Shamsul Arefin (with Tamanna Rashid) published an article in BMC Infectious Diseases, "Comparative study of stigma and discrimination among vaccinated and non-vaccinated COVID-19 survivors in Bangladesh."
Katie Billings was awarded the Eastern Sociological Society's (ESS) 2025 Candace Rogers Graduate Student Award, recognizing an outstanding paper on a current social issue. Additionally, her dissertation was awarded the 2025 Best Dissertation Award by the ASA Sociology of Mental Health Section, and the first chapter of her dissertation - on defining suicidality - received the 2025 Best Graduate Paper Award from the ASA Social Psychology Section. Billings was also selected for the Distinguished Teaching Award for the 2024-2025 academic year, the only student-initiated teaching award on campus, recognizing the impact she has made on the UMass undergraduate students in her classes.
Deb Chakraborty was awarded the 2025 Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, as well as a Graduate School Summer 2025 Dissertation Completion Fellowship.
Tom Corcoran published an article in Sage Journals, "Street-Level Brokers: Power and Politics in the New England Rustbelt."
Jennifer Garfield-Abrams defended her dissertation, "Fractured Localism: How divided times make contentious places," and will be starting as an Assistant Professor at Suffolk University this fall.
Anthony Huaqui was awarded a Graduate School Summer 2025 Dissertation Completion Fellowship.
Shuyin Liu defended her second empirical paper, "Not Just the Purchase Value: How Do We Theorize In-Kind Support and Its Gendered Pattern."
Mabrouka M'Barek is the recipient of the 2025 Charles H. Page Scholarship for the best theory paper, "Affixing the Nomads: Revisiting Marx's Theory of 'So-Called Primitive Accumulation' with a Deleuzo-Guattarian-Inspired Theory of the Colonial State."
Danielle McCarthy defended her dissertation prospectus, "Uterine Cancer 'Becoming': The Sociopolitical Landscape of Uterine Cancer Disparities Among Black Women," and is a co-winner of the Spring 2025 Andersen Graduate Enrichment Award for Research on Inequality.
Matt Mendoza defended his doctoral dissertation, "Changing Organizational Populations and U.S. Worker Wages: Corporate Demography, Bargaining Power, and Segregation."
Nathan Meyers defended his doctoral dissertation, "Revenge of the Private Sector: Union Decline, Privatization, and the Restructuring of the American Economy." He also published an article in The Conversation, titled "Trump's DOGE campaign accelerates 50-year trend of government privatization." The article highlighted public-sector union research published with Jasmine Kerrissey and Tiamba Wilkerson. Several news outlets worldwide republished the article, including San Francisco Chronicle, Houston Chronicle, Salon, Common Dreams, and Counterpunch. Meyers was also interviewed for the March 19th episode of the syndicated radio show The Attitude with Arnie Arnesen.
Esther Moraes defended her second comps, "From 'Female Foeticide' to 'Gender Biased Sex Selection': Paving a Path to Abortion Rights."
Reyna Orellana defended her Masters comps paper, "Soft Skills, Hard Barriers: The Dual Burden of Brokerage and the Erosion of the Traditional Employment Contract."
Tamanna Rashid (with Shamsul Arefin) published an article in BMC Infectious Diseases, "Comparative study of stigma and discrimination among vaccinated and non-vaccinated COVID-19 survivors in Bangladesh."
Tiamba Wilkerson's co-authored publication (with Jasmine Kerrissey and Nathan Meyers) was referenced in Nathan Meyers's article in The Conversation.
Choonhee Woo was awarded a Graduate School Summer 2025 Dissertation Completion Fellowship, and is a co-winner of the Spring 2025 Andersen Graduate Enrichment Award for Research on Inequality.
Aaron Yates has accepted a tenure track position as Assistant Professor of Black Studies at Denison University, beginning in August.
Chanki Yoo defended his Masters comps paper, "Culture, Inequality, and Well-Being: Meritocratic Culture Moderates the Relationship Between Income Inequality and Subjective Well-Being."