The Department Cares more than an ton, a ton of food that is. Over the course of the 2012-13 Ac-ademic year the College of Sciences collected dona-tions for the Knights help-ing Knights pantry. The Sociology department do-nated 3,455 pounds or just over 1.7 tons of food. In fact, the Sociology depart-ment lead the college with just over half of the 6,613 pounds of food donated by the College of Sciences.

It is not every day that Knight-ro pays a visit to Howard Phil-lips Hall. Tamara Pullin, Coor-dinator of Administrative Ser-vices is a big fan of UCF Knights Athletics. This spring Knightro and baseball players Ryan Breen (left) and Chris Matulis (right) paid a visit to the Sociology Department to personally de-liver her baseball season tick-ets.

Sociology Knights Helping Knights I N S I D E

T H I S I S S U E :

Dr. Penelope

Canan 2

Dr. Jim

Wright 3

Student Re-

search 4

Congrats

Grads! 6

Student Ku-

dos 8

ISBS News 10

When Knightro Comes Calling

U N I V E R S I T Y O F

C E N T R A L F L O R I D A Sociologic S P R I N G / S U M M E R 2 0 1 3

Back row le to right: Bri ani Wya , Jay Corzine, Jim

Wright, David Gay, Tamara Pullin, Libby Mustaine, Jana

Jasinski. Front row le to right: Amanda Koontz Anthony,

James McCutcheon, Lindsey Blumenstein, Ida Cook.

P A G E 2

Dr. Penelope Canan Dr. Canan joined the Depart-ment of Sociology in 2006. In December 2012 she retired from UCF and at the spring Founder’s Day Celebration was named Professor Emerita. Prior to her arrival at UCF,

Canan worked in Tsu-kuba, Japan as the Executive Director of the Global Carbon Project, one of the Earth Systems Science Partnerships of the International Geo-sphere-Biosphere

Program (IGBP), the Interna-tional Program on the Human Dimensions of Global Environ-mental Change (IHDP), the World Climate Research Pro-gram (WCRP), and Diversitas.

At UCF, Dr. Canan was instru-mental in the formation of Focus the Nation, a national network of more than 1,000 college and university campus-es dedicated to solutions to global warming and climate change. In 2008, Focus the Nation organized and pro-

duced the largest one-day “Teach-In” in US history. She helped establish UCF’s FTN student organization and as-sisted in its production of UCF’s “Electric Car Events” (2007), the National Wildlife Federation’s podcast entitled “The 2% Solution” filmed at BCCC/UCF studios (2008), the UCF “Teach-In/Reach Out on Climate Solu-tions” (2008), the UCF “Teach-In Plus” (2009), and the for-mation of the student organi-zation named “Climate Con-nections,” dedicated to linking UCF student leaders with envi-ronmental leaders in Central Florida

In 2010 Dr. Canan was one of six women in the College of Sciences and 15 in the Uni-versity to receive a “Women Making History‟ award given to honor women recognized nationally and/or internation-ally for their research, crea-tive activities and leadership from 2008-2010. In 2010 the United Nations Environment Program listed her on its “Montreal Protocol Who’s Who” (MPWW), a web por-tal launched “to honor the visionaries, innovators and implementers who are making the Montreal Protocol a glob-

al environmental success story.” In 2007 Dr. Canan received the Frederick Buttel Award for Distinguished Career Contribution to Envi-ronmental Sociology from the Section on Environment and Technology of the American Sociological Association, as well as the “Best of the Best” Award for Ozone Layer Pro-tection (Individual Category) from the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Le : Faculty colleagues, stu-

dents and staff celebrate with

Dr. Canan.

Le : Dr. Canan and Dean

Michael Johnson pose for

a photo. Below: Provost

Waldrop presents Dr.

Canan with a stained

glass Pegasus in honor of

her re rement and Presi-

dent Hi presents Dr.

Canan with a cer ficate

for her emerita status.

Faculty Honors P A G E 3 V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 1

On April 5, 2013 at the annual Founder’s Day Celebration Dr. Jim Wright was awarded the Excel-lence in Professional Service Award and was named a Pegasus Professor. This award is the most prestigious award a UCF faculty can receive. Dr. Wright was rec-ognized for his extraordinary contributions to teaching, re-search, and ser-vice.

