Glatfelter Hall
Room 111 C
300 North Washington St.
Gettysburg, PA 17325-1400
Education
PhD Sociology, Yale University, 2009
MA Sociology, Yale University, 2004
MS Environmental Science, Yale School of the Environment, 2002
BA Biological Sciences (High Honors), Smith College, 1999
Academic Focus
Social Ecology, Environmental Sociology, Postcolonial Studies
Professor Hays examines the intersection of race and environment in an effort to apprehend the ways in which we 'see' race and racial difference through the landscape: how the natural world comes to be racialized. This research has been supported by Fulbright-Hays, the National Science Foundation, Foreign Language and Area Studies, the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies at the University of Virginia, the Kansas African Studies Center at the University of Kansas, the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society at LMU Munich (postponed), and internal grants from Yale University and Gettysburg College.
At Gettysburg College, Professor Hays teaches courses on race (SOC 209), health and medicine (SOC 239), and environment (SOC 247), several of which are cross-listed with Public Policy. Since 2020, Hays has taught the senior capstone for the major (SOC 400), in which students design and conduct independent research. Hays's teaching has been supported by grants from the Mellon Foundation, the Johnson Center for Creative Teaching and Learning at Gettysburg, and the Center for Teaching Excellence at the University of Virginia. Before coming to Gettysburg, Professor Hays taught undergraduate courses in sociology and African studies at the University of Virginia, Mount Holyoke College, and Yale University.
Courses Taught
Why do we see human difference through the color of another’s skin? Are we each both perpetrators and victims of racism, prejudice or discrimination? Why do some immigrant groups assimilate and others do not, and what kinds of hybrid identities are thereby created? What role have institutions played in the formation or perpetuation of racial identities or stereotypes? In what ways can we begin to see a deep relationship among race, opportunity, class and place? How important is the media in perpetuating stereotypes and norms of appearance? How, when and why might we see the boundaries of racial and ethnic identity shift, separate and overlap? The mission of this course is to provide students with the sociological tools to think critically about the social histories of race and ethnicity; to recognize the individual and communal impacts of racism, migration and assimilation; and to work towards a deep appreciation of human diversity. This course will focus on discussion and self-reflection. It will count as an elective in the Sociology and Africana Studies majors and minors and the Peace & Justice Studies minor. This course will count as an elective in the Public Health Policy major.
Prerequisite: Sociology 101, 102 or 103; or permission of the instructor.
What is health, and how have science and medicine, as social institutions, helped us to frame health in terms of places, people & politics? In what ways do our communities—from family to nation-state—help or hinder our life course and affect our access to medicine and medical technologies? How has science reproduced frameworks of discrimination via colonialism, racism, sexism, and ableism? Can we, as global citizens, cultivate a ‘One Health’ approach to these challenges? Taking a richly multi-disciplinary lens by drawing on the lessons of history, sociology, anthropology, and cultural studies, this class attempts to answer such questions through a biopolitical and necropolitical theoretical framework. Our readings and research will focus on the intertwined histories and contemporary realities of colonialism and medicine; pandemics and prophylaxis; politics and public health; gender, ableism and the body; medical technologies and artificial intelligence; and the medicalization of disease and death. This class will be largely discussion-based, with student presentations and an essay-based midterm and final. This course will count as an elective in the Sociology, Public Policy, and Public Health Policy majors and the Sociology and Peace & Justice Studies minors. Prerequisites: SOC 101, 102 or 103; or HS 120; or permission of the instructor. SOC 239 and PP 239 are cross-listed.
What are the major issues facing humanity today? What are the major issues facing the environment? Are these challenges the same? In this course, we will begin to think through the ways in which the problems of humanity—violence, precarity, discrimination, denial, to name just a few—are also at the root of major environmental concerns. Underlying much of our contemporary relationship to the ‘environment’ is a capitalist framework. Thus, we will look at the exploitative nature of colonial resource extraction; the structure of environmental racism and unequal resource access; the increasingly unnatural disasters we face; the emotional and political foundations of climate change denial; and the role of corporations and money in fueling environmental degradation and catastrophe. We will conclude the semester with a discussion of social movements, resiliency, and post-humanism. This course will be largely discussion-based and interactive, and will count as an elective in the Sociology and Environmental Studies majors and minors and the Peace & Justice Studies minor. This course will count as an elective in the Public Health Policy major. Prerequisites: SOC 101, 102 or 103; or ES 196; or permission of the instructor. SOC 247 and PP 247 are cross-listed.
The capstone seminar is the culmination of the major degree program, seeking to help students become advocates for positive social change with knowledge and empathy. The capstone will help students integrate and synthesize the lessons learned in their many elective, methods, and theory courses. Students will review sociological research methods; ethical research design; and theoretical frameworks and paradigms in order to create a strong independent research project based on primary data collection and analysis. Each student's research will also be showcased via the interactive websites they design, which will in turn form the foundation for future employment and graduate program applications. Prerequisites: SOC 296 (with C or above), 298, 299; and senior status.