WVU Department of Sociology and Anthropology

06/02/2026

Dr. Amy Hirshman's student, Emma Snyder, who presented their co-authored paper “Two Groups or One? Experimental Intra-Assemblage Ceramic Morphological Assessment from the Late Postclassic Pátzcuaro Basin, Michoacán, México” at the Society for American Archaeology Annual Meeting in San Francisco, CA on May 2, 2026. Emma is a former RAP student who continued as a research assistant in Hirshman’s archaeology lab. She did a great job of presenting! Emma graduated this spring and will being a masters program in Public History in the Fall.

06/02/2026

During the WVU Undergraduate Research Symposium two SOCA students had the following presentations!

Maasila finished her second semester of the RAP program with a poster entitled “Not Just a Supporting Role: Reanalyzing Ceramic Support Fragments From Tzintzuntzan, Michoacan, Mexico”. This was a co-authored poster on supports from a historically important archaeological survey collection from Mexico.

Clark, finishing a second semester of research credits, presented “Sherds” of the Tarascans”, a co-authored poster on the occurrence of slip and certain decoration motifs on ceramic artifacts from the same historically important collection from the site of Tzintzuntzan, Michoacán, México.

06/01/2026

Want to learn about archaeology? Come out to Jackson's Mill on Saturday, June 27th!

05/26/2026

The Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology is proud to announce that during Graduation weekend we graduated 133 Criminology students, 10 Anthropology students, 3 Sociology students, 1 Sociology Ph.D. student, and 2 Women's and Gender Studies students! Congratulations Grads! 💙💛

05/13/2026

Congratulations to Barb Reiprich, who is retiring at the end of June after 36 years of administrative service at WVU! Barb has been a beloved colleague and a consistent source of support and humor throughout eight leadership transitions in the department. We will dearly miss her and wish her all the best!

05/11/2026

Dr. Renfrew's spring 2026 anthropology capstone students published their projects on our Environment and Society Lab website: https://www.wvenvsoc.org/2026-projects

These four group projects focused on West Virginia-based environmental issues, including: community concerns about AI data center development in two counties, the complex relations of a town living in the shadow of a military Superfund site, and the unfolding aftermath of an oil spill-caused water crisis. You can view each project under the "2026 Projects" tab!

Spring 2026 Environment and Society Lab Senior Capstone For the spring 2026 edition, we initially organized our work around the collective theme of communities affected by petrochemical contamination. We wanted to build from 2025 Center for Resilient Communities (CRC) Intern Isabelle Judy’s work

05/08/2026

Next week, Dr. Walter DeKeseredy will present two papers at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Justice Studies Conference at the University of Winnipeg. More information on this international event is available at this link: https://www.facebook.com/CIJS.ca/

The CIJS

05/06/2026

Ella Holley, a Criminology and International Studies major, has earned the Order of Augusta, the University’s most prestigious honor for academic excellence, leadership and service!

Read more about her amazing acomplishments here:

Ella Holley, a member of the Honors College from Pickerington, Ohio, is graduating with dual degrees in international studies and criminology, and minors in Russian studies and military science. A student in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences and an Army ROTC cadet, she built her undergraduate....

05/04/2026

Dr. Walter DeKeseredy was recently interviewed on the CBC Radio Saskatchewan's Blue Sky Radio Show. The show was about violence against women in professional sports-related contexts and the implications of the Saskatchewan Roughriders firing a famous abusive player. Here is the link to a video featuring the entire radio broadcast.

1 like. "Athletes and violence against women: are the Riders an outlier?"

05/01/2026

Dr. Larry Nichols, retired professor in Sociology, was awarded the J. Milton Yinger Lifetime Award for Distinguished Career in Sociology by the North Central Sociological Association on April 17, at their annual conference held this year in Pittsburgh, PA

The J. Milton Yinger Lifetime Award for a Distinguished Career in Sociology is given to an individual who is, or who has been active in the field within the NCSA region. The principal criterion for this award is an extraordinary career in some activity that has furthered the work of Sociology as a discipline.

Dr. Nichols’ research and publications focused on symbolic interactionist theory, history of sociology, and corporate values and white collar crime. He offered courses in both our Sociology and Criminology degree programs, including, constructing social problems, sociology of business, white-collar crime, terrorism, organized crime, and juvenile delinquency.

Congratulations, Larry!