UCF sociology professor Jim Wright was also recently honored for “nine years of dedicated service” to the Board of Direc-tors of the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida. Wright served three con-secutive three-year terms on the Board (the maximum allowed under Board bylaws) between 2003 and 2012, during which time he served as Chair of the Board’s Research and Evaluation Committee. He also re-ceived the Chairman’s award for distin-guished service in 2004.

In a related ceremony, it was announced that the kitchen at the Women’s Residential and Counseling Center (WRCC) had been named in honor of Jim and his wife Chris for their years of preparing and serving meals to the women of WRCC.

Left: President Hitt presents Dr. Wright with the Pegasus stat-ue.

Below: The Honorable Ida J. Cook presents Dr. Wright with the Excellence in Profes-sional Service award.

S O C I O L O G I C

P A G E 4

Sociology Storms the Southerns

Student Research When the calendar says it is spring it is time for the Sociology Depart-ment annual research symposium. Students in the data analysis classes work hard over the entire academic year to design and carry out empiri-cal research projects. At the end of the year these projects are present-ed to their peers and the Sociology faculty and staff. The hallways are wallpapered with posters on topics such as corporal punishment, self-esteem, gender inequality, and devi-ant behavior.

Front row: Sherri Ferrell, Juan Barredo, Alyse Gruber, Marie Gualtieri. 2nd row: Kelsey DeGenaro, Alexandra Minnick, Alyssa Mullins, Nicole Stark, Lauren Gilmore, Amy Fowler. Back row: Katelynn Messer, Dr. Amy Don-ley, Kate Griffin, Rachel McCloskey, Joshua Simpkins.

Large numbers of Sociology faculty attend the South-ern Sociological Meeting every year as it is the re-gional professional meeting for the southern region. Increasingly large numbers of students have also at-tended the meeting to present their research, net-work with their peers, and learn about what it means to be a Sociologist. For many students this meeting is the first opportunity to present their research to scholars outside the university.

S O C I O L O G I C

Left: Undergraduate student Sherri Ferrell com-pletes her presentation with a thumbs up.

Above. Dr. Adam Pritchard talks with Lauren Kanzler about her research on vic-

Above: Alyse Gruber pre-

pares to give her presenta-

on.

Undergraduate Research at UCF P A G E 5 V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 1

McNair Scholars Shaun Richardson (left) and Emmanuel Jackson (right) pose for a photo with Faculty Mentor Dr. Amy Donley and the McNair Banquet.

Above: Jessica Frelow presents her research

on mentally and physically disabled individu-

Above: Alexandra Minnick (right) discusses the findings of her study examining factors that influence college students eating habits.

This year 11 Sociology students participated in the

Showcase of Undergraduate Research. They are:

Kelsey DeGenaro

Jessica Frelow

Emmanuel Jackson

Ali Kuranz

Jasmine Loftin

Katelynn Messer

Alexandra Minnick

Grace Parker

Robert Reardon

Shaun Richardson (Honorable Mention)

Emily Rosenbaum

Nicholas Simons

Le : Emily Rosenbaum talks about her research looking

at the rela onship between fear of crime and mass

school shoo ngs.

P A G E 6

Right: Dr. Stephanie

Gonzalez-Guittar and

her adviser Dr. Jim

Wright pose for pho-

tos after the Decem-

ber graduation.

Right: Drs. Warren

Waren and Heili Pals

pose before the

December graduation

ceremony.

Congratulations Graduates!

The first graduate of the Sociology Ph.D. program graduated in 2008, by the end of the Spring 2013 semester 27 students have graduated from the UCF Sociology doctoral program Our grad-uates have gone on to hold tenure track positions at schools such as Texas Christian University, Loyola University New Orleans, and Framingham State University among others and applied posi-tions with agencies including the Bureau of Justice Statistics, Avatar International, and Ahtna Sup-port and Training Services. One graduate even started her own non-profit agency, House of Men-toring & Empowerment, Inc. (HOME).

Right. Spring 2013 Sociology Doctoral Graduates: From left to right: Drs. Xavier Guadalupe-Diaz, Rachel Morgan, and Lind-sey Blumenstein.

