Paul Van Auken has been a member of the sociology and environmental studies faculty at University of Wisconsin Oshkosh since 2007, after completing a Ph.D. in sociology from UW-Madison. Prior to that he obtained an M.A. in urban affairs & public policy at the University of Delaware and then worked in the nonprofit sector doing community and economic development for several years. At UWO, Paul has regularly taught classes about rural sociology, sociology of the modern city, environment and society, population problems, applied sociology, and courses in the University Studies Program, for which he was a member of the design committee. A native of Iowa but resident of Wisconsin since 1999, Paul is chair of the Department of Sociology. He conducts research on issues related to community, immigration, land use planning and access to public space, sustainability, and teaching and learning. His most recent academic publication is “Toward a Fusion of Two Lines of Thought: Creating Convergence Between Aldo Leopold and Sociology Through the Community Concept” in Socio-Ecological Practice Research. Paul also practices public sociology, regularly writing a column called “Shortening the Distance” for local independent media outlet Oshkosh Independent. He helped found United Faculty & Staff of UW Oshkosh, a union local for the American Federation of Teachers-WI, has played in several rock bands over the years, and enjoys life in the Menominee South neighborhood of Oshkosh with his wife and two daughters.

I am currently an environmental and rural sociologist with specialties in food systems, agriculture, and the environment as well as community studies and development.  I was the Service Learning Coordinator for the UW-Colleges for two years and part of the Wisconsin Institute for Public Policy and Service.  I earned a BA in East Asian Studies with an Environmental Studies minor at UW-Madison, an MS in Rural Sociology and PhD in Sociology at Iowa State University.  I am a co-author of a book, two book chapters, several articles, and dozens of research presentations on rural sociology, sustainable agriculture, and the interface between the environment and society. 

Dr. Son received her Master of Arts in Women’s Studies from Rutgers University at New Brunswick in 1998, her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Oregon in 2007, and joined the department in 2007. Dr. Son is a medical sociologist and she has published articles that examine issues such as health service utilization and immigrant incorporation, postpartum care, health disparities, transnationalism and technology, gerontology, and sexual health curriculum. Her current research interests are good ageing and end-of-life decision making processes along the lines of class, race and gender categories. She is trained in both quantitative and qualitative research methods.

She is originally from Seoul, Korea but has lived in the U.S. for more than the half of her life time. Wisconsin is the state she spent her first couple of years in the U.S. as an international student in the 90s, and thus has been her second home in her heart.