Department Secretary
Mrs. Ramona Moore
375-4932
Trout Hall 101
rmoore@roanoke.edu

Dr. Marit Berntson
Associate Professor of Sociology
B.A., St. Olaf College; Ph.D., University of Minnesota

Dr. Marit Berntson joined the Roanoke faculty in fall 2002 after spending two years at Grinnell College as a Mellon postdoctoral fellow and lecturer. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota and her B.A. from St. Olaf College. Dr. Berntson will teach Data Analysis, Introduction to Sociology, Social Movements, Political Sociology, Senior Seminar, and other sociology courses as needed in the department. She will contribute to the department's concentration in Information Analysis. Dr. Berntson's research intersects the areas of political sociology, social movements, race and ethnicity, and gender. Her most recent research is on women's reasons for joining France's extreme right-wing Front National political party, based on analysis of party documents, fieldwork, and interviews and correspondence conducted from 1997-2002. She explores the meaning they make of their activism and the discourses on gender, family values, nationalism, anti-immigration (particularly anti-Islam following September 11, 2001), and anti-globalization. Dr. Berntson is also conducting research on the relationship between the anti-immigration and the anti-racism movements in France from 1985-2002. Her earlier research has been on nationalism, fascism, and women in the pre-1933 Nazi Party.

Prof. Diane V. Brogan
Teaching Associate
B.A., Roanoke College; M.S., Radford University

Professor Brogan holds a Master's degree in Criminal Justice from Radford University, having completed graduate work at Virginia Commonwealth University as well. Since 1991, she has taught a variety of courses including Introduction to Sociology, Criminology, and Juvenile Delinquency. In 2002, Professor Brogan retired from the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice after 26 years of service working with youth and families. Her interests include evaluation of juvenile interventions and programming, the examination of bureaucratic organizations, and the application of criminological theory to practice. Professor Brogan will serve both the Sociology and Public Affairs Departments in her appointment as Teaching Associate for 2005-2006.

Dr. Max Gilbert Dunn
Associate Professor of Sociology
B.A., Ohio Wesleyan; M.A., Tulane; Ph.D., University of Virginia

Gil Dunn joined the Roanoke College faculty in 1993. His interests include religion, theory, and mass communication. He teaches Introduction to Sociology, Sociology of Religion, Popular Culture, The Information Society, Social Theory, Senior Symposium, and Senior Seminar, and he is the coordinator of the Information Analysis concentration. He has co-authored a monograph on media research, and he has been awarded grant support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Col. Dunn has a special interest in the Canary Islands.

Dr. Kristi L. Hoffman
Associate Professor and Department Chair for Sociology
B.A., University of Virginia; M.S., Ph.D. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Dr. Kristi Hoffman joined the Roanoke College faculty as a Visiting Professor in 1995. Her undergraduate work concentrated on criminal justice issues, focusing on juvenile justice, the death penalty, and women inmates. At Virginia Tech, she completed research on family violence including a study on wife abuse in Thailand and older sibling violence in the U.S. Current research projects concern service learning and dating patterns among young adults. She has presented a variety of papers on her research at association meetings and has recently published articles in the Journal of Family Violence and the Journal of Family Issues.

Dr. Hoffman teaches a variety of courses in her areas of expertise including Criminology, Education and Society, Introduction to Sociology, and a class on Intimate, Marital and Family Relationships.

Dr. Whitney A. M. Leeson
Assistant Professor of History and Anthropology
B.A., College of William and Mary; M.A., Ph.D., University of Virginia

Dr. Whitney Leeson holds a doctorate in Historical Anthropology from the University of Virginia. She has been on Roanoke's faculty since 1993 teaching both anthropology and history courses. Dr. Leeson offers Introduction to Anthropology, Archaeology, Ethnography, Witchcraft, and Historical Anthropology.

Dr. Meeta Mehrotra
Associate Professor of Sociology
B.A., St. Xavier's College, Calcutta University; M.S., Ph.D., Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Dr. Meeta Mehrotra joined the faculty at Roanoke College as a visiting professor in 1998. She completed a B.A. degree in Political Science from St. Xavier's College, Calcutta and did graduate study at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. She earned her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Sociology at Virginia Tech. Her dissertation examined the intersection of ethnic identity and gender among Asian Indian immigrants.

Dr. Mehrotra's research interests include racial and ethnic relations, gender, ethnic identity, and domestic violence. Research from her Master's thesis on wife abuse among Indian immigrants was published in the journal Violence Against Women. She is a reviewer for journals Family Relations and Gender and Society.

Dr. Mehrotra has taught Introduction to Sociology, Race and Ethnicity, Sociology of the Family, Sociology of Gender, and Social Stratification at Roanoke College. She developed a new, upper-level course on Gender and Development for the Sociology Department and has taken students to India during the May term. She brings a comparative global perspective to her courses, and plans to teach courses on women in developing countries and gender in South Asia.

