Dr. John Hillebrand
Assistant Professor of Sociology
Coordinator of Sociology
Ph.D., Sociology, University of California-San Diego
M.A., Sociology, University of California-San Diego
B.A. Sociology, University of California, Davis
Fields of Interest:
Social Problems; deviant behavior; marriage and family; and social psychology.
Dr. Hillebrand is one of two Sociologists in the Social Sciences Department, and teaches a variety of courses including Principles of Sociology, The Family, Social Problems, Culture and Popular Culture, and Social Theory. He plans to soon offer a Qualitative Research methods course as well. Dr. Hillebrand has published with other authors and has served on editorial boards of several sociological journals.
His work usually includes direct observation carried out by use of participant observation research methods which immerse the researcher in the activities being studied. Dr. Hillebrand's Ph.D. research was an in-depth exploration of the sociological dimensions of friendship. He described the impact of existential thought upon his sociology in a guest lecture given at the Scholar's College in 1999. The sociological perspectives of symbolic interactionism and phenomenological sociology inform his theoretical orientation as well. Among his fields of sociological interest, marriage and family and social psychology both receive a great deal of his research attention. He has his students write about and analyze their family relationships in his family sociology course, and emphasizes the practical applications of sociological thought in all of his courses.
At NSU, Dr. Hillebrand is Faculty Advisor to the Sociology Club, involved with Alpha Kappa Delta, and serves upon several university and departmental committees. He is currently one of the Department's faculty senators and has helped develop the Applied Sociology concentration in the Sociology major.
