Sociology’s Goal: Making the World a Better Place
To do that, Greg wants each student to launch their sociological imagination. What’s that? It’s “the ability to take into account your own personal background and place it in the grand scheme of the general society with an eye towards social change. It is the ability to see the big picture in many different contexts.” According to Greg, most people go through life with their own blinders on. People that use their sociological imaginations take the blinders off to question how the world really is--like escaping “the Matrix” or leaving Plato’s cave.
Sociology is the science of human society. Sociologists tackle research and policy issues about many different areas including race, gender, age, social class, sexual orientation, environment, food systems, community, family, religion, education, politics, media, and more. There is sociology for almost everything! To study it effectively, you need to remove your blinders.
Greg enjoys teaching all the sociology classes UWFox offers, but his favorite flavor is environmental sociology. Greg makes an environmental sociological difference through his community involvement in the Farm Fresh program in the Fox Valley, the New Holstein High School Forest program, the Appleton West High School Garbology study, and others.
UWFox Students—Interact, Learn, Achieve!
“Fox students are a great mix. They are receptive and appreciative. I relate to the Fox students because I attended state universities for all my degrees. I enjoy the non-traditional students because I know the challenges of having little kids at home while balancing schools, work, and family.”
“I expect my students to participate in class every day. If you are not interacting, you are not learning. I expect students to apply sociology to current events and to their own life. Students in my classes write papers, take essay exams, and complete group projects where they gather their own data and make observations about our social world. That is the best way to learn sociology.”
“I know I succeed as a teacher when I see my students applying their sociological imagination to their daily lives and working to make things better in the world.”
Academics
- B.A. East Asian Studies, 1992 UW Madison
- M.S. Rural Sociology, 1997, Iowa State University
- Ph. D. Sociology, 2001, Iowa State University
- Currently: Assistant Professor of Sociology, UW-Fox Valley
Tidbits
- Taught English in Taiwan
- Sociological field research involved planting soybeans in the middle of the night
- Saved 3 piglets from a giant manure lagoon
- Enjoys bicycling, rock climbing, spending time with family.
- Recommended reading: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- Wisconsin Sociological Association
- Midwest Sociological Society
- Rural Sociological Society
- Glacierland Resource Conservation & Development Council, Green Bay