Featuring Dr. Zachary Owens: The Importance of Sociology in Today’s World
As an accomplished sociology professor with renowned research in sexual identity formation, homophobia, and masculinity, it may come as a surprise that Dr. Zachary Owens only developed an interest in sociology halfway through his undergraduate degree. As a freshman at the College of Charleston in South Carolina, Dr. Owens had his sights set on attending medical school and becoming a physician. About a year and a half into pursuing his biology degree, he enrolled in a sociology course to fulfill one of his general education requirements. Little did he know that this class, which focused on inequality and its roots in race and poverty, would completely change his career path. Dr. Owens credits this course with exposing him to the complexities of contemporary socials issues and also for inspiring him to study sociology.
Upon graduating with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and a minor in biology, Dr. Owens found himself in the rather daunting position that many seniors do upon graduation: he had no idea what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. He took a brief break from school and worked as a bartender for a few years. He described how that time allowed him to interact with people from all walks of life and helped him realize that he wanted to pursue a doctorate in sociology. Soon after, Dr. Owens started graduate school at the University of Colorado Boulder. Initially he wanted to study environmental sociology, a field that investigates the relationship between populations and the physical environment in which they live.
However, this plan again changed when he took a graduate-level gender course on feminist/queer theory, and fell in love. For Dr. Owens, one of the most striking things about gender studies was the concept of masculinity and its evolution over time. “We, as a society, act like men don’t have a gender. And this can be extremely damaging to people all across the gender spectrum” Dr. Owens explained. These concepts helped create the foundation for his thesis work, in which he explored commonly-held ideas about masculinity, homophobia, and men’s experiences with each. To investigate this, he interviewed 42 gay-identified, college-aged men about their experiences, their performances of masculinity, and how they used social media to sustain a particular identity. “We often hear the notion that, ‘things get better’, and I wanted to challenge this, and see if individual’s lived experiences were different than how they were being portrayed.” This research helped him delineate overarching techniques that men use to sustain their personal masculinity as well as the masculine identities that are expected of them. After completing his thesis work and graduating with a PhD, Dr. Owens was awarded a position as a social science instructor with the CU Honors Program.
When asked about his future plans in the honors program, Dr. Owens said he hopes to develop an upper division course on the study of masculinity and another social problems course, as an extension of one of his current courses. As far as future research, Dr. Owens hopes to continue in his current realm of sexual identity formation but would also be interested in studying deviance and its evolution over time.
At a time where social issues are a constant source of conflict, I asked Dr. Owens for his take on what people can do to be more sociologically mindful. Originally from the South, Dr. Owens explained to me how Southern culture has had a massive impact on why he studies what he does. “This, of course, is not to say they aren’t inequalities outside of the South, but where I grew up, there was a lot of poverty, inequality, and segregation, which had a huge impact on me. Being born into a very conservative culture, sociology made me question why and ask does it have to be this way?” First and foremost, Dr. Owens stressed the importance of educating ourselves and taking advantage of our access to sociology classes as university students. “I think that because we are in a university, we forget that most Americans don’t go to college. So I really encourage students to get informed and be open to perspectives because we have the privilege of getting to learn about the issues that impact us every day.” Finally, when asked about the most powerful tool to be an informed, accountable citizen, Dr. Owens advised, “Now that you are educated about these issues, speak up say something, be active, if nothing else, be understanding and not deny other people’s real experiences and lived realities.”
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