Tim Pippert currently serves as the Joel Torstenson Endowed Professor of Sociology. He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Nebraska and joined the faculty at Augsburg in 1999, where he teaches a variety of courses from Introduction to Sociology to the Senior Seminar and Keystone. With teaching as his primary focus, he has conducted several professional workshops on teaching, given multiple conference papers on the scholarship of teaching and learning, served as Augsburg University’s Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning, and has been awarded Augsburg University’s Distinguished Contributions to Teaching and Learning Award. In 2022, he worked with students in the Senior Seminar and Keystone (SOC 490) to envision, design, and fundraise for Augsburg Family Scholars. The new program, designed to support students with backgrounds in the foster care system, was launched in September 2022.
Through his research, Tim has examined areas such as the family ties of the homeless, street partnerships, and the transition to parenthood. In 2007 he published his first book, Road Dogs and Loners: Family Relationships Among Homeless Men. He has also examined the accuracy of college and university photographic representations of diversity in recruitment materials. This research, published in the Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, has been reported by media outlets such as National Public Radio’s Sunday Edition, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Huffington Post, Inside Higher Ed, and USA Today. Tim’s current research has taken him to the oil fields of western North Dakota. Since 2012, Tim has conducted regular research trips to the Bakken as he explores the impact of the recent oil boom and the resulting population explosion on local residents. His most recent publication based on his North Dakota study can be found in The Sociological Quarterly and The Society Pages.
Education
- B.A. University of Nebraska-Lincoln
- M.A. University of Nebraska-Lincoln
- Ph.D. University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Professional Affiliations
- American Sociological Association
- Midwest Sociological Society
Areas of Concentration
- The Impact of Rapid Population Growth in the Oil Patch of Western North Dakota
- Support of Students with Foster Care Backgrounds
- Relationships and Survival Strategies of the Homeless
- Stratification
- Fictive Kin Relationships
- Gender and Family Relations
- The Marketing of Higher Education
Courses
- Introduction to Human Society (SOC 121)
- Family Systems (SOC 231)
- Race, Class, & Gender (SOC 265)
- Juvenile Delinquency (SOC 387)
- Statistical Analysis (SOC 362)
- Senior Seminar and Keystone (SOC 495)