Professor, Sociology
- Professor Nunn earned her B.A. in Literature and Theater from Whittier College in 1997. She earned her M.A. in Sociology in 2005 and her Ph.D. in Sociology in 2009 from the University of California, San Diego.
I joined the Department of Sociology in 2009 with a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, San Diego.
I am the editor of a book series with Rutgers University Press, Critical Issues in American Education, and I serve in the leadership of the Sociology of Education Association, in addition to being an active member of the American Sociological Association.
Changemaking is near and dear to me. I spent the two years after I graduated college in the Peace Corps in Limbaži, Latvia, which set the foundation for the changemaking work that I do now including every summer when Professor Mike Williams and I take USD students to do community engagement in Makuleke Village in South Africa. I also work on issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice here on campus. Inclusion is at the forefront for me. I care deeply about sense of belonging in our campus community. First-generation college students and first-year students are at the center of my interest in belonging, and faculty’s sense of belonging is at the center of the work I do in my role as Director of the Center for Educational Excellence.
Scholarly Work
My scholarship centers on students’ experiences, students’ identities, and students’ overall success and wellbeing. My most recent book, College Belonging, follows first-year college students for two years to see how they navigate their new campus homes and what kinds of obstacles they face to developing a sense of belonging there. As a sociologist, I look closely at communities and how they function. I am a cultural sociologist and an organizations scholar, so I approach research questions about student belonging by looking at what each university is doing with its policies, offerings and structures that foster a particular campus culture at each school. I also systematically interview students to see what campus feels like to them, from their eyes, walking in their shoes.
I am particularly interested in first-generation college students, those for whom neither parent has a 4-year degree. When first-generation students succeed in college it is a sign that higher education is doing something right, something that benefits our entire society by serving as an engine of upward social mobility.
After the first round of research interviews with first-generation and first-year students, I wrote a book to share insights with other faculty. I outline ways we might make small changes in our teaching and in our everyday interactions with students that can make a big difference in students’ lives. I run workshops to share ideas on how to implement the ideas I learned. I also give talks on how campuses can