Professor Nella Van Dyke's Home Page

 

Associate Professor of Sociology
School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts

Classroom Office Building 358
Office Phone: (209) 228-4106
Email: nvandyke@ucmerced.edu

UC Merced Sociology webpage:  sociology.ucmerced.edu

Research Interests:  Political Sociology/Social Movements; Hate Crime; Gender and Sexuality.

 

 



Professor Van Dyke’s research focuses on social movements and hate crime, with an emphasis on how characteristics of the social environment influence levels of collective action. Recent projects include studies of the AFL-CIO's Union Summer student internship program and how it has inspired student anti-sweatshop protests, how political threats inspire social movement coalitions, and the factors influencing right-wing mobilization. She is currently conducting research on the factors that influence variation in the incidence of hate crimes on college campuses, same sex marriage as a protest tactic, and a meta-analysis of the factors that facilitate coalition formation.

Selected Publications:                                   

Taylor, Verta, Katrina Kimport, Nella Van Dyke and Ellen Andersen. 2009. “Culture and Mobilization: Tactical Repertoires, Same-Sex Weddings, and the Impact on Gay Activism,” American Sociological Review 74(6): 865-890.

         Winner of the Outstanding Article Award from the Collective Behavior and Social Movements Section of the American Sociological Association.
 

Van Dyke, Nella and Holly McCammon (eds.). 2010. Strategic Alliances: Coalition Building and Social Movements.  Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Dixon, Marc, Daniel Tope and Nella Van Dyke. 2008. “The University Works Because We Do”: On the Determinants of Campus Labor Organizing in the 1990s,” Sociological Perspectives 51(2): 375-396.

Van Dyke, Nella, Marc Dixon and Helen Carlon. 2007. “Manufacturing Dissent:  Labor Revitalization, Union Summer and Student Protest," Social Forces 86(1): 193-214.

Van Dyke, Nella and Ronda Cress.  2006. “Political Opportunities and Collective Identity in Ohio’s Gay and Lesbian Movement, 1970-2000” Sociological Perspectives 49: 503-526.

Van Dyke, Nella, Sarah A. Soule and Verta Taylor. 2004. “The Targets of Social Movements: Beyond a Focus on the State” Research in Social Movements, Conflict and Change 25:27-51.

Van Dyke, Nella. 2003. “Crossing Movement Boundaries: Factors That Facilitate Coalition Protest by American College Students, 1930-1990,” Social Problems 50(2): 226-250.