Anthropology/Sociology Faculty

Christa C. Craven, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Women’s Studies
(330) 263-2283 / ccraven@wooster.edu

B.A. New College, Florida 1997; M.A., Ph.D. American, 2000, 2003.

Christa Craven is an assistant professor of anthropology and women’s studies at The College of Wooster, where she became a member of the faculty in 2006. Her areas of expertise include the global politics of reproduction, medical anthropology, grassroots organizing and global feminisms, feminist ethnography, and lesbian/gay/bi/trans/queer studies. 

Craven received her B.A. from New College of Florida (1997) and earned her M.A. (2000) and Ph.D. (2003) from American University.

She has published on grassroots activism and midwifery politics in Medical Anthropology Quarterly, and the edited collection Mainstreaming Midwifery: The Politics of Change, and has a forthcoming article on reproductive rights and “consumer rights” rhetoric in the American Anthropologist. She is currently working on a new book, Expectations of Motherhood: Power and Politics in Grassroots Organizing for Midwifery.

Craven serves on the American Anthropological Association’s Governance Commission (2005-Present) and is the past co-chair of the Society of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists (2004-2005). 

Heather Moir Fitz Gibbon - Professor of Sociology
(330) 263-2371 / hfitzgibbon@wooster.edu

A.B. Kenyon 1981; M.A., Ph.D. Northwestern 1983, 1988.

Heather Moir Fitz Gibbon is a professor of sociology at The College of Wooster, where she joined the faculty in 1990. Her areas of expertise include gender roles and the family, urban sociology, childcare, children and the family, and women and work. Her current research focuses on definitions of motherhood within the welfare system.  Much of her research has been published, including “Reassessing Commitments to Work and Family in a Changing Economy” in Qualitative Sociology and several book chapters.

Fitz Gibbon received her A.B. at Kenyon College (1981). She then earned her M.A. (1983) and her Ph.D. (1988) from Northwestern University.

A member of Sociologists for Women in Society, the Midwest Sociological Society, and the American Sociological Association, Fitz Gibbon has received several awards, including a University Fellowship from Northwestern University. In addition, she was named “Friend of Young Children” by the Wayne County Association for the Education of Young Children and has been named to “Who's Who in American Teachers.”

» Professor Fitz Gibbon's Faculty Page

Pamela R. Frese - Professor of Anthropology
(330) 263-2256 / pfrese@wooster.edu

B.A. Maryland 1974; M.A., Ph.D. Virginia 1979, 1982.

Pamela R. Frese is a professor of anthropology at The College of Wooster and a member of the faculty since 1986. She is widely known for her expertise on Anglo-American life cycle rituals and American civil religious holidays, customs, and traditions. She has also done extensive research on the wives of retired military officers and gated retirement communities.

A graduate of the University of Maryland (1974), Frese earned her M.A. (1979) and Ph.D. (1982) from the University of Virginia. Her teaching covers such topics as religion and symbolic anthropology, contemporary American culture, Latin American culture, linguistic anthropology, ethnographic research methods, and gender studies.

Frese has been widely quoted by a number of national media outlets, including USA Today and The Los Angeles Times.

» Professor Frese's Faculty Page

Raymond Gunn - Instructor in Sociology
(330) 263-2524 / rgunn@wooster.edu

B.A., Hunter College, 1984; M.A., Long Island University, 1997; Ph.D., The University of Pennsylvania

Raymond Gunn is a Consortium for a Strong Minority Presence (CSMP) Visiting Fellow in Sociology and Anthropology at The College of Wooster where he joined the faculty in 2006. His primary areas of research are race and academic achievement, urban education, urban sociology, urban ethnography, social inequality, teaching writing in the discipline, and African American males in school and society.

Gunn earned his B.A. from Hunter College (1984) and his M.A. from Long Island University (1997). He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania. His recent publications include “Inner-City Schoolboy Life,” published in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.

