Amy Sorensen

Director of Inclusion and the Director of the Women’s Center Sociology

Amy Sorensen is an Assistant Professor of Sociology. She also serves as Co-Chair of the Sociology Department and as the Coordinator of Academic Diversity Initiatives for the college.

A native of Southwest Virginia, Dr. Sorensen’s areas of specialization include complex inequalities, health/disability, and sociology of the body. Her passion for interdisciplinary scholarship and social justice is evident in her research and her participation in the Women’s and Gender Studies program.

Education

Post-Doctoral Research Associate, Institute on Disability and Human Development—University of Illinois at Chicago

PhD, Sociology and Graduate Certificate in Women and Gender Studies—Virginia Tech

MA, Sociology—East Tennessee State University

BA, Interdisciplinary Studies (concentrations in Research Methodology & Sociology)—East Tennessee State University

Teaching

Some of the courses Dr. Sorensen teaches include:

SOCI 101 - Introduction to Sociology
SOCI 102 - Introduction to Inequality
SOCI 270 - Race/Ethnicity
SOCI 252 - Sociology of Health
SOCI 241 - Body & Society
SOCI 450 - Senior Seminar
SOSS 200 - Introduction to Research Methods
SOCI 305 - Policy, Problems, and People

Research

Much of Dr. Sorensen’s research has focused on disablement as a process and working towards a more nuanced theoretical understanding of the body as a social process. She is currently working with Dr. Shelley Koch on a longitudinal, multiple-methods study of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on household labor.