Kimberly Hess Email and Phone Number

I am a PhD candidate in sociology at the University of Michigan. In my research, I use comparative-historical methods to study the culture and politics of inclusion and exclusion within states and nations. I am in the process of completing an article on the political inclusion of the indigenous Maori in colonial New Zealand. My dissertation considers how social, historical, and regional contexts affect what is included in contemporary US social studies education and how differences in these inclusions relate to different narratives of American history and national identity. I use a comparative analysis of all 50 states’ K-12 social studies curriculum standards to identify national-, regional-, and state-level patterns in social studies education in terms of minority representation, characterizations of US history and government, and portrayals of American national identity.I have been the lead instructor for Intro to Sociological Theory (Soc305), Sociological Research Methods (Soc310), Sociology Graduate Student Instructor Training (Soc993), and a first-year writing course, Defining Nations and Nationalism (Eng125). I have also been the Graduate Student Instructor (GSI) for Intro to Sociology, Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, Sociology of Culture: From Kennedys to Kardashians, and Sociological Research Methods, and I have independently led a team of undergraduate research assistants working on her dissertation research through the SURO program (Soc394) every semester since Fall 2019. I won the University of Michigan Department of Sociology Exceptional Graduate Student Instructor award in 2019.Within the Sociology Department at the University of Michigan, I have served as the Graduate Student Mentor, an Online Course Consultant, an Anti-racist Pedagogy Course Consultant, a Graduate School and Beyond Series Co-Chair, and the Social Theory Workshop Graduate Coordinator. In recognition of my contributions to the department community, I won the Sociology Graduate Student (SGS) Graduate Student Recognition Award in 2021.