Department of Sociology
Biography
Mary E. Virnoche is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Humboldt State University. Dr. Virnoche holds advanced degrees in Sociology and Management, as well as an undergraduate degree in Journalism. She serves on both the graduate and undergraduate faculties teaching courses on race, class & gender, science & information technologies and qualitative methodologies.
Much of Dr. Virnoche’s current research has been funded by grants from federal and state agencies, as well as private and non-profit organizations. Dr. Virnoche has generated more than $2.34 million in project funds since 1996 including $1.17 million in direct grant funding and $1.17 million in cash and in-kind matching funding. Much of her early research was organized around community-based technology, arts and education with an emphasis on technology and inequalities. Most recently her program and research grants have focused on addressing gender and racial inequities in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education.
Dr. Virnoche writes about education and diversity, new information technologies, science and inequalities of race, class & gender. She identifies as a public sociologist with much of her writing focused on evaluation of programs and program development. She provides leadership for change in higher education and beyond.
Her writing addresses girls and early STEM persistence (2008), as well as stand alone first-year seminars and more comprehensive programs for retaining diverse cohorts of postsecondary students in STEM majors (2010). Her writing also appears in encyclopedia chapters on “Scientific Motherhood” (2009), “Domestic Technology” (2009) and “The Family and Science” (2005). Earlier journal publications included “The ABCs of Internet Negotiation: Wiring Teachers on the Fringes” with Matt Lessem (2006), “The Stranger Transformed: Conceptualizing On and Offline Stranger Disclosure” (2002) in Social Thought and Research, “Pink Collars on the Internet: Roadblocks to the Information Superhighway” (2001) in Women Studies Quarterly, "The Seamless Web and Communications Equity: The Social Shaping of a Community Network" (1998) in Science, Technology and Human Values; and with Gary T. Marx (1997) "'Only Connect' - E.M. Forster in an Age of Electronic Communication: Computer-Mediated Association and Community Networks" in Sociological Inquiry.
Dr. Virnoche is also committed to the vocation of teaching and the critical pedagogy movement. She regularly offers a graduate seminar in "Teaching Sociology" and actively mentors new teachers of Sociology. In this regard, she has published two teaching exercises in the American Sociological Association Sociology of Gender Teaching Collection: “Gender Transgression” (2007) and “Gender Autobiography” (2007).
Dr. Virnoche is a past Women's Research and Education Institute (WREI) Congressional Fellow. She worked as a legislative assistant in Washington, D.C. for Congresswoman Constance Morella on policy issues related to women in science and engineering, health care, and housing among other areas.