Long Form Articles – Engaged Sociology

Leadership Coaching as Transformative Learning: How Their Core Facets, Processes, & Paradigms Align

By Andy Hughes How leaders learn is an essential and expensive question asked today by organizations across the world. Organizations are facing consistent transformational, dynamic and complex challenges which require effective leadership more so than ever (DeRue & Myers, 2014). In 2019, firms spent approximately $370.3 billion on training (Training Industry, 2020), and Training Industry…

Time to Heal: Domestic Violence Policy

By Shannon Green This paper overviews the current state of domestic violence policy and advocates for the passage of H. CON. RES. 72 “Time To Heal Act” expressing the sense of Congress that child safety is the first priority of custody and visitation adjudications, and that State courts should improve adjudications of custody where family…

Nixon’s Smoking Gun: Is Lying a Necessary Leadership Skill?

By Shannon Gazze On June 17th, 1972, five burglars broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C. In 2020, we now know they were there at the behest of President Richard M. Nixon based on information obtained from DNC phone taps by G. Gordon Liddy’s Committee to Re-Elect President…

Escape from Wuhan: IUP Alumni Daniel Wethli’s Story of Going from Fulbright Student to Quarantined Evacuee

I recount how COVID-19 (the Corona Virus) impacted me while in Wuhan. This includes my perspective of evacuating Wuhan and being under the first federal quarantine order in more than fifty years.

Leadership Case Study: Understand the Roots of Corruption in Bell, California

By Ehap Alahmed In 2010, a massive level of corruption was discovered in Bell, California. Robert Rizzo, the city’s Chief Administrator Officer, made $1.5 million in total compensation annually, and four of the city’s five Councilmembers earned nearly $100,000 per year. The money was extracted from (a) raising property taxes; (b) issuing bonds for imaginary…

Lack of Women in Law Enforcement

By Kacy Crowley In the United States, women have been disproportionately underrepresented in the law enforcement field for decades. The following case study will explore the history of women in law enforcement while addressing the current statistical data highlighting the underrepresentation and undervaluation of women police officers in our society. I will address several feminist…

Mere Cracks in the Academic Glass Ceiling: Why Are Women So Underrepresented in Higher Education Leadership?

By Sera-Leigh Ghouralal According to an article posted by Forbes in July 2018, the American College Presidents Survey conducted in 2017, by the American Council on Education, reported that only 30% of college presidents in the United States were women. Of this 30%, only 5% were women of color. The article states that there has…

Team Building Models as Tools for Social Justice: Literature Review and Theory Analysis

By Shannon Gazze When I introduce the idea of startup teams to business undergraduates, I enlist their help to construct a four-person basketball team. Why four players instead of the traditional five? This constraint allows us to focus first on fundamental skills and attributes that are necessary for success in a competitive environment and then…

It may be a Man’s World, but it is a Woman’s Galaxy: Transformational Female Leadership in Star Wars: The Last Jedi

By: Kasey Lee After the release of 2017’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi, there was no shortage of criticism around what some viewed as an assault on a beloved franchise: a Star Wars movie with women and minorities in title roles while exalted hero Luke Skywalker had been turned impotent and despondent since 1983’s Return…

A Sociological Perspective on the School-to-Prison Pipeline

By Emily Walsh Introduction By 1917, all states in the United States of America passed laws making it a requirement for all school-age children to attend school (Education, 2018). With the passing of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, it made it a constitutional right for all students to receive the same education (Zinn, 2003). But to…

Why are There So Many Older Children in Foster Care?: Barriers to Adoption of Older Kids

by Madelyne Grim Department of Sociology, Indiana University of Pennsylvania When you think of a growing family, what comes to mind? A new a baby? Possibly other children, as well? Stereotypes about what a family “should” look like in our society impacts how people think about and proceed with adoptions. Prospective adoptive parents commonly believe…