Department Chair Notes

One focus of energy for the Sociology Department this year has been the hiring of two new faculty members to begin in August 2007. In both cases, we have hired dynamic, exciting young sociologists who bring curricular and ethnic diversity to our department, and we are very pleased with the outcome of these searches. David Cook Martín has been hired in a tenure-track line after a special search to fill a position vacated by Luis Fernandez, when he left at the end of the 2005-06 school year. Cook Martín has a Ph.D. in sociology from UCLA and is currently completing a two-year postdoctoral position at UC Irvine. He will teach a special topics course next year on international immigration and a seminar called “Citizenship Matters,” as well as introductory sociology and research methods courses. He is engaged in a long-term historical comparative research project on Department Chair Notes migration between Europe and South America, and he comes to Grinnell with research grants in hand that will fund several student research assistants. David, who is from Argentina originally, brings a family to Grinnell, including his wife Claudia, and two school-age boys, Nicolas and Gabriel. Betsy Erbaugh has been hired in a two-year term position to replace first Susan Ferguson, who takes a year-long sabbatical leave in 2007-08, and then Kesho Scott, who takes a year-long sabbatical leave in 2008-09. Erbaugh is currently completing her Ph.D. in sociology at the University of New Mexico and is writing a dissertation on “Queering Anti-Violence Politics: LGBTQ Community Organizing to End Intimate Partner Violence.” She will be teaching a special topics seminar on queer theory next year, as well as courses on gender and society, introductory sociology, and research methods. Betsy will be bringing a new baby with her, due in June, when she comes to Grinnell this summer.