427 Academic Building
(979) 845-7267
gatson@tamu.edu
VITA
Ph.D. Northwestern University
Research Interests
- Race/Ethnic/Minority Relations
- Law and Society
- Cultural Sociology
- Gender
- Qualitative Methods
- Community & Citizenship
- Communication & Information Technology
Biography
I am most interested in how people organize themselves in terms of community and citizenship. These two concepts both run parallel to one another, and are two ends of a continuum. Because “community” and “citizenship” are broad, contested processes, there are many ways one can study them. I focused my analyses initially upon gender and race as they intersect with these processes. I am also concerned with their significance as cultural systems, and as ideologies that permeate all our lives. I have moved back and forth from a focus on policy and law, and thus the more formal process of citizenship, to a more generalized focus on the micro- to macro-level processes of identity, community, and citizenship, and the connections between these processes.
Courses Taught
- SOCI 210 – Sociology of Science and Technology
- SOCI 212 – Sociology of Popular Culture
- SOCI 315 – The Marriage Institution
- SOCI 404 – Sociology of Community
- SOCI 445 – Sociology of Law
- SOCI 603 – The Contemporary Family (Graduate Level)
- SOCI 624 – Qualitative Methods (Graduate Level)
- SOCI 629 – Sociology of Law (Graduate Level)
- SOCI 651 – Sociology of Culture (Graduate Level)
- SOCI 657 – Popular Culture (Graduate Level)
Representative Publications
- Gatson SN (2011). “The Methods, Ethics, and Politics of Representation in Online Ethnography,” In Handbook of Qualitative Research, Eds. Norman Denzin and Yvonna Lincoln, 4th Edition, Sage, 513-527.
- Gatson SN (2011). “Self-Naming Practices on the Internet: Identity, Authenticity, and Community.” Cultural Studies Critical Methodologies, 11 (3): 224-235.
- Gatson SN and Zweerink A (2004). Interpersonal Culture on the Internet – Television, the Internet, and the Making of a Community, Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press: Studies in Sociology Series, no. 40.