Masters Theses from 2023
Socially Equal Energy Efficient Development: A Theoretical Reflection on Applied Work, Darcy A. Ayers
Ruinous Natures: The Approach of Social Timespace, Thomas Frederick Bechtold
Where’s My Favorite Dictator? An Analysis of the American Empire In Post-Revolution Egypt, Jeremy Alan Brill Booth
The PRIDE Ban on Police: Experiences of LGBTQ+ with Policing in New York, Alista G. Brawner
Greenwashing “Brown Gold”: A Critical Analysis of Anaerobic Digesters and California’s Neoliberal Environmental Programs in Wisconsin’s Dairyland, Sarah Emily D'Onofrio
Who Gave You Permission to Rearrange Me? Certainly Not Me: Examining the Racialized Nature of Beauty vis-a-vis Colorism, Skin Bleaching, and Life Chance, Natasha P. Ellis
Productivity as Social Imperative Automation and Transformations of Labor in the United States and Germany, Anthony Jack Knowles II
Transforming Harm: The Crises of Opioids, Conjunctural Politics, and Struggles for Care in Southern Appalachia, Kyra A. Martinez
The Hospital Won’t Save Us: An Exploration of the Racial Absence of Care and Emergent Radical Care as a Site of Liberation, Christopher L. Rogers
Segmenting the Thin Blue Line: An Ethnographic Content Analysis of Myth and Ritual in Contemporary U.S. Police Film, Alexandra Szmutko
Whiteness and Racial (Non)Knowing In a Historically Sundown Town, Abigail Christine Tobias-Lauerman
One Step at a Time; Union Organizing in the Public Sector South, Daniel Urquieta
Masters Theses from 2022
University Statements on the Murder of George Floyd: A Critical Discourse Analysis, Alexandria M. Brown
Political Exclusion: Examining Anti-LGBT+ Movement Results in Tennessee, Symantha K. Gregorash
Putting the meat in meat-less?: A critical discourse analysis of corporate marketing of plant-based products, Samantha A. McIntyre
Possessed: New Horror Films in the Era of Neoliberalism, Bethany C. Nelson
Justice Involvement During COVID-19 and the Possibility of Transitional Justice, Rachel A. Ponder
Film Women Violence, Madison R. Ross
Sexual Harassment as a Narrative Contest, Christine Vossler
Masters Theses from 2021
Debt Delivered: The Predatory Inclusion of a Rent-to-Own Chain in the Treasure Valley, Jeff Cates
Ni de Aquí, Ni de Allá: Constructing National Identity in the case of Jonathan González, Arturo Jaime Morales Jr
“There Shall Be Made No Differentiation:” The Maintenance of Stratification in the State of Kuwait through the 1959 Nationality and Aliens Residence Laws, Alzaina Shams Aldeen
The “Puppycide” of Policing: How the Law Rationalizes the Police Killing of “Dangerous Dogs”, Jeremy Smith
Masters Theses from 2020
“One Day Dictated So Much”: A Qualitative Study on the Long-Term Effects of Behavioral Management Charts, Aya E. Barnes
Occupy the Food Supply: The University of Tennessee and Food Insecurity, Bryan Clayborne
The Rise of the Democratic Socialists of America: A Qualitative Analysis of the Contributing Factors to Insurgent Mobilization, Grady Lowery
Group Threat and Racial Disparities in Police-Caused Killings, Ruben A. Ortiz
States of Penetration: The Body Cavity Search and Its Visual Representations, Vivian A. Swayne
(In)Voluntary: How Long-Acting Reversible Contraceptives Became Mechanisms of Reproductive Control in the Volunteer State, Della Jean Winters
Dissertations from 2019
Slow Violence and Movement Resistance by the Gas Peddit in Neoliberal India, Nikhil Deb
Indebted: Cultural Implications and the Role of Debt as Discipline on a Public College Campus, Maria Hartley
