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R.Saylor Breckenridge, Ph.D
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

Dr. Saylor Breckenridge joined the Wake Forest University faculty in the Fall of 2001 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2007. He has earned degrees in both Sociology and Mathematics and his interests are broadly oriented toward economic, organizational, and cultural sociology. He has used these orientations as a means to explore the death care industry and several facets of popular culture, including Major League Baseball and the comic book publishing industry, among other topics. He has extensive training and experience in a wide range of quantitative and qualitative methodologies and his research pays particular attention to the use of large time-series data sets as the basis for insight into ecological processes (competition, selection, variation, and legitimation) in populations of organizations and patterns of production and consumption.

His teaching efforts reflect these interests. In the 2010/2011 academic year, he will be teaching Social Statistics (Soc 271) in both fall and spring, Methods of Social Research (Soc 272) in the fall, and Sociological Analysis of Film (Soc 366) in the spring. In previous semesters he has taught Social Statistics, Methods of Social Research, Social Theory, Principles/Introduction to Sociology, Social Problems, Business and Society, Sociological Analysis of Popular Culture, Sociological Analysis of Film, the Honors' Seminar, and a First-Year Seminar on Competition, Cooperation, and Consumption. Additionally, Dr. Breckenridge has taken specific efforts to incoporate Undergraduate Research Fellows into his research efforts, providing advanced, detailed experience in sociological research to undergraduate Sociology majors.
During 2005-2006 and 2006-2007, Dr. Breckenridge was the Faculty Advisor for the Wake Forest University Service Learning Program in Vietnam. In the Winter of each of these academic years, he worked with groups of students on projects building schools in Vietnam's Mekong Delta.  In the summer of 2007, Dr. Breckenridge directed an associated full summer-semester study abroad program in Vietnam. This summer program stemmed from the previous winter enterprises but was based on a grant enabling students from all ACC schools to engage in the program - a six-week semester consisting of traditional coursework at a university in Vietnam along with a service-learning component.

During the Fall of 2007, Dr. Breckenridge was the Director of the Wake Forest Study Abroad Program at Kansai Gaidai University, Hirakata City, Japan.

During the 2008/2009 academic year, Dr. Breckenridge was in Washington, DC operating as the Director of the Methodology, Measurement, and Statistics Program in the Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences at the National Science Foundation in Arlington, VA.
For a CV and other information, please visit his homepage.

COURSES TAUGHT

First Year Seminar – Competition and Cooperation: Trends, Fads, and Failures
Soc 151: Principles of Sociology
Soc 152: Social Problems
Soc 270: Social Theory
Soc 271: Social Statistics
Soc 272: Methods of Social Research
Soc 305: Business and Society
Soc 366: Sociological Analysis of Film
Soc 372: Honors Research Seminar
Soc 386: Special Topics: Sociology of Popular Culture
Soc 386: Special Topics: Globalization, Development, and Society

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Breckenridge, R. Saylor and Ian Taplin.  2009.  “Managerial Uncertainty as an Element of Organizational Form: A Sociological Perspective.” The Journal of Industrial Business and Marketing 24(7).

Breckenridge, R. Saylor and Pat Rubio Goldsmith.  2009.  "Linking Social Distance, Spectacle, and Group Threat: The Effects of Minority Player Visibility on Attendance at Major League Baseball Games, 1930-1961."   The Sociology of Sport Journal 26(2):296-319.

Taplin, Ian and R. Saylor Breckenridge.  2008.  “Large firms, legitimation and industry identity: The growth of the North Carolina wine industry.” Social Science Journal 45(2):352-360.

Wahl, Ana M., R. Saylor Breckenridge, and Steven Gunkel.  2007.  “Latinos, Residential Segregation and Spatial Assimilation in Micropolitan Areas:  Exploring the American Dilemma on a New Frontier.”  Social Science Research 36:995-1020.

OTHER ACTIVITIES

RESEARCH AREAS
Competition and Cooperation
Organizations, Institutions, and Industry      
Economic Sociology
Social Networks
Topical interests include: Death Care Industries, Popular Culture Industries (with focus on the wine industry, sports, cinema, and comic-book publishing), and International Development.

RECENT ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIVITIES
2011-2014  Director, Wake Forest University Department of Sociology Honors Program
2009-2012  Wake Forest University Library Planning Committee
2008-2009  Director, Methodology Measurement and Statistics Program, National Science Foundation
2007-Current  Member, Wake Forest Department of Sociology Curriculum Committee
2006-Current  Faculty Advisor to Wake Forest T.R.E.E. House (Tolerance, Respect, Equality, and Environment) theme housing.

STUDY ABROAD
Fall 2007 - Director of Wake Forest Program at Kansai Gaidai University, Hirakata City, Japan
Summer 2007 – Faculty Director, Atlantic Coast Conference Cross-Campus Program in Vietnam
Winter 2006/07 – Faculty Director of Wake Forest Service Learning Trip to Vietnam
Winter 2005/06 – Faculty Director of Wake Forest Service Learning Trip to Vietnam

 

Sociology Department, 1834 Wake Forest Road, 233 Carswell Hall,
Winston-Salem, NC 27109. Phone: (336) 758.5495 FAX: (336) 758.1988
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