Brigham Young University
Faculty Center


Faculty Development Plan
Sociology [Example 1]
2006

I. Scholarship

Self Assessment:

All of my research has and continues to be focused on understanding how people come to be who they are. Although individuals are constantly developing and changing, I have focused on the period of life starting with adolescence through the transition to adulthood. This is a period of life where there is rapid development across emotional, social and physical fronts. The conceptual framework I use is commonly known as the Life Course Perspective, which links different life stages of individuals as well as the important relationships that influence individual development.

My dissertation research focused on the influence of non-parental adults, or mentors, on individual development during this life stage. Colloquially, mentors are generally viewed as an important influence, but researchers have not considered them sufficiently important to give them much attention. Most studies focus on parental and peer influences. Those that have researched mentors most often focus on disadvantaged youth (e.g., low-income and minority populations) with the implicit assumption that young people from high-income, white families get all the resources they need from their parents. My work used a nationally representative sample of adolescents and provides a portrait of mentors not previously possible. My dissertation suggests that although having a mentor is a normative experience for young people, those from disadvantaged backgrounds are the least likely to have one. Sociologically speaking, mentors appear to be a mechanism of the reproduction of social inequalities. Although I have not published any articles directly from my dissertation, it has potential to be published in prominent Sociology journals. I am a coauthor on a paper that has been recently resubmitted to a journal after receiving a revise and resubmit in the review process.

My other research has focused more generally on adolescence and the various social influences (e.g., parents, peers, school) that come to bear on development during this time period.

Goals:

My graduate school advisor showed me how important networks are in academia. In effort to maintain relationships I already have and expand my network, I have as a goal to attend and present papers at two conferences each year.

Concerning publications, I aim to have one sole- or senior-authored journal article or book chapter each year, accompanied by at least one other publication that I have collaborated on as a secondary author with other scholars. There are a variety of publication outlets for studies on adolescence because it is an interdisciplinary field of study. I feel it is important for me to place articles in the top Sociology and Adolescent journals and to a lesser extent in Psychology journals. This means that I will need to be more proficient at knowing the different approaches to writing, style, etc. required by these different outlets.

II. Teaching

Self Assessment:

I believe that the church and gospel, society we live in, and one’s self conceptions are all intricately intertwined. Brigham Young University is the best possible place for young people to ask themselves questions leading to the integration of important aspects of our existence. One of my main motivations for becoming a college professor was to aid young people to discover these questions in a setting that is sufficiently spiritually grounded that young people can be safe to confront them. Although I feel I am incredibly green in the skills of a college professor, I think one of my strengths is my sensitivity to students’ need to integrate these three components of life to be able to live happy lives and contribute to helping others do the same.

To accomplish this desire, I feel it is important to not base my courses wholly on textbooks. While textbooks are an important aid to students in setting a foundation of sociological concepts in the lower-division courses that I am currently teaching, they can stifle learning and independent thought. One approach I have taken is to introduce books by authors who provide either social commentary or empirical examinations of the concepts that are introduced in the textbooks. Classes focused on these non-textbooks are primarily discussion-based and students are assigned questions to guide their reading that force them to think critically and apply and the concepts they have learned.

Goals:

I am currently working on two main goals regarding my teaching.

1. Become more confident teaching large sections of Introductory Sociology. Part of this will come simply from having more experience. However, over the course of the next couple of years I want to work somewhat extensively to become more proficient in areas of Sociology that are not related to my own areas of research so I can be a better prepared to engage students with the gamut of specialties contained in Sociology.

2. Incorporate more active learning and media into courses. This includes being able to spend more class time on applying concepts introduced in assigned readings as opposed to simply discussing the concepts again. One way I am trying to achieve this goal is by collaborating with other faculty who are teaching the same courses.

III.  Citizenship

Self Assessment:

The Sociology department hired 4 new faculty members this past year and will be looking to fill two more positions this coming year. The contributions we make today will have a lasting effect on the department as older faculty retire. To help build a strong sense of citizenship and scholarship and to aid each other in producing quality research, another new faculty member (XXX) and I have developed and facilitate a working group with all the non-CFS faculty. We meet every other week to review a paper that one member of the group has written. Besides giving feedback on writing, the group serves as support for the publication process, including help with framing papers for different journal outlets, dealing with reviewers, etc. The group has also helped us become more integrated into the department as we have invited CFS faculty to review papers with us if they have particular expertise in a papers area of focus. My primary citizenship goal at this point is to ensure that this group is successful.

I have also recently accepted an assignment to serve on the Department’s Recruitment and Retention (Rank and Status) Committee. I look forward to contributing to the department in this crucial way – one directly tied to the composition of the department. I want to contribute to the recruitment of other committed LDS Sociologists to BYU because I feel they have an important contribution to make to students’ lives and to the campus community. I am also concerned that new faculty who are here have the resources they need to be successful, as evidenced by my participation in the new faculty working group.

Goals:

My two goals regarding citizenship relate to the two items in my assessment. First, I want to ensure that the new faculty working group we have started is a success. I think success can be measured by whether or not the members of the group feel it contributes to their success as scholars. Two more hard and fast measures would be if members of the group have their papers published and in the longer-term are granted CFS. Second, I want to be a contributing member to the Recruitment and Retention Committee. I will be working with more senior faculty so I hope to both be able to learn from them as well as help maintain the Department’s record of hiring strong faculty.

IV.  Individual and University Goal Alignment

I see my goals and the University’s as consistent. I hope to contribute to the University’s reputation in the fields of Sociology and Adolescence as a quality institution that produces important knowledge. I strive to be a proficient teacher who helps students understand the world around them so they can have stronger testimonies. I want to work to help the Sociology department continue as a healthy intellectual community and eventually expand my efforts to contribute more broadly to the University.

V.  Resources Needed

As a young scholar, I need the University to invest resources in my work, which they seem to do gladly. I have already been provided computing and software resources by the department that I need to do the different types of analyses I have been trained to do. I have been given a research assistant for the Summer term and will continue to ask for research assistance

 




Faculty Development Plan
Sociology [Example 2]
2006

I. Scholarship

Assessment:

My research spans a couple of subfields in sociology: organizational and economic sociology and social movement research.  My dissertation was based in the former area and my published work, thus far, has been in the latter.  Although I have not yet published from my dissertation, work is under progress and several papers are under review at journals.  My major strength is to be innovative and find new theoretical questions to assess empirically.  This strength is evident in both of my research areas.  I have published in top-tier journals and made quality contributions to my subfields.

My research in organizational and economic sociology focuses on organizational image management and valuation processes.  Although much of the research on image management has been done outside of sociology, I believe this is a very sociological topic that has not yet been fully explored with my discipline’s theoretical lenses.  My research attempts to do this.  I argue that organizational image – or the perception that external audiences have of the organization – is embedded in a relational context where audiences use peer behavior as a point of comparison to make evaluative judgments of a focal organization. My dissertation examined how corporate acquisitions were framed by peers’ previous acquisitions, which consequently affected investor reaction and the valuation of the acquisition.  I believe this research is innovative and has the potential to be published in the top-tier journals in sociology and organizational theory (more broadly).

My second strand of research examines the impact of social movements on policy change.  In various papers I look at how the political influence of social movement organizations is distributed across various stages of the policymaking process.  Until recently, social movement scholars typically asked the question, “Do social movements matter to policy change?”  They may have ventured further to assess the effectiveness of various tactics.  In an innovative article that was published in Social Forces in 2005, I (along with my coauthors XXX and YYY) framed the question somewhat differently, “When do social movements matter?”  We theorized that social movements do not directly influence policymakers’ decision to vote for or against certain policies; rather, they help set the agenda by determining which issues are worthy of legislative attention.  In a series of papers coauthored with XXX or YYY (of Cornell University) I continue to explore this issue in more detail.  Most recently, a paper examining the effect of social movement organizations on the legislation of the Equal Rights Amendment was published in the discipline’s most prestigious journal, the American Journal of Sociology.  I believe that with these two publications and others in progress, I am making an important contribution to the study of social movement outcomes.

One possible weakness is that by establishing myself in two very different areas of sociological scholarship, I may have a limited ability to make a large impact in any one area.  Other scholars may struggle to classify my work, which may lead to a devaluation of my research.

Goals:

My first goal is to continue to be productive in the scholarly realm.  I aim high and send my papers to the highest quality journals.  While this may be a slower approach to scholarship given the inevitably long turnaround time and the higher risk of rejection at the top journals, I believe that this is best strategy for me to make a lasting contribution to my discipline.  I am sure that, despite my best efforts, not all of my papers will be accepted at these journals.  My second target will be middle-tier specialty journals.  For instance, in 2005 I published a paper in Research in Social Movements, Conflict, and Change, which although not prestigious is a widely-read outlet for research in this subfield.

My second goal is to integrate my two areas of research.  Luckily, there is a current trend in organizational theory to borrow insights from social movement research.  This integration is an attempt to build a more agency-focused and change-oriented theory of the firm.  As a scholar active in both areas, it is only natural that I take advantage of this overlap.  I currently have two projects underway with this goal in mind.  In the first project I assess the influence of outsider activists on corporate targets.  In one paper (with YYY) we examine the effect of protest on the corporation’s stock price. In another paper (with a student, ZZZ) we examine the influence of corporate boycotts on stock price and the consequential effect on corporate response to the agitators’ claims.  In both of these papers organizational image management is an important dynamic mediating the influence of social movements on corporations.

In a second project (with AAA and BBB of the Marriott School) my coauthors and I theorize the organizational setting more clearly than has been done in the past.  In three different papers, we propose to 1) theorize the institutional underpinnings of various organizing logics (e.g. business logics or social movement logics); 2) conceptualize the distinctive nature of the corporate actor and its relation to other forms of collective behavior, such as community or grass roots organizing; and 3) use this theoretical framework to think about the uniqueness of the organizational setting and the problems that organizational scholars face when borrowing concepts from disciplines that study other social settings. 

