New Graduate Student Highlight: Katie Sorrell

The Department of Sociology would like to welcome Katie L. Sorrell to Iowa State University. Katie, who is originally from Winfield, Iowa, came to ISU to receive her Ph.D. in sociology.

Katie attended the University of Northern Iowa on a basketball scholarship for 5 years, in which time she earned her bachelors in Anthropology and Sociology and minored in geography. She received her Masters degree in sociology in July 2005, with her thesis entitled, We're Not Free-Loading Jocks: The Presentation of Self in the Everyday Lives of Collegiate Level Student-Athletes. Shortly thereafter, she accepted a teaching position at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, where she taught a variety of classes including, Introductory Sociology (in class and online), Sociology of Gender Roles, and Sociology of Minority Groups. In March of 2007, she coauthored a paper, entitled, Sociology Dismissing Religion? The Presentation of Religious Change in Introductory Textbooks, with Richard Featherstone at the University of Northern Iowa, which was published in the American Sociologist. This paper examines how introductory sociology textbooks differ in their quality of coverage on topics such as religious change. After four years of teaching, Katie's primary goal, upon receiving a doctorate, is teaching at the university level. She wants to continue her career in academia, teaching advanced sociology courses, but also expanding on her areas of interest such as gender, mental illness, and racial and ethnic groups. 

As already mentioned, Katie's interests include mental illness, and why mental illness continues to receive such negative stigma from not only the public, but also from the mental health community. Also, the media have played fundamental roles in developing and maintaining stereotypical and negative portrayals of individuals suffering from mental illnesses, which can be internalized by both the mentally ill and the public.

Another one of Katie's interests involves our understanding of gender. In a society that only recognizes two genders (man and woman), the transgender and transsexual community push the envelope in how society conceptualizes gender. Not only are these individuals searching for their own identity and its meaning, they are pushed to the fringes of society because of these choices. Katie is interested incorporating not only women's inequalities in society, but also men's struggle to construct and preserve a masculine identity within the social fabric of life.  

When not in school, Katie engages in many activities such as watching movies, reading, counted cross stitch, sleeping and just relaxing.

In the future, Katie plans to continue with academia at the university level where she can continue teaching and publishing research.