SOCIAL & BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES EXPERTS AT UK

Faculty and research experts at the University of Kentucky (UK) are available to speak to the news media about a variety of topics ranging from finance and economics to literature and the arts. Members of the media wishing to interview or consult with these individuals should call (859) 257-1754.

Categories:

Anthropology

Mary Anglin, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-1051
E-mail: mary.anglin@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Medical anthropology
    Breast cancer/reproductive health
    Women's health, with emphasis on reproductive cancers and HIV
    Cultural anthropology
    Gender
    Political economy
    Appalachia and U.S., Latin America
    Ethnographic research in North America: rural Southern Appalachia, urban West Coast of the U.S.
    Culture, power and political economies
    The intersections of gender, race, ethnicity, class and (trans)nationality Environmental contamination and risks to health and livelihood

Lisa Cliggett, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-2796 or (859) 312-7318
E-mail: lisa.cliggett@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Ecological and economic anthropology
    Africa
    Higher Ed
    Online teaching
    International Studies
    Development

George M. Crothers, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology and Director of William S. Webb Museum of Anthropology and Office of State Archaeology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-8208
E-mail: george.crothers@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Prehistoric archaeology
    Hunters and gatherers
    Cave Archaeology
    Origins of agriculture
    Archaeology of eastern North America
    Looting of archaeological sites
    Antiquities market and traffic in artifacts

Scott R. Hutson, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-9642
E-mail: scotthutson@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Archaeology in the public eye
    Mesoamerica
    The Maya
    2012
    Archaeology in the Americas
    Early explorers

Hsain Ilahiane, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6920
E-mail: Hsain.ilahiane@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Information and communication technologies
    Small-scale farming
    Community-based resource management
    Informal sector
    Islam
    Development
    Political ecology
    Ethnography
    Middle East, Africa

Richard W. Jefferies, Professor, Department of Anthropology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-2860
E-mail: rwjeff1@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Exchange and interaction
    Social networks
    Lithic analysis
    The emergence of cultural complexity
    Cultural ecology
    Prehistoric hunter-gatherers of the North American midcontinent

Diane E. King, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-8208
E-mail: deking@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Cultural anthropology of the Middle East, specifically Kurdistan
    Current Middle Eastern issues and developments
    Collective identity
    Kinship and family
    Gender
    Migration
    Politics

Erin Koch, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-7312
E-mail: erin.koch@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Medical anthropology
    Ethnography of science and technology
    Global health
    Microbes
    Infectious disease
    Displacement
    Humanitarianism
    Postsocialism
    The state
    Georgia and the Caucasus region, former Soviet Union, the U.S.

Sarah Lyon, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-5038 or (859) 539-1296
E-mail: sarah.lyon@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Economic anthropology
    Consumption
    Tourism
    Alternative markets and globalization
    Agricultural commodities (coffee)    
    Central America and Mexico
    Anthropological perspectives on globalization

Kristin Monroe, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-5390
E-mail: kristin.monroe@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Anthropology of the Middle East
    Urban anthropology
    Cultural geography
    Mobility and migration studies
    Political anthropology
    Built environment
    Youth culture
    Conflict studies
    Military culture

Christopher A. Pool, Professor and Chair, Department of Anthropology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-2710
E-mail: capool0@pop.uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Evolution of complex societies
    Political and economic archaeology
    Cultural ecology,
    Craft production
    Archaeology of ethnicity
    Ceramic analysis
    Archaeometry
    Geoarchaeology
    Technological choice
    Ancient cultures of Mexico and Central America, especially the Olmecs, Formative or Preclassic Mesoamerica, and Classic Veracruz civilization

Monica L. Udvardy, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6919
E-mail: udvardy@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Contextually changing meanings of tangible and intangible cultural property, as well as cultural identity politics and anthropological ethics
    Global traffic in a category of non-Western art/artifacts
    Expressions of gender and gender theory approached from both anthropology of meaning and from development anthropology perspectives
    Mijikenda peoples of the East African coast and hinterland

Geography

Stanley D. Brunn, Professor, Department of Geography and Support Faculty, Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6947
E-mail: brunn@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Social and political geography
    Geographical futures, information and communication
    Electronic human geographies
    Humane geographies
    World urbanization
    Disciplinary history
    Major regions: North America, Europe and Central Asia

Patricia Ehrkamp, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6952
E-mail: p.ehrkamp@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Urban, political, cultural geography
    Migrant transnationalism
    Geographies of citizenship
    Identities and space
    Gender

