Service & Public Sociology

As a public-facing sociologist, I have deepened academic-professional partnerships, collaborated with community partners on public events and educational workshops, and published my research in academic sociology blogs.

Deepen Academic-Professional Partnerships

As an elected Higher Education Representative at the United Association of Labor Educators (UALE), I have helped to organize conferences inviting academics and labor educators at labor centers in UMass Lowell and UCLA, as well as regional trainings for union members (see below). I have also led in service roles with professional organizations like the Labor Research Action Network and the Labor Network for Sustainability.

UALE's Executive Board Meeting at the Minnesota AFL CIO
I served on the 2024 Planning Committee for UALE's Southern School for Working Women at the Avila Center in Durham, NC. Picture of Union Organizing in the South Panel with union leaders in IBEW, Duke Graduate Student Union (DGSU), Virginia Education Association (VEA), and Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment (CAUSE)

Community and Public Outreach

I have collaborated with labor unions and environmental organizations to organize and lead popular education workshops on the intersection of labor rights and environmental justice for workers, environmentalists, and communities. Partnered organizations include the United Auto Workers local 5287; which represents school bus manufacturing workers; the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters; and the Labor Network for Sustainability.

Climate and Jobs Workshop with UAW local 5287 in High Point, North Carolina

Public Sociology

During the 2020 Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests following George Floyd’s murder, I compiled separate sources to generate a continuous dataset of BLM protests since Ferguson protests in the wake of Michael Brown’s murder in August 2014. My R code, data, and graphical summaries are publicly available in the Open Science Framework project titled “Black Lives Matter Protests (2014-2020)”. My written analysis has published in academic blogs such as Scatterplot and Race, Politics, and Justice.