Professor
Office Location
McElhaney Hall, 112D
724-357-0158
mswauger@iup.edu
Education
- University of Pittsburgh, PhD
- University of Pittsburgh, MA
- University of Pittsburgh, Graduate Certificate in Women's Studies
- Duquesne University, MA
- Indiana University of Pennsylvania, BA
Areas of Research and Teaching Interest
Families, Women's and Gender Studies, Girlhood Studies, Ethical Qualitative Research, Service Learning, Addiction Studies
Courses
- Soc 151 Principles of Sociology
- Soc 336 Sociology of Family
- Soc 363 Sociology of Gender
- Soc 700 Proseminar
- Soc 777 Teaching Sociology
Profile
Melissa Swauger is an associate professor of Sociology and Women's Studies affiliated faculty at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She has published several articles and presented at numerous conferences on topics examining the impact of gender, race, and social class inequalities on adolescent girls' aspirations, ethical qualitative research with youth, family and addiction, and public sociology. She teaches sociology of family, sociology of gender, and women's and gender studies.
She is a co-founder of the Research and Ethics Committee for the American Sociological Association's Section on Children and Youth. She is a co-chair of the President's Commission on the Status of Women and also a member of the IUP Institutional Review Board. Along with several university and community partners, Swauger organizes Hunger Awareness Week and the Seedling Project, which help raise hunger awareness and provide seeds and seedlings to food pantry patrons of Indiana County. Swauger serves on the board of directors of the Consortium for Public Education and of the Penn Trafford Community Education Foundation and serves as a steering committee member for the Gwendolyn J. Elliot Research and Training Institute.
Completed dissertations and theses chaired by this faculty member