Dr. Danielle Docka-Filipek joins the Department of Studies in Justice, Culture, and Social Change this fall as an Assistant Professor of Sociology. Prior to joining the UMD faculty, she taught/researched at universities in the Virginia Beach and Columbus, Ohio metro areas for roughly a decade, though she is elated to return home to Minnesota. Dr. Docka-Filipek spent her early years in Kenosha, Wisconsin, then began her studies in sociology, anthropology, & women’s/gender studies at Knox College in rural Illinois. After college, she moved to the Twin Cities to complete a Ph.D in Sociology with a graduate certificate in Advanced Feminist Studies. Her teaching interests and expertise lie in race/class/gender inequalities; feminist theory/praxis; poverty & social welfare policy; bodies, embodiment, & emotion; sex, gender, sexuality, & human reproduction; sociology of mental
health/illness; globalization; family/marriage; religion & social movements; culture, law & organizations; and teaching, learning, & inequality in higher education. Her current projects include examining racial discourse & practices in U.S. higher education via faculty and student encounters with the concept of ‘diversity;’ first-generation students’ & faculty members’ well-being/mental health, work/family conflicts, & teaching/learning burdens amid the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic; student lunch debt, childhood hunger, & structural/symbolic violence in the U.S.; measurement & instructor identity bias in student evaluations of university teaching; and the impact of normative gender & family ideals in social service delivery partnerships between state entities and worship communities (or “faith-based initiatives”). She especially enjoys involving students in her research projects as both assistants and collaborative partners, and her university service/activist projects have spanned topics such as sexual violence/assault & consent-based education, access/inclusion for historically underrepresented groups, special event planning, and interdisciplinary program development. When she’s not working at answering sociological questions, you might find her reading science fiction or poetry, thrifting/antiquing, chasing her three-year-old son and five year-old daughter, dipping a fishing line in the water, relaxing in front of an open outdoor fire, looking for an antiracist knit/crochet & sip club, contemplating the fall of empire while gripped by existential dread, or collecting only the very best and weirdest memes the internet has to offer. She is also an unashamed nerd and still excited for school to start every single fall.