Associate Professor
Sociology Undergraduate Program Director
Sociology, Anthropology & Social Work
By Appointment
PhD, University of Kentucky
MA, University of Kentucky
Natalia Ruiz-Junco works in the areas of social theory, social psychology, sociology of emotions, social movements, and qualitative methodology. Her numerous publications in these areas examine the topics of self, identity, emotion, empathy, and social interaction. She has a long-standing interest in interpretive and pragmatist theories. She is co-editor of Updating Charles H. Cooley: Contemporary Perspectives on a Sociological Classic (Routledge, 2019), the Routledge International Handbook of Interactionism (Routledge, 2021) and People, Technology, and Social Organization: Interactionist Studies of Everyday Life (Routledge, 2024). She is currently working on a book manuscript, entitled Empathy in Everyday Life: A Sociological Perspective, and preparing her fourth edited volume, entitled Sensing Life: The Social Organization of the Senses in Interaction. In addition, she is a member of the editorial board of the journal The American Sociologist, and has been an editor of the journal Social Movement Studies. She is also past Vice President of the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction.
social theory, social psychology, sociology of emotions, social movements, qualitative methodology