Professor of Sociology | Courses | Students |


Professor of Sociology

Dr Douglas House is currently Honourary Research Professor in the Department of Sociology at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Prior to commencing this position, he was a Professor of Sociology with the department. As Professor of Sociology, Dr House taught undergraduate courses in social and economic development, oil and gas, Newfoundland society and culture, political sociology and sociological theory. A detailed course list is included below.

Dr House has also enjoyed working with several excellent graduate students and research assistants in recent years, for whom brief biographical sketches are included.

Courses

S/A/F 2230 Newfoundland Society and Culture: The Sociology and Anthropology of the island of Newfoundland. The focus
is on social and cultural aspects of contemporary island Newfoundland.

Soc. 3030 Political Sociology:(Same as Political Science 3030). An introduction to the sociological foundations of political life. Topics to be examined include voting behaviour, comparative power systems, ideologies, mass movements, parties, voluntary associations, and bureaucracies. Attention is given to the concepts of class, status, command, power, authority, and legitimacy.

Soc. 3150 Classical Social Theory:An introduction to the work of major 19th- and early 20th- century social theorists including Marx, Durkheim, Weber and Freud.

S/A 3260 Social and Economic Development: An examination of theories of development including a critical analysis of empirical situations to which they are applied

S/A 3317 Oil and Society: An examination of the sociology of the Western oil industry and of the social and cultural implications of oil activities for those regions in which they occur. Particular attention will be paid to North Atlantic societies: Scotland, Norway and Atlantic Canada

S/A 4091 Oil and Development: An advance seminar which will consider some selected topics ealing with the petroleum industry and its implications for economic development and social change. A comparative approach will be taken, using material from developed, underdeveloped and intermediate regions of the world. Prerequisites: S/A 3260 or S/A 3317 or permission of the instructor.

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Students

Allison Catmur|Brenda Kitchen |Byron Rolls | Lynda Harling Stalker | Ashley Turner |

Allison Catmur

Allison was born in Montague, PEI and spent her childhood travelling between Canada and Southeast Asia (especially Indonesia and Sri Lanka) following her parents, who work in the field of international development.  She caught the travel bug at an early age, and always dreamed of working abroad.

Allison is married to a townie from Newfoundland and Labrador, Joe Gillies.  Joe is a sailor who works on a seismic vessel for Schlumberger, a multi-national oil services company.  

Allison and Joe currently live in Aylmer, Quebec.  They enjoy hiking, canoe-camping, kayaking, snowmobiling, downhill skiing and Scuba-diving.  Allison enjoys dance (especially belly dance, Bharatanatyam, and salsa) and is hoping to take tennis lessons this summer.  She has also been studying Spanish so feel free to test her knowledge!  

Background:
Allison earned a Bachelor's degree in Socio-Cultural Anthropology and Economics as well as a Master's in Sociology from Memorial University in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.  During her undergraduate studies, Allison participated first as a student and then as a seminar leader in the Study Tour in Eastern and Central Europe offered through Thompson Rivers' University in Kamloops, BC.  Part of this experience involved volunteering with the Svinia Project, an integrated development project working with the Roma of Svinia, Slovakia.  She also studied Slovak and Ukrainian, travelling extensively through Eastern and Central Europe, including participating in a home stay program in Vilshiki, a farming village in the Transcarpathian region of Western Ukraine.  

Allison's MA thesis focused on collaborative governance for social and economic development in the Canadian North, in particular, the role of civil society and the representation of Aboriginal groups.  She conducted her research in The Big Land (Labrador), falling in love with the environment and the people.  Her research was funded by the Values-Added Community-University Research Alliance, the Northern Scientific Studies Program, the J. R. Smallwood Foundation and the Institute for Social and Economic Research.

Allison has spent time in Kerala, India as a volunteer with Save a Family Plan, and in Mali as a Junior Professional Consultant with the World Food Programme.  In Kerala, she worked in an Ayurvedic Medicine factory and ethno-medicinal forest, and visited tribal regions to help conduct interviews with elders and participate in forest surveys.  She also facilitated workshops targeting young women and helped to care for and entertain residents of the Home of Hope, a home for people with special needs.  While in Kerala, Allison picked up some Malayalam, and would be happy to sing you a song, ask at your own risk!

In Mali, Allison served with the Vulnerability Assessment and Mapping Unit and was a team member in an extensive monitoring mission of the School Feeding Programme in highly vulnerable and food insecure regions in central Mali.  Allison discovered West African music while in Mali, and has been a fan ever since.

More recently, Allison worked with the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, first with the Office of the Provincial Development Plan, and then as an Immigration Program Development Officer with the Office of Immigration and Multiculturalism.  As an Immigration Officer, Allison nominated several applicants for permanent residency in Canada through the Provincial Nominee Program, and represented the province at a large Immigration Fair in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

In September, 2008, Allison joined the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade as a Management Consular Officer (MCO).  So far, she has completed 3 assignments in the Emergency Management Bureau, and completed core classroom training in the fall, 2009.  Her experience so far has exposed her to the consular and emergency management side of the diverse MCO job portfolio.  She hopes to be posted at a Canadian mission abroad in the summer of 2010.

