Faculty Profile: Dr. Catherine Fobes
According to Dr. Catherine Fobes, sociology makes the most sense when it is done interactively; therefore her lectures encourage student engagement and participation.
She challenges students to explore their own assumptions about how society works (or doesn’t work) through in-class exercises, analytical readings and writing assignments. Field trips, critical analyses of films, praxis projects, and off-campus interviews or participant observations are also incorporated into her classes.
Fobes’ teaching and research interests focus on how and why gender, race/ethnicity, age, and social class shape institutional arrangements and practices. She teaches in the areas of social organizations, families, gender, aging and health, religion, and methods of social research. Fobes has published in various journals, including Social Problems, The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Review of Religious Research, Teaching Sociology and Organizing Black America: An Encyclopedia of African American Associations.
Fobes, associate professor of sociology, earned her undergraduate degree in psychology from Muhlenberg College, a master’s degree in theology and ethics from Yale University, and another master’s degree and her doctorate in sociology from Florida State University. She is the Chair of the Sociology and Anthropology department at Alma College for 2006–2009. She has received the Outstanding Faculty Award in the Social Sciences Division in 2006, 2003 and 2001 and received the Outstanding Junior Faculty Award in 2002. In addition, she has been awarded the Greek Community’s Outstanding Faculty Award three times, in 2007, 2004 and 2003.
