Faculty and Staff

Dr. Brad Chase
Assistant Professor

Brad received his B.A. in anthropology from Northwestern University, his Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2007, and has been at Albion since 2008. He is an anthropological archaeologist who has participated in fieldwork in the American Midwest and Southwest, Turkey, Pakistan, and currently India, where he has been conducting research for over a decade. His teaching and research interests include the organizational dynamics of early urban societies in comparative perspective, the relationship between humans and their environments during periods of social change, and the role of material culture in the creation and maintenance of identities in the past and present. His ongoing research explores these issues in the context of the Indus Civilization in Gujarat, India, specifically focusing on changes in land-use practices and social organization with the emergence and decline of South Asia’s first urban civilization. He can be reached by e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Belinda Hale
Department Secretary

You can reach Belinda by phone at 517/629-0414 or by e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Dr. Scott Melzer
Associate Professor and Chair

Scott Melzer received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California - Riverside in 2004, a few months before arriving at Albion College. He also completed an M.A. at UCR after receiving a B.A. in sociology from the University of Florida. His teaching and research interests are primarily in the areas of gender and social psychology, with particular interest in intimate violence, men & masculinities, and social movements. His previous work is highlighted by an article in the Journal of Marriage and Family examining how men’s work experiences influence their rates of violence against women partners, and a book (Gun Crusaders: The NRA's Culture War, NYU Press, 2009) analyzing the National Rifle Association’s dramatic transformation from a recreational firearms interest group into a conservative social movement organization. He is working on another book-length project, one that is a culmination of many years of work on men's views on what it means to be a man, how men deal with their own and others' views, and how men respond to changing societal definitions of manhood. Dr. Melzer is on sabbatical for the 2011-2012 academic year, but he can be reached by e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 517/629-0421.

Dr. Kendra Schiffman
Visiting Assistant Professor

Kendra Schiffman received her Ph.D. in sociology from Northwestern University in 2009. Her teaching and research interests include political sociology, sociology of gender, social inequality, comparative social policy, social movements, comparative/historical sociology and, more specifically, the impact of women’s movements and women’s voting rights on democratic development and gender inequality. Her dissertation investigates the relationship between democratic expansion, social movement activism, and women’s voting rights using a multi-method approach. Her ongoing research explores the impact of women’s movements and women’s political participation on democratic development in the Middle East, where countries have been some of the most resistant to democratic development and have recently undergone dramatic changes in a seemingly short period of time. As in her research, she uses a comparative historical approach to teaching in order to demonstrate how social institutions and processes emerge and change over time and vary cross-culturally. She is also committed to including a social change component to the courses she teaches. Kendra can be reached by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Dr. Lynn Verduzco-Baker
Assistant Professor

Lynn earned her Ph.D. in sociology and women’s studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor after receiving her M.S. in sociology from the University of Michigan and her B.A. in English from California State University, Fresno. Her current research investigates how discourses of motherhood are negotiated by women who were low-income and teenaged (i.e., “welfare queens” and “teen moms”) when they became mothers. The findings from her work challenge the discourses, stereotypes and images of good and bad motherhood and aim to shift the conversation about low-income mothers to one of compassion and respect. Lynn approaches teaching from a social justice perspective that can be traced to her experiences as a university instructor, an English teacher at an inner-city high school and an advocate for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. Her teaching interests include: intersections of race, class, gender and sexuality; poverty and inequality; popular culture; family; race and ethnicity; and social panics. Lynn can be reached by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Dr. Brian Watkins
Visiting Assistant Professor

Brian received his B.A. in anthropology from Austin College in 2004 and his Ph.D. in sociocultural anthropology from Michigan State University in 2011. His teaching and research traverse themes of transnationalism, sociocultural differentiation, indigenous peoples, language and the production of shared meaning, violence, human rights, and the anthropology of law. His work documents the United States' system of political asylum holistically, interrogating different sites of social interaction while focusing on the lives that displaced people (particularly survivors of torture) build during the long process of seeking asylum. He depicts both the structural challenges they face – social and cultural isolation; food, housing, and medical insecurity; and work prohibition to name a few – as well as the inventive ways through which people overcome such realities in their interaction with others. Brian can be reached by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Faculty Emeriti

Dr. Len Berkey
Professor Emeritus

Dr. Berkey received a B.A. from Colgate University in 1969 and a Ph.D in sociology from Michigan State University in 1982. In the interim, he spent two years at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. His long-term interests have been in racial and ethnic relations, inequality and assimilation, and the ways in which personal identities are formed in multicultural societies. He is currently working on a research project with Diana Ariza and 'Dimeji Togunde on the adaptation patterns of recent immigrants to the Orlando metropolitan area. Dr. Berkey can be reached by e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .