UMass Boston

Research & Impact

Full-time Sociology faculty members have earned doctorates from major universities and are active researchers in their fields of study. Our lecturers are active in urban affairs, clinical settings, and criminal justice administration, and many conduct research as well. 

Faculty Research Specializations

Globalization, Immigration and Migration:
Capetillo, Montalva Barba, Okigbo, Solari

Criminology, Law and Punishment: 
Brown, Contreras, Gascón,  Zaykowski

Race/Ethnicity and Urban/Community: 
Contreras, Gascón, Morales, Okigbo

Critical Race Theory: 
Montalva Barba

Gender: 
Montalva Barba, Okigbo, Solari
Bobel

Culture, Group Processes, and Identity:  
Capetillo, Okigbo, Rodriquez, Solari, Stewart, Youngreen

Mental Health, Health and Aging:  
Contreras, Morales, Rodriquez
Burr, Mutchler, Stokes, Sprague

Political Sociology and Public Policy: 
Brown, Stewart
Kallman, MacIndoe, Warren

Research Methods:  

Current Funded Projects

Professor Daniel Gascón: 2023-2024 Principal Investigator, Moral Wars, Articulation, and Mass Criminalization in the United States. UMass Boston Pedagogical Innovation Award, $3,100. The study draws on newspaper articles and government reports to examine the institutional and organizational contexts of police brutality in Los Angeles and Boston during the height of the so-called "Superpredator" panic of the 1980s and 1990s.

Professor Miguel Montalva Barba: 2024-2025 Principal Investigator, Witnessing the Emplacement of Whiteness: Gentrification through the Experience of Black and Latine Folks. Russell Sage Foundation, $35,000. This research focus on whether Black and Latine folks' narratives about the emplacement of Whiteness focus on the loss of community and the literal and figurative frequency of cultural displacement of people of color.

Professor Cinzia Solari: 2022-2024 Principal Investigator, Nonbinary and Transgender Students’ Experiences Navigating High School. UMass Boston Healey Grant, $7,176. The study aims to uncover school practices that support nonbinary and transgender students as well as propose new practices, derived from our data, that might increase inclusion.

Professor Evan Stewart: 2023–2024 Principal Investigator, Religion, Spirituality, and Religious Renewal. Social Science Research Council, $11,110. This project investigates whether the rise of nonreligion and nonspirituality is challenging religious institutions, and thus detrimental to the health of American democracy.

Recent Publications

Gascón, D., Mejia-Mesinas, A., Perez, X., Sanabria, J., and Sclofsky, S. (Forthcoming). Policing and State Crime in the Americas: Postcolonial and Southern Perspectives. Palgrave-MacMillan.

Montalva Barba, Miguel. 2024. White Supremacy and Racism in Progressive America: Race, Place, and Space. Bristol University Press.

Morales, DX. 2024. The Mental Cost of Food Insecurity among LGBTQ+ Americans. Population Research and Policy Review. Published Online. 10.1007/s11113-024-09881-8.

Morales, DX, Grineski, SE, Collins, TW. 2024. Inadequate Mentoring in Undergraduate Research Experiences: Exploring Protective Factors. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. Published Online. DOI:10.1111/nyas.15186. 

Morales, DX, Grineski, SE, Collins, TW. 2024. The Silver Lining of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Undergraduate Research Experiences, Mentorship, and Posttraumatic Growth. Research in Higher Education. 65(3), 576-599. 

Grineski, SE, Morales, DX, Collins, TW, Chavez, Y, Avondet, CL, Pasillas, N. 2024. Mentorship, Remote Engagement, and COVID-19: Student Wellbeing during Summer 2022 Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REUs). Journal of American College Health. Published Online. DOI: 10.1080/07448481.2024.2351428.

Paat, YF, Morales, DX. 2024. Perceived Discrimination and Relative Deprivation as Predictors for Age Differences in Loneliness. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. Published Online. DOI: 10.1080/15332985.2024.2357352. 

Frederick, A, Monarrez, A, Morales, DX. 2024. (accepted on 06/04/2024). Strategic Familismo: How Hispanic/Latinx Students Negotiate Family Values and Their STEM Careers. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education. DOI: 10.1080/09518398.2024.2365191. 

Frederick, A, Monarrez, A, Morales, DX. 2024. Care Work, Science Brokering, and Career Motivations: How Hispanic/Latinx Young Adults in STEM Express Social Agency during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering. 30(6):109–128. Wagler, A,
Monarrez, AE, Echegoyen, E, Morales, DX, *Seira, D, *Ramirez, A. 2024. (accepted on 06/12/2024). Factors and Mediators Impacting the Number of Undergraduate Research Mentees at A Research-intensive Hispanic-serving Institution. PLOS ONE.
Radhakrishnan, Smitha and Cinzia D. Solari (equal coauthors). "Beyond #Girlboss and #Tradwife: Reclaiming Joy from our Feminist Imaginaries." forthcoming, Contexts Magazine: Sociology for the Public.

Solari, Cinzia D. and Skylar Rathvon. 2024. Cedarwood Public High School Equity Report: Focus on Trans and Nonbinary Students. Conference papers – American Sociological Association, 1-40.