Memorial University of Newfoundland

Dr. Anton Oleinik
Associate Professor (Ph.D. in sociology, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris; Ph.D. in political economy, Moscow State Lomonossov University)

E-mail: aoleynik@mun.ca

Personal Website http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~aoleynik/
Sociological Specialties/Areas of Interest
Economic sociology
Comparative penitentiary systems
Sociology of bureaucracy
Post-Soviet transformations
Institutional economics

Dr. Oleynik’s current research is focused on catch-up modernization in post-Soviet states seen from a comparative perspective and the role played in this process by power elites. His work has appeared widely in Russian, French and English, including in publications such as Journal of Economic Issues; Crime, Law and Social Change; Problems of Economic Transition; Cultures and Conflicts. In addition to publishing a book on organized crime in Russia and editing a volume on the economics of Russia’s transformation, he is the author of a textbook in Russian on institutional economics. Dr. Oleynik coordinates an international network of specialists on the issues of administrative reform in post-Soviet countries (AdmReformNet). At Memorial University he teaches courses on economic sociology, terrorism, the sociology of modernization, and research methods.

Selected Publications in English
Organized Crime, Prison and Post-Soviet Societies. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate. (Author)
The Institutional Economics of Russia’s Transformations. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate. (Editor)
«The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same: Institutional Transfers Seen Through the Lens of Reforms in Russia,» Journal of Economic Issues, Vol. XL.
«‘Business According to Understandings’: An Institutional Model of Russian Capitalism,» Problems of Economic Transition, Vol. 44.

Stephen Harold Riggins

Professor (Ph.D. University of Toronto)

Sociological Specialties/Areas of Interest

Ethnicity

Sociology of culture

Mass media and public opinion

Material culture studies

Sociology of families

Dr. Riggins’ early publications were about the sociology of classical music and government policies for democratizing the fine arts, especially in France. His current interests involve symbolic interactionist approaches to the symbolism of material artifacts and the application of critical discourse analysis to news stories. His research on mass media includes studies of journalism by First Nations peoples, the role of mass media in preserving minority identities, discourses of Chineseness, and the rhetoric of implicit racism. He is presently writing a history of the MUN sociology department as well as investigating the sociological value of anecdotal evidence in ethnographies and life narratives. His book The Pleasures of Time: Two Men, a Life is a first-person account of artistic and intellectual movements in France in the second half of the twentieth century. He has been practicing Taoist Tai Chi for over a dozen years.

E-mail: sriggins [at] mun [dot] ca

Personal Website http://www.semioticon.com/people/riggins.htm

Selected Publications

The Pleasures of Time: Two Men, a Life. Toronto: Insomniac Press. (Author)

The Language and Politics of Exclusion: Others in Discourse. Thousands Oaks, CA: Sage. (Editor)

The Socialness of Things: Essays on the Socio-semiotics of Objects. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. (Editor)

Ethnic Minority Media: An International Perspective. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. (Editor)

Beyond Goffman: Studies on Communication, Institution and Social Interaction. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. (Editor)

Karen Stanbridge

Associate Professor (Ph.D. University of Western Ontario)

E-mail: kstanbri@mun.ca

Sociological Specialties/Areas of Interest

Social theory

Political sociology

State theory

Social movements

Nationalism

Dr. Stanbridge has completed works that explore the impact of national and international political institutions on British and French colonial policies, on British treatment of Catholics in Ireland and Quebec in the eighteenth century, on the post-WWI Åland Islands secessionist movement, and on loyalist and republican Irish movements during the WWI period. Her work has appeared in a variety of academic publications, including: Sociological Quarterly, Nations and Nationalism, Journal of Historical Sociology, Canadian Journal of Sociology. More recently, she has been concerned with mapping the interactions between groups pursuing nationalist claims and the domestic and international political and cultural context within which they are compelled to operate. Her current research is focused on the historical and cultural construction of children and childhood, and their use by political actors. Since moving to the countryside near St. John’s, Dr. Stanbridge has become an avid gardener and beachwalker.

Selected Publications

Toleration and State Institutions: British Policy Toward Catholics in Eighteenth-Century Ireland and Quebec. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. (Author)

«Framing children in the Newfoundland Confederation Debate, 1948,» Canadian Journal of Sociology, forthcoming.

«Nationalism, International Factors, and the ‘Irish Question’ in the Era of the First World War,» Nations and Nationalism, Vol. 11.

«Quebec and the Irish Catholic Relief Act of 1778: An Institutional Approach,» Journal of Historical Sociology, Vol. 16.