These projects draw on my interdisciplinary interests.  My long-term goal is to turn a potential weakness – a bifurcation of interests - into a strength.  I will do this by pulling together different strands of research to create original insights about the nature of organizing and the ability of organizations to change.  I would like to make a significant contribution to sociology and organizational theory by demonstrating how these two areas of research are significantly intertwined.

II. Teaching

Assessment:

I believe teaching is one of my strengths.  I am an enthusiastic teacher who gets positive student evaluations.  In both semesters at BYU my evaluations were above the department, college, and university averages.  I believe there are multiple reasons for my strong ratings.  First, my classes are very organized.  I do not deviate greatly from the syllabus and tend to stay on schedule.  The students know exactly what they need to do in order to get a good grade, and thus, the students feel the grading is fair.  Second, I work very hard at explaining difficult concepts in a straightforward, non-jargony way.  I spend extra time in class answering questions that the students had about the readings, which tend to be difficult and academic (I do not use textbooks!).  The students feel challenged by the difficulty of the readings, and they feel a sense of accomplishment when they understand them and learn something.  Finally, I think students enjoy the format of the class.  I do not do a lot of traditional lecturing.  Most of my classes are discussion-based.  I divide the students into discussion groups, which meet for a portion of every class.  Rather than lecture, I ask the students lots of questions.  This facilitates interaction.

I feel that I can most improve my teaching by including more skill-enhancing activities and assignments in class.  I think students should not only leave class with a fair knowledge of the course subject, but they should also improve skills that they will use in their future careers and life opportunities.  These skills should have some practical benefit to them.  I need to do a better job of identifying what those skills are and then developing correlated class activities.

Goals:

My first goal is to add content to my courses in the upcoming years so that they remain current and relevant.  The best way to do this, I think, is to add in new material each semester that deals with research with which I’m currently involved.  By adding research-related material, I not only cut out the amount of preparation time for the class, but I also add content about which I’m excited.  The students should benefit from feeling my enthusiasm. Adding too much new content can increase my prep time excessively, so I will only add a week or two of new content each semester (cutting out material at the same time).

My second goal is to develop new assignments that not only improve the students’ knowledge of the subject but that also give the students’ practical skills.  Choosing the right assignment, I believe, depends a lot on the subject matter.  In teaching organizations, I’ve considered adding this semester an assignment that asks the students to find a public document containing information about a company’s image and then code that information.  The end result should be that students get a sense for how companies communicate image to the public and how that “perception management” aids in the functioning of the firm.  This assignment will not only help the students learn more about organizational image management – the topic of discussion – but also help them to be better consumers and potential company shareholders. 

III. Citizenship

Assessment:

As a new member of the department I want to be involved with departmental affairs and be an active member of the university community.  Although I will not serve on as many committees as my more senior colleagues, I have many opportunities to participate.  In the past year I served on the graduate committee.  I helped rank and accept grad students and participated fully in departmental discussions about the nature of the grad program (a topic of some interest in the sociology department).  I felt like I made a contribution but did not overstep my bounds as a junior member of the faculty.

One of the contributions I made this past year was to organize (with CCC) a junior faculty research group.  This group consists of all assistant professors in the department and meets twice a month to read a colleague’s paper and offer comments to help the colleague prepare the paper for publication.  As a department that will soon have a majority of young faculty members, I felt like this group will be beneficial to the growth of scholarly assistance and enhance a feeling of intellectual community.

Goals:

My major goal is to make myself an asset to my colleagues by trying to promote intra-departmental activities that will build a strong feeling of intellectual community.  The best way to do this, I think, is to meet regularly with other sociologists to engage in scholarly discussions.  I’ve offered to organize the brown bag seminar next year with this intention in mind. 

I also participate in several other collegial activities on campus.  During the fall I attended the political science brown bag.  I also, along with AAA and BBB, organized an organizational studies research group.  We meet every other week.  I hope to continue to do these activities in the future.  Given my interest overlap, it makes sense to reach out to like-minded colleagues in other departments.  Not only do we share a strong religious commitment as faculty at this university, but many of us endeavor in similar veins of scholarly research.  Combining these efforts, I believe, promotes the academic environment of learning that we want to convey to our students.

I would also like to mentor more students in the future.  Next year I will have the opportunity to work with a grad student who wants to get a Master’s degree with an emphasis in organizational theory.  My goal is to cultivate more relationships like that with students.  Recruiting undergraduate students who want to do research in my areas of expertise not only helps me attain my research goals but it also helps them enhance their career prospects.

IV. Individual and University Goal Alignment

My individual goals and strengths align well with the university’s mission.  Specifically:

I think that point 3 is especially important.  I teach a small number of courses that are equally integrated with my research agenda.  By continuing to have this highly focused research and teaching agenda, I believe I maximize the value of the resources I bring to this university.

V. Resources

In order to do my research I need sufficient resources.  Most of my research involves the collection of primary data (mainly using content analysis) or involves bringing together multiple data sets.  I need student research assistant support to accomplish this research.  Therefore, in order to get the necessary level of resources I plan to: