Social Stratification Work & Economy Families Social Statistics Research Methodology
I’m an associate professor in the Sociology Department at the University of Alberta. I joined the department in 2012 after completing my PhD at the University of Washington. My general research interests include social stratification and policy; race, class, and gender inequality; credit and labor markets; economic sociology; organizations; and quantitative and qualitative methods. If you were to ask me about my area, I’d likely tell you that I study social stratification and policy with several research projects that fall under this broad area. Please see my website for more details on my research and teaching.
My recent research projects have addressed the many dimensions of wealth inequality, the role of household structure in determining economic security, and labor market outcomes for people with different types of disabilities. I am currently embarking on a large-scale mixed methods project, The Great Canadian Class Study, that will bring together secondary data, multiple online surveys, and in-depth interviews to provide a better understanding of the complicated dynamics behind social class in Canada.
I regularly teach stratification, policy, statistics, and methods courses in the department. These courses include Inequality and Social Stratification (SOC 260), Introduction to Social Statistics (SOC 210), Social Structure and Public Policy (SOC 672), Data Analysis and Research (SOC 456), and the recently created Applied Research Internship (SOC 415) course.
Selected topics in the practice of public administration; content may vary from year to year.
Fall Term 2020Statistical reasoning and techniques used by sociologists to summarize data and test hypotheses. Topics include describing distributions, cross-tabulations, scaling, probability, correlation/regression and non-parametric tests. Prerequisite: SOC 100 or consent of instructor. Note: This course is intended primarily for students concentrating in Sociology
Winter Term 2021Individual study opportunity on topics for which no specific course is currently offered by the Department. Prerequisite: Consent of Instructor and the Undergraduate Advisor.
Fall Term 2020Supervised applied research experience and seminar sessions. Prerequisite: SOC 315 or consent of instructor.
Winter Term 2021A practical approach to social science research that focuses on methods for preparing, analyzing, and presenting data. Prerequisite: SOC 100 or consent of instructor
Fall Term 2020