Dr. Esmail Najmi is a Professor of Sociology and the Chair of the Division of Social and
Behavioral Sciences. He has a B.A. in Film Studies and a Ph.D. in Sociology, both from
the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His areas of interest include social theory, class
analysis, sociology of culture/media, social revolutions, and research methods.

Courses Taught:
Statistics for Sociologists
Methods of Social Research
Classical Sociological Theory
Social Inequality
Selected Topics in Sociology (Punishment and Society; Digital Media and Social Life;
Power, Domination, and Modern Institutions; Contemporary US Society; and Cinema
and Society).

Natascia Boeri

Ph.D., Graduate Center, City University of New York
B.A., Warren Wilson College

Courses taught: 

Social Problems & Public Solutions
Theory and Practices in Human Services
Methods of Social Science Research
Senior Capstones (Senior Seminar, Fall Internship)
Special Topics (Gender & Social Policy, Women & Leadership)

Dr. Boeri is an Assistant Professor of Sociology, and specializes in gender, work, and international development. Her research on informal workers in India was funded by the National Science Foundation, and she was a 2015-2016 American Association of University Women Dissertation Fellow. She is an active member of the Sociologists for Women in Society and has represented SWS as a delegate to the United Nations numerous times. Dr. Boeri’s teaching style emphasizes experiential learning, and her aim is for students to use knowledge to nurture change in themselves and their community. Her publications can be found on Google Scholar.

Ph.D. New York University

Courses taught:

• Deviance & Social Control,
• Criminal Justice & Race
• Prison Industrial Complex
• Sociology Spring Internship

Interests:

• Social justice activism

Vânia Penha-Lopes

Vânia Penha-Lopes is Professor of Sociology at Bloomfield College. She is also co-chair of the Brazil Seminar at Columbia University (2008-present) and was a member of the executive committee of the Brazilian Studies Association-BRASA (2010-14). A native of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Dr. Penha-Lopes graduated with honors from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro with a Bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences (1982). She is also a graduate of New York University, with a Master’s degree in Anthropology (1987) and a Ph.D. in Sociology (1999). As a post-doctoral fellow at the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (2006-07), she did research on the first graduating class of Brazilian university quota students. She has received a number of awards, including the Carter G. Woodson Institute Predoctoral Fellowship in Afro-American and African Studies, from the University of Virginia (1996-98), and the Scholarship for Study Abroad from the Encyclopaedia Britannica do Brasil (1982), of which she was the youngest recipient. Dr. Penha-Lopes has lectured extensively on comparative race relations, African American fatherhood, and racism in Brazil and has been interviewed for articles in Diverse Issues in Higher Education, O Estado de São Paulo, and The Washington Post. Her work has been cited in a number of books on race relations, in textbooks, and in peer-reviewed articles. In addition to a number of articles, Dr. Penha-Lopes is the author of Confronting Affirmative Action: University Quota Students and the Quest for Racial Justice (2017), Pioneiros: Cotistas na Universidade Brasileira (2013), and co-editor of Religiosidade e Performance: Diálogos Contemporâneos (2015).