S O C I O L O G I C

Above: Disserta on Co-Chairs Dr. Ross Hinkle (le ) and Dr.

Penelope Canan (right) hood Dr. Leesa Souto. Although Dr.

Souto’s degree is in Biology she worked closely with the So-

ciology department and Dr. Canan on issues related to envi-

ronmentally sound behaviors.

Sociology BA Grads P A G E 7 V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 1

David Amirrezvani

Paul Ashworth

Lisette Barteau

Katherine Beckmann

Bridget Besoner

Shantrell Bowe

Elena Breedlove

Michael Brown

Amanda Buitron

Keandra Cherry

Jordan Clark

Jennifer Cogert

Kelsey DeGenaro

Jazmine Dickens

Gleider Dominguez

Sherri Ferrell

Grayling Forehand

Ashley Fraser

Sherina Glaves

Daphne Gonzalez

Giovanni Gonzalez

Kelly Goodman

Ezekiel Green

Seth Jestus

Peter Johnston

Lauren Kanzler

Sarah King

Amber Krauss

Michelle Kudelka

Thomas Kudro

Tara LaBrecque

Andrew Leadbeater

Casey Lehman

More than 200 students have earned their Master’s

degree from the Sociology department at UCF. Gradu-

ates from our Applied MA program have been very suc-

cessful. Many graduates have gone on to complete doc-

toral degrees at ins tu ons such as Penn State Universi-

ty, University of Florida, and University of Chicago. They

have also gone on to work at agencies including Westat,

the American Sociological Associa on, Research Trian-

gle Ins tute, and the Kissimmee Conven on and Visi-

tors Bureau .

Rebecca DeCesare

Andrew Latinsky

Briana Marquardt

Maria Metcalf

Rameika Newman

Amanda Russell

Sara Strickhouser

Richard Webster

Catherine Sochar

Jenilees Suero

Jeisson Tavarez

ShavonneTejada

Kelly Thiele

Maria Thomas

Rachel Valore

Kayla Ward

Stefani Wolfson

Nikilaus Wycha

Social Science BS Grads

Applied Sociology MA Grads

Angela Lipa

Jasmine Loftin

Stacy Martin

Katelynn Messer

Krista Nigrelli

Michelle Nohr

Chelsea Nordham

Gladys Ochoa

Kathleen Ortiz

Michelle Parra

Hallie Penwell

Lisa Quinata(Tonton)

Olivia Quinn

Kristen Reneski

Hannah Roberts

Dillon Rockwell

Victoria Santos

Andrew Schmid

Dana Lauren Shackelford

Breeanne Sharpnack

Patrick Simon

Laura Delvaille

Jesse Jarre

Laura Payne

Michael Richards

Arlen Spitalnik

Sarah Wesson

Student Grants

Student Publications Andrew Latinsky “Public Presentation of Gendered Bodies: A Look at Gay and Lesbian Online Dating Profiles” Sociation Today. Jasinski, J.L. Blumenstein, L. & Morgan, R. “Testing Johnson’s Typology: Is there Gender Sym-metry in Intimate Terror-ism”Violence & Victims. Xavier Guadalupe-Diaz “Who’s Protected? Exploring Per-ceptions of Domestic Violence Laws by Lesbian, Gays and Bisex-uals”. Journal of Gay and Lesbian Social Services.

Jessica Racine Jacques. “Monocropping Cultures into Ruin: The Loss of Food Varieties and Cultural Diversity”. Sustaina-bility. Co-written with Peter Jacques

Donna King. “The War on Women’s Fundamental Rights: Connecting U.S. Supreme Court Originalism to Rightwing, Con-servative Extremism in American Politics. Cardozo Journal of Law & Gender, 19(1), 99-146

James McCutcheon. “Discursive Constructions of Breastfeeding in U.S. State Laws”. Women & Health .Co-written with Shannon Carter.

Tangela Towns .“Barriers to Care; Health Promotion among Hispanic Males”. Sociology Com-pass.

Afflerback, Sara, Shannon K. Carter, Amanda Koontz Antho-ny and Liz Grauerholz. “Infant Feeding Consumerism in the Age of Intensive Mothering and Risk Society.” Journal of Consum-er Culture.

