FACULTY - Diane L Pike
Professor
Diane Pike is professor of sociology and teaches undergraduate courses in sociological theory, sociology of organizations, research methods, and crime and deviance.
Introductory Sociology is a favorite course taught for first year students and as part of the Augsburg Seminar (AugSem) program. She is the former director of Augsburg’s Center for Teaching and Learning and an active consultant for the American Sociological Association. Diane is the 2010 winner of the ASA’s Section on Teaching and Learning Hans O. Mauksch Award and recipient of the 2009 Steward Bellman Award for Excellence in Faculty Development Leadership from the Collaboration for the Advancement of College Teaching and Learning. She served as president of the Midwest Sociological Society in 2009-2010 and was program chair for the annual meeting in Des Moines. Her MSS presidential address “The Tyranny of Dead Ideas in Teaching and Learning” was published in the winter 2011 issue of The Sociological Quarterly.
Combining teaching sociology with professional work the scholarship of teaching and learning means Diane thinks she has the best job in the world in a truly wonderful department. In her three decades at Augsburg, she has focused on teaching at both the graduate and undergraduate level and continues to find Augsburg an exciting and energizing community in which to work. Thanks to multiple leadership opportunities locally, regionally and nationally, Diane has had the good fortune to work with colleagues in many settings and to contribute to advancing the discipline of sociology. Thanks to the students at Augsburg, she has the good fortune to engage with students every day and to contribute to a better understanding of the practice of teaching. Current projects include designing a faculty development seminar for the Minnesota Private College Council and United International College in Zhuhai China, as well organizing the ASA Pre-Conference Teaching Workshop “The Best Teachers We Can Be” to be held in Las Vegas in 2011.
Professor Pike completed her A.B. degree, Phi Beta Kappa, at Connecticut College in 1975 and her doctorate at Yale University in 1981. She lives in Saint Paul with her husband and has a daughter and two sons (none of whom are sociologists). Her other interests include reading, (especially mysteries and science fiction), running (even in the winter in Minnesota), and attending theater and classical concerts. She once worked as a police officer--which explains a lot.
Areas of Teaching and Responsibilities:
SOC 121 Introduction to Human Society
SOC 277 Introduction to Criminology
SOC 349 Organizational Theory
SOC 377 Suite Crimes: Organizational Deviance (with Prof. Lars Christiansen)
SOC 363 Research Methods
SOC 485 Sociological Theory
MAL 531 Dynamics of Change
MAL 589 Comprehensive Exam Course
