Sociology

Dr. Longard holds her Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University.  Her early research focused on familial gender socialization in the subculture of Southern child beauty pageants.  Through extensive fieldwork and intensive interviewing of pageant families, she examined the self-esteem effects of pageant participation, as well as the parental motive and rationale for the inclusion of children within the highly contested practice of pageantry.  Her latest work examines student-based social movements and grassroots organizing.  Dr. Longard's teaching interests include gender, the body and self-esteem, Southern subculture, and inequality, among other courses.  She is active in our General Education program offering both Freshman Year Seminar and Junior Cornerstone courses.  In addition, Dr. Longard takes part in many service-learning courses offered within the Belmont and Nashville communities.  Dr. Longard serves as the Chair of the Department of Sociology.

Dr. Spring, is an Associate Professor of Sociology. He has been an active member of the Belmont community since 2002.  He holds an M.A. in Sociology with a focus on community development from the University of Toledo and a Ph.D. in Sociology with a focus in social and cultural theory from Vanderbilt University. He teaches classes on Social Theory, Cultural Theory, Sociology of Music, Politics of Knowledge, Urban Community, and Research Methods.  Dr. Spring was the recipient of the Harold Love Community Service award from the Tennessee Governor’s office and Tennessee Department of Higher Education for his role in creating the YMCA Literacy Program in Middle Tennessee.  His current research focuses on the relationship music in identity formation within popular culture. In addition to his community service and research, Dr. Spring has been interviewed by more than 20 local and national news publications and has appeared in several documentaries discussing various aspects of culture which have aired internationally on Bravo!, Current TV, and nationally on PBS.

Dr. Andi Stepnick is Professor of Sociology at Belmont University (where she served as chair of the department from 2003-2010).  She earned her Ph.D. from Florida State University.  She teaches classes in the Sociology of Gender, Family Problems: the Sociology of Health, Illness & the Body; Restorative Justice; Visual Sociology; and Men, Masculinity & Media.  She  researches gender and social movements, popular culture, and pedagogy.   Since 2002, she has organized and facilitated a variety of workshops and seminars on workplace diversity issues.  In addition to writing several editions of a teaching manual to accompany Healey's Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in the United Sates (Pine Forge Press) her writings appear in Teaching Sociology, Girl Culture: An Encyclopedia, Teaching Social Problems, The Encyclopedia on Men and Masculinities, and The American Sociological Association Guide for Teaching Sociology of the Body.  In fall 2007, she initiated two new community service programs at Belmont to help Nashville's homeless population and to work towards prison reform.  In 2008, she took students on Belmont's first study abroad trip to India (see http://forum.belmont.edu/india) and in 2009, took students on unique Cultural Sociology course about the United States called "40 states in 40 days: Rediscovering America" (see http://forum.belmont.edu/40states/).  In 2005-06, she earned one of Belmont's most prestigious teaching awards, the Presidential Faculty Achievement Award, for her contributions to students' intellectual, personal and professional needs.

Dr. Erin Pryor joins Belmont University as an Assistant Professor of Sociology.  She received her Ph.D. from the University of Akron-Kent State University Joint Ph.D. program and received her M.A. and B.A. from the University of Toledo. Since an early age, Dr. Pryor has been passionate about racial inequality and this passion has led her to do research largely focused on the contemporary experiences of Blacks in the U.S. and how the social construction of race maintains inequality over time.  In an effort to expand the sociological knowledge in the area of race, Dr. Pryor looks to understand the operation of race in familial relationships, especially among Black-White interracial couples. Her teaching interests include race and ethnicity, inequality, familial relationships and intimacy, among other courses.  Dr. Pryor will be active in the General Education program and responsible for teaching First Year Seminar and Junior Cornerstone courses.