The University of Delaware is pleased to introduce Jennifer Earl as the chair of the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice.

Jennifer Earl joins UD from the University of Arizona, where she served as a faculty member in the School of Sociology since 2012, and in the School of Government and Public Policy since 2016. She earned her doctoral degree in sociology from the University of Arizona in 2002, and her bachelor of science degree from Northwestern University in 1996. Other previous experience includes faculty membership at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she directed the Center for Information Technology and Society, and the Technology and Society PhD Emphasis.

Earl received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award for research from 2006-2011 on Web activism, was a member of the MacArthur Research Network on Youth and Participatory Politics, and in 2016 was inducted into the Sociological Research Association, an honorary association for sociological researchers. Her research interests include understanding levers and barriers to social and political change and activism by blending research on social movement repression, digital and social media usage and impacts, and young people’s political participation.​