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Department of Sociology & Criminology

Faculty

adler

Peter Adler

Background:

Peter Adler received his PhD in Sociology from the University of California, San Diego, in 1980.  He is the author, along with his wife, Patti, of many articles and chapters, as well as several books, including Momentum, Membership Roles in Field Research, Backboards & Blackboards, Peer Power, and Paradise Laborers.  He is also the co-editor of Constructions of Deviance (6th edition, 2009), Sociological Odyssey (2nd edition, 2007), Encyclopedia of Criminology and Deviant Behavior (V. 1), and The Social Dynamics of Financial Markets. For eight years, he served as editor of the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, and he was the founding editor of the research annual, Sociological Studies of Child Development.  In 1997-98, he was selected as the Distinguished University Lecturer at the University of Denver, one of the highest honors that the University bestows on its faculty, and in 2005, the University named him the United Methodist Church Scholar/Teacher of the Year.  Also in 2005, he was given the Excellence in Mentoring Award by the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction (SSSI). In 2006-2007, Professor Adler was Co-President of the Midwest Sociological Society (MSS).  His current research on self-injurers has appeared in Deviant Behavior, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, and Symbolic Interaction. His students have won such prestigious awards as the Blumer Award from SSSI, and the outstanding undergraduate papers from the Midwest Sociological Society, Pacific Sociological Society, and Alpha Kappa Delta.  His areas of specialization include qualitative methods, social psychology, sociology of work, sport, and leisure, deviant behavior, and sociology of children. He teaches courses in race and ethnicity, sociology of sport, deviant behavior, sociology of drugs, ethnographic methods, symbolic interactionism, as well as Foundations of Sociology and the Capstone course in sociology.  (E-mail:  padler@du.edu or socyprof@hotmail.com).  For a copy of Pete's curriculum vitae, please click here.