Mindy Stombler

Dr. Stombler received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Florida State University in 1995 and worked as an Assistant Professor at Texas Tech University until 2000 before joining the department at GSU.

At GSU, Dr. Stombler’s focus has been on teaching. This includes teaching many undergraduates, producing textbooks, and graduate teacher training.  Along with her colleagues, Dr. Stombler authored Sex Matters:  The Sexuality and Society Reader, now in its fifth edition with W.W. Norton.  She is also co-author of Focus on Social Problems:  A Contemporary Reader, with Oxford University Press.  Dr. Stombler created and continues to run the Graduate Teacher Training Program in the Department of Sociology. She won her college’s Outstanding Teaching Award, the Southern Sociological Society’s Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Award, Georgia Sociologist of the Year Award, and the American Sociological Association’s Howery Award for excellence in developing future teacher-scholars.

Dr. Stombler conducted two major ethnographic projects on campus culture. The first was a three-year study of black and white fraternity little sister programs that focused on the different ways that men exploited women in these organizations and how the women resisted exploitation (results published in Social Problems).  She also analyzed how little sisters negotiated their collective sexual identity (results published in Gender & Society, and Journal of Contemporary Ethnography).

The second ethnography was a three-year study of gay fraternities. In this project, she and her co-authors focused on how men in gay fraternities negotiated the dual identities of being gay and being Greek (results published in Social Problems) and how men in gay fraternities reproduced hegemonic masculinity (results published in Gender & Society).

Dr. Stombler recently published research (along with three former graduate students) on the unique role of Teaching Associate (advanced graduate student instructors who serve as mentors for less experienced ones) in graduate teacher training (results published in Teaching Sociology).

Dr. Stombler enjoys teaching courses in social problems, gender, sexuality, qualitative methods, and pedagogy. For more information see mindystombler.com