University
of Dayton
The Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work
Dr. Pat Donnelly has served as Co-Chair of the Alcohol Coalition with Dr. William Schuerman (Student Dev.) since its inception several years ago. The Coalition was established to address a broad range of issues related to alcohol use and abuse at UD. Coalition representatives include faculty, staff, students, alumni, parents of students and local business and community officials. It has recommended and implemented a number of changes in policies and programs to address these issues. Among its first challenges was to identify the extent of alcohol-related problems. It annually conducts student self-report surveys of alcohol use and related problems; it also gathers data from Public Safety, EMS, and Residential Services to monitor alcohol-related incidents.
Based on the analysis of the problem, a number of changes were made in policies regarding alcohol use. The Coalition established a social norms campaign to promote healthy choices. It has also promoted the Weekend Scene and other alcohol-free activities on campus. The Coalition recently adopted a three year plan to guide its work.
Dr. Art Jipson headed up the Continuous Education Subcommittee as part of the university’s coordinated effort to create an effective tolerance and anti-bias policy. His group's role was to review the policies at other schools and universities and to provide recommendations for training and education. Among their recommendations: workshops for students, faculty, and staff to discuss procedures in dealing with both victims and perpetrators as well as the mechanics of filing incident reports; training that focuses on sociological, psychological, historical, and legal dimensions; involvement of student peer groups to provide a bridge between classrooms and residence halls; and collaboration with area community leaders.
Dr. Jipson is currently editing a special issue of Popular Music and Society, scheduled for July 2007 publication. The issue will deal with the topic of music used by individuals, groups, and organizations in the white racial extremist movements. With beginnings in British punk rock, the movement continues today among disparate racist skinheads throughout the United States and the world. This music includes genres such as rock & roll, punk, post-punk, death metal, folk, country, and spoken word. Influenced by white supremacist and separatist politics, these musicians use music to communicate their extremist belief system and attempt to generate followers to their cause. Most commentators refer to this music as Hate Rock.
Dr. Jipson is also continuing to gather data for his study of roadside memorials. While response to his survey has been slow, he continues to follow local and regional trends in the erection of the memorials.
Dr. Laura Leming, FMI is studying current issues in the area of sociology of religion. She received a Research Council Seed Grant to further her project entitled “Church as Contested Terrain: The Emergence of a Catholic Pro-Change Organization.” Her objectives are to analyze a Catholic pro-change organization’s development and efforts to influence church leaders towards more accountability and greater lay participation; to understand the dynamics of church official-lay member interaction where there is a call for change; and to evaluate and describe how the faith develops in local context and how individuals claim ownership of their religion.
Sr. Leming also recently submitted for publication her revised text entitled “Sociological Explorations: What is Religious Agency?” This article covers the seldom discussed sociological context of religious agency, building on the case study of a group of Catholic women, revealing some of their strategies that earmark them as religious agents.
Dr. Dan Miller is finishing a book entitled, An Interactionist Theory of Hypnosis. In this book, Dr. Miller analyzes and interprets highly asymmetrical dyadic interaction and how a simple definition of the situation can greatly affect how two people interact with each other. In the past two years he has completed four encyclopedia entries: "Print Media," "Conversation," and "Dyads and Triads" for the Encyclopedia of Sociology, and "Ritual Abuse" for the Encyclopedia of Interpersonal Violence. At the Midwest Sociological Society meetings held in Chicago, Dr. Miller presented a paper entitled, "Catching a Fly Ball and Purposive Agency." At the annual meetings of the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction he presided over a session entitled "Healthy Selves and Healthy Social Relationships.
Currently, Dr. Miller is working on two writing projects:
- A collection of articles focusing on the factors necessary for the development of healthy selves, healthy social relationships, and healthy communities.
- A book on interactionist methodologies, entitled An Interactionist's Take on Matters of Method.
Dr. Fran Pestello and Dr. Jenny Davis-Berman have collaborated on studies involving the use of psychiatric medication and the meaning that this medication has for the users. First, they did a quantitative study, surveying social workers and social work students about the extent of their mental health problems and their use of psychiatric medication. Then, they did in-depth interviews with 32 respondents who had or were currently taking medications. Through these interviews, Fran and Jenny learned that taking these medications is a complicated process, fraught with stigma and ambivalence.
Their current project involves an analysis of the issues regarding taking psychiatric medication that users are posting on an internet medical site.