Current Sociology PhD Students

Kristopher Ray Cleland

Kristopher Ray Cleland

Kristopher Ray Cleland

Sociology: Food Security & Sovereignty, Deservingness, Qualitative Methods, Pedagogy, Critical Theory, and Applied & Public Sociology

I am a forth-year Sociology PhD student and Graduate Teaching Assistant at George Mason University, and a first generation college graduate with working-class origins in Covington, Louisiana.

I obtained my B.A. in Sociology in 2016 from Southeastern Louisiana University (SLU) while working full-time as a department manager at a regional grocery store. I obtained my M.S. in Applied Sociology in 2018 from the same university while working there as a Research Assistant for the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice.

Learning as an end-in-itself is great, I believe, but merely interpreting the world does little to change it for the better. I occupy a tradition that believes we must take what we learn in the academy, determine what is unjust and just about the world through the free exchange of ideas, and—based on that knowledge and those ideas—make the world a better place. What is "better" of course is a value statement, but I think for a particular historical context many of us can determine what "better" and "ideal" are and act on ways to achieve those visions of the future.