The Ruth Hill Useem award provides scholarships to students studying abroad during the winter term in our SJS 399 course: Social Justice in Fiji.
In preparing this newsletter, I’ve had the chance to reflect on my time at Miami so far and all of the talented and terrific students I’ve had the privilege of working with. I’d love to hear from as many as you (and those I may not have met!) as possible. Please, drop me a note sometime and let me know what you’ve been up to. Our commitment to our students at Miami does not end when the semester is over. One of the most satisfying aspects of the work we do is seeing what our former students accomplish after they leave the friendly confines of Miami’s campus.
I hope you’ll read more about the exciting developments among faculty, students, and alumni in this newsletter, and take the opportunity to reconnect with all of them.
Stephen Lippmann
Professor and Chair
