Kari Alexander’s past research focuses on exposure to social stress, religion, and health. In addition to general research on social stress, coping behaviors, and health outcomes, she focuses more narrowly on effects of different aspects of religiosity on mental health after exposure to social stressors. Currently, Dr. Alexander is beginning to explore the effects of narrative-based online pedagogies on empathy.
Brenden Beck's research examines how socio-spatial shifts affect policing. He analyzes how urban changes like gentrification, suburbanization, and housing-market bubbles affect law enforcement outcomes like stops, arrests, and expenditures. His work has appeared in Social Forces, Urban Studies, Police Quarterly, Crime & Delinquency, City & Community, and elsewhere.
A new research project investigates which policies can reduce the frequency and racial disparity of police killings. He is analyzing chokehold bans, police unionization, and the reallocation of municipal funding from police to social services.
In addition to his research on policing, a parallel research track examines housing affordability. He has published on whether real estate investment or an influx of middle-class gentrifiers proceed one another during the process of neighborhood upscaling. Works in progress examine the role of racial segregation and large-scale landlords in driving housing price spikes.
More details on his research are available at his website: brendenbeck.net
Edelina Burciaga's current research examines the experiences of undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children. Specifically, she uses qualitative research methods to understand how federal, state, and local laws and policies shape the educational experiences, ethnic identity development, and activism of Latino undocumented young adults in Los Angeles, CA and Atlanta, GA. she is also working on two related projects; the first examines the educational experiences of undocumented immigrant students enrolled at the University of California, and the second, examines the impact of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) for young adults in Colorado.
Adam Lippert is a sociologist and demographer whose research is centered on three aims: (1) understanding the role that contexts (e.g., schools, neighborhoods) play in shaping human health and health behaviors; (2) examining the contribution of work-family circumstances to health and family well-being; and (3) exploring the mechanisms linking long-term exposure to disadvantage and declining health over the life course. He completed his PhD at the Pennsylvania State University in 2013 and post-doctoral training at Harvard University through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars program (2013-15). He enjoys working with students who share his interests (even remotely) and welcomes the chance to discuss student-led projects related to health, demography, and quantitative methods. Below are links to current publications:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26796326
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24968185
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/soin.12080/abstract
Candan Duran-Aydintug is currently working on two research projects. The first is titled "Safe House Members' Understanding and Social Construction of their Clients' Identitites and Accounts." Supported by a grant from the Center for Faculty Development at CU Denver, this research involves Adams County Safe House staff members in focus groups and semi-structured face-to-face interviews to gain understanding of how they construct their clients’ identities and narratives around the main question: “Why do they stay in or go back to abusive relationships?” In this research, Dr. Duran plans to answer additional questions, such as: Why do shelter staff members believe that these women go back? How do shelter staff members describe these women, their lives and the choices they make? In working with the women toward empowerment (the shelter’s main goal), what obstacles do staff members encounter and what roles do they attribute to the women in terms of the existence of the obstacles they face and in giving in to them? Results of this research will lead to better understanding of the questions addressed, inform more focused training of shelter staff, and carry legal and policy implications.
The second project focuses on Stay at Home Fathers. Working with Charlene Shelton, a CU Denver Sociology MA graduate, Dr. Duran-Aydintug uses a phenomenological approach, to gain an in-depth understanding how fathers who stay home connect with their children and define their role as fathers. It also explores the support groups of stay at home fathers, the obstacles they encounter, and the negotiations that occur between mothers and fathers.
Keith Guzik's areas of concentration include criminology, law & society, science & technology studies, sociological theory, and qualitative methods. His research examines technology’s role in legal institutions and processes and its impact on people’s legal experiences. His recent work has covered the use of information and surveillance technologies to combat insecurity, especially in the context of Mexico’s War on Crime, the adoption of body-worn cameras by policing agencies in the United States, the relationship between procedural justice and court legitimacy in Poland, and the influence of ethnographic methods on politics and policy. He has also written on intimate partner abuse in the past and the effects of arrest and prosecution on changing abusers’ conduct.
Book - “Making Things Stick”
Article - "Fairness on Trial"
Jennifer Reich’s research examines how individuals and families strategize their interactions with the state and service providers in the context of public policy, particularly as they relate to health and welfare. She is author of two award-winning books, Fixing Families: Parents, Power, and the Child Welfare System (2005) and Calling the Shots: Why Parents Reject Vaccines (2016), co-editor of the book, Reproduction and Society (2014), and has written 30 articles and book chapters that explore gender and inequality in child welfare, childhood vaccinations, reproduction, multiracial families, public assistance, and recovery after disaster. In addition to teaching in Sociology, Dr. Reich is a qualitative methods mentor for the Clinical Faculty Scholars Program at the CU School of Medicine. The following are some of Dr. Reich's recent publications:
"Neoliberal Parenting, Future Sexual Citizens, and Vaccines Against Sexual Risk"
"Calling the Shots: Why Parents Reject Vaccines" CLICK HERE to purchase a copy at a discount.
