Ms. Pitts is an Administrative Assistant in the Department of Multidisciplinary Studies and in the Department of Economics. She has been with Indiana State University since November 2013. In her previous work in the Department of Social Work, she assisted with several mental health conferences at the Landsbaum Center for Health Education. She has served on Staff Council since 2018, and is currently serving on the Staff Relations Committee, as well as a second term on the Staff Executive Committee as the Staff Grievance Liaison. She is a Sycamore SafeZone advocate, and is also currently a member of the LGBTQIAP+ Caucus. In her spare time, she enjoys roller skating and playing trivia.

Dr. Adeyemi Doss is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Multidisciplinary Studies, where he teaches various classes in Sociology.  He holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in African American and African Diasporic Studies with a minor in Philosophy from Indiana University, Bloomington. As a scholar, Dr. Doss' research interests are shaped by a growing trend towards producing scholarships that address issues facing African American men and boys. His research raises important questions about black subjectivity, patterns of black spatial mobility, and embodied resistance.

Ruth L. Fairbanks is a Senior Instructor in the Department of Multidisciplinary Studies at Indiana State University. At ISU, she teaches gender studies (Introduction to Gender Studies and Gender, Race and Nation) and American history (History of American Health Policy, Immigration History, American Women in the Twentieth Century).  Dr. Fairbanks is currently a co-coordinator of ISU’s Gender Studies program. In 2017-2018, she had a Fulbright fellowship teaching American Studies in Norway. Dr. Fairbanks earned her PhD and MA in history at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has a BA from Hiram College. Dr. Fairbanks is currently working on a book about American maternity policy from 1940 to 1993. She is also writing a role playing game about the utopian socialist experiment in New Harmony, Indiana in 1825.

Dr. Namita Goswami is Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Multidisciplinary Studies. She earned her BA from Hamilton College and PHD from Emory University. Dr. Goswami loves to teach and received the Caleb Mills Distinguished Teaching Award (2019). Her research combines continental philosophy, postcolonial, critical race, feminist, and queer theory. In addition to publishing in venues such as Hypatia, SIGNS, philoSOPHIA, Critical Philosophy of Race, Contemporary Aesthetics, and Angelaki, she is co-editor of Why Race and Gender Still Matter: An Intersectional Approach (Pickering & Chatto 2014). She is the author of Subjects That Matter: Philosophy, Feminism, and Postcolonial Theory (SUNY Press 2019). In 2020, she was awarded the Theodore Dreiser Distinguished Research/Creativity Award. She is currently completing a book on Gayatri Spivak.

Dr. Amanda Lubold is an Associate Professor of Sociology in the Department of Multidisciplinary Studies. Dr. Lubold has been at ISU since 2014. She has her Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Arizona in Tucson, AZ. Dr. Lubold’s specialties are gender and medical sociology. Her research interests lie at the intersection of gender, health, and the workplace. Specifically, her research has focused on the ways in which the workplace serves as a structural barrier for family life, especially in the United States.

Dr. Lubold teaches a variety of classes in sociology and gender studies. She encourages you to come try out a class – it just may change your college experience!

In her spare time, Dr. Lubold plays tennis any time she can. She is the head girls’ tennis coach and assistant boys’ tennis coach at Terre Haute North High School. Dr. Lubold also loves hanging out with her dog, Stanley, and spending time with family and friends.   

Dr. Lain Mathers
Assistant Professor of Sociology
Lain.Mathers@indstate.edu
812-237-3433

Dr. Lain Mathers is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Affiliated Faculty in Gender Studies at ISU. Zir work focuses on dynamics of gender, sexualities, and religion in society, with a particular focus on LGBTQIAP+ populations. Specifically, much of their research centers the experiences of bisexual+ and transgender individuals, particularly how bi+ and trans people navigate and challenge inequalities in their daily lives. In zir free time, Dr. Mathers enjoys reading novels, hiking, gardening, and spending time with their partner and three adorable cats.

Dr. Thomas Steiger
Professor of Sociology
Thomas.Steiger@indstate.edu
812-237-3426
 

I am a professor of sociology.  I graduated from the University of Florida, Virginia Tech, and the University of Illinois.  I have been at ISU since the fall of 1987.  I arrived at ISU with scholarly and teaching interests focused on inequality in the workplace.  But since arriving at ISU and early affiliation with the (then) Women’s Studies program, my disciplinary DNA began to degrade and now I think of myself as multidisciplinary but my sociological origins remain strong.  My scholarly and teaching interests have evolved over the years and those interests reflect my growing multidisciplinarity.  I’ve worked with economic geographers studying the impact of NAFTA on the floriculture industry in northwest Ohio.  I developed an interest in sustainability and was part of the group that lead to the creation of the Institute for Community Sustainability at ISU.  I’ve published on sustainability and craft brewing.  My multidisciplinarity has aided me greatly in directing the Center for Student Research and Creativity.  Most recently I have turned my multi-disciplinary eye to social justice and social movements in the classroom and am working with an economist on a research project currently titled “Work Attitudes and the Political Prospects for Guaranteed Annual Income.”  When not "professoring" I prefer sailing.  I keep a sailboat on Geist Reservoir in Indianapolis, and I’m working on earning my captain’s license. 

Scott M. Powell is an award-winning educator, published author, and global traveler who was raised by a single mother in a rural Southeastern Ohio Appalachian community. He has dedicated his academic and professional life to helping all students reach their educational goals because he is a living example of how education can drastically improve lives despite struggles. He started college as a non-traditional first-generation student at an open admissions college and worked his way to a PhD at a public research university and a career as a college professor.

An alumnus of Ohio University and Shawnee State University, Powell has a Ph.D. in cultural studies in education, a master’s in sociology, significant graduate coursework in history at Indiana State University, and bachelor’s degrees in history and social science. He holds a certificate from Indiana University’s Institute for Curriculum and Campus Internationalization and has been a participant in the Global Learning Across Indiana Initiative. He has years of teaching experience at several types of institutions of higher education. In addition to being a lecturer at Indiana State, he is a full professor at Ivy Tech Community College and serves as lead instructor for several courses in St. Mary-of-the-Woods's Woods Online program. He is a regular presenter at national conferences in multiple fields and has authored books, presentations, and other works on a variety of topics. Most recently, he co-wrote a sociology textbook entitled The Sociological Outlook. 

Dr. James Gustafson
Director, International Studies Program James.Gustafson@indstate.edu
812-237-2549

James M. Gustafson is an environmental historian of modern Iran and author of Kirman and the Qajar Empire: Local Dimensions of Modernity in Iran.