Jeff A. Jones, Assistant Professor, College of Public Health-Department of Health Behavior
Joint Appointment in Department of Geography
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-2087
E-mail: jeff.jones@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Adolescent health
    Survey research
    Public health systems
    GIS
    Sexually transmitted diseases (STIs)
    Gay/lesbian communities

P.P. Karan, Professor, Department of Geography and Support Faculty, Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6953
E-mail: ppkaran@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Development and environmental management
    Geography of multinational corporations
    Society-environment relationships
    Asia/Pacific, Japan, South Asia

Michael Kennedy, Associate Professor, Department of Geography
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6494
E-mail: kennedy@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Geographic information systems
    Computer cartography
    Computers for urban design
    Planning

Daehyun Kim, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6057
E-mail: biogeokim@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Biogeography
    Coastal/Forest ecology
    Soil-landform modeling
    Multivariate/Spatial statistics

Tad Mutersbaugh, Associate Professor, Department of Geography
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-1316
E-mail: mutersba@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Political ecology
    Rural development in Mexico

Jonathan Phillips, Professor, Department of Geography
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6950
E-mail: jdp@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Geomorphology
    Pedology
    Earth surface systems

Lynn Phillips, Lecturer, Department of Geography
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-4140
E-mail: lphil2@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Environmental planning
    Sustainable cities
    Land use

Karl Raitz, Professor, Department of Geography
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6948
E-mail: gegraitz@email.uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. American landscapes
    Historical geography
    U.S.
    Appalachia
    Photography and geography
    Visual methods

Susan Roberts, Professor and Chair, Department of Geography and Support Faculty, Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-2399
E-mail: sueroberts@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Global political economy
    Geography of financial capital
    Development
    Feminist theories
    The Caribbean

Morgan Robertson, Professor, Department of Geography
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-0591
E-mail: mmrobertson@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Political ecology
    Commodification of nature
    Neoliberalism and the environment
    Wetland ecology and policy

Graham D. Rowles, Professor and Director, Graduate Center for Gerontology with Joint Appointment inDepartment of Geography
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-1450
E-mail: growl2@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Geography of aging and the elderly
    Rural geography
    Qualitative research methods

Michael Samers, Associate Professor, Department of Geography
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6966
E-mail: michael.samers@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Economic and Urban Geography
    Immigration (especially political economy, labor markets and Islamic/Muslim issues)
    European Union, France, US

Richard Schein, Professor, Department of Geography
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-2119
E-mail: schein@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Cultural landscape
    Urban geography
    U.S. historical geography

Anna J. Secor, Associate Professor, Department of Geography
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-1362
E-mail: ajseco2@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Space, subject and the state
    Turkey
    Islamic Studies

Gary Shannon, Professor, Department of Geography
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-1112
E-mail: gwshan00@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Medical Geography
    Disease Ecology and Health Services Delivery
    Europe

Alice Turkington, Associate Professor, Department of Geography
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-9682
E-mail: alicet@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Geomorphology
    Weathering processes
    Urban environments
    Applied geomorphology

John F. Watkins, Professor, Graduate Center for Gerontologywith Joint Appointment inDepartment of Geography
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-1450
E-mail: geg173@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Population
    Aging and the elderly
    Migration, place and the life course
    Appalachia

Andrew Wood, Associate Professor, Department of Geography
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-1744
E-mail: andrew.wood@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Economic, political and urban geography

Matthew A. Zook, Associate Professor, Department of Geography
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-1744
E-mail: zook@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Economic geography
    Internet commerce
    Spatial technology

Sandra Zupan, Lecturer, Department of Geography
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6947
E-mail: sandra.zupan@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Urban redevelopment, planning and public participation
    Politics of urban sustainability and environmental justice, progressive community agendas and strategies, urban transformations in the post-socialist city

Psychology & Cognitive Science

Chana Akins, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-1103
E-mail: ckakin1@email.uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Behavioral psychology
    Learning mechanisms involved in sexual and drug-taking behaviors

Ruth Baer, Professor, Department of Psychology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6841
E-mail: rbaer@email.uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Mindfulness, mindfulness-based interventions, psychological effects of mindfulness meditation
    Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)
    Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT)
    Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT
    Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR)

Michael Bardo, Professor, Department of Psychology and Director -Center for Drug Abuse Research Translation
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6456
E-mail: mbardo@email.uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Drug Abuse
    Psychopharmacology
    Behavioral Neuroscience
    Neuropharmacology

Susan Barron, Professor, Department of Psychology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-5401
E-mail: sbarron@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Fetal alcohol syndrome
    Prenatal drug exposure and its effect on later behavior

David Berry, Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Psychology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-5451
E-mail: dtrb@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Detection of invalid approaches to psychological testing, such as malingering and faking good
    Psychological assessment of brain-injured individuals

