Sociology Graduate Students Team Up With Undergrads For SUMR-UC Mentoring Program

 Sociology graduate students are well represented in the University of Cincinnati’s 2014 Summer Undergraduate Mentored Research program (SUMR-UC), which runs 10 weeks this summer from June 2 through Aug. 6. The program’s goal is to foster research and mentoring activities for both graduate and undergraduate students. Four of the 12 projects chosen for this year's program are run by sociology doctorate students. Michael Black, Jodi Stooksberry, Megan Underhill and Emily Wetzel will each be mentoring undergraduate students from a variety of programs as they work on their respective research.

Michael Black, a fourth-year Ph.D. student, will be mentoring Jill Johnston as she enters her senior year in the criminal justice program. Black’s research project is a two-year study of issues related to recidivism among recently released prison inmates. Johnston chose to apply to this project because it parallels many of the community corrections and rehabilitation-oriented courses she has taken. Johnston and Black hope to submit their results for presentation at next year’s annual conference of the North Central Sociological Association.

Jodi Stooksberry holds a Bachelor of Arts in interpersonal communication from Wittenberg University and a master’s degree in college student personnel from Miami University. She is currently working on her doctorate in sociology at the University of Cincinnati. Her mentee, Jake Hayes, is majoring in sociology with an anticipated graduation date of spring 2015. Hayes is hoping to pursue master's work in sociology as well and will join Stooksberry in examining the subject of male sexuality in order to create a more comprehensive and nuanced understanding and discourse of the topic. Specifically, they are working to reframe the concept of male sexuality as a privilege afforded particularly to heterosexual-identifying men; one that can be acknowledged, deconstructed and interrupted.

 Megan Underhill is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in sociology at the University of Cincinnati. She will be mentoring Connor Powelson, a third-year undergraduate at UC double-majoring in sociology and anthropology. Underhill's dissertation research focuses on how parents within three different Cincinnati communities navigate the social world for their children. She is specifically interested in learning about the kinds of information parents impart to their children about their own family background, as well as those of people from different backgrounds. Powelson chose Underhill’s project because he thinks it can provide him with invaluable skills and hands-on experience as he pursues a career in higher education. His foremost goal in the program is to collect usable data that will develop a response to Underhill’s research question. Through this process, Powelson hopes to develop qualitative research skills that will enable him to design and conduct a future project of his own. Underhill and Powelson hope to present some of their preliminary research findings at the 2015 North Central Sociological Association conference.

Emily Wetzel, a fourth-year Ph.D. student, will be mentoring Aditi Naik, who is in her fourth year of the sociology bachelor's program. Wetzel's dissertation research focuses on the management of hip-hop culture and middle class identity in a predominately black space. According to Naik, this project interested her because it will provide her with the knowledge and experience to design and implement an ethnographic research project of her own. To disseminate research, Wetzel and Naik will present at the 2015 North Central Sociological Association conference. Additionally Naik will give a presentation at the end of the SUMR-UC program.