The William Form Lecture was established in tribute to the scholarly contributions and generous support of the Department's first, and one of its most accomplished, Ph.D. recipients (1944). The Form Lecture invites alumni from our graduate program back to campus each spring to give a presentation about their current research.
About Professor William Form
William Form was the department's first and most accomplished Ph.D. (1944). He earned his B.A. degree (1938) and his M.A. degree (1940) at the University of Rochester. His dissertation, "The Sociology of White-Collar Suburb: Greenbelt, Maryland," was directed by C. Wright Mills. During his doctoral studies he taught at Hood College, American University, and here in the Sociology department. When he completed his dissertation, he accepted a job at Stephens College (Missouri). The following year he moved to Kent State University (Ohio), and then in 1947, he joined the faculty at Michigan State University. From 1971-1984, he was a member of the faculty at the University of Illinois. In 1984, he moved to Ohio State University, where he was a Professor Emeritus until his death on October 17, 2015.
Form conducted research in Argentina, France, India, Italy, Korea, and Mexico. He published extensively during his career. He authored well over 100 books, monographs, and articles covering a wide range of topics including class, community disasters, community power, ideology, labor movements and unions, occupations and careers, politices, religion, sex stratificiation, social mobility, social psychology, social stratification, status, urbanism, work and much more. The last two books he wrote were autobiographical, On the Shoulders of Immigrants: A Family Portrait (1999) and Work and Academic Politics: A Journeyman's Story (2001). The latter book includes a comprehensive list of his publications.
Form wrote three essays about his becoming a sociologist, his time at Maryland, and his study with Mills.
- "Mills at Maryland." The American Sociologist (Fall, 1995), 40-67.
- "Memories of C. Wright Mills: Social Structure and Biography." Work and Occupations, 34 (May, 2007), 148-173.
- "An Accidental Journey: Becoming a Sociologist." The American Sociologist (Winter, 1997), 31-54.
2025
Dr. SunAh Laybourn, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Memphis
“Out of Place: The Lives of Korean Adoptee Immigrants”
This talk explores the structural and cultural factors shaping Korean adoption and the evolution of Korean adoptee activism.
Since the Korean War, international adoption has transferred more than 200,000 Korean children to predominantly Western countries, embedding them in structures of racial, cultural, and social displacement. While early adoptees were often expected to assimilate into white-majority societies, the late 20th century saw the rise of Korean adoptee activism as individuals challenged these expectations, reframing adoption as a human rights issue. This project investigates the political, social, and cultural contexts that facilitated this shift, analyzing how Korean adoptees organized, framed their activism, and formed a collective identity across national borders. The formation of a collective identity among adoptees, grounded in shared experiences of transnational and racial dislocation, is a central focus of this project.
Since the Korean War, international adoption has transferred more than 200,000 Korean children to predominantly Western countries, embedding them in structures of racial, cultural, and social displacement. While early adoptees were often expected to assimilate into white-majority societies, the late 20th century saw the rise of Korean adoptee activism as individuals challenged these expectations, reframing adoption as a human rights issue. This project investigates the political, social, and cultural contexts that facilitated this shift, analyzing how Korean adoptees organized, framed their activism, and formed a collective identity across national borders. The formation of a collective identity among adoptees, grounded in shared experiences of transnational and racial dislocation, is a central focus of this project.
2024
Dr. Michelle Smirnova, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Missouri, Kansas City
“The Prescription-to-Prison Pipeline: Medicalization and Criminalization of Pain”
In recent decades, journalists, policymakers, and families have lamented the so-called “opioid epidemic,” or the rise in opioid-related overdose in the US. In so doing, fingers of blame have been pointed in every direction: from the Sackler family to regulatory bodies like the FDA, unscrupulous doctors to drug cartels to the users or drugs themselves. But opioids are not a recent invention, neither are psychotropics or other prescription drugs whose nonmedical use has also increased precipitously in the last 20 years. What then accounts for this rise in the use and prosecution of prescription drugs? Based upon interviews with 80 incarcerated men and women, it becomes clear that increases in prescription drug use, overdose, and arrest reflect heightened pain experienced by those marginalized by society and the ways that medical and carceral institutions exacerbate—rather than remedy—that pain. In this talk, I explore (1) how certain groups are trapped in a nexus of too- little and too-much healthcare and policing, (2) how they seek to cope with structural harms, and (3) how their attempts are often punished, further intensifying pain and the likelihood of incarceration or overdose.
