Faculty Member, Sociology & Anthropology
Assistant Professor
About
I received my Ph.D. from Washington State University in 2006 and I am currently an Assistant Professor in the Sociology and Anthropology Department at the College of Charleston. Previously, I served on the faculty at Oklahoma State University.
My research explores the extent to which community and family members use information technologies and other new media to maintain social networks in the urban, rural, and global contexts. In addition, it investigates how an increasing reliance on electronic connections is affecting the fabric of communities and people’s everyday lives. My research is designed with the objective of using multiple research methods. To achieve this goal, I have used participant observation in local communities and conducted sizeable surveys of people’s 1) use of information technologies, 2) social networks, and 3) community involvement. Through this research, I have attempted to address theoretical issues concerning whether or not the Internet is reducing or strengthening community ties. From this work, I have published a few articles and have several others in progress. In a related effort, I am now using a nationally representative data to examine how urban and rural residents’ technological proficiency is lagging behind suburbanites, leading to what some consider a new form of digital inequality.
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