Faculty
Akbar Keshodkar | Professor of Anthropology
Education:
M.Sc & D.Phil, Anthropology, Oxford University
M.A, Islamic Studies and Humanities, Institute of Ismaili Studies, London
B.A., Biology and Islamic Studies, Oberlin College
Office location: PPHAC 311
Office Phone: 610-861-1685
Email: keshodkara@moravian.edu
Research interests and expertise
Dr. Keshodkar is a cultural anthropologist. One of his research interests lies in investigating how people in communities dominated by tourism in different parts of the world strive towards maintaining their resilience as they cope with imposing conditions of involuntary immobility resulting from unsustainable tourist activities. Another area of his research examines the impact of transnational socio-economic networks on pathways of mobility and formulations of identities in Muslim communities in East Africa and western Indian Ocean societies.
Dr. Keshodkar is currently working on two projects—one focused on exploring transnational social/cosmopolitan networks across the Indian Ocean, and the other analyzing the relationship between tourism, development, and cultural change in Muslim societies. He teaches courses in Modern African History and Society, Africana Studies, Anthropology, Sociology, and Indian Ocean Studies. Topics of his courses include identity politics, movement of identities, tourism and development, transnationalism, comparative sociology, globalization, and anthropological research methods.
Allison Bloom | Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Education:
Ph.D., Anthropology, Rutgers University
M.A., Anthropology, Rutgers University
B.A., Women's Studies, and Hispanic Studies, Vassar College
Office location: PPHAC 312
Office Phone: 610-625-7729
Email: blooma@moravian.edu
Research interests and expertise
Dr. Bloom’s research interests and areas of expertise include gender studies, medical anthropology, U.S. immigration and Latinx studies, applied anthropology, and inequalities in health and social services, with a focus on domestic violence, aging, and disability.
Teaching: Dr. Bloom’s course offerings include Cultural Anthropology, Health in Cultural Perspectives, and Sociology/Anthropology of Gender, among others. Her courses focus on themes such as gender-based violence, inequalities in healthcare and social service systems, cross-cultural perspectives on the body and health, globalization, and migration.
Current Research: Dr. Bloom’s research interests include the intersection of gender-based violence with health, disability, aging, and immigration. Her current project focuses on understanding how immigrant Latina women receiving services for domestic violence in the U.S. combine evangelical Christianity with social and health services to move forward through violence. Through this study, she is investigating domestic violence from a life-course perspective by considering the long-term effects of violence and how social services can better accommodate aging survivors and survivors with disabilities. Dr. Bloom is an active member of the Society for Applied Anthropology, the Society for Medical Anthropology, and the American Anthropological Association. She regularly presents her work at academic conferences as well as collaborates on research with social work researchers and social service and health practitioners. Her previous research project centered around domestic violence services in Uruguay.
Debra Wetcher-Hendricks | Professor of Sociology
Education:
Ph.D., Applied Social Research, Lehigh University
M.A., Social Relations, Lehigh University
B.A., Communications, Glassboro State College
Office location: PPHAC 314
Office Phone: 610-861-1415
Email: wetcher-hendricksd@moravian.edu
Research interests and expertise
Wetcher-Hendricks' primary academic endeavors are related to research methodology, particularly quantitative data analysis. Other areas of interest, based on her own academic background, include gender studies, interpersonal communication, and classroom pedagogy.
Debra Wetcher-Hendricks' Biography
Dr. Wetcher Hendricks received her B.A. from Glassboro State College (now Rowan University) and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Lehigh University. Her scholarship focuses on quantitative research methodology, including mathematical modeling, as well as interpersonal and mass communication. Dr. Wetcher-Hendricks has written a textbook entitled Analyzing Quantitative Data: An Introduction for Social Researchers and has been listed in multiple editions of Marquis Who's Who In America, Who's Who Among American Woman, and Who's Who in the World since 2008. Courses that Dr. Wetcher-Hendricks regularly teaches include Introductory Sociology, Basic Research Methods, Advanced Research Methods, and Media Technology and Society. In 2013, she received the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching at Moravian University.
Virginia Adams O'Connell | Associate Professor of Sociology and Department Chair
Education:
M.A. & Ph.D., Sociology, University of Pennsylvania
B.A., Sociology and Anthropology, Haverford College
Office location: PPHAC 315
Office Phone: 610-625-7756
Email: voconne1@moravian.edu
Research interests and expertise
Medical sociology (with a concentration on the profession of medicine, medical education, and bioethics), Research Methods (focusing on the dialogue between quantitative and qualitative methodologies), Survey Development, Research Ethics, the Sociology of Law, and Demography.
Virginia Adams O'Connel's Biography
Dr. Adams O’Connell has served on the American Sociological Association (ASA) Ethics Committee and currently serves on the ASA Sociology of Law Undergraduate Paper Committee. She also served on the Greenville Hospital System’s (Greenville, South Carolina) MedEx Academy Development Committee. She is the author of the book Getting Cut: Failing to Survive Surgical Residency Training (University Press of America) and has also authored several book chapters, articles in peer-reviewed journals and conference presentations. Current projects include a multi-institutional study of the training and practice expectations of premedical students and a study on the unmet medical needs of the clientele of an urban food bank.
Rebecca Malinski | Assistant Professor of Sociology
Education:
Ph.D., Criminal Justice, Michigan State University
M.A., Sociology, Ohio University
B.A., Sociology and Criminology, Ohio University
Office Location: PPHAC 316
Office Phone: 610-625-7886
Email: malinskir@moravian.edu
Research Interests/Expertise
Youth violence and victimization, bullying and school-based victimization cyberbullying and cyber-deviance, research methods (particularly as they relate to the study of crime and victimization).
Teaching/Research Profile
Dr. Malinski’s course offerings are concentrated in the areas of criminology and criminal justice. In particular, she teaches courses on social structure and crime, juvenile delinquency, cyber-deviance, and criminological theory.
Dr. Malinski is primarily interested in the impact that crime and the criminal justice system have on children and adolescents. Specifically, she is interested in better-understanding youth offending and victimization of various forms. Her current projects are aimed at better understanding the impact of bullying and cyberbullying victimization on adolescents, as well as the relationship between these two forms of victimization. Specifically, she is currently engaged in research examining what impact bullying and cyberbullying victimization have on several mental health outcomes. She is also working on another study seeking to better understand the relationship between bullying victimization and cyberbullying victimization, including potential trajectories of offline and online victimization. Dr. Malinski is an active member of both the American Sociological Association and the American Society of Criminology and presents her research findings regularly.
Staff
Lori Boyle | Department Assistant
Office Location: PPHAC 313
Office Phone: 610-861-1318
Email: boylel@moravian.edu
Adjunct Faculty
Attorney Kimberly Goodge-Makoul (2006)
B.A., Moravian University
J.D., Widener University
Magisterial District Judge Nancy Matos Gonzalez (2022)
M.A., Boston University
Judge Samuel Murray (2009)
B.A., Moravian University
J.D., Seton Hall University School of Law
Vincent Ramunni (1998)
B.A., Moravian University
M.S., Shippensburg University
Attorney Frances Sonne (2006)
B.A., Pennsylvania State University
J.D., Temple University
Dr. William Vogler (2017)
B.A., Hobart College
M.A., University of Chicago
Ph.D., Indiana University of Pennsylvania