Sociology at ASU
Research Projects
Sociology at ASU investigates societal dynamics including immigration, urban development, justice, democracy, environment, and identity constructs.
Justice Futures
Principal Investigator: Rebecca Sanderfur
Co-Principal Investigators: Matthew Burnett, James Teufel
Through original research, public engagement, conferences, and workshops, the Justice Futures project endeavors to develop evidence-based solutions that empower people to use their own laws and realize more just and sustainable futures for themselves, their families, and their communities.
Supported in part by grants from the National Science Foundation.
CMPS: Collaborative Multiracial Post-Election Survey
Partners: UCLA, ASU, University of Maryland-College Park
ASU Lead: Edward Vargas
The Collaborative Multi-racial Post-Election Survey is a national survey of voters and non-voters on political and social issues which has been conducted following every Presidential election since 2008.
Funded in part by the National Science Foundation.
Arizona Youth Identity Project
Principal Investigator: Nilda Flores-Gonzalez
Co-Principal Investigators: Emir Estrada, Angela Gonzales, Nathan Martin
Arizona Youth Identity Project examines how U.S.-born young adults in Arizona perceive their identity and status as Americans in the context of rapidly changing economic, demographic, and political conditions. Using mixed qualitative methods, AZYIP focuses on who, how, where and why U.S.-born young adults of diverse backgrounds reimagine, reclaim, rearticulate, and reconstitute national belonging. The project seeks to understand how rapidly changing economic, demographic, and political conditions:
- affects Latinx, Native American and white young adult’s definition of who is American
- shapes their sense of national identity and belonging
- motivates them to engage civically and politically to assert their identity as Americans
Supported in part by grants from the National Science Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation (Grant and the Tohono O'odham COVID-19 Relief Grant Program.
George Floyd Square
Principal Investigator: Michael McQuarrie
Research Team: Muriel Payraudeau, Jorge Hernandez, Samantha Crosby
George Floyd’s murder on May 25, 2020 sparked a global wave of protests against police violence and brutality. In Minneapolis itself, it sparked a cross-race and cross-class rebellion that culminated with the burning of the 3rd precinct and the occupation of George Floyd Square—the intersection where Floyd was murdered. The project seeks to understand the nature of protest occupations in dense and complicated urban neighborhoods, the roots and dynamics of protest practice at George Floyd Square, the nature of urban rebellions, the vision of emancipation the community there aspires to, the sociological foundations of the protest, and how the occupation lasted as long as it did compared to other protest occupations during the George Floyd Uprising and the Occupy movement.
Majority Rules: The Battle for Ballot Initiatives
Principal Investigators: Ben Case, Michael McQuarrie
Research Team: Jorge Hernandez, Muriel Payraudeau, Maria Esch
The Ballot Initiatives Project explores the current fight over voters’ access to the ballot initiative process. In recent years, labor unions, rights advocacy groups, and grassroots organizations in multiple states have used citizen initiatives to pass policies minimum wage increases, Medicaid expansion, abortion rights, public school funding, checks on predatory debt-collection, and more, creating significant material gains for millions of people in red, blue, and purples states alike. Now the initiative process is coming under attack from those who stand to lose power to the popular vote. The project examines the emerging fight over ballot initiatives and its significance for democratic practice and the future of the United States political system.
Revising OMB standards for collecting administrative race and ethnicity data
Partners: University of New Mexico, University of Texas-Austin, ASU
ASU Lead: Edward Vargas
Will conduct research and develop recommendations for the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on national guidelines governing the collection, analysis, and reporting of data on race and ethnic inequality across the nation. The project builds on the work of a national commission on “Transforming Public Health Data Systems to Advance Health Equity” convened by the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation.
Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Romance and Dating in Later Life
Principal Investigators: Cassandra Cotton, Masumi Iida
Research that explores views and experiences of dating, romance, and sex through interviews and focus group discussions with single and recently-partnered adults aged 55+ in Arizona.
Latino Resilience Enterprise
Project Directors: Rebecca White, Anthony Peguero, Nilda Flores-Gonzalez, Rocio Garcia, Casandra Salgado
Basic research to identify factors and develop programs that improve the lives of Latino youth and their families.
The Humanities and Health Justice Pathways Project: Forming First-Generation Professionals.
Project Directors: Barret Michalec
Creating new pathways for first-generation students to pursue healthcare professions.
Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Cultivating a Community of Care: Amplifying the Voices of Native American Students in Premedicine and Undergraduate Nursing.”
Project Directors: Angela Gonzales, Barret Michalec
A focus on how underrepresentation of American Indian or Alaska Natives in U.S. healthcare impacts health outcomes.