Ramesh Bhatt, Professor, Department of Psychology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6835
E-mail: rbhatt@email.uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Development of visual cognition in humans
    Nature of information that infants and children encode from their environment, how they organize and use it

Christia Spears Brown, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6827
E-mail: christia.brown@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Children at academic, psychological, and social risk due to social inequality
    Latino students' adjustment to school

Tamara Brown, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-9612
E-mail: tbrow2@email.uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Symptoms, help-seeking behavior and development of psychological distress among ethnically diverse communities
    Factors that predict and protect against substance use in African Americans

Charles Carlson, Professor, Department of Psychology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-4394
E-mail: ccarl@email.uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Self-regulation, emotional states and physical health
    Influence of happiness on social behavior and perception
    Relaxation and its influence on chronic pain

Melody Carswell, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-4468
E-mail: CMCars1@email.uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Engineering psychology
    Human factors engineering
    Product design
    Application of large-scale system principles/designs to everyday products

C. Nathan DeWall, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-8105
E-mail: nathan.dewall@email.uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Social exclusion and acceptance
    Self-regulatory depletion
    Attitudes and persuasion
    Evolutionary psychology
    Interpersonal power
    Mortality

Mark Fillmore, Professor, Department of Psychology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-4728
E-mail: mtfill2@email.uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Alcohol and its effects, especially on driving and related activities
    Behavioral pharmacology
    Substance abuse
    Behavioral neuroscience

Peter Giancola, Professor, Department of Psychology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-7580
E-mail: peter@email.uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Alcohol-related aggression

Jonathan Golding, Professor, Department of Psychology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-4395
E-mail: golding@email.uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Psychology and law
    Memory
    Impact of witness memory in the courtroom
    Jury influences

Monica J. Harris (Kern), Department of Psychology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6842 or (859) 229-4257
E-mail: harris@email.uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Social psychology
    Bullying, rejection and peer victimization

Peggy Keller, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-9806
E-mail: pske222@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Developmental Psychopathology
    How family stress contributes to children’s risk for physical and mental health problems

Sung Hee Kim, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-4643
E-mail: shkim00@email.uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Social conflict
    Cooperation and competition in social dilemmas
    Justice
    Vengeance

Richard Milich, Professor and Chair, Department of Psychology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-4396 or 859-229-1294
E-mail: milich@email.uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Children with ADHD
    Peer problems of children with ADHD
    Effects of stimulant medication and behavioral interventions on ADHD treatment
    ADHD classification issues

Saul L. Miller, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-4132
E-mail: saul.miller@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Romantic relationships
    Social affiliation
    Self-protection

Mark Prendergast, Professor, Department of Psychology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6120
E-mail: prender@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Mechanisms involved in the development of alcohol dependence
    Biochemistry of brain injury resulting from alcohol exposure, "stress hormones," pesticides and psychomotor stimulants

Suzanne Segerstrom, Professor, Department of Psychology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-4549
E-mail: scsege0@email.uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Positive psychology
    Optimism
    Health psychology

Gregory Smith, Professor, Department of Psychology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6454
E-mail: gsmith@email.uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Risk for alcoholism
    Risk for eating disorders
    Clinical assessment methodology

Richard Smith, Professor, Department of Psychology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-4473
E-mail: rhsmit00@email.uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Social comparison processes
    Social emotions
    Envy
    Schadenfreude
    Gender differences in jealousy
    Gender differences in emotional reactions in politics and sports
    Questions concerning guilt, shame and humiliation

David T. Susman, Director, Jesse G. Harris, Jr. Psychological Services Center and Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Psychology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6853
E-mail: david.susman@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Adolescent eating
    Substance disorders
    Ethics
    Psychological assessment mentoring and behavioral emergencies

Alexander T. Vazsonyi, John I. and Patricia J. Buster Endowed Professor of Family Studies, Professor of Psychology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-9762
E-mail: vazsonyi@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Adolescent development
    Comparative study of contextual influences on adolescent adjustment
    Health/mental health and well-being
    Deviance, delinquency, and violence

Thomas Widiger, Professor, Department of Psychology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6849
E-mail: widiger@email.uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Personality disorders
    Psychiatric classification
    Ethics and legal issues in psychology
    Treatment of anxiety, mood, and personality disorders

Thomas Zentall, Professor, Department of Psychology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-4076
E-mail: zentall@email.uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Cognitive behaviors in animals including memory strategies, concept learning, and social learning

Sociology

Patricia Ahmed, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-4220
E-mail: pahme2@email.uky.edu
Specialization:
Specialization:

  1. Gender & Development
    Comparative/Historical Sociology
    Demography
    Cultural Sociology
    Social Theory
    Middle East & South Asia

Joanna Badagliacco, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-4335
E-mail: jmb@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Housing distress among the poorest families in KY, including rural families
    Reproduction and fertility
    Supplemental Security Income (SSI) among children
    Sociological implications of genomic research

Shannon Elizabeth Bell, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6883
E-mail: shannon.eliz.bell@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Environmental sociology
    Gender and social movements
    Barriers to local participation in the environmental justice movement that has risen up against mountaintop removal mining in Central Appalachia

Dwight Billings, Professor, Department of Sociology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-4412
E-mail: billing@pop.uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Social inequality
    Appalachian and regional studies
    Poverty
    Sociological theory
    Sociology of religion

Rosalind Harris, Associate Professor, Department of Community and Leadership Development
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6891
E-mail: rosalind.harris@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. The causes and consequences of rural poverty and regional inequality
    Sociology of health
    Poverty
    Sociology of agriculture

James Hougland, Professor, Department of Sociology and Director of Undergraduate Studies
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-4417
E-mail: jghoug2@email.uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Sociology of organizations
    Industry in community context
    Education and society
    Voluntary sector research
    Evaluation research
    Organizational change
    Public opinion survey results
    Ongoing analysis of public perceptions of the Kentucky Education Reform Act

Christopher Huggins, Lecturer, Department of Sociology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6425
E-mail: christopher.huggins@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Contextual influences on recidivism
    Causes and consequences of released offender mobility on the reintegration process
    Social psychological effects of different types of urbanism
    Crime Prevention through Environmental Design: testing the preventative, deterrent and social psychological effects of the built environment on criminal offending

Thomas Janoski, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-4418
E-mail: tjanos@email.uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Political sociology
    Immigration and naturalization
    Citizenship and civil society
    Lean production and the sociology of work
    Comparative political economy and social policy
    Complex organizations and industrial relations

Ana S.Q. Liberato, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6069
E-mail: ana.liberato@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Race, ethnicity and gender and interplay with political identity and political attitudes
    Cultural and political impacts of migration and the well-being of immigrant populations
    Political, cultural and socioeconomic processes of Caribbean and Latin American societies as a consequence of globalization and democratization

Patrick Mooney, Professor and Chair, Department of Sociology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-4409
E-mail: phmooney@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Rural sociology with emphases on rural class structure, social movements and cooperatives
    Social change
    Food security

Edward Morris, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-4413
E-mail: edward.morris@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Children and Youth
    Education
    Race and Ethnicity
    Intersections of race, class and gender
    Sociology of education
    Rural and urban education
    White privilege

Christopher Oliver, Lecturer, Department of Sociology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6421
E-mail: christopheroliver@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Role of public and private institutions environmental management, law and policy
    The political, economic and social processes that have led to disproportionately and unevenly negative environmental and public health outcomes for certain members of society
    The use of science and technology in establishing environmental regulatory policy and law, in terms of their direct application to decision making and the use of science as “persuasive rhetoric.”

Carrie B. Oser, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6890
E-mail: cboser0@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Crime, Law, and Deviance
    Sociology of Substance Use

Brea Perry, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-4416
E-mail: breaperry@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Social Networks
    Medical Sociology
    Mental Illness
    Biosociology and Genetics
    Children and Adolescents

Claire Renzetti, Professor, Department of Sociology and Endowed Chair of Studies on Violence Against Women
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6424
E-mail: claire.renzetti@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Sociology of gender
    Criminology
    Sociology of law and social movements
    International, faith-based, social justice movement against human trafficking

Shaunna Scott, Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Sociology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6882
E-mail: shaunna.scott@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Social inequality
    Gender
    Politics of identity and commemoration
    Participatory action research and social movements in Appalachia and Northern Ireland
    Understanding and promoting democratic practices and social justice projects in conflictual, stratified, rural contexts

Keiko Tanaka, Associate Professor, Department of Community and Leadership Development and Co-Director of UK's Asia Center
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6891
E-mail: keiko.tanaka@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Role of agricultural science and technology in reconfiguring the relationship between production and consumption in the global context
    Politics surrounding food safety, healthy food, agricultural sustainability and food localization Asian societies and cultures

Violence Against Women

Carol E. Jordan, Assistant Provost, Director, Center for Research on Violence Against Women
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-2737
E-mail: carolj@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Issues related to domestic violence (intimate partner violence)
    Rape
    Stalking
    Homicide
    Legal issues associated with violence against women
    Legislative reform
    Campus victimization
    State and legislative policy
Updated July 22, 2011 by Web Administrator