Knights 5k. We participated in Relay For Life on March 16th and had a bake sale to raise funds for Relay for Life. We also participated in the One Billion Rising Event on February 14th. We designed our own sociology club t-shirts and also increasing our advertise-ment of the club. Congratulations to all the seniors graduating including vice-president Katelynn Messer and histori-an Amy Fowler. Thank you to Traci for

The Sociology Club had a busy semes-ter. We had 4 wonderful guest speak-ers come speak at our meeting. The guest speakers were Alyssa Mullins, an intern from UCF Victim Services, Dr. Amanda Koontz-Anthony and Melissa Tetzlaff-Bemiller. We volunteered at Habitat for Humanity at UCF's Shack A Thon, cleaned up the Lake Claire Trail and volunteered at the Zombie

sending all the emails about the club meetings and events to the faculty and students. Thank you to Dr. Ford for being our club advisor.

S O C I O L O G I C

Doctoral Student Marc Settembrino was the recipient of Quick Response Grant from the Natural Hazards Cen-ter at the University of Colorado-Boulder to study the effects of Hurri-cane Sandy on the homeless.

Sociology Club

AKD Induction P A G E 9 V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 1

In April 2013 4 graduate stu-dents and 16 undergraduate students were inducted into the Sociology Honor Society Alpha Kappa Delta. Dr. Ja-son Ford (right) served as the master of ceremonies for the event. This year’s key-note address was provided by Dr. Xavier Guadalupe-Diaz (far right) who dis-cussed his own journey into the discipline of Sociology and encouraged students to follow their passion

Right: Seth Jestus, Wiliam Allen

Jr., Kayla Meehan, Kayla Ward.

as “How symptoms of anxiety, depression, ADD or ADHD contribute to students self- medicat-ing via marijuana and non-medical prescription drugs (NMPD).”, Dr. Amy Reckdenwald, (3rd place) Grace Parker “Uneven ground: Comparing environmental concern and perceptions of women’s equality among college students.”

Every spring students in the data analy-sis courses present the results of their year long projects to each other and the sociology faculty and staff at the annual research symposium. Faculty judges review each poster and select the top three posters. These students were recognized at our annual awards ceremony. From Left to Right: (2nd place) Connor Mckelvey “Corporal punishment: Sending a message”, Dr. Amy Donley, (1st place) Maria Thom-

Recognition of Student Achievement

How Sociologists can contribute to research on human-animal relations. Doctoral Student Nicole Owens’ interview with the Animals and Society Institute dis-cusses the need to study human-animal relations and how the discipline of Sociology can play an important role in this area of research. To read the interview : www.animalsandsociety.org/pages/asinterview.

Nicole was also the recipient of the COS Award for Excellence by a Graduate Teaching Assistant and the Department of Sociology Graduate Student Paper Award.

Congratula ons to Doctoral Student Wendi Kane who is the 2013 recipient of the

Department of Sociology Graduate Student Teaching Award.

P A G E 1 0

Heart of Florida United Way

Orlando Housing Authority The ISBS evaluation of the Orlando Housing Authori-ty’s “Moving to Work” initiative is now concluding its second year. “Moving to Work” is a HUD demonstration program that allows local public housing authorities to de-sign and test innovative, locally designed strategies that use Federal dollars more efficiently, help resi-dents find employment and

become self-sufficient, and increase housing choices for low -income families.

As in the first year, most of the evaluation effort is fo-cused on interviews with families who have partici-pated in the MTW Center, where they receive job training, day care, assis-tance preparing for job interviews, and the like. Half of the participating clients were employed by

the end of the fiscal year, and of those, half were em-ployed full time. Most of those who were unable to find jobs cited the lack of formal education as the principal barrier. (Other barriers: Lack of transpor-tation, and lack of day care, both of these also being addressed.) The MTW eval-uation will continue through at least Year Five of the MTW program and possibly through the entire ten years.

report on quarterly. For most agencies, measuring outcomes would require follow-up in the community that most agencies have neither the skill nor the resources to do.

Departmental graduate students were very heavily involved in the HFUW “outcomes” project. Sara Strickhouser wrote her MA thesis out of the project; Jessica Kleinberger contrib-uted a report on the seven-teen food pantries supplied principally through the Os-ceola Council on Aging. Other students whose work is featured in the final report are Rameika New-man, Rebecca DeCesare, and Marie Gualtieri.

The other HFUW project that has kept us busy this year is the Bithlo Community Needs Assessment project. As with many of our needs assessments, this one began as a series of three focus groups: one with Bithlo seniors, one with high school students, and one with working age adults. Across all groups, the common themes were more opportunities needed for chil-dren and teens; crime – espe-cially drug crime; transporta-tion; essential services – more businesses needed in the area; and greater attention needed from government representa-tives to help solve problems. Our Bithlo team is currently developing a questionnaire out of the focus group results to gather more systematic and generalizable data on Bithlo’s community needs.

Two HFUW projects have kept us busy this year. In July 2012, Wright and Don-ley gave a workshop at United Way on “outcomes management” for the HFUW emergency services agencies and programs (homeless shelters, domes-tic violence shelters, emer-gency feeding programs, etc.)

We continued this work throughout the year with two rounds of site visits to all these agencies and the preparation of a Final Re-port, the first draft of which was just submitted. Our conclusion is that “long term outcomes” in agencies addressing short-term emergency needs are difficult to conceptualize and measure, much less

S O C I O L O G I C

News

From the

ISBS

New Smyrna Beach P A G E 1 1 V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 1

In Spring 2013, ISBS phone in-terviewers were busy calling 286 residents of New Smyrna Beach to ascertain public opin-ion about the quality of life and

the adequacy of city ser-vices in that small Florida beachside community. The 2013 survey was a replica-tion of a survey we had done for New Smyrna Beach in 2009. Huge ma-jorities of NSB residents – on the order of 95% -- are satisfied with the overall

quality of life and majorities approaching 60% say that city government works well or very well. There is some concern

about how well the city has managed growth and develop-ment but 75% are satisfied “with the overall direction New Smyrna Beach is taking” and about 80% consider that “the services and amenities residents receive from the City are a good value considering the tax-es we pay…”

Orlando-area residents, the number one threat to

the local quality of life. But our surveys also show a lack of con-sensus on how the problem should be attacked: some say the only realistic solution is to stop building highways or oth-erwise adding to highway capac-ity and build up mass transit instead. Others say that mass transit is not a feasible solution for many residents and that

About every two years, ISBS partners with Metroplan Orlan-do, our regional transportation planning agency, to assess popu-lar opinions about transporta-tion issues and options facing Central Florida. A long series of surveys dating to the 1990s shows that traffic congestion and related traffic problems are the number one complaint of

enhanced highway capacity is the only way to go. Luckily, ISBS only has to estimate how many people think what – we don’t have to resolve the dis-sensus or resolve conflicting views!

The 2013 survey of public opin-ion on transportation issues is currently in the field with a final report anticipated early this summer.

Rollins College and UCF to see how alcohol is marketed and whether alcohol retailers are in compliance with the law; and a large (N = 800) telephone sur-vey of Orange County parents to determine their attitudes towards underage drinking and drug behaviors. This is a repli-cation of a survey we did two years ago and is intended to

investigate the effects of the Partnership campaigns on pa-rental outlooks.

The Orange County Office for a Drug Free Community and the Orange County Public Schools have partnered with ISBS to conduct the research surrounding number of new anti-alcohol and drug initiatives aimed at the County’s young people. Partnership projects currently underway include “environmental scans” around

Orange County Partnership for Success

Metroplan Orlando

The faculty in the department of Sociology have been busy plan-ning new courses. Look the following new additions to our course offerings:

SYO 3408: Animals and Health

SYO 4402: Sociology of Health & Illness Behavior

SYP 4401: Social Determinants of Health

SYP 3060: Sociology of Sex and Reproduction

SYP 4631: Sociology Through Film

Phone: 407-823-3744

Fax: 407-823-3026

E-mail: Sociology@ucf.edu

Were on Twitter: @UCFSOCIOLOGY

Like us on Facebook: UCF Department of Sociology

University of Central Florida

Chair: Dr. Jana L. Jasinski

Associate Chair: Dr. David Gay

Coordinator of Administrative Services: Ms. Tamara Pullin

Admissions Specialist: Ms. Traci Milbuta

Newsletter Editors: Dr. Jana L. Jasinski, Dr. Libby Mustaine