Sociology & Criminal Justice Faculty & Staff

Karen Branden grew up poor in Barnesville, Minnesota. She a...

Karen Branden grew up poor in Barnesville, Minnesota. She attended Moorhead State University (now MSUM) and received her degree in Sociology with a minor in Women Studies. She credits MSU with giving her the opportunity to have a great life and teaching her how to use her strong voice. She loves MSUM and is a proud Dragon. She has been a Professor of Sociology for over 20 years and absolutely loves teaching because of the students. She completed her Master’s in Sociology at North Dakota State University. She received her Ph.D. from South Dakota State University. She has taught at schools around the world including Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Kampala, Uganda. Karen has been involved with diversity and social justice her entire career. She has taught and worked with a number of groups on systemic changes to create equity. She was a consultant for the World Food Program while living in Uganda, Africa. Her work at that time was on refugee camps and livelihood. She completed her Ph.D. working with the White Earth Indian Reservation on Wild Rice. She teaches a number of course but consistently offers Introduction to Sociology, The Sociology of Sexuality, Dominant/Subordinate Group Relations and Society and the Environment. She grew up with white privilege yet found her way to her Metis/Ojibwe heritage where she learned her names and her clan.

Sue Humphers-Ginther (Ph.D. Sociology, University of Califor...

Sue Humphers-Ginther (Ph.D. Sociology, University of California, San Francisco) is Professor of Sociology, Coordinator of the Gerontology Program, and Chair of the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at Minnesota State University Moorhead. Her teaching interests are in the sociology of aging, health/aging politics and policy, medical sociology, research methods and statistics, and grant writing. Her doctoral education was funded by a five-year National Institute on Aging pre-doctoral fellowship in Sociocultural Gerontology at the University of California, San Francisco. She received a Teaching Award from UCSF’s Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, two Research Awards from the Institute for Health and Aging, and an Outstanding Advisor Award from MSUM. She was a Governor’s appointee to the Minnesota Board on Aging from 2005 – 2014. From 2015 – 2017, she was a member of the Editorial Board and co-Managing Editor for Contemporary Rural Social Work. She has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Minnesota Gerontological Society since 2006, served as co-President of MGS from 2013 – 2015, and is currently co-Chair of the Gerontology Educators Network.

Lee Garth Vigilant (Ph.D. Boston College 2001) is professor ...

Lee Garth Vigilant (Ph.D. Boston College 2001) is professor of sociology at Minnesota State University Moorhead. His principal areas of teaching are contemporary sociological theory, qualitative methods for social research, social movements, and social problems. He is a past recipient of the Donald J. White Teaching Excellence Award for Sociology at Boston College, the TCU Senate Professor of the Year Award for Tufts University, and the Excellence in Teaching Award at Minnesota State University Moorhead. Some of his peer-reviewed research are in the journals Sociological Spectrum, Humanity and Society, and Deviant Behavior. He is author of several sociological essays, encyclopedia entries, and book chapters. He is co-author with Dr. Joel Charon of the books The Meaning of Sociology (Sloan Publishing, 2016) and Social Problems: Readings with Four Questions, 4/E (CA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning 2012). Dr. Vigilant is an Associate Editor of The Encyclopedia of Death and Human Experience (Los Angeles CA: Sage Publications, Inc. 2009).