Sociology undergraduates present research at regional conference
Dr. Lee Garth Vigilant and Sociology majors Amanda Heitkamp and Ashley Heitkamp attended the Midwest Sociological Society (MSS) Annual Meeting in Chicago from April 17-20. Ashley and Amanda gave a presentation entitled “‘First Off, Take a Breath and Relax. I’m About 99% Positive You Don’t Have HIV’: The Contours of Emotional Support and Peer-Diagnosis in an N-Adic Online Sexual Health Community.” The presentation is from a yearlong research project studying the use of internet-based health communities as a diagnostic tool for stigmatizing conditions. Dr. Joel Powell-Dahlquist organized the session that hosted the presentation (Qualitative Methods and Findings), and Dr. Vigilant was the presider. Amanda Heitkamp recently won a full graduate scholarship (including tuition and yearly stipend) from Bowling Green State University to study for the Ph.D. in Sociology.