Current Research
I am currently working on two projects: one concerns insider activism and the other is a historical analysis of neoinstitutional change in higher education institutions. These projects continue from my dissertation research on curricular change in higher education institutions, which was funded by a National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant. My dissertation argues that contentious politics and neoinstitutional forces both play a role in creating curricular change (an abstract is available). 

Insider Activism
Contemporary social movement theory and research is predominantly focused on explaining social movements that target formally democratic states. But in the modern world, more and more of our lives are lived within institutions and organizations, like schools, corporations, hospitals, and prisons. Therefore, social movement studies need to develop robust understandings of the emergence, dynamics, strategies, and impacts of movements within institutions. Unlike social movements that target states, who are often defined as consumate outsiders from the political system, social movements targeting institutions often include insider activists who seek change from a position within the institution itself. My current research into insider activism and activism within institutions is proceeding in two parts. First, I am synthesizing the existing literature on insider activism from across the disciplines of sociology, education, and management to provide a more thorough understanding of the dynamics of movements targeting institutions. This synthesis will be used to create a theory of insider activism. Second, I am testing this theory with empirical data gained from a series of case studies of movements for curricular change at a diverse set of higher education institutions.

Neoinstitutional Change
Neoinstitutional theory has become a popular explanatory tool for analysts seeking to understand the hows and whys of a wide variety of institutional changes in organizations like corporations, hospitals, and educational institutions. Evidence from my dissertation suggests that at least some of the time, such explanations are useful ways to understand curricular change--particularly for advanced and institutionalized disciplines. But when, exactly, are neoinstitutional explanations useful? What sorts of institutions are likely to serve as innovators, and what sort as imitators? What does the path of institutional isomorphism look like? I will answer these questions with a longitudinal study of higher education institutions that takes into account a variety of types of peer relationships to trace change over time and across the institutional field using network analysis techniques.

Publications/Invited Presentations
"Thinking Outside the Master's House: New Knowledge Movements and the Emergence of Academic Disciplines." Forthcoming in Social Movement Studies.
"Conflict, Controversy, and Collective Actionin the Collegiate Curriculum," Cornell University Institute for the Social Sciences Textbook Controversies Workshop, Feburary 8, 2008 (conference paper available).
Panelist, "Curricular Reform: Who Owns the Curriculum?" Teaching, Learning, Leading: A Mount Holyoke College Summit on Education, October 10-12, 2008 ( video of the panel is available).
"Social Movements in Organizations." Sociology Compass 2:3, 2008.

Prior Research
My work has been published in Contexts and The Contexts Reader; Teaching Sociology, Teachers College Record; Sexualities, Evolution, and Gender; The Archives of Sexual Behavior; The Encyclopedia of Racism in the United States; ,The Encyclopedia of Sociology; and qlbtq.com. Book reviews are forthcoming in Humanity & Society and Mobilization. I have contributed to a number of American Sociological Association Teaching Resource Guides. I have also presented at the American Sociological Association and Eastern Sociological Society Annual Meetings, as well as at the Marist College Conference on Women and Society and the ASA Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Movement Cultures, Strategies, and Outcomes Conference. Writing samples are available upon request; for more information on my publications, view my complete CV, available below.