The Search for Mollie Tibbetts: How Social Media Functions in Missing Persons Cases, Alexandra R. House
The Screen of (Post)Modern Society: American Sociology and Its Discontents, Robert J. Leonard
Chocolate City Way Up South in Appalachia: Black Knoxville at the Intersection of Race, Place, and Region, Enkeshi Thom El-Amin
UNDER NEW (EMERGENCY) MANAGEMENT: THE FLINT WATER CRISIS, LEGIONNAIRES’ DISEASE AND RECREANCY, Nadya Vera
ELECTRIC PHANTOM, DIGITAL BRAIN: ESSAYS ON THE ONLINE GAMING VIRTUAL WORLDS, CHUJIE WANG
HOW RIGHTS CLAIMS EXPAND CARCERAL STATE, Narges Zahedipoor
Projects from 2018
Environmental Racism and The Flint Water Crisis, Aya E Barnes
Impression Management From the Department of Environmental Quality in the Flint Water Crisis, Haley E Boles
The Anxiety and the Ecstasy of Technical Vertigo: Psychological and Sociological Foundations of Critical Socioanalysis from the Italian Renaissance to the 21st Century, Joel Michael Crombez
"Only the Intervenor Cared": A Critical Juncture in the Rise of Dairy CAFOs and Neoliberal Environmental Policy in Wisconsin, Sarah Emily D'Onofrio
Experiences of Muslim Female Students in Knoxville: At the Intersection of Race, Gender, and Religion, Nuray Karaman
The State of the Union? Transnational Manufacturing and the US Labor Movement, Zachary Joseph McKenney
ME, MEAT, AND MO'TOWN: A MULTISENSORY ETHNOGRAPHY OF MORRISTOWN, TENNESSEE, Caitlin Mize
Attorney Stories of Environmental Crime: Harms, Agents, and Ideal Cases, Holly Ningard
HIGH STAKES EDUCATION: THE BUSINESS OF REFORM, GRASSROOTS ORGANIZING, AND THE COMMUNITY SCHOOL ALTERNATIVE, William Vaughan Taylor
Homeownership Racial Disparities in Tennessee Cities, Darrell Ronaldo Walsh
Meet the Duggars: The Reproduction of Gender Privilege in the Popular Construction of Sibling Sexual Abuse, Jessica Reené West
Dissertations from 2017
Never Forget: The Meaning of the Global War on Terror in Post-9/11 U.S. Presidential Discourse, Landon Shane Bevier
Food Justice and Practices in the Five Points Community of Knoxville, Tennessee: A Survey of Residents Living in an Urban Food Desert, Sylvia Isabel Duluc-Silva
Capitalist Organizing and Organizations: the Case of the American Petroleum Institute, Elizabeth Ashley East
WOMEN’S HELP-SEEKING BEHAVIOR FOR INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA, Ahmet Fidan
Twenty-‐first Century Deindustrialization and Uneven Development in Appalachia, Katherine Custis Gerlaugh
A History of Welfare Policy in the United States: To Feed or Blame the Hungry?, Lauren Ann Kataja
Automation, Work, and Ideology: The Next Industrial Revolution and the Transformation of "Labor", Anthony Jack Knowles II
The Three Dimensions of Political Action in United States Democracy: Corporations as Political Actors and "Franchise Governments", Steven Alfonso Panageotou
Demolishing an American Ghetto: How Neoliberalism is Reinventing Life and Labor in Nashville, Tennessee, Charles Dean Walton
A Contribution to the Critique of Labor Share Analyses, Shannon D. Williams
Projects from 2016
Reforming Oil and Natural Gas Severance Taxation as a Means of Strengthening Rural Tennessee, Erica Davis
A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival Website: A Cultural Criminology of Peace- and Community-Building, Katie Marie Highbaugh
Shades of Green: A Comparative Analysis of U.S. Green Economies, Jenna Ann Lamphere
Young Adults and the Consequences of Precarious Work, Aaron Robert Lemelin
The Scruffy City: Development in Knoxville, TN, Katherine Leigh Morris
The Rhetoric of Perpetual Warfare: A Political Discourse Analysis of the Obama Administration’s Legitimation of U.S. Drone Strikes, Douglas Ray Oeser