2023
Dr. Diana Elliott, Vice President for US Programs Population Reference Bureau
“Advancing Equity in the Absence of Equitable Data”
Equity is an important part of the Administration’s agenda and agencies and localities will need help assessing equity in their policies and priorities. On his first day in office, President Biden signed Executive Order 13985, Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government. Equity assessments are currently happening throughout the federal government. But what happens if the data undergirding your assumptions and resulting policies aren’t equitable from the start? In this talk, I will discuss some of the challenges with present-day data collection in the Federal government, my work to estimate limitations in the 2020 Census and its impact on equity for different groups and states, and ways that stakeholders are countering these challenges.
2020
Dr. Kei Nomaguchi, Professor of Sociology at Bowling Green State University
“Race-Ethnicity, Social Class, and the C♦hildren’s Summer Activity Gap”
American children have a long summer break. For over two months, parents are responsible for structuring all their children’s activities. Examining racial-ethnic variation in children’s summer activities may provide a unique window to understanding racial-ethnic variations in parenting and children’s developmental outcomes. In this talk, Dr. Nomaguchi presents findings from her current project on racial-ethnic differences—White, Black, Hispanic, and Asian parents—in children’s activities during the summer after first grade, using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-11, with special attention to the intersection of race-ethnicity and social class measured by parental education. Her analyses focus on three aspects of summer activities, including (a) active play, such as family trips, summer camps, and outside play, (b) screen media use, such as television, video games, and the computer, and (c) academic or literacy activities, like attending summer school, studying with a tutor or parents. She also shows how each of these activities is related to gains in children’s reading and math scores as well as body math index measured in the following fall semester. Drawing on past research findings as well as insights from critical race theory on race-ethnicity, social class, parenting, and time use, she discusses possible interpretations of the findings.
2019
Dr. Marla H. Kohlman, Professor of Sociology at Kenyon College
“Gender, Race, and Culpability: Parsing the Discourse on Sexual Violence in the Time of #MeToo”
American children have a long summer break. For over two months, parents are responsible for structuring all their children’s activities. Examining racial-ethnic variation in children’s summer activities may provide a unique window to understanding racial-ethnic variations in parenting and children’s developmental outcomes. In this talk, Dr. Nomaguchi presents findings from her current project on racial-ethnic differences—White, Black, Hispanic, and Asian parents—in children’s activities during the summer after first grade, using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-11, with special attention to the intersection of race-ethnicity and social class measured by parental education. Her analyses focus on three aspects of summer activities, including (a) active play, such as family trips, summer camps, and outside play, (b) screen media use, such as television, video games, and the computer, and (c) academic or literacy activities, like attending summer school, studying with a tutor or parents. She also shows how each of these activities is related to gains in children’s reading and math scores as well as body math index measured in the following fall semester. Drawing on past research findings as well as insights from critical race theory on race-ethnicity, social class, parenting, and time use, she discusses possible interpretations of the findings.
2018
Dr. Sonya R. Porter, Assistant Center Chief of Research Center for Administrative Records Research and Applications, US Census Bureau
“Race Response Change Patterns, Racial and Socioeconomic Context, and the Permeability of Group Boundaries”
The presentation will first focus on race and ethnic response change patterns in the United States. A person’s racial or ethnic self-identification can change over time and across contexts, which is a component of population change not usually considered in studies that use race and ethnicity as variables. To facilitate incorporation of this aspect of population change, we show patterns and directions of individual-level race and Hispanic response change throughout the United States and among all federally recognized race/ethnic groups. The second part of the presentation will focus on racial and socioeconomic context and the permeability of group boundaries. A variety of factors shape racial identity including interactions between people; racial and ethnic groups; and individuals and structures. Neighborhoods are central to these types of interactions. Research has shown that environmental context influences racial identity. However, little is known about the relationship between neighborhood context and racial and ethnic response change. We use unique restricted-access linked 2000 and 2010 decennial census data to investigate the relationship between neighborhood context and racial and ethnic boundary crossing.