A member of the American Sociological Association, the American Education Research Association (Division G, Social Context of Education), and Phi Delta Kappa, Gunn has received several fellowships, including the Gertrude and Otto Pollak Summer Research Fellowship and the Spencer Foundation Pre-Dissertation Fellowship for Research in Urban Education, both from the University of Pennsylvania.

Charles E. Hurst - Professor of Sociology
(330) 263-2351 / churst@wooster.edu

B.S., M.S. Wisconsin 1963, 1965; Ph.D. Connecticut 1972.

Charles E. Hurst is a professor of sociology at The College of Wooster and a member of the faculty since 1970. He specializes in the study of poverty, job satisfaction, class structure in the United States, inequality, and organization structure and behavior.

Hurst, who came to Wooster after teaching sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley and Wisconsin State University in La Crosse, received his B.S. (1963) and M.A. (1965) from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. He also earned his Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut (1972).

A member of the American Sociological Association, Hurst wrote Living Theory: An Application of Classical Social Theory to Contemporary Life (now in its second edition). He also wrote Social Inequality: Forms, Causes, and Consequences (now in its sixth edition) and The Anatomy of Social Inequality (1979). In addition, he authored such articles as “Socio-economic Status and Health-Care Choice” in the Journal of Business Research, and published research articles in American Sociological Review, Anthropology & Education, and the Journal of Gerontology, among others. He wrote review articles for e.g., Social Forces and Contemporary Sociology. His most recent research focuses on the position of women in Amish society, and he is currently working on a book on the Ohio Amish with colleague David McConnell.

» Professor Hurst's Faculty Page

Paul Nick Kardulias - Professor of Anthropology and Archaeology
(330) 263-2474 / pkardulias@wooster.edu

B.A., M.A. Youngstown State 1974, 1977; M.A. SUNY 1980; Ph.D. Ohio State 1988.

Paul Nick Kardulias is a professor of anthropology and archaeology at The College of Wooster, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1996. He also serves as chair of the archaeology program.

An expert in the archaeology and ethnography of the Mediterranean region, the archaeology of North America, political anthropology, world systems theory, ancient trade systems, and analysis of stone tools, Kardulias is the editor of four books, including World-Systems Theory in Practice: Leadership, Production, and Exchange and Written in Stone: The Multiple Dimensions of Lithic Analysis.

Kardulias received his B.A. (1974) as well as his M.A. (1977) from Youngstown State University. He also earned an M.A. from The State University of New York at Binghamton (1980) and a Ph.D. at The Ohio State University (1988). He has received grants from the National Science Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the Greater Wayne County Foundation.

Currently, he serves as field coordinator of The Ohio State University Excavations at Isthmia in Greece, associate director of the Athienou Archaeological Project in Cyprus, and director of the Kokosing River Basin Archaeological Survey in Central Ohio. He is also on the executive board of the Central States Anthropological Society and president of the Oberlin-Wooster Chapter of the Archeological Institute of America (AIA). In 2002, he received the AIA National Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.

» Professor Kardulias' Faculty Page

David L. McConnell - Professor of Anthropology
(330) 263-2476 / dmcconnell@wooster.edu

B.A. Earlham 1982; M.A., Ph.D. Stanford 1991.

David L. McConnell is a professor of anthropology at The College of Wooster, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1992. He is a leading authority on Japanese society, culture, and education, as well as U.S.-Japanese relations. He has also conducted fieldwork on the relationship between education and modernity among the Maragoli people of Western Kenya and the Amish of northeast Ohio. His teaching and research interests include anthropology and education; family and childhood in cross-cultural perspective; and the anthropology of development and contemporary anthropological theory.

McConnell received his B.A. from Earlham College (1982). He then went on to earn his M.A. and his Ph.D. from Stanford University (1991). In 1991-92, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations at Harvard University as well as a research fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government.

