At the conclusion of the Spring 2015 term, Professor Rhonda Levine taught her final class after 33 years of work at Colgate. To celebrate her amazing career, we asked some of her former students to contribute to a blog with comments about how she has impacted their lives. Take a look, and please let me know if you would like to contribute to the blog, too. Best wishes for your retirement, Professor Levine!
Five seniors presented their theses to the Sociology and Anthropology faculty on Wednesday May 6th. High honors went to Christina Helm for her paper and research on “University Facebook Pages: Applying Interaction Ritual Theory to the Digital World.” Honors went to four students – Cindy Gaete presenting her paper “Proud to be an Anchor Baby: Resistance and Agency of Stigmatized U.S.-Born Children of Unauthorized Parents.”; Suzanne Brewster wrote on “Attack Politics on Social Media: The Negative Campaigning Strategies of Male and Female 2014 Congressional Candidates.”; Elyse Cianfarano’s paper was titled “Colgate Contested: A Study in Power, Identity, and Community.” ; and Marielba Casabona presented her research on “Patch-working Pathways Towards Higher Education: A Qualitative Study on the Experiences of Unauthorized Latina/o Students in California”. Copies of all theses are available in the SOAN department library for viewing. Congratulations to all of these students for their year-long efforts in researching, writing, and presenting their material!
Professor Henke (center) at the final Spring 2015 SOAN Happy Hour in Donovan’s Pub.
We continue our end-of-year gratitude by recognizing Professor Chris Henke, our fabulous SOAN department chair. Starting this fall, Professor Henke will take on the role of Upstate Institute Director, and Professor Paul Lopes with become the new SOAN department chair. During his time as the SOAN chair, Professor Henke has made a number of lasting contributions to our department. Most notable are his efforts to strengthen our SOAN community through new rituals and symbols. Professor Henke worked very hard to extend community outreach through the SOAN webpage, blog, tumblr, and new department logo. Under his leadership, SOAN developed an annual year-long thematic series of events, Cho-Dunkin’ Tuesdays, and strengthened our existing faculty and student Happy Hour programs. He also lead the efforts to redesign our SOAN student commuter lab and roll out our new Sociology and Anthropology majors. Thank you Professor Henke for your two strong years of exceptional leadership!
Submitted by Professor Janel Benson
