WSU Sociology Symposium

10th Annual Shocker Sociology Symposium

 
Join us on Friday, April 10, 2026, 10:00 am - 3:00 pm for our annual Sociology Symposium.
Location: Woolsey Hall, room 225
 

Starting in 2013, the Sociology Department has teamed up with our student organizations, Alpha Kappa Delta and the Shocker Sociology Club, to sponsor a symposium to celebrate Sociology and to showcase the variety of sociological scholarship and class projects happening here at Wichita State.

This semi-formal, academic conference-style event provides students taking sociology coursework, with an opportunity to develop their presentation skills in a supportive environment, for those engaged in sociological pursuits to network with faculty and peers, and to explore the ways sociology is practiced through research, applied projects, and experiential learning. This year’s event will also serve as a preparatory opportunity for students interested in attending the AKD Virtual Symposium.

RSVP here

 

2026 Symposium Agenda/Schedule

10 :00 AM – 10:15 AM - Morning Mingle & Opening Remarks

MORNING SESSION

  • 10:15–11:00 AM | LGBTQ+ Identities, Community, and Social Change
    • Dr. Jenny Pearson | Dr. Alyssa Lynne-Joseph
  • 11:00–11:30 AM | Media, Culture, and Social Relationships
    • Remi Flom | Meghan Worsham

PANEL | 11:40 AM–12:25 PM | First Gen: Persistence and Possibility | Moderators: Jodie Simon & Jodie Hertzog

LUNCH | 12:30–1:30 PM | Networking Lunch | Woolsey 226

AFTERNOON SESSION

  • 1:45–2:15 PM | Women’s Health, Care, and Social Inequality
    • Angela Hernandez-Monroy | Munia Das
  • 2:15–2:45 PM | Institutions, Education, and Structural Inequality
    • Amanur Rahman | Alexis Andring

2:45–3:00 PM | Closing Remarks & Feedback

 

How to Submit to Future symposiums:

The call for presentations for 2026 have closed, but if you are interested in presenting in a future symposium, when the call for presentations open you will need to submit a 200-300 word summary of your presentation topic.  Your summary, or abstract, will need to include your topic and/or research questions, the method or experience (e.g. library research, service-learning reflection, survey research, interviews or observations, internship experience, class experiment, etc), and a brief preview of any findings, main themes, or insights gained from your project or sociological experience.  

Possible Presentation Topics:  Our symposium highlights all kinds of sociologically relevant research and applied experiences utilizing a range of different methods. For example, students might share experiences completing a service-learning project or engaging in a co-op or internship in our community, findings from a class project, a paper developed using library research, or a research project from any Sociology course or McNair program.

At previous symposiums, students and faculty have presented on a number of different topics. These presentations range from norm violations completed for Intro to Sociology (SOC 111), a content analysis projects and video projects created for Media and Society (SOC 399), an exploration of gentrification patterns utilizing Census data developed in Urban Sociology (SOC 534), a panel on experiences conducting survey research in a course on Measurement and Analysis (SOC 512), and an application of sociological theory to the work of the Kansas Food Bank completed as a service-learning component of a Sociological Theory course. [Note: you can review programs from past symposiums for further examples of presentations. Just scroll further down this page.]

Presentation Options: Students can present individually or in a group in a variety of formats.

  • Paper Presentations – Share findings from research projects, literature reviews, or course papers. 
  • Project Showcases – Present an individual or group project completed for a sociology course.
  • Panel Discussions – Collaborate with classmates to discuss and reflect on a shared classroom assignment, learning activity, or sociological concept.
  • Experiential Learning Reflections – Talk about your experiences with hands-on classroom experiments, internships, or service-learning.
Typically, individual oral presentations are about 10-15 minutes long, include a visual aid of some sort (power point, video, etc), and are organized with multiple presenters in an hour-long session including Q&A.