Accomplishments: Department of Sociology

Andrew Thomas Reyes, Huaxin Song (both Nursing), Tirth R. Bhatta (Sociology), and Christopher A. Kearney (Psychology) published an article, “Exploring the Relationships Between Resilience, Mindfulness, and Experiential Avoidance After the Use of a Mindfulness- and Acceptance-Based Mobile App for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.” This article is…
Josiah Kidwell and Michael Ian Borer (both Sociology) recently published an article, "The Sanctuary of the Spectacle: Megachurches and the Production of Christian Celebrities and Consumers," in the Journal of Media and Religion. The article analyzes the entanglement of religion, media, and celebrity culture in the context of a Las Vegas-…
Marta Soligo (Sociology and International Gaming Institute) and Josiah Kidwell (Sociology) published two chapters in the academic eBook COVID-19: Sociological Scenarios. Soligo’s chapter (in Italian), “The Sociology of Tourism and COVID-19: The Case of Las Vegas,” is a sociological analysis of the effects of the pandemic on tourism,…
Marta Soligo (Sociology and International Gaming Institute) was interviewed for the sociology podcast "The Social Breakdown." Soligo explored the sociology of tourism, especially the relationship between COVID-19 and the travel industry. She discussed the role of tourism in Las Vegas as well as the creation of culture…
Jonathan Jiménez (Sociology) has just published the chapter "When the Gayborhood Isn't Enough: How Trans Youth Utilize the Internet to Make a Digital Trans Neighborhood" in The Gayborhood: From Sexual Liberation to Cosmopolitan Spectacle, by Lexington Books. The paper details the estrangement and exclusion of trans youth from supposedly LGBT…
Daniel Okamura (Sociology) has just published as co-editor, The Gayborhood: From Sexual Liberation to Cosmopolitan Spectacle. This volume was assembled out of concern that the body of research had begun to essentialize and reify gay urban enclaves as frozen in time and location when such places have witnessed and experienced rapid…
Benjamin Burroughs, Ben Morse, Michael Carmona (all Journalism and Media Studies), and Travis Snow (Sociology) presented a panel, "Watching Watchmen: Race and Anonymity" at the Far West Popular Culture Conference hosted by UNLV earlier this month. 
Simon Gottschalk's (Sociology) interview on The Internet and the Infantilization of Western Society has just been published in the Portugese magazine SHIFTER. Gottschalk reflects on his writings in The Terminal Self: Everyday Life in Hypermodern Times (Routledge) and his Salon article The Infantilization of Western Culture…
Tirth Bhatta (Sociology), Nirmala Lekhak (Nursing), and their colleagues developed a brief, reliable, and valid altruism scale that is useful for assessing this important prosocial orientation and resource among older adults and other age groups. Despite growing interest in the health significance of altruistic orientations, surprisingly little…
Tirth Bhatta (Sociology) and Nirmala Lekhak (Nursing) collaborated with Eva Kahana of the sociology department at Case Western Reserve University and Boaz Kahana to publish a research article, "Loving Others: The Impact of Compassionate Love on Later Life Psychological Well-being," in The Journals of Gerontology: Series B. The article concerns the…
Anjala Krishen (Marketing), Han-fen Hu (Management, Entrepreneurship, and Technology), Andrew Spivak (Sociology), and  Olesya Venger (Journalism) recently had their paper, "The Danger of Flavor: E-cigarettes, Social Media, and the Interplay of Generations," accepted by the Journal of Business Research. This interdisciplinary study…
Elizabeth Lawrence (Sociology) and colleagues published two articles, "A Gender Framework for Understanding Health Lifestyles" and "Developing Health Lifestyle Pathways and Social Inequalities Across Early Childhood."