Office Hours
By Appointment
In the news
Education
PhD, University of Virginia
MA, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
BA, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
About Me
Robert Day McConnell grew up in the hills, fields, and woods of rural western Pennsylvania. He remembers well his first encounter with sociology at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (BA ’00, MA ’02), which he proudly claims as his alma mater. His first sociology course in his first semester of college broadened his view of the world and gave him the experience of a deeper understanding of it. McConnell’s main objective in teaching sociology has been to impart the same to his students by showing them the insights of the sociological perspective. McConnell has taught across a range of places and settings over the course of thirteen years, including The University of Virginia, where he completed his PhD in 2010. Some of his most rewarding teaching was when he taught principles of sociology and social problems at Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women in a satellite program of Piedmont Virginia Community College.
McConnell’s major areas of interest are sociological theory, criminology, criminal justice, sociology of religion, and prison sociology. While in the MA program at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, McConnell studied the newly emerging rational-choice theory of religion and wrote his master’s thesis on this. For his dissertation at the University of Virginia, McConnell combined his interests in religion and incarceration in a qualitative study of religion in prison. He observed incarcerated men in religious services and interviewed 80 of them about their religious lives in prison. McConnell hopes to continue this kind of research in prison sociology and to further develop qualitative and theoretical understanding of crime and criminal justice.
Research Interests
sociological theory, criminology, criminal justice, sociology of religion, prison sociology