faculty

Debbie KasperAssistant Professor (434) 381-6204 contact Debbie V.S. Kasper is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Sweet Briar. She teaches courses in environmental sociology, social theory, introduction to sociology, community, stratification, sociology of religion, American culture, and urban sociology. Dr. Kasper attended St. Norbert College, a small liberal arts college in De Pere, Wisconsin, and earned her Masters degree and Ph.D. from the Pennsylvania State University. She holds liberal arts education as a top priority in her approach to both teaching and research, and her interests are diverse and interdisciplinary. Currently, her research involves the study of socio-ecological problems and solutions, and the investigation of "sustainable communities."

Brent SheaProfessor (434) 381-6193 contact Brent M. Shea is Professor and Chair, Department of Sociology at Sweet Briar. He teaches courses in medical sociology, social psychiatry, criminology, social research methods, social organization, and a course in culture, society, and the automobile. He received his doctorate in Sociology from the State University of New York at Binghamton, where he went from freshman to faculty member, earning Bachelor's and Master's degrees there in Sociology as well. Dr. Shea was a National Institute of Mental Health Postdoctoral Fellow in Social Psychiatry at the Institution for Social and Policy Studies at Yale University, and held a visiting appointment in the Sociology Department at Yale. From the mid-1980's through the mid-1990's, he reported results of analyses of data from the Epidemiologic Catchment Area (ECA) community mental health survey at meetings of social scientists, psychiatrists, and epidemiologists throughout Western Europe, and in the United States and Japan. Prof. Shea is an Editor of Social Psychiatry across Cultures: Studies from North America, Asia, Europe, and Africa (Plenum, 1995). He is author or co-author of journal articles, conference papers, and book chapters. He has served as editorial, peer, and proposal reviewer for professional associations, academic publishers, and research grants agencies. From 1999 to 2003, he was a member of the American Sociological Association Task Force on the International Focus of American Sociology. Prof. Shea has been Vice President of the Executive Board of the International Sociological Association Mental Health and Illness Research Committee. He is a member of the Editorial Executive Board of the International Scope Review, and is a former co-Editor of that journal. He is a Vice President of Ius Primi Viri International Human Rights Education Association in Rome, a Non-Governmental Organization in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. Dr. Shea represents IPV at United Nations Headquarters in New York.