Department of Sociology and Anthropology – News

Jessica Hardin, an assistant professor of anthropology, will be traveling to the South Pacific independent nation of Samoa to study how Samoan people make decisions about how to treat diabetes.

RIT has partnered with Syracuse University College of Law to establish a “3+3” program for students interested in earning a law degree. A memorandum of understanding between the two universities was recently signed to allow students to complete three years of liberal arts and other studies at RIT, then transfer to the College of Law for three years to complete their doctorate in law.

LaVerne McQuiller Williams, senior associate dean of RIT’s College of Liberal Arts, has been named interim COLA dean effective June 1. McQuiller Williams succeeds Dean James Winebrake, who is leaving RIT on June 30 to become provost and vice chancellor of Academic Affairs at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. 

RIT’s College of Liberal Arts honored student achievement in writing with more than a dozen writing awards for essays varying from wasteful energy, maternal mortality, eyewitness testimony policies and seeking worth in a liberal arts degree. Each department within the college selected student awardees whose work embodies the ideals and standards of excellence, creative endeavor and scholarship.

Dean James Winebrake will be leaving RIT’s College of Liberal Arts to become provost and vice chancellor of Academic Affairs at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Winebrake, who came to RIT in 2002 as chair of the Department of Public Policy and became dean in 2011, will leave RIT effective June 30.

Many RIT faculty, students, staff and alumni are among the collaborations here and across the nation, providing expertise to improve or create much-needed equipment and protective gear for medical personnel fighting the Coronavirus.

Growing up in Youngstown, N.Y., near Niagara Falls, Alessandra Santarosa always had the urge to explore. As she readies to graduate this month from RIT with a bachelor’s degree in political science and minors in German, and sociology and anthropology, Santarosa is ready for more adventures: joining the Peace Corps and teaching English in Kosovo for two years.

RIT’s College of Liberal Arts honored student achievement in writing on Friday with the presentation of more than a dozen writing awards for essays varying from sanctuary cities, how democracies can withstand outside meddling, and the excavation, preservation and reconstruction of a London theater where Shakespearian plays debuted.

Meet Jen VanStrander, a fourth-year international and global studies student from Rochester, N.Y., who will be honored as one of this year’s recipients of the College of Liberal Arts Kearse Undergraduate Writing Awards.

Meet Kevin Mejia, a fourth-year business management and international and global studies student who recently attended the fifth annual Diversity Abroad Global Student Leadership Summit.

A two-day conference examining President Donald Trump’s rise within U.S. history and how people are talking about U.S. history in relation to Trump is scheduled March 28 and 29 at RIT.

Nasty Women and Bad Hombres: Gender and Race in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election, edited by three RIT faculty members in RIT’s College of Liberal Arts, looks at how Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and American voters invoked ideas of gender, race and history in that election.