PhD Students on the Market

We are proud to present our outstanding PhD candidates who are on the job market. Below we provide a brief introduction to these young scholars that includes contact information, a summary of their research interests, and links to their CV. Please feel free to contact any of our candidates to learn more about their research and teaching interests.

If you have questions about graduate student placement or our Ph.D. program more generally, please contact our Graduate Liaison Cyrus Schleifer.

Kyle Callen

Email: Kyle.L.Callen-1@ou.edu

Curriculum Vitae (pdf)

Summary:

As a disabled scholar and citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, Kyle Callen’s research spans a variety of areas including gender, sexuality, disability, identity, deviance, race, Native American/Indigenous issues, social theory, and the sociology of knowledge. He has published work on the intersections between disability and sexuality in Sexualities (2022) and Sexual Deviance and Society, Second Edition (2021), highlighting the various theoretical perspectives undergirding research on disabilities and sexualities as well as their unique “problematizations” of the sexual marginalization of different groups of people with disabilities. His dissertation consists of three projects. The first project explores the role of eugenics within the early American reproductive rights movement and its legacies within contemporary debates on reproductive rights/justice. The second project explores the socially constructed nature of sexual desire and attraction across three key areas of sexualities scholarship: social spaces/contexts, bodies and pleasures, and sexual identities. The third project utilizes life narrative methodology among men to better understand the relationship between disability and masculinity within processes of identity construction among people with disabilities/impairments who identify as male. Finally, his work on Indigenous issues explores socioeconomic differences between Native American tribes and their connections to discourses on Native identity, capitalism, tribal economic development, and tribal sovereignty. In the end, all of these projects speak to Kyle’s larger research agenda of exploring the complexities of marginalization and empowerment within society and the various strategic deployments of empowerment amongst a variety of marginalized groups (e.g., people with disabilities and Indigenous groups).

Research Interests: Gender, Sexualities, Disability Studies, Native American/Indigenous Studies, Sociology of Knowledge

Dissertation Title: Eugenics, Sexuality, and Gender: Modern Constructions of Normality and Deviance (Spring 2024 expected)

Dissertation Committee: Meredith Worthen (Chair), Sam Perry, Ann Beutel, Michelle Velasquez-Potts (WGS), Paul D.C. Bones (Texas Woman’s University)

A.C. "Rin" Ferraro

Email:

Curriculum Vitae (pdf)

Summary:

Rin's research focuses on the well-being and experiences of youth in the child welfare system. Specifically, their research emphasizes how different placements and variations in system involvement impact emotional and behavioral well-being and their expectations for their future. They have published work on children's emotional and behavioral well-being within an out-of-home care population and mood disorders and offending behavior within a juvenile justice population. Their research aims to understand the interplay of child maltreatment and involvement in the child welfare system with multiple domains of well-being through adolescence into early adulthood. Their dissertation utilizes a mixed methods approach incorporating nationally representative secondary quantitative data and primary data collection using a participatory method with Oklahoma youth. Moving forward, Rin intends to focus on utilizing the life course perspective to examine how child abuse and neglect impact multiple domains of well-being.

Research interests: Child well-being, Child maltreatment, Sociology of childhood, Sociology of family, Family policy

Dissertation title: The Effect of Child Welfare Involvement on Youth's Well-Being and Expectations for Their Futures. (Spring 2025 expected)

Dissertation Committee: Erin Maher (chair), Cyrus Schleifer, Dan Wang, and Greg Burge (Outside Member).

David “Jessie” Laljer

Email: Jessie.Laljer@ou.edu

Curriculum Vitae (pdf)

Summary:

Jessie Laljer’s research focuses on areas of underdeveloped research, including the examination of asexuality and non-binary gender identities. His current research into asexuality focuses on how individuals who now identify as asexual learned the terminology to describe their sexuality and how they disclose (or as is often the case, not disclose) their sexuality to friends, family, and potential romantic partners. Further, his research examines how having little to no interest in sexuality may affect the life experiences of those are asexual, demisexual, gray-asexual, or otherwise fall under the asexual umbrella, as much of society functions with underlying expectations that people are expected to desire and/or seek out sexual activity. His overarching goal with his research is to further understandings not just of asexual individuals, but as to how often-contradictory ‘common sense’ expectations at various levels of society regarding the desiring sex may affect the lives, social wellbeing, and potential stigmatization of people based on variation of sexuality.

Research Interests: Family, Gender, LGBTQ, and Gender Nonconformity

Dissertation Title: Society Expects Us to Care about Sex, but what if I don’t?: Examining the Construction and Development of Sexual Identity among Asexual Individuals. (Spring 2024 expected)

Dissertation Committee: Meredith Worthen (Chair), Ann Beutel, Stephanie Burge, Trina Hope, Jennifer Holland (Outside Member)

Elizabeth McElroy

Email: elizabeth.mcelroy@ou.edu

Curriculum Vitae (pdf)

Summary:

Liz is a PhD Candidate in sociology where her research uses quantitative methods and focuses on various intersections of gender, sexuality, and religion. Using an interdisciplinary lens and drawing from the fields of psychology, sexuality studies, as well as religious studies, Liz's research explores how different social domains shape attitudes and practices surrounding personal health and well-being. More specifically, her dissertation focuses on the role religion plays in shaping people’s expectations for and experiences of pleasure and how these processes differ between men and women. She also enjoys learning about advanced quantitative methods and employing them in a way that is accessible to a general audience. She has published work in The Journal of Sex Research, Socius, Sociological Forum, Sexual Research and Social Policy, The Archives of Sexual Behavior, and The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.

Research interests: Gender, Sexuality, Religion, and Quantitative Methods

Dissertation title: The Role of Religion and Gender in Sexual Enjoyment.
(Expected Spring 2024)

Dissertation Committee: Sam Perry (Chair), Ann Beutel, Cyrus Schleifer, Meredith Worthen, Hairong Song (Outside Member)

S. Abby Young

Email: s.abby.young@ou.edu

Curriculum Vitae (pdf)

Summary:

Abby Young’s research centers around questions of gender and its implications on social outcomes in higher education and the workplace and how these dynamics change over time. The goal of her research agenda is to understand sources of gender inequality and their cultural and structural implications at various levels of society over time. Her research spans the areas of social attitudes, work, and education and is motivated by understanding gender as an organizing social system that shapes opportunities and outcomes in higher education and the workplace. Her research leverages advanced quantitative modeling techniques to model these social processes. She has published works on the gender differences in gender attitudes across college majors and gender differences in educational expectations in Sociological Focus and The Sociological Quarterly. Her current research focuses on the possible connection between two touchstones of the current slowdown or stall in the gender revolution: gender attitudes and occupational gender segregation.

Research Interests: Gender, Quantitative Methods, Gender and Work, Gender Attitudes, Structural Equations Modeling

Dissertation Title:
Gender Ideology, Occupations, and the Stalled Gender Revolution.
(Spring 2025 expected)

Dissertation Committee: Ann Beutel (Co-Chair), Cyrus Schleifer (Co-Chair), Hairong Song, and Stephanie Burge