Faculty
Virginia Adams O'Connell | Associate Professor of Sociology and Department Chair
Education:
M.A. & Ph.D., Sociology, University of Pennsylvania
B.A., Sociology and Anthropology, Haverford College
Office location: PPHAC 315
Office Phone: 610-625-7756
Email: voconne1@moravian.edu
Research interests and expertise
Medical sociology (with a concentration on the profession of medicine, medical education, and bioethics), Research Methods (focusing on the dialogue between quantitative and qualitative methodologies), Survey Development, Research Ethics, the Sociology of Law, and Demography.
Virginia Adams O'Connell's Biography
Dr. Adams O’Connell has served on the American Sociological Association (ASA) Ethics Committee and currently serves on the ASA Sociology of Law Undergraduate Paper Committee. She also served on the Greenville Hospital System’s (Greenville, South Carolina) MedEx Academy Development Committee. She is the author of the book Getting Cut: Failing to Survive Surgical Residency Training (University Press of America) and has also authored several book chapters, articles in peer-reviewed journals, and conference presentations. Current projects include a multi-institutional study of the training and practice expectations of premedical students and a study on the unmet medical needs of the clientele of an urban food bank.
Allison Bloom | Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Education:
Ph.D., Anthropology, Rutgers University
M.A., Anthropology, Rutgers University
B.A., Women's Studies, and Hispanic Studies, Vassar College
Office location: PPHAC 312
Office Phone: 610-625-7729
Email: blooma@moravian.edu
Research interests and expertise
Dr. Bloom’s research interests and areas of expertise include gender studies, medical anthropology, U.S. immigration and Latinx studies, applied anthropology, and inequalities in health and social services, with a focus on domestic violence, aging, and disability.
Teaching: Dr. Bloom’s course offerings include Cultural Anthropology, Health in Cultural Perspectives, and Sociology/Anthropology of Gender, among others. Her courses focus on themes such as gender-based violence, inequalities in healthcare and social service systems, cross-cultural perspectives on the body and health, globalization, and migration.
Current Research: Dr. Bloom’s research interests include the intersection of gender-based violence with health, disability, aging, and immigration. Her current project focuses on understanding how immigrant Latina women receiving services for domestic violence in the U.S. combine evangelical Christianity with social and health services to move forward through violence. Through this study, she is investigating domestic violence from a life-course perspective by considering the long-term effects of violence and how social services can better accommodate aging survivors and survivors with disabilities. Dr. Bloom is an active member of the Society for Applied Anthropology, the Society for Medical Anthropology, and the American Anthropological Association. She regularly presents her work at academic conferences as well as collaborates on research with social work researchers and social service and health practitioners. Her previous research project centered around domestic violence services in Uruguay.
Joon-Beom Chu | Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Education:
Ph.D., Anthropology, University of Arizona
M.A., Anthropology, University of Arizona
J.D., American University Washington College of Law
B.A., International Studies, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Office location: PPHAC 310
Email: chuj@moravian.edu
Research Interests and expertise
Dr. Chu’s primary research interests and areas of expertise include law school socialization, criminal prosecutors and defendants, jury trials, and legal language. By adopting a holistic approach to the study of criminal legal processes grounded in local dynamics of poverty, segregation, and disenfranchisement, Dr. Chu’s research highlights the ways that legal actors mediate the embodied, symbolic, and material production and experiences of violence and suffering—setting the parameters of what counts as violence and who deserves protection from suffering.
Dr. Chu received his B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Arizona. In addition, he has a J.D. degree from American University Washington College of Law. Dr. Chu has published articles on the socialization of criminal discourse, and law school socialization. He is currently researching the socialization of criminal prosecutors and defendants after law school. Dr. Chu is an active member of the American Anthropological Association and has an active attorney license from the New York State Bar.
Akbar Keshodkar | Professor of Anthropology
Education:
M.Sc & D.Phil, Anthropology, Oxford University
M.A, Islamic Studies and Humanities, Institute of Ismaili Studies, London
B.A., Biology and Islamic Studies, Oberlin College
Office location: PPHAC 311
Office Phone: 610-861-1685
Email: keshodkara@moravian.edu
Research interests and expertise
Dr. Keshodkar is a cultural anthropologist. One of his research interests lies in investigating how people in communities dominated by tourism in different parts of the world strive towards maintaining their resilience as they cope with imposing conditions of involuntary immobility resulting from unsustainable tourist activities. Another area of his research examines the impact of transnational socio-economic networks on pathways of mobility and formulations of identities in Muslim communities in East Africa and Western Indian Ocean societies.
Dr. Keshodkar is currently working on two projects—one focused on exploring transnational social/cosmopolitan networks across the Indian Ocean, and the other analyzing the relationship between tourism, development, and cultural change in Muslim societies. He teaches courses in Modern African History and Society, Africana Studies, Anthropology, Sociology, and Indian Ocean Studies. Topics of his courses include identity politics, movement of identities, tourism and development, transnationalism, comparative sociology, globalization, and anthropological research methods.
Rebecca Malinski | Assistant Professor of Sociology
Education:
Ph.D., Criminal Justice, Michigan State University
M.A., Sociology, Ohio University
B.A., Sociology and Criminology, Ohio University
Office Location: PPHAC 316
Office Phone: 610-625-7886
Email: malinskir@moravian.edu
Research interests and expertise
Youth violence and victimization, bullying and school-based victimization cyberbullying and cyber-deviance, research methods (particularly as they relate to the study of crime and victimization).
Teaching
In addition to Introductory Sociology, Dr. Malinski’s course offerings are concentrated in criminology and criminal justice. Currently, she offers courses on crime, law, and justice; corrections in America; social structure and crime; and the sociology of violence.
Research: Bullying and cyberbullying; violence; surveillance and society; criminological theory.
Dr. Malinski conducts research in the areas of interpersonal violence and victimization. Her research in this area focuses on bullying and cyberbullying experiences of adolescents and the impacts these experiences have on their well-being. She is particularly interested in the interactions between offline bullying and cyberbullying experiences among young people, as well as the gendered nature of bullying experiences. Additionally, Dr. Malinski examines the role of informal surveillance in society. Currently, she is collecting data on the use of location-tracking applications among university students and their peer and family networks. Dr. Malinski tests and examines criminological theory as it relates to all of her work. ”
Dr. Malinski is primarily interested in the impact that crime and the criminal justice system have on children and adolescents. Specifically, she is interested in better understanding youth offending and victimization in various forms. Her current projects are aimed at better understanding the impact of bullying and cyberbullying victimization on adolescents, as well as the relationship between these two forms of victimization. Specifically, she is currently engaged in research examining what impact bullying and cyberbullying victimization have on several mental health outcomes. She is also working on another study seeking to better understand the relationship between bullying victimization and cyberbullying victimization, including potential trajectories of offline and online victimization. Dr. Malinski is an active member of both the American Sociological Association and the American Society of Criminology and presents her research findings regularly. Her publications include:
Malinski, R., Holt, T. J., Cale, J., Brewer, R., & Goldsmith, A. (2022). Applying Routine Activities Theory to Assess On and Offline Bullying Victimization among Australian Youth. Journal of School Violence, 1–13.
Malinski, R., Monaco, A., & Vander Ven, T. (2021). (My Full Name) IS A WHORE: Gendered Experiences in Cyberbullying and Online Harassment. In Deviance Today (2nd ed., pp. 403–436). Routledge.*
Zeoli, A. M., Malinski, R., & Brenner, H. (2017). The Intersection of Firearms and Intimate Partner Homicide in 15 Nations. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 1524838017738725.
Debra Wetcher-Hendricks | Professor of Sociology
Education:
Ph.D., Applied Social Research, Lehigh University
M.A., Social Relations, Lehigh University
B.A., Communications, Glassboro State College
Office location: PPHAC 314
Office Phone: 610-861-1415
Email: wetcher-hendricksd@moravian.edu
Research interests and expertise
Wetcher-Hendricks' primary academic endeavors are related to research methodology, particularly quantitative data analysis. Other areas of interest, based on her own academic background, include gender studies, interpersonal communication, and classroom pedagogy.
Debra Wetcher-Hendricks' Biography
Dr. Wetcher-Hendricks received her B.A. in communications with a specialization in Journalism from Glassboro State College (now Rowan University), as well as her M.A. in Social Relations and Ph.D. in Applied Social Research from Lehigh University. She is the author of Analyzing Quantitative Data: An Introduction for Social Researchers (John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2011) Dr. Wetcher-Hendricks' main academic interest is social research methodology, specifically analysis of quantitative data (statistics). Within this field, she has completed several analyses of statistical models and derivations of statistical formulas, highlighted both in scholarly journals and at academic conferences. In addition to her focus on research methodology, topical areas of research that Dr. Wetcher-Hendricks has pursued include interpersonal and mass communication, gender relations, popular culture phenomena, and classroom teaching strategies. She has served as a consultant for academic personnel and community agencies pursuing independent research projects. One of her most gratifying accomplishments, however, was receiving the 2013 Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching.
Staff
Lori Boyle | Department Assistant
Office Location: PPHAC 313
Office Phone: 610-861-1318
Email: boylel@moravian.edu
Adjunct Faculty
Attorney Kimberly Goodge-Makoul (2006)
B.A., Moravian University
J.D., Widener University
Magisterial District Judge Nancy Matos Gonzalez (2022)
M.A., Boston University
Judge Samuel Murray (2009)
B.A., Moravian University
J.D., Seton Hall University School of Law
Vincent Ramunni (1998)
B.A., Moravian University
M.S., Shippensburg University
Attorney Frances Sonne (2006)
B.A., Pennsylvania State University
J.D., Temple University
Dr. William Vogler (2017)
B.A., Hobart College
M.A., University of Chicago
Ph.D., Indiana University of Pennsylvania