Dr. Laura O'Toole
Professor of Sociology
B.A., M.A., Ph.D., University of Delaware

Dr. Laura O'Toole joined the faculty at Roanoke College in 2001, after serving on the faculty of Guilford College (NC) for eight years. Her primary areas of teaching and scholarly interest are Sex and Gender, Organizations and Work, and Social Inequality. She regularly teaches in these areas, as well as courses in social theory and social problems. She has also developed advanced seminars exploring gender relations in organizations and gender violence. Dr. O'Toole has co-authored two books, Social Problems with Frank Scarpitti and Margaret L. Andersen (Longman, 1997) and Gender Violence: Interdisciplinary Perspectives with Jessica R. Schiffman (New York University Press, 1997.) A newly revised edition of Gender Violence will be published in early 2007. She has published several articles and book reviews, presents regularly at scholarly meetings, and frequently reviews manuscripts for various publishers and the journal Gender and Society. Her current research focuses on the work experiences of licensed massage therapists.

During her career, Dr. O'Toole has received numerous awards for her teaching, research, and advising. Most recently, she has been listed in Who's Who Among America's Teachers in 2004 and 2005. She is an active member of the American Sociological Association, the Eastern Sociological Society, and Sociologists for Women in Society

Dr. Daniel Sarabia
Assistant Professor of Sociology
B.A., M.A., Humboldt State University; Ph.D., Oklahoma State University

Dr. Daniel Sarabia joined the faculty at Roanoke College in fall of 2004 shortly after he earned his doctorate from Oklahoma State University. His primary teaching and research interests are in the areas of environmental sociology, social movements, international political economy, comparative-historical sociology, and social inequality. While completing his studies at Humboldt State University, Dr. Sarabia developed interests in cultural sociology and East Asian history, and is now involved in several projects that examine the interplay between culture and nature in ancient China.

Dr. Sarabia's continued interests in social movements research has led to the publication of a manuscript in Sociological Spectrum and a project underway that explores the transmission of group ideology by Mexican-American civil rights activists. He has presented his work at the professional meetings of the American Sociological Association, the Mid-South Sociological Association, the Midwest Sociological Society, and the Southern Sociological Society. Dr. Sarabia has served as a reviewer for Sociological inquiry, Contemporary Sociology, and Sociological Spectrum. This upcoming academic year he will be teaching Environmental Sociology, Global Population Problems, Introduction to Sociology, and a special topics course that examines the sociological field of collective behavior. In May 2006, Dr. Sarabia will teach an Intensive Learning course in México.

Dr. Gregory L. Weiss
Professor of Sociology
B.A., Wittenburg University; M.S., Ph.D., Purdue University

Dr. Gregory Weiss joined the Roanoke College faculty in 1975. Since that time, he has taught a variety of courses within the department, but his speciality areas are Ethics and Medicine, Research Methods, and Native Americans. He is the coordinator for the Health Care Delivery concentration. Dr. Weiss founded the Roanoke College Center for Community Research in 1983 and served as its Director until 1991. Dr. Weiss was selected as the Circle K Outstanding Professor in 1979, as Blue Key Professor of the Year in 1985, as the recipient of the Dean's Council Exemplary Teaching Award in 1996 and the Dean's Council Professional Achievement Award in 2003, and was selected as the recipient of the TIAA-CREF Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award in 2004.

Dr. Weiss has published more than 30 scholarly articles and made more than four dozen presentations at professional meetings. He is the lead author of a Medical Sociology textbook, The Sociology of Health, Healing, and Illness published by Prentice Hall and a Research Methods anthology published by Allyn and Bacon. Dr. Weiss was Co-Editor of the Virginia Social Science Journal for eight years, has served on the Editorial Board of Teaching Sociology, and does frequent reviewing for other journals. He is an active member of several professional associations; has chaired the American Sociological Association Committee on Distinguished Contributions to Teaching; and served as Secretary-Treasurer of the ASA section on Undergraduate Teaching; and has served as President of the Virginia Social Science Association and the Virginia Sociological Association.

Dr. Jeremiah B. Wills
Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology
B.A., High Point University; M.S./Ed.S, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro; Ph.D., North Carolina State University

Dr. Wills joined the sociology department at Roanoke College as a visiting professor in 2007. He completed his doctoral degree in sociology at North Carolina State University where he specialized in family sociology and social inequality. His master's degrees are in marriage and family counseling. Dr. Wills combines an applied perspective with the theoretical and empirical foundations of sociology in the courses he teaches. His current research projects involve using longitudinal data analysis methods to examine the effects of maternal employment on child well-being outcomes and the construction of gender ideologies within families over time. He also conducts research in the scholarship of teaching and learning, focusing on applications of quantitative literacy in the classroom. Dr. Wills' recent publications have appeared in Journal of Marriage and Family and Teaching Sociology.

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