Breadcrumb
Achievements
Publications and achievements submitted by our faculty, staff, and students.
Josh Meisel
Sociology
Dr. Josh Meisel co-authored, "Global cannabis cultivation as a gendered activity: Findings from the 2020 International Cannabis Cultivation Questionnaire" in the International Journal of Drug Policy. With co-authors from the Global Cannabis Cultivation Research Consortium they examined the extent to which women's participation in cannabis cultivation may have changed across varied global legal contexts. They found that policy shifts towards legalization are related to further reducing overall gender disparities in cannabis cultivation, yet differences remain in earnings, motivations for growing, and experiences with the criminal justice system.
Israel de Souza
Sociology
Israel de Souza has recently published a co-authored book, Moral and Intellectual Virtues in Practices: Through the Eyes of Scientists and Musicians, and a co-authored piece for the Chronicle of Higher Education, "Institutions Must Do More to Accommodate Those with Long Covid." She also wrote a policy brief for the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, based on previously funded research, entitled "Learning from Rio's Failed Pacification Initiative."
Michelle Newhart
Sociology
Michelle Newhart and her coauthor, Nicholas Athey published an article, “Cultivating Choice: Determinants of Home Cannabis Growing Among Legal Users in the United States,” that examines factors influencing the decision to grow cannabis at home by cannabis-consuming residents in legal states. Drawing on a survey of recent cannabis users in cannabis-legal states, they explore four potential explanations for home cultivation: legal access, needs-based motivations, resource-based factors, and identity-based reasons. Their analysis reveals that home growers differ significantly from non-growers across multiple dimensions.
Caleb Chen
Sociology
Graduate student Caleb Chen was awarded an $25,000 Agricultural Research Institute (ARI) NEXTGEN Fellowship to support his groundbreaking research on changes in cannabis genetics for his MA in Public Sociology.
Josh Meisel
Sociology
Josh Meisel published an article, "The Cartel Mystique: Race and the Social Construction of the Cannabis Grower," in Sociological Inquiry. In his research, Josh examined emergent themes in the cultural representation of the Emerald Triangle cannabis grower since the early 1970s, with a particular focus on more recent claims of Mexican drug cartel influence in domestic cannabis cultivation. Changing representations of growers helped fuel moral panics about cannabis cultivation that constructed some groups of growers as “folk devils” and others as “folk heroes.”
Josh Meisel
Sociology
Professor Josh Meisel (Sociology) gave a poster presentation on "Gender and Global Cannabis Cultivation" at the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy in Montreal in June with co-authors Julie E. Brummer and Thomas Friis Søgaard (Aarhus University), Gary Potter (Lancaster University Law School), and Jodie Grigg (Curtin University). The research draws on data collected as part of the 2020 International Cannabis Cultivation Questionnaire administered to small-scale growers in 18 countries.
Joshua Meisel and Daniel Bear
Sociology
Joshua Meisel co-authored with Daniel Bear (Humber College) "A tale of two cannabis legalization experiments" for Policy Options in commemoration of the 5th anniversary of cannabis legalization in Canada. https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/october-2023/cannabis-canada-c…
Joshua Meisel, Amanda Reiman, Rielle Capler, and Darcey Paulding McCready
Sociology
Joshua Meisel co-authored an article on "Medical Cannabis Identity and Public Health Paternalism" with Amanda Reiman, Rielle Capler, and Darcey Paulding McCready in the June issue of Public Health in Practice. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhip.2023.100372
Joshua Meisel, Dominic Corva, and Ara Pachmayer
Sociology
Joshua Meisel co-authored with Dominic Corva and Ara Pachmayer "Cannabis, Communities, and Place: (Re)constructing Humboldt's Post-Prohibition Present" in the 2023 issue of the Humboldt Journal of Social Relations. https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1218&co…
Mary Virnoche
Sociology
Professor Mary Virnoche published in Teaching Sociology “‘You Make Your Own Luck’: Building Cultural and Social Capital in a Major-Based Career Course.” The piece is a call to action for sociologists and other faculty, particularly those serving first-generation and BIPOC students. Research indicates that first-generation students are more likely than continuing generation students to rely on posted ads for opportunities, while most opportunities are actually discovered through networking. The article outlines curriculum and a pilot assessment of a required sociology proseminar. The course focuses on integrating major-based skills into professional materials, developing soft skills, and organizing professional opportunities and contacts.



