11/12/2021
Left: Sara Guthrie
Sara earned her BS in sociology from Lock Haven University in 2015 and completed her MA in applied sociology from the University of Massachusetts Boston in 2017. Previously she studied q***r student group cohesion on college campuses and their ability to be politically active in these settings. While Sara is still very interested in political mobilization and collective action, she has now turned attention to the political activities within closed religious groups. Specifically, Sara focuses on the ways political mobilization has changed within the Amish community in recent years. In addition to her independent research, Sara works as the graduate research assistant for the Amish Research Team with Drs. Stein, Corcoran and Colyer. Sara recently finished sitting for comprehensive exam and she is looking forward to tackling her dissertation proposal in the coming months. Outside of academia, Sara loves to rock climb, kayak, and explore all that West Virginia has to offer with her dog, Rudy.
Middle: Brittany Kowalski
Brittany received her B.A. in sociology with a double major in Catholic studies, a minor in women and gender studies, and a certificate from the honors program from Seton Hall University in 2015. She then began her graduate studies at West Virginia University where she graduated with her M.A. in sociology in May 2017. Her master’s thesis focused on gender roles and their effect on attraction amongst college students.
Brittany is currently a doctoral candidate in the sociology with a certificate in university teaching. Her dissertation research examines the effect of perceptions of role congruity on the content of subjective evaluations through an examination of student evaluations of instructors. Her broad research interests include social psychology, roles, perceptions, motivations, gender, inequalities, intersectionality, religion, and research methods. During her time as a graduate student, Brittany has fulfilled many roles from being a teaching assistant to working as an editorial assistant on a journal. She was also a Graduate Research Assistant on an NSF funded grant (AGEP EAGER Project #1935469) with Drs. Kasi Jackson and Sharon Bird that examined the leverage points for enhancing diversity at institutions of higher education. Brittany is currently an Outstanding Dissertation Fellow for the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at West Virginia University. In addition to these roles, Brittany has worked with many faculty in the department on research projects that have been published in journals such as Review of Religious Research, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Sociology of Religion, and Sexuality & Culture. She has also taught as an adjunct instructor for the University of Alabama and Pierpont Community and Technical College. Brittany is currently on the job market and pursuing positions in academia.
Right: Mikaela Zimmerman
Mikaela completed her Bachelor's degree in Sociology with focuses in race/ethnic relations and gender/sexuality at The Pennsylvania State University in 2017. She completed her Master's degree in Sociology at West Virginia University in 2019; her thesis studied interparticipant connection in facilitated dialogue and advocated for implicating facilitation techniques in governmental relations and policy creation. Currently, Mikaela is writing her dissertation on rural identity and rural political attitudes in central Pennsylvania (which is also where she is located at the moment). Mikaela and her coauthor are waiting on the book for which they wrote a chapter to come out. Their chapter is about socratic method facilitation/teaching methods in the classroom. In terms of hobbies, hiking, traveling, and live music have been taking up the most time and space in her free time lately!
