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The Department of Sociology is pleased to recognize five graduate students who will virtually earn their Ph.D. degrees from Iowa State University on May 9 after successfully defending their dissertations earlier this spring. The graduates are:

• Steve Beeman: Beeman’s dissertation is “The Gambling World of Asian Americans in Des Moines, Iowa.” He plans to continue to pastor and teach sociology.
• Jacob Erickson: Erickson’s dissertation is “Before Drugs It’s Almost Like I Didn’t Exist: Contextualized Drug Narratives—Structure, Stories and Identity.” He will be an assistant professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Georgia Southern University.
• Mark Heirigs: Heirigs dissertation is “Psychopathy, Adverse Childhood Experiences, and Antisocial Behavior.” He will be an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Montana.
• David Wahl: Wahl’s dissertation is “Speaking Through the Silence: Narratives, Interaction, and the Construction of Sexual Selves.” He has accepted a research associate position at Iowa State.
• Danqing Yu: Yu’s dissertation is “Why Do I Buy Number 8?—A Sequential Mixed Method Study of Auspicious Consumption in China.” She has accepted an assistant professor position at a private university in North Carolina.