Our Faculty
sociology
PAUL ALMEIDA
Professor Almeida’s research centers on the efficacy of collective action at the local, national and global levels of social and political life. He currently works on environmental and economic justice-based social movements.
Email: palmedia@ucmerced.edu
camila alvarez
Professor Alvarez’s areas of expertise are environmental sociology, environmental justice, and quantitative methodology. One of her current projects is developing innovative research methodologies to measure and address environmental inequalities across race, class, and gender.
Email: calvarez55@ucmerced.edu
IRENEE R. BEATTIE
Professor Beattie studies educational inequality along the lines of race, class, gender and sexuality. A current project uses quantitative analysis and focus groups to understand intersectional variation in academic outcomes among LGBTQ+ college students.
Email: ibeattie@ucmerced.edu
Stephanie Canizales
Professor Canizales' research centers children and youth in the study of international migration and immigrant integration. Her current book project draws on qualitative data to interrogate how Central American- and Mexican- origin youth navigate coming of age without parents and legal status in the U.S.
Email: scanizales@ucmerced.edu
KYLE DODSON
Professor Dodson studies the role of political institutions in fostering political behavior and attitudes, with an emphasis on cross-national differences and over-time change.
Email: kdodson2@ucmerced.edu
CHARLIE EATON
Professor Eaton studies the role of social ties, organizations, and politics in the interplay between financiers, other elites, and subordinated social groups. One of his principal current projects analyzes race, class, and student debt as a system of stratification.
Email: ceaton2@ucmerced.edu
EDWARD OROZCO FLORES
Professor Flores' research focuses on labor, immigration, religion, and local social movements. He is faculty director of the UC Merced Community and Labor Center
Email: eflores52@ucmerced.edu
Blythe George
Professor George’s (Yurok) work centers on trauma, meaning, and resilience on rural tribal reservations, drawing from in-depth interviews, ethnography, and data sovereignty to insert the experience of Indigenous communities into the study of marginalization.
Email: blythegeorge@ucmerced.edu
TANYA GOLASH-BOZA
Professor Golash-Boza’s research focuses on the intersection between racism, capitalism and the law, with an emphasis on deportation, incarceration, and gentrification.
Email: tgolash-boza@ucmerced.edu
LAURA HAMILTON
Professor Hamilton studies gender, family and education, with a specific focus on the transitions to adulthood among college students.
Email: lhamilton2@ucmerced.edu
yang lor
Professor Lor studies education, stratification, culture, race & ethnicity, Asian Americans, and political participation.
Email: ylor2@ucmerced.edu
Amanda Mireles
Professor Mireles studies social inequality, gender, and the family.
Email: amireles5@ucmerced.edu
WHITNEY PIRTLE
Professor Pirtle has expertise in the areas of race and racism, identity, health equity, and Black feminist praxis. She leads the Sociology of Health and Equity (SHE) Lab.
Email: wpirtle@ucmerced.edu
Andrea Polonijo
Professor Polonijo studies health disparities along axes of socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender identity. Her current projects focus on social determinants of vaccination across the life course.
Email: apolonijo@ucmerced.edu
Daisy Reyes
Professor Reyes is primarily interested in how race and ethnicity are constructed and mobilized within institutions, with particular focus on sites critical for social mobility, like colleges and universities. Her newest project examines the mobility trajectories of college-educated Latinx millennials with specific attention to their financial experiences and familial arrangements.
Email: daisy.reyes@ucmerced.edu
ZULEMA VALDEZ
Professor Valdez specializes in the study of social inequality in labor markets, entrepreneurship, and health from an intersectional perspective (race, class, & gender) and among Latinas/os in the U.S.
Email: zvaldez@ucmerced.edu
NELLA VAN DYKE
Professor Van Dyke specializes in the study of social movements, hate crime, and sexuality, with a focus on social movement tactics, mobilizing contexts, and student activism and experiences.
Email: nvandyke@ucmerced.edu
Meredith Van Natta
Professor Van Natta's research explores the intersection of citizenship and science, medicine, and technology policy. Her current project examines how immigrant patients and their healthcare providers in the U.S. balance health risks against the threat of detention and deportation.
Email: mvannatta@ucmerced.edu
ELIZABETH WHITT
Professor Whitt’s research centers on the study of higher education with a focus on college students’ learning and successes, and issues and trends in student affairs practices.
Email: ewhitt@ucmerced.edu
MARJORIE S. ZATZ
Professor Zatz’s research focuses on immigration policy, youth and families, and on race/ethnicity, gender and juvenile and criminal court processing and sanctioning.
Email: mzatz@ucmerced.edu
Contact
Nella Van Dyke
Sociology Graduate Program Chair
Email: nvandyke@ucmerced.edu
Website: sociology.ucmerced.edu