Jeff Chin's Research Page

I have two lines of research: sociological social psychology and the scholarship of teaching and learning.

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

I have always been interested in doing research on teaching and I published a number of minor pieces here and there as a junior faculty member.

Things changed when in 1996 I was selected to serve a three-year term as Editor of Teaching Sociology, an official journal of the American Sociological Association.  I thoroughly enjoyed my work as editor.

In 1999 I was selected a Carnegie National Scholar.  This distinction was given to four sociologists in 1999 and another four sociologists in 2000 by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching to pursue supported projects on the scholarship of teaching and learning.  My project was published in Teaching Sociology in 2002.  I had another (co-authored) paper published in 2003, also in Teaching Sociology, that was the product of a workshop I attended in 2000 sponsored by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the American Sociological Association.  

I have been able to use this interest in the scholarship of teaching and learning as a consultant for the American Sociological Association's Department Resources Group, a collection of individuals who serve as external consultants to departments in need of perspective on their curriculum.  This is one of the most satisfying aspects of the work I do.

Sociological Social Psychology

Originally trained as a sociological social psychologist at The University of Michigan, my work generally involves secondary analysis of large datasets.  Work from my dissertation on racial attitudes was published in the International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy and more recent work was published in Perspectives on Social Problems.

My buddy Cardell Jacobson (BYU) and I have done a few papers together and we finished a reader in social psychology. See more in the Allyn Bacon/Longman catalog!

I was recently involved in a most interesting research project: analyzing data collected by the Syracuse Police Department to see if there are patterns of racial profiling.  Our report concluded was that the data did not permit an answer to the question.  The entire project was instructive on the role of politics in contract research.

In 2002 I completed project that spanned my interests in both research on teaching and research on race in an edited book, Included in Sociology (2002), a joint project of the American Association for Higher Education and the American Sociological Association.

In 2004 I was awarded the Richard M. McKeon S.J. Scholar of the Year award.

Email me with questions you may have about my research.

This page was last revised on October 8, 2008 .