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Brenda Kitchen

Raised in Robinson's, a small rural community on the west coast of Newfoundland, Brenda always felt having a voice was important and wrote a column in her high school newspaper called 'Women Speak.' She moved to St. John's to attend Memorial University and graduated with her Masters Degree in Sociology, focusing on gender studies. Brenda hosted several radio talk shows on CHMR and was involved with the Graduate Students' Union as VP Academic. She was also heavily involved with the army cadet program as a Canadian Forces Cadet Instructor Cadre Officer. She worked each summer at a cadet camp in Gagetown, New Brunswick, and traveled overseas to Austria and Italy. Brenda has been involved in the December Monologues, the Vagina Monologues and Take Back the Night Marches.

Brenda then became the Executive Director of Planned Parenthood 'ldquo; The Newfoundland and Labrador Sexual Health Centre. She believes that positive self-esteem is essential when working towards healthy relationships. During her time at Planned Parenthood, Brenda worked to ensure all programming addressed positive self-esteem in the hopes that healthy relationships will lead to healthy communities.

Brenda has now moved on to work at another health-related not-for-profit organization, The Arthritis Society, Newfoundland and Labrador Division. She is delighted to be working to support the 95,000 people in our province affected by arthritis. Her pride in her work influences the staff and volunteer base around her. All clients are respected and each individual is treated with kindness and compassion.

Brenda says: "My goal as Executive Director of The Arthritis Society is to ensure Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are much more aware of the role of the Society in providing services and accurate information in the field of chronic pain and arthritis, and to explain how what we do helps to improve the quality of life of women, children and men across our province.'nbsp; She adds: 'Under my leadership, The Arthritis Society will do everything possible to ensure that the people of our province continue to have access to health services and to have the freedom to make informed choices about their health."

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Byron Rolls

Originally from Chance Cove Trinity Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador, Byron F. Rolls completed High School with honors in 1997. Byron was awarded an entrance scholarship to Memorial University, where he completed a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Sociology and Political Science (Double Major), as well as a Criminology Certificate.

Byron recently completed a Master of Arts Degree in Sociology (course-work), while working as a customer care representative for ICT Group Inc. in St. John's, NL. His research interests include: an integrated approach to sustainable development in Newfoundland and Labrador; the role of trust in social capital theory; and the process of creating synergy between state and civil society. He was awarded a fellowship in Sociology (2002-2004). During his studies at Memorial University, he completed Graduate Program in Teaching (2004), and acted as a TA/RA in both the Sociology and Social Work departments.

Currently an avid volunteer at the Association for New Canadians, Byron has been heavily involved with both the graduate and undergraduate students' unions at Memorial
University, Planned Parenthood and the AID's Walk for Life. He was awarded Student
Volunteer of the Year in 2001.

In 2009-2010, Byron is planning to complete a Certificate in Business Administration, and a Certificate in Public Administration, from Memorial University. His current aspirations, while seeking employment in the voluntary, community-based sector (VCBS), are to either pursue a PhD in Sociology or to complete a Bachelor of Social Work Degree.

'It is hard to predict what shape the future will take; much easier to ensure your own active role in shaping it.'

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Lynda Harling Stalker

L. Lynda Harling Stalker (MA 2000, PhD (Carleton) 2006) studied the narratives of NONIA knitters around Newfoundland under Dr. House's co-supervision.  After leaving Memorial, Lynda completed a PhD at Carleton University, investigating the (dis)connection between policy and Newfoundland craftspeople's narratives.  After completing a postdoctoral fellowship with the Globalisation of Personal Data project
at Queen's University, Lynda is now an assistant professor of Sociology at St. Francis Xavier University.  She is currently a co-investigator in a project looking at the effects of migration in the Straight Region of Nova Scotia.

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Ashley Turner

Ashley Turner attended Mount Pearl Senior High School, where she graduated with an Honours (French Immersion) designation in 2004.

In 2008, Ashley graduated from Memorial University of Newfoundland with a B.A. in Psychology (Major) and Social/Cultural Anthropology (Minor). Having taken multiple Sociology courses during her undergraduate studies, including Dr. Doug House's Oil and Development course, she became interested in pursuing research in the field of Sociology.

Ashley received an entrance fellowship into the M.A. program, and has recently completed her M.A. in Sociology under the supervision of Dr. Doug House. The focus of her research was on the under-representation of women in Newfoundland and Labrador's offshore oil and gas industry. The primary research portion of her M.A. paper was based on interviews with key informants, which she originally completed as a temporary researcher for the Strategic Partnership Council. Upon graduation, she was awarded the designation of 'Fellow of the School of Graduate Studies'.

In addition to her own research, she is also Dr. House's research assistant for his project titled 'Premiers and Development Policies in Newfoundland & Labrador, 1949 to 2009'.

While completing her degrees, Ashley worked as a Relief Constituency Assistant in the Government Members Office for the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. She also worked part-time as a Graduate Assistant for the Department of Sociology, as a dance instructor for a local agency, and as a radio and television host for a local station.

Prior to convocation, Ashley obtained an employment position that is directly related to her M.A. research. She is an Industry and Community Liaison with Women in Resource Development Corporation, which is an organization that aims to increase the participation of women in skilled trades and technology positions in the natural resources sector of the province.

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