Research Interests
My research interests are in the area of community sociology, with an emphasis on understanding the unique challenges faced by rural populations. With community as the unifying theme of my research, I have numerous publications under four closely related—often overlapping—themes: (1) the social correlates of place, (2) community disruption, (3) the academic assessment of community, and (4) non-place based communities. Throughout my agenda I am conceptually interested in social change through the lens of the local community as I seek to understand the diverse ways individuals experience community and the relationship between individual- and community-level attributes and outcomes.