I have joined the Department of Sociology at NaUKMA in Fall 2013. Prior to that I have taught and conducted research work at the Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA (2003-2013), where I have earned my PhD in 2010 and where I continue as an Affiliated Research Scientist. At UConn I have worked with Prof. Roy D’Andrade while majoring in Cognitive and Psychological Anthropology, with a concentration on quantitative methods and research design. My doctoral dissertation research was carried out in southern Sweden in affiliation with Lund University (Sweden), 2008-2009. By the time of accepting a teaching position in Sociology at NaUKMA, over the course of seven years I have completed a series of empirical quantitative research projects in Sweden and USA, all dealing with the associations between sociocultural normativity and mental health. These links are at the core of my current research. Furthermore, I have long been interested in the formation and transmission of cultural cognitive patterns such as values, worldviews, mental habits and motivations, and I have explored their variation within and across different socio-cultural groups. Presently my principal research interests and projects focus on sociocultural and socioeconomic factors in human health as well as an interdisciplinary outlook on psychosocial stress and health disparities across different social groups. I collaborate with specialists in psychology, public health and cognitive ethnography, and I plan to expand my research outreach by collaborating with the researchers in economics.    

Teaching:

Undergraduate courses:

1. Field Research in Social Settings
2. Human Social Evolution
3. Medical Sociology
4. Social Anthropology
5. Social Psychology
6. Sociology of Health and Illness
7. Sociology of Health and Medicine (jointly with School of Public Health)
8. Values Research in Social Sciences
9. Cognitive Anthropology
10. Culture, Language and Thought
11. Qualitative Methods-1 & 2 (jointly with Dr. Victoria Bondar)

Graduate courses (MA“Sociology”):

1. Seminar in Integrated Methods and Research Design
2. Sociology of Mental Health and Illness
3. SWB Research in Social Sciences
4. Health, Culture and Society