Masters Theses from 2015
After the Human: Theory and Sociology in the Age of Fractal Ambiguity, Dromology, and Emergent Epi-spaces, Joel Michael Crombez
Social Systems and Psychic Confluence: Flash Mobs, Communications, and Agency, Nicholas John Hauman
CONSTRUCTING VICTIMHOOD: OPPOSITION TO LEGISLATION PROTECTING LGBT STUDENTS AGAINST BULLYING, Kiam Loong Daniel Lai
Environmental Gentrification and Development in a Rural Appalachian Community: Blending Critical Theory and Ethnography, Rhiannon A. Leebrick
America’s Lethal Dilemma: Legitimating Old Methods of Execution in an Era of Abolition, Kyle Ward Letteney
New Destinations of Islamic Fundamental Terrorism: The Rise of Al Shabaab, Damien Evan Pitts
Entropy and the Economy of Violence: Anthropophagy and Sacrificial Violence in Late Modernity, Benjamin Corey Webster
Dissertations from 2014
Uncovering Latino Sex Trafficking in a New Destination Area: A Case Study, Lauren Kimberlee Copley
Using Audio/Visual Media to Increase the Sociological Imagination of an Adolescent Audience, Jon Cariba Phoenix
Agent of Harm and Good Corporate Citizen? The Case of Tyson Foods, Jennifer Lindmar Schally
Self, Society, and Environment in the 21st Century: The Development and Assessment of an Ecological Identity Scale, Tobin N. Walton
Dissertations from 2013
Immigrant Rights in the Nuevo South: Enforcement and Resistance at the Borderlands of Illegality, Meghan Elizabeth Conley
Mobility and Isolation: Latino Immigrant Adjustment in Atlanta, Georgia, Sarah Ellen Hendricks
Who Supports Labor? The Intersection of Race and Skill in Union Campaigns, Zachary Joseph McKenney
Religion’s Influence on Environmental Concern: U.S. Evangelicals’ Construction of Climate Change Perceptions, Aaron S. Routhe
How Left a Turn? Legacies of the Neoliberal State in Latin America, Aaron Thomas Rowland
Sociobiophysicality, Cold War, and Critical Theory: Human-Ecological Transformation and Contemporary Ecological Subjectivity, Alexander Stoner
“I am Working for the Good Guys:” Street-Level Enforcement of the Clean Water Act in East Tennessee, Kayla Marie Stover
Dissertations from 2012
The Effect of Race on Crime: A Multilevel Analysis, Wanjun Cui
The Politics of Protection and Promotion: the Case of the Coal Industry in Environmental Politics, Elizabeth Ashley East
Parenting Behind Bars: A Qualitative Study of Incarcerated Mothers, Beth Allen Easterling
Seeing the Forest for the Trees: Finance and Managerial Control in the US Forest Products Industry, 1945-2008, Andrew Augustus Gunnoe
Growing a Local Movement: New Social Movements, Food, and Activism, Liam Vangsnes Hysjulien
"To Preserve This Much-Injured Race": Techniques of Neutralization and Indian Removal, 1829-1831, Robert Michael Keeton
Understanding Biotechnology: Conceptualizing and Measuring US Public Concern, Jenna Ann Lamphere
Changes in US Ethnic Niches, 2005-2010, James N. Maples
The Global Debt Minotaur: An Analysis of the Greek Financial Crisis, Steven Alfonso Panageotou
Gender, Social Ties, And Reentry Experiences, Jennifer Rhiannon Scroggins
Short-Term Missions: Reinforcing Beliefs and Legitimating Poverty, William Vaughan Taylor
New Means, Old Ends? World Bank Governmentality in Thailand and Lao People's Democratic Republic, Nicholas Ryan Zeller
Dissertations from 2011
The Role of "Sense of Place:" A Theoretical Framework to Aid Urban Forest Policy Decision-Making, Kimberly Louise Davis
Mediating Justice: Toward A Critical-Reflexive Sociology, George Christopher Gondo