At present, this page provides alums with the annual newsletter. This particular newsletter addresses 1997-1998. If you have ideas
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Susan L. Schrader, Chair of the Department.
This is the inaugural newsletter for Sociology at Augustana. We are enthused about the prospects of sending you a yearly update of news about the department and faculty. Hopefully, you will find it an informative addition to the news you regularly receive through Augustana Today and other college publications.
At long last, a new facility is in the works to replace the old Social Science barracks! Ground has been broken for a new social science building-the Madsen Center (see photo at end of newsletter). Since the new structure will be located in the same general vicinity as the old building, the concrete block portion of the old Social Science Building (our area) was demolished in June 1998 (see photo). The remainder of the old Social Science Building will be "deconstructed" in the fall of 1999.
So, Sociology has moved to temporary quarters in the old(er) section of the Social Science Building (the wooden section including the Little Theater) for the 1998-1999 academic year. Look for our offices interspersed with Government and History.
You have received with this newsletter a cover letter explaining our first survey of Sociology graduates. We trust that as good sociologists, you will complete the questionnaire and return it to us in the postage-paid envelope. We will include a summary of the survey results in next year's newsletter for your review.
Three faculty teach in Sociology: Glenda Sehested, Susan Schrader, and Bill Swart. As PhD-prepared people, we vary in areas of expertise and in years of service (from Glenda's 25 years to Bill's first year on board). Each of us will share a brief greeting and bit of our personal news with you later in this newsletter. Our other colleagues in the broader Sociology/Social Work/Native American Studies Department are Harriet Scott, Andy Eastwood, Barbara Barclay, and Martin Brokenleg (Tom Houle took early retirement in 1997).
With a full staff, we are enabled to investigate new, creative additions to the curriculum, such as Bill and Andy's 1999 Interim course to Ireland and Glenda's capstone course on "The Gender Knot" (taught with Looney & Hanson) in 1999.
Administrative structure has changed as well. Glenda was appointed Chair of the Social Science Division, replacing Jim Meader at the close of his tenure there. Susan then assumed the chairperson role for the Sociology, Social Work, and Native American Studies Department.
We are pleased to report that we have a new web
page on the Internet! The internet page provides
information about the faculty, curriculum, career
information, notes to prospective students,
interesting links to other Sociology-related pages
on the web, and so forth. The web site will
eventually provide a means through which you
may contact each other. Find us at:
Glenda Sehested
It's hard to believe, but I will soon begin my 25th year teaching at Augustana! When I look over our set of mailing labels, so very many of your names stir wonderful memories!
My teaching areas remain much the same as when I started 24 years ago--Introduction to Sociology, Social Psychology, Social Theory, and a variety of gender studies courses. I do get to teach more gender courses now because we have an interdisciplinary gender studies minor.
Although teaching remains my most fulfilling professional activity, I am now also the Social Science Division Chair. Being Chair means sitting on the President's Council, being involved in personnel matters in all seven social science departments, and "managing" the building--in other words, lots and lots of meetings! But this summer I'm also energetically engaged in writing two articles that I hope will be published in professional journals.
I know that many of you don't know Dr. Susan Schrader and Dr. Bill Swart--our sociology "newcomers" in the last five years. Let me assure you that Augustana was blessed to hire them, and personally I couldn't be more delighted to have them as colleagues. Read on and get to know them at least a bit.
Susan Schrader
This year I taught two sections of Social Science Research Methods, a January Intro course, Family, MedSoc, and Issues in Gerontology & Geriatrics. Methods is still a tough course (!), but we are having fun doing methods through service learning. This year, we helped the Sioux Empire Housing Partnership and the American Indian Services.
Personally, this was a landmark year for me in that I received tenure from the College and became chair of the department. As a group we are busy revisiting many topics, and the program revitalization has been enriching for all of us.
I continue to have special interest in aging. Recently, I participated in the Fellows Program of the Minn. Area Geriatric Education Center (MAGEC) and in regional conferences for long-term care administrators.
My first Interim leave will occur in January '99 so I am making plans for New Zealand! I am hopeful that the cross-cultural experience will be an enhancement to my courses. Stay tuned!
Bill Swart
This is my first year on the faculty at Augustana, and I spent much of its prepping courses and learning my way around campus. This past year I taught courses in Introductory Sociology, Deviance, Criminology, Wealth and Povery, and Native American Social Systems. All but two of these courses were new preps for me, so I had a busy couple of semesters! In addition, Andy Eastwood (Social Work) and I are in the process of arranging a study tour of Ireland and Northern Ireland in January 1999. The course will enroll 30 students, who will travel to England, Ireland, and Northern Ireland to study the historic Irish nationalist conflict as well as contemporary efforts toward peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland.
Thanks to grant money from the Augustana Research and Artist Fund (ARAF), I was able to spend three weeks in Ireland and Northern Ireland this June doing research to supplement several chapters of my dissertation. I am currently working up a preliminary draft of a paper, drawn from my summer research in Ireland, that explores the political and economic influences of the European Union on Irish national identity and the current peace negotiations in Northern Ireland. I am also teaching Native American Social Systems during the month of July.
I am very happy to be a part of this dynamic group of faculty members, and have enjoyed the academic excellence and high level of student contact that are hallmarks of the Augie experience.
So, all in all, we have had a fine, optimistic and eventful year. We watched with pride as seven fine Sociology majors graduated in the Class of 1998, and we are pleased with growing enrollment within the major and the College at large.
Should you have occasion to return to campus, please know that the welcome mat is out for you. As we dedicate the new Madsen Center in 1999, we hope that you definitely come back to see us then in our new facilities-an even better environment in which to teach, to learn, and to grow to serve.