McConnell has been honored with a Spencer Fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, a Fulbright Grant, a Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship, and a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship.

His book, Importing Diversity: Inside Japan’s JET Program (University of California Press, 2000) was awarded Japan’s prestigious Ohira Prize in 2001 by the Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Foundation.

» Professor McConnell's Faculty Page

Anne M. Nurse - Associate Professor of Sociology
(330) 263-2462 / anurse@wooster.edu

B.A. Berkeley 1990; M.A., Ph.D. UC-Davis 1993, 1999.

An expert in criminology, juvenile delinquency and penology, and qualitative and quantitative research methods, Anne M. Nurse joined The College of Wooster faculty in 1999 and is now an associate professor of sociology.

Nurse’s education began at the University of California at Berkeley, where she earned her B.A. (1990). From there, she moved on to the University of California at Davis, where she received an M.A. (1993) and a Ph.D. (1999).

Nurse’s publications include Fatherhood Arrested: Parenting from within the Juvenile Justice System (Vanderbilt University Press, 2002), which explores issues surrounding incarcerated and paroled juvenile fathers. She has also authored articles on topics ranging from service learning to parenting programs. Other projects include evaluations of both Wayne County’s juvenile diversion program and a fatherhood program offered to low-income men.  

Nurse recently finished collecting data from a three-year longitudinal study of 40 juvenile inmates. Publications from this project will focus on prison culture and on social support systems available to inmates. Over the years, she has received grants for her research from the George Gund Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the United States Department of Justice.

» Professor Nurse's Faculty Page

Robert R. Sands - Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Archaeology
(330) 263-2532 / rsands@wooster.edu

B.S. Illinois State 1978; M.A. Iowa State 1986; Ph.D. Illinois 1991.

Robert R. Sands is a visiting assistant professor of anthropology and archaeology at The College of Wooster, where he joined the faculty in 2007. His areas of expertise include anthropology, sport and culture, and ethnography of sport. His current research is on deep play, spirituality, and the environment. He is also involved in ethnographic fieldwork on the southern California surf culture.

Sands received his PhD from the University of Illinois (1991), his M.A. from Iowa State University (1986) and B.S. from Illinois State University (1978).

Prior to joining Wooster’s faculty, Sands worked in the applied fields of archaeology, cultural resource management and environmental management and policy.   He was environmental manager at Edwards Air Force Base for CH2M HILL, a leading international environmental company.  Prior to Edwards, Sands taught for 10 years at colleges in southern California and Nevada. 

The author of Sport Ethnography (2002), Anthropology, Sport and Culture (1999), Sport and Culture: At Play in the Fields of Anthropology (1999) and Instant Acceleration: Living in the Fast Lane. The Cultural Identity of Speed (1994), Sands’ 1999 ethnography, GutCheck! An Anthropologist’s Wild Ride into the Heart of College Football, received considerable review and mention on television, radio, and in print media.

Associate Professor of Sociology
(330) 263-2153 / ttierney@wooster.edu

B.A. Moravian 1979; Ph.D. Massachusetts 1990.

Thomas F. Tierney is an associate professor of sociology, who joined the faculty in 1999. He graduated summa cum laude from Moravian College (1979) and earned his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (1990).

Prior to arriving at Wooster, he was an Associate Professor of Philosophy and Political Science at Concord College (1990-98), and in Spring 1999 served as a National Endowment for the Humanities Visiting Scholar at Otterbein College.

His research interests include: classical and contemporary social theory; medical sociology; and science and technology studies. His most recent research focuses on the social implications of the various bioethical issues that have been generated by advanced medical technology.

Tierney’s publications include The Value of Convenience: A Genealogy of Technical Culture (SUNY, 1993), as well as numerous scholarly articles in Philosophy and Social Criticism, Political Theory, Theory & Event, Body and Society, and The Journal of Medical Humanities. He is a member of the American Sociological Association and the American Political Science Association, and has received numerous research grants throughout his career.