Jacob Church

Assistant Professor of Sociology
220C Brewer Hall
jschurch@jsu.edu  

Jacob Church joined Jax State and its Department of Sociology and Political Science in August of 2024. He received his Ph.D. in Sociology from Kent State University in 2022. Between 2020 and 2024, he was a full-time instructor at the University of Alabama- Tuscaloosa where he taught sociology and criminal courses like Sociological Theory, Race and Ethnic Relations, and Social Inequality in the Criminal Justice system. His research and teaching interests center around exploring inequalities in private workplaces and criminal sentencing decisions.

Dr. Church's Curriculum Vitae

Jacob Church

Courses Taught

  • SY 221 Introduction to Sociology
  • SY 320 Criminology

Education

  • Kent State University, Ph.D., Sociology, 2022
    Dissertation: “Focal Concerns Outside the Courtroom: The Practical Constraints Influencing Judges and Prosecutors’ Racially Disparate Sentencing Decisions.”
  • Kent State University, MA, Sociology, 2017
    Thesis: “How Ohio Welfare to Work Program Managers Talk about Welfare Fraud.”
  • Boise State University, BA, Sociology, 2013

Academic & Research Interests

  • Dr. Church’s research interests examine how institutions and private organizations affect individuals’ lives. Specifically, Dr. Church has examined how welfare-to-work managers talk about their perceptions of clients’ welfare fraud, inequality in organization’s hiring and promotion strategies, and the factors impacting racial and gender inequality in adult criminal sentencing outcomes.

Teaching Interests

  • Dr. Church’s teaching interests revolve around social inequality, criminology, and organizations. Thus far in his six years of teaching at universities has taught over 30 sections of 13 courses. He hopes that his teaching demonstrates to students how inequalities in the world around them are not caused by individuals’ failings. Instead, these inequalities stem from individual and institutional practices that affect people of certain social groups. As Dr. Church begins his career at Jax State, he hopes to get students interested in conducting research and provide them with skills that will directly translate into future career opportunities.

Ongoing Research and Publications:

  • Church, Jacob. “The Effects of Structured Sentencing Policy: A Longitudinal Analysis of North Carolina Felons’ Sentencing Outcomes Given Sentencing Reforms.”
  • Tierra, James, Brianna Turgeon, and Jacob Church. In Progress. “She Who Must Not be Named: Harry Potter Fans’ Identity Change Amid the Author’s Transphobia” Journal of Fan Studies
  • Church, Jacob. Kaitlyn Root, Tiffany Taylor, and Kasey Ray. “Its All about Teaching Them Soft Skills: Cultural Capital and Ambiguity in Welfare-to-Work Soft Skills Discourse.” Sociological Imagination. 56(1):74-91
  • Bloch, Katrina, Tiffany Taylor, Jacob Church, and Alison Buck. 2020. “An Intersectional Approach to the Glass Ceiling: Gender, Race, and Share of Middle and Senior Management in U.S. Workplaces.” Sex Roles. 84:312-325.
  • Taylor, Tiffany, Brianna Turgeon, Katrina Bloch, Alison Buck, and Jacob Church. “Spatial Variation in U.S. Labor Markets and Workplace Gender Segregation: 1980-2005.” Sociological Inequiry 84(4): 703-726
  • Gross, Christi L., Jacob Church, Tiffany Taylor, and Jackuelyn K. Towne-Roese. 2018. “Between a Rock and a Hard Place’: The Constraints of Welfare-to-Work Bureaucracies.” Poverty & Public Policy 10(1):39-56