2017
Dr. Anthony Ryan Hatch, Assistant Professor of Science in Society at Wesleyan University
“The Pharmacy Prison”
It is difficult, if not impossible, to determine the extent to which prisons and jails in the United States might be overprescribing psychotropic drugs for the purposes of controlling prisoners. To tackle this question, “The Pharmacy Prison" analyzes the findings of several major government performance audits of prison pharmacies to understand how prisons function as operate as major conduits for drugs, especially psychotropics, in the era of mass incarceration. Prison pharmacies are plagued by chronic management problems including poor record keeping and inventory systems, inadequate drug formularies, lack of space and well-trained personnel, and minimal oversight. This analysis positions the absence of official knowledge about the institutional practices that may govern unjust psychotropic distribution against the bureaucratic realities of prison pharmacy management practices.
2016
Dr. Emily S. Mann, Assistant Professor, Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior & Women’s and Gender Studies Program, University of South Carolina
“Teen Pregnancy Prevention, LARC Promotion, and Reproductive Justice”
Despite significant declines in the rate of teen pregnancy in the United States since its peak in the early 1990s, it remains widely regarded as a social problem in need of prevention. Efforts to prevent teen pregnancy and by association, teen births, continue to focus on behavior change among youth themselves in lieu of addressing social determinants, such as poverty, or questioning the underlying assumptions that inform such efforts. Furthermore, teen parents’ accounts of their experiences with pregnancy and parenthood are often absent. This talk discusses findings from a multi-sited, mixed-methods study conducted with teen parents, which are placed in conversation with a new approach to teen pregnancy prevention: the promotion of the use of long-acting, reversible contraception (LARC) among young people who are deemed to be especially at-risk for unintended pregnancy. This has significant implications for young people’s reproductive health and rights, and broader concerns with reproductive justice.
2015
Dr. Sunita Kishor, Director, Demographic & Health Surveys Program ICF International
“Where From and Whither To? The Demographic & Health Surveys Program and Its Future”
The Demographic and Health Surveys Program has been in existence since 1984. Funded primarily by USAID, The Program has been the main source of demographic, health and nutrition data for much of the developing world for more than 30 years. Seen today largely as a ‘global good’, The DHS Program is also often described as the gold standard for survey data. However, the DHS has come a very long way from being just a survey program to one that meets emerging needs for new and varied types of data, provides leadership in data collection and analysis methods, conducts independent research with a policy orientation, and contributes to the building of capacity building along the entire survey design to data use spectrum. What will be The DHS Program’s role be as the world moves into the post 2015 era and adopts the proposed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? Dr. Kishor will look back and forward in time to discuss the role of large international household survey programs in the brave new SDG world, while also weaving in a bit of her own personal journey as she and The Program have “grown up” together.
2014
Dr. Alex Bierman, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Calgary
“The Threat of War and Psychological Distress Among Civilians Working in Iraq and Afghanistan”
Research documents the mental health toll of combat operations on military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan, but little research examines civilians who work alongside members of the military. In this research, we argue that a sense of threat is an ‘‘ambient stressor’’ that permeates daily life among civilians who work in these war zones, with mastery likely to both mediate and moderate the mental health effects of this stressor. Using a unique probability sample of Department of Army civilians, we find that threat is positively related to distress, but mastery mediates this relationship nonlinearly, with the indirect relationship between threat and distress strengthening as threat increases. The moderating function of mastery is also nonlinear, with moderate levels of mastery providing maximum stress buffering. This research suggests that contextual conditions of constraint can create nonlinearities in the way that mastery mediates and moderates the effects of ambient stressors.
2013
Dr. Tim Moran, Associate Professor of Sociology, Director of Graduate Studies, Stony Brook University, SUNY
“Studying Social Stratification: From Art/Soc to the World as a Whole”
I first confronted the field of stratification and social mobility in the department’s two-semester graduate sequence: the authoritative sounding Stratification I and Stratification II seminars. I brought the theory and method being taught there to an emerging intellectual partnership with Prof. Korzeniewicz in which he showed me how to think about the issues and debates in different ways. Our partnership has continued throughout my career, as has the influence of my training on thinking about social inequality, economic privilege, and people’s relative life chances. This is what I’ve learned (so far).
2012
Dr. David Cotter, Professor of Sociology, Union College
“SLACer Life: Composing a Career at a Selective Liberal Arts College”
Bio
David A. Cotter (BA College of Wooster, 1988: MA University of Maryland, College Park, 1992; PhD University of Maryland, College Park, 1996) is Professor of Sociology. He has been teaching at Union College in Schenectady, NY since 1995. His research focuses on stratification and inequality, particularly rural poverty, and work-related gender inequality. The results of this research have been published in major journals including The American Journal of Sociology, The American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Social Rural Sociology, Science Research, and Work and Occupations. He is currently working on a set of projects investigating the “end of the gender revolution” with Reeve Vanneman (University of Maryland) and Joan Hermsen (University of Missouri, Columbia, PhD: UMDCP ’97). Dr. Cotter has also conducted research on service learning as a pedagogical tool, and helped to develop a set of syllabi and instructional materials for the American Sociological Association. Professor Cotter teaches courses on introduction to sociology, education, gender work and family, work and occupations, community, religion, inequality & mobility, sociological theory, and research methods. Professor Cotter has chaired on the College’s Faculty Review Board, revised the merit and teaching evaluations procedures, co-chaired the Middle States Reaccreditation Review and chaired the Committee on Teaching and the Human Subjects Review Board.
David A. Cotter (BA College of Wooster, 1988: MA University of Maryland, College Park, 1992; PhD University of Maryland, College Park, 1996) is Professor of Sociology. He has been teaching at Union College in Schenectady, NY since 1995. His research focuses on stratification and inequality, particularly rural poverty, and work-related gender inequality. The results of this research have been published in major journals including The American Journal of Sociology, The American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Social Rural Sociology, Science Research, and Work and Occupations. He is currently working on a set of projects investigating the “end of the gender revolution” with Reeve Vanneman (University of Maryland) and Joan Hermsen (University of Missouri, Columbia, PhD: UMDCP ’97). Dr. Cotter has also conducted research on service learning as a pedagogical tool, and helped to develop a set of syllabi and instructional materials for the American Sociological Association. Professor Cotter teaches courses on introduction to sociology, education, gender work and family, work and occupations, community, religion, inequality & mobility, sociological theory, and research methods. Professor Cotter has chaired on the College’s Faculty Review Board, revised the merit and teaching evaluations procedures, co-chaired the Middle States Reaccreditation Review and chaired the Committee on Teaching and the Human Subjects Review Board.
2011
Dr. Liana Sayer, Associate Professor of Sociology, Ohio State University
“Gender Equality and Time Together for Partnered British, French, Dutch, and American Parents”
Over the past 40 years, gender differences in housework and child care have lessened but more from women’s changes than men’s. Shared time in housework and child care when a partner is present can provide suggestive evidence on the extent women retain overall responsibility for domestic work. Identifying which fathers are more likely to engage in leisure activities with children but without their partner, and/or do solo housework or child care activities, is one part of the puzzle of whether the ender revolution is stalled or if movement towards less gendered time use is distributed unequally across parents within countries and between countries. The contribution of this research is to investigate crossnational gender differences in partnered women’s and men’s time together in housework, child care, and leisure with Multinational Time Use Data. She anticipates parents in countries where standard or reduced hours jobs are promoted as work/family reconciliation strategies have greater ability to coordinate schedule compatibilities in dual earner households thus maximizing potential shared activity time. In contrast, parents in countries where long full‐time hour jobs are common and workplace flexibility is an employer‐initiated strategy to manage fluctuating labor demands, may experience more intractable obstacles in distributing time between household work and employment, as well as coordinating time among household members. Preliminary results for the USA of shared time in core housework, child care, and leisure indicate fathers with full‐time employment hours and employed wives spend significantly more shared time in core housework, child care, and leisure compared with other fathers. Mothers with full‐time employment hours spend less time doing housework and child alone, and more of their leisure time with children and/or a partner, but spouse employment hours are not associated with shared household work or leisure. The next step of the analysis will be to compare these patterns with those in France, the Netherlands, and the UK.
2010
Dr. Philip N. Cohen, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
“Engendering Change: Organizational Dynamics and Workplace Gender Discrimination, 1975-2005”
Studies linking careers to organizational dynamics are often gender neutral, despite the potential for organizational theory and research to explain workplace inequality. We examine workplace-level sources of gender inequality to explore the link between organizational change and levels of gender integration. To do so, we analyze the gender division of labor and key structural aspects of U.S. private sector work establishments, using a unique longitudinal dataset spanning three decades. We find that women’s access to managerial positions is positively related to gender integration, as is both establishment size and growth. Additionally, the results show that trends toward gender integration are due to change within workplaces rather than cohort replacement. Our results also provide compelling evidence that the effect of female managers varies dramatically across organizational contexts, with the strongest desegregating effects in larger and growing establishments. Finally, the effect of women’s access to organizational power structures has sharply diminished over time.
Last modified
06/26/2025 - 12:25 pm
