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Honors and Accolades 2006-2007
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Chris Smith received numerous grant awards this year. They include: $1,096,631 from Lilly Endowment Inc. for a project entitled "Tracking the Religious Lives of American Youth into Emerging Adulthood: A Proposal for NSYR Wave 3" (January 1, 2007-December 31, 2010); $99,750 from the John Templeton Foundation for a project on "Continuity and Change in the Religious lives of American Youth" (July 1, 2007-June 30, 2009); $160,127 from the John Templeton Foundation for a project on "Human Personhood and Social Science" (January 1, 2007-December 31, 2007); $99,920 from the John Templeton Foundation for a "Religion Survey Data Expansion Project" (May 15, 2007-May 14, 2008); $99,894 from the John Templeton Foundation for a project on "Innovative Research on Generosity" (May 15, 2007-May 14, 2008); and a $291,905 subcontract with the University of North Carolina for a Lilly Endowment Inc. funded grant entitled "The Religious Practices of American Youth" (July 1, 2006-December 31,2007).
Kevin Christiano has been elected Secretary-Treasurer of the Section on the Sociology of Religion of the ASA. Kevin also recently learned that Cambridge University Press is going to bring out a paperback edition of his first book, Religious Diversity and Social Change: American Cities, 1890-1906, twenty years after its initial publication (1987).
Lyn Spillman is Chair-Elect of the Culture Section of the American Sociological Association, the second largest ASA section with over a thousand members. She was also invited Plenary Speaker at the meetings of the Research Network on the Sociology of Culture of the European Sociological Association in Gent, Belgium in November and invited Plenary Speaker at the Spring 2007 conference of the Center for Cultural Sociology, Yale University.
David Hachen is a co-PI on a 3-year NSF funded project designed to develop an emergency response system which can identify emergency situations by detecting anomalies in cell phone usage and network patterns. Read full story >
Bill Carbonaro has been promoted to Associate Professor with tenure.
Juli Sobolewski's contract as Assistant Professor has been renewed.
Dan Myers won the 2007 Sheedy Award for teaching excellence in the College of Arts and Letters. The Sheedy Award was established in 1968 by an anonymous donor to honor Rev. Charles E. Sheedy, C.S.C. The award is given annually to an outstanding teacher in the College of Arts and Letters. Father Sheedy, who died in 1990, served as the dean of Notre Dame's College of Arts and Letters for 16 years.
Dan has also accepted a position as Director of Research and Faculty Development for the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. This position will have him working half-time in an administrative role at Kroc and half-time as a sociology faculty member.
Notre Dame professor says mortgage crisis to affect housing segregation: In the old days, mortgage lending was just like Jimmy Stewart in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” says Notre Dame sociologist Richard A. Williams. You got a mortgage from the savings and loan, and the loan was offered at a fixed rate for 15 or 30 years. Read full story >
Maureen Hallinan received the Notre Dame Award for Excellence in Research on Catholic Education.
Jorge A. Bustamante, Eugene Conley Professor of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame, has been named the 2007 recipient of the American Sociological Association's Cox-Johnson-Frazier Award. One of the most prestigious professional honors in sociology, the award is given annually either to a sociologist for a lifetime of research, teaching, and service to the community or to an academic institution for its work in assisting the development of scholarly efforts in this tradition. The Cox-Johnson-Frazier award honors the intellectual traditions and contributions of Oliver Cox, Charles S. Johnson and E. Franklin Frazier. Read full story >
Samuel Valenzuela and graduate student Nicolás Somma, along with Political Scinece Professor Tim Scully, won the "Federico Gil Prize" awarded by the Chilean Political Science Association for the "best paper" presented at its meetings in the field of Comparative Politics. The jury was composed of four past presidents of the association and its current president. The paper is entitled "The Enduring Presence of Religion in Chilean Ideological Positionings and Voter Options."
Nicolás Somma won 3rd place in the 2007 North Central Sociological Association's graduate student paper competition for his paper “The Conditional Effectiveness of Strong Ties in Protest Recruitment Attempts.”
Karen Boyd has accepted a tenure-track position at Methodist University in Fayetteville, NC.
Yuting Wang has been selected for a pre-doctoral fellowship sponsored by the Kaneb Institute. The Fellowship will support her during the 2007/2008 academic year and will allow her to teach and to work on her dissertation while in residence at Northwestern University.
Doris Zhou won the Jeanine Becker Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Award.
Brandy Ellison won the John J. Kane Memorial Award. This award is presented annually to the department's most outstanding graduate student.
Karen Boyd won the David L. Dodge Memorial Teaching Award. This award is conferred annually on the graduate student in our program who has most distinguished himself or herself in the teaching of undergraduates.
Maryann Erigha is the winner of the 2007 Margaret Eisch Memorial Award. The Eisch Award is given each year to the outstanding graduating senior majoring in Sociology. The Eisch family established the award in memory of their daughter Margaret, a Notre Dame Sociology major who died in 1976.
Maryann also received the University of Notre Dame Alumni Association's 2007 Distinguished Student Award. Read full story >
Claire Duncan is the winner of the 2007 Sociology Senior Essay Award. This award is given each year for the best essay or research paper submitted by a graduating senior or seniors on a topic of sociological relevance. Claire's paper was entitled "Activism, Activist Diversity, and Voter Turnout. "
Seniors Nevert Badreldin, Chloe Bekavac, Claire Duncan, Maryann Erigha, Stephen Fabian, Brittany Faron, Caitlin Hawryszkow, Jennifer Heissel, Naseem Helo, Kristin Hopson, Rachel Lewis, Erin Kelsey, Claire Kerner, Ariel Klingaman, Emily Krisciunas, Amanda McBride, Kelly McDermott, Joshua Pasquesi, Lauren Plenn, Daniel Scholz, Damian Sclafani, Leanne Wiborg and Rena Zarah have been selected for induction into AKD, the Sociological Honor Society.
Juniors Emily Cooperstein, Kathleen Daley, Kelly Jones, Matthew Poczatek, Nicole Ruggirello, Renee Rzepka, Margarett Schramm, and Kimberly Tavarez have been selected for induction into AKD, the Sociological Honor Society.
Claire Duncan, Maryann Erigha, Erin Kelsey and Rachel Lewis have successfully completed the Sociology Capstone Project.
Saskia Sassen (Ph.D. 1974) received Notre Dame's first Distinguished Alumnus Award. The award was established to mark the school’s first commencement ceremony and is presented to an individual who has received a graduate degree from Notre Dame and made a difference to his or her field, community or society at large. Sassen is the Ralph Lewis Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago and Centennial Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics. She is recognized worldwide as one of the most important social science voices on the subject of globalization. Read full story >