Dr. Robert Brenneman (PhD, 2010)  authored Homies and Hermanos: God and Gangs in Central America. View on Amazon Read More >

A competition developed by a team of University of Notre Dame experts, including sociologist David S. Hachen, Jr., uses concepts from open sourcing and crowdsourcing to help propose and assess new civil infrastructure systems for developing countries. The Shelters for All Competition: A Call to Deliver Safe, Affordable Housing to the World’s Poor challenges participants to design low-cost and safe housing that fits the cultural context of the communities in which the homes will be built. Read More >

Recent publication: Professor Maureen Hallinan edited the book Frontiers in Sociology of Education, which was published in 2011 by Springer. Read More >

Young adults today enjoy more freedom, opportunities, and personal growth than any previous generation. But their transition to adulthood also is more complex, disjointed, and confusing than it was for their counterparts a generation ago. In Lost in Transition (Oxford University Press, 2011), University of Notre Dame sociologist Christian Smith explores the difficulties today’s young people face, the underlying causes of those difficulties, and the consequences for both individuals and for society in general. Read More >

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In 2009 the University of Notre Dame launched the Science of Generosity, an initiative funded by a $5 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation, to support and conduct research into the origins, manifestations and consequences of generosity.

Directed by Christian Smith, the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Sociology, the initiative has awarded nearly $3 million to 13 research projects conducted by scholars around the world, and it is in the second year of conducting its own research on the causal mechanisms that encourage and inhibit generosity. Read More >

University of Notre Dame Professor Christian Davenport has been awarded the American Political Science Association’s 2011 prize for best book on race, ethnicity, and politics for_Media Bias, Perspective and State Repression: The Black Panther Party_ (Cambridge University Press). Read More >

Daniel Escher, a doctoral candidate in Notre Dame’s Department of Sociology, takes his field research seriously: He plans to spend 18 to 24 months embedded in central Appalachian coal country to research the social effects of mining on surrounding communities. Read More >

Does mobile technology actually help students to learn to better express themselves and ultimately enhance their face-to-face interactions? This is one of many questions that sociologists David Hachen and Omar Lizardo will try to answer as part of a pioneering three-year study by the University of Notre Dame’s Wireless Institute. Read More >

Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers,a book co-authored by University of Notre Dame sociologist Christian Smith, has received a 2006 book award from Christianity Today magazine. p. Publishers nominated some 240 titles for this years awards, and judges from the Christianity Today staff chose 22… Read More >

William Carbonaro, associate professor in the Department of Sociology, has been named the 2011 “Notre Dame DGS of the Year.” The award, in its inaugural year, honors the director of graduate studies deemed to have had the most significant impact on a University graduate program. Read More >