Spotlight on Scholars and Alumni

Rene Almeling (Cohort 15) has received the Roberta G. Simmons Outstanding Dissertation Award for 2008 from the Medical Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association for her dissertation entitled, "Selling Genes, Selling Gender: Egg Donation, Sperm Donation, and the Medical Market in Genetic Material." She also received an Honorable Mention for the 2008 Distinguished Article Award from the Sex and Gender Section of the American Sociological Association for, "Selling Genes, Selling Gender: Egg Agencies, Sperm Banks, and the Medical Market in Genetic Material" in the American Sociological Review. Dr. Almeling is currently a scholar at the Berkeley/UCSF site.

Helen Marrow (Cohort 15) has received the 2008 American Sociological Association Dissertation Award for the best PhD dissertation for the calendar year for, "Southern Becoming: Immigrant Incorporation and Race Relations in the Rural U.S. South." Dr. Marrow is currently a scholar at the Berkeley/UCSF site.

Rob Mickey (Cohort 13) was awarded the American Political Science Association's 2006 E. E. Schattschneider Prize for best dissertation in American politics for his research, "Paths Out of Dixie: The Democratization of Authoritarian Enclaves in America's Deep South, 1944-1972." Dr. Mickey is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Michigan.

Naomi Murakawa (Cohort 13) was awarded the 2006 Dissertation Prize by the Law and Society Association and the 2006 Best Dissertation Award by the Race, Ethnicity and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association for her research, "Electing to Punish: Congress, Race, and the American Criminal Justice State," which examines the determinants of increasingly punitive federal crime policy. Dr. Murakawa is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Washington.

Tony Chen (Cohort 12) has received tenure and promotion to Associate Professor of Sociology at The University of Michigan.

Josh Guetzkow (Cohort 11) and Alexandra Kalev (Cohort 12 - Berkeley/UCSF) have joined the Department of Sociology at the University of Arizona as Assistant Professors.

Jeb Barnes (Cohort 10) received the 2007 Raubenheimer Award for Outstanding Junior Faculty, Campus Teaching Award from the American Political Science Association. Dr. Barnes is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Southern California.

Jeb Barnes (Cohort 10) and Tom Burke (Cohort 8) coauthored “The Diffusion of Rights: From Rights on the Books to Organizational Rights Practices,” Law and Society Review (Fall 2006). Dr. Barnes is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Southern California and Dr. Burke is Associate Professor of Political Science at Wellesley College.

Mark Sawyer (Cohort 10) received the 2007 Ralph J. Bunche Award from the American Political Science Association and also the W.E.B. DuBois Best Book Award from the National Conference of Black Political Scientists for his book, Racial Politics in Post-Revolutionary Cuba. Dr. Sawyer is Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Politics at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Adam Sheingate (Cohort 9) has been promoted to Associate Professor of Political Science with tenure at Johns Hopkins University.

Christopher Bonastia (Cohort 8), has authored "The Historical Trajectory of Civil Rights Enforcement in Health Care," Journal of Policy History (2006). Dr. Bonastia is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Lehman College, The City University of New York.

Dino Falaschetti (Cohort 8) is spending fall 2007 as a National Fellow in the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.  In spring 2008, he will move to Florida State University, where he will be an Associate Professor in the College of Law.

Jonah Gelbach (Cohort 8) has moved to the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona, where he is an Associate Professor of Economics.

Michele Berger (Cohort 7) has been promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in the Curriculum in Women’s Studies at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. She is also an adjunct faculty member at UNC’s Department of Political Science.

Carol Caronna (Cohort 7) has received tenure and promotion to Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice at Towson University.

Doug Miller (Cohort 7) has been promoted to Associate Professor of Economics at the University of California, Davis.

Ted Gayer (Cohort 6) has taken a temporary leave of absence from his position as Associate Professor of Public Policy at Georgetown University to serve as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Microeconomic Analysis in the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

Taeku Lee (Cohort 6) has been promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in the Department of Political Science at the University of California – Berkeley, and has been appointed Director of the Center on the Study of Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration at Berkeley.

David Pellow (Cohort 5) has been promoted to Professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of California – San Diego. He is co-editor (with Ted Smith and David Sonnenfeld) of Challenging the Chip: Labor Rights and Environmental Justice in the Global Electronics Industry (Temple University Press, 2006).

Jonathan Oberlander (Cohort 2) will be a Visiting Scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation in New York City during the 2008-2009 academic year. He currently is an Associate Professor of Social Medicine, and of Health Policy and Administration, in the Schools of Medicine and Public Health at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Kelly Devers (Cohort 1) has been appointed to the editorial boards of Health Services Research and Medical Care Research and Review, in addition to her current service on the editorial board of the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety. Dr. Devers is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Health Administration and Family Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University.

John Wilkerson (Cohort 1) and co-authors Bryan Jones and Frank Baumgartner received the 2007 Best Instructional Political Science Web Site Award from the American Political Science Association for their website, Policy Agendas Project. Dr. Wilkerson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Washington.

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