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 2025 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), Julie Gerlinger, Annabel Ipsen, 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 2025 expected)

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

Tacey M. Shurtliff

Email: taceyshurtliff@ou.edu

Curriculum Vitae (pdf)

Summary: Tacey M. Shurtliff’s research specializes in criminology and race/ethnicity during adolescence. Her work examines how societal structures influence adolescents, particularly in perpetuating inequalities in delinquency and criminal behaviors. Tacey’s research aims to uncover both the short-term and long-term consequences of these inequities on criminal justice involvement, socioeconomic status, educational attainment and more across different racial and ethnic groups. Her research also includes studying Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and their effects on adolescent delinquency and adult caregiving. Her findings are published or forthcoming in notable journals like the Journal of Criminal Justice and the Journal of Child and Family Studies. Currently, Tacey uses quantitative methods, integrating nationally representative and locally collected data, to assess how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted disciplinary practices in public education and affected adolescents of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. Specifically focusing on the 2020-2021 academic year, she is investigating how schools’ response to the pandemic – remote, hybrid, or in-person – affected school discipline and adolescent delinquency. Her research explores how systemic factors within educational institutions and neighborhoods contribute to disparities in disciplinary practices, including suspensions and expulsions, providing valuable insights into perpetuating inequalities in education during crises. Additionally, Tacey is studying bullying and harassment during this period, which saw heightened discrimination against minorities. Her research assesses the impact of these issues on future delinquency across racial and ethnic groups. She plans to expand her work to include multiracial individuals and further investigate how these dynamics affect diverse student populations.

Research Interests: criminology/criminal justice, race/ethnicity, adolescence, education, social structures, family

Dissertation Title:
Race, Education, and Crime: Understanding Adolescent Experiences and Responses to Educational Disruptions.
(Spring 2025 expected)

Dissertation Committee: Julie Gerlinger (Chair), Stephanie Burge, Ian Carrillo, Jenny Sperling

Abby Young

Email: s.abby.young@ou.edu

Curriculum Vitae (pdf)

Summary:

Abby is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Oklahoma with a substantive focus on quantitative methods and gender and will defend her dissertation in May 2025. Her research centers on unpacking the causes and consequences of the stalled gender revolution. The profound and rapid progress toward gender equality over the past 50 years is often referred to as a “gender revolution.” However, since the early 2000s, this progress has slowed down, and in some areas, it has come to a complete halt. This remains a fundamental concern given the far-reaching implications of progress toward gender equality in education, the labor market, and the family. She uses state-of-the-art statistical modeling techniques (e.g., structural equation modeling, longitudinal/panel modeling, and advanced trend analyses) to investigate attitudinal, educational, occupational, and labor market outcomes of late adolescents and adults to understand processes that lead men and women to choose gender-differentiated educational and career pathways. One line of Abby’s research explores the factors influencing changes in the expectations to attend graduate school to understand how gender stratification affects the early planning stages for young men and women before they begin their educational and career paths. Her dissertation extends this work further by addressing the relationship between the alignment of educational and occupational goals (i.e., when educational expectations match the level of education required for occupational goals) and men’s and women’s educational and labor market outcomes. Abby’s research has appeared (will appear) in The Sociological Quarterly, Sociological Focus, Sociological Inquiry, and Deviant Behavior. Abby has been the instructor of record for Introduction to Sociology. Social Problems, and Introduction to Social Statistic at the undergraduate level and was the second student in the history of the OU Sociology program to be invited to co-instruct the graduate level Advanced Regression Analysis (graduate linear models course) .

Research Interests: Gender, Quantitative Methods, Sociology of Education, Work and Family, Educational and Occupational Expectations

Dissertation Title:
Ambitious and Aligned Plans: Gender Trends in Youth’s Educational and Occupational Plans from 1976 to 2019.
(Spring 2025 expected)

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