March 2026
Sociology recently launched its Community Advancement Fund, and Dr. Malin was one of two recipients. She put this departmental funding to good use by doing foundational work on her mycelial social science projects.
With the support of Ph.D. student Reecca Forsythe, Stephanie created a working multidisciplinary "database" of articles related to mycelial systems, from mycoremediation to psychedelic studies and ecology. That database informed a long-form review manuscript, which synthesizes all of that work across disciplines and argues for a unified mycelial social science as a model and metaphor centered around environmental justice (EJ) and social change. The review article is currently under review at Human Ecology. This project also informed Stephanie's sabbatical project ideas and some related fellowship applications since this will be a new research agenda for her related to spaces of hope and regenerative change.
Rebecca was supported by this project, co-led the creation of the database, and acted as second author on the review manuscript.
Dr. Nowacki was interviewed by The Rocky Mountain Collegian for their article "Bias-Motivated and Hate Crime Hotline launches in Larimer County."
“There’s a lot that goes into whether someone reports a crime,” said Jeffrey Nowacki, associate professor of sociology at CSU. “I would suggest that legitimacy, race and experiences with police is a big part of that.”
District Attorney Gordon McLaughlin shared the story via Facebook and said “We’ve gotten really, really positive feedback from a lot of folks. Knowing that the last year especially has been a really scary time, … anything additional we can do to support is really valuable right now.”
Dr. James Hale and colleagues' research project "Discovery Farms and Ranches: A Review of On-Farm Research Programs" has been selected for funding through the Fall 2025 Sustainable Rural Futures Seed Grant Program.
"We were impressed by the strength of your interdisciplinary team and the potential of this project to seed sustained partnerships and future external funding. We look forward to seeing it develop over the coming year," said the award committee. "On behalf of the College of Liberal Arts, the College of Agricultural Sciences, and the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, congratulations — we are excited to support this work."
Ph.D. student Yue Xu has been selected as the 2026 recipient of the Rural Sociological Society (RSS) Dissertation Research Award. This award supports graduate student research that advances the field of rural sociology and helps foster the development of future rural sociologists. It recognizes dissertation research that demonstrates strong scholarly promise and contributes meaningfully to understanding rural people, places, and processes.
Guided by Dr. Laura Raynolds, Yue's proposed dissertation research and scholarly trajectory exemplify the purpose and spirit of this award. Yue's dissertation examines China’s seafood regime across production, processing, and consumption, shedding light on the hidden human, social, cultural, and environmental costs of rural development.
Polina Kopeikin successfully defended her master’s thesis, “Contaminated Waters: How Social Demographics Can Be Predictors of Inorganic Chemicals in Community Water Systems.” In her work, Polina shows how exposure to water contamination varies across communities, highlighting how environmental risks are unevenly distributed by race, socioeconomic status, and geography. Committee: Drs. Pat Hastings, Pete Taylor, John Tracy (Colorado Water Center)
Dr. Nefratiri Weeks successfully defended her dissertation entitled “Moon Mining: Imperialism’s Next Frontier or Democratic Cooperation?” Nefratiri’s dissertation takes a long durée approach to analyzing governance of the moon and its resources, identifying how systems of space governance have been developed and transformed. She traces how processes of democracy and imperialism have shaped moon governance and argues that the 1967 Outer Space Treaty and 1979 Moon Agreement provide natural bridges to global democracy for the moon. Doctoral Committee members: Drs. Laura Raynolds, KuoRay Mao, Jessie Luna, and Dimitris Stevins (Political Science)
Sociology major Jay Mario Bates Domenech was recognized as the overall winner of this year's Multicultural Undergraduate Research Art and Leadership Symposium (MURALS). They were awarded the competition's top prize of $1,000.
Jay's project "Erasing the Spectrum: Intersectional Exclusions of Autism in Television" examined how autistic characters are represented across race and gender and if these patterns reinforce symbolic annihilation and racialized/gendered disability sterotypes.
CONGRATULATIONS, JAY!
MURALS is an undergraduate research, leadership, and artistry symposium at CSU that provides a platform for undergraduate students to showcase their scholarly work in creative writing, visual and performing arts, entrepreneurship, S.T.E.M.M., social sciences, or humanities. Graduate students and faculty provide feedback to improve their projects.
Sociology major Addie Ward won this year's "Social Sciences and Humanities Rising Star" MURALS award for her presentation, "Mapping Missing Women in the US." Addie has hand drawn over 7,000 data points for missing women in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons Systems (NamUs) database and then transferred her data into a GIS heat map.
She is currently working on mapping all data points for missing men, adding demographic overlays to her heat map, and utilizing her coursework in SOC 315 to qualitatively analyze differences in media representation of select missing persons cases across race, ethnicity, gender, and class.
She is currently being mentored by Ph.D. student Rebecca Forsythe for this work.
CONGRATULATIONS, ADDIE!
150 Sociology graduates of all ages and stages answered CLA's recent alumni survey.
Please continue to submit your news and events to Sociology's Communications Coordinator. Thank you!