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Professional Overview

I received a B.A. in sociology from U.C. Santa Cruz in 1989. I continued my education at U.C. Berkeley, receiving the M.A. in sociology in 1992 and the Ph.D. in 1999.  My primary areas in the field of sociology include the sociology of education, inequality, the sociology of culture, and the sociology of film.  I have been teaching at Saint Mary's since the fall of 1999.  I've published peer-reviewed articles or book chapters on the politics of school choice, the social and cultural dynamics of educational decision making, the representations of education and adolescents in Hollywood films, and the gender dynamics of ballroom dance.  My book, Hollywood Goes to High School: Cinema, Schools and American Culture was first pubished by Worth in 2004.  A revised and updated second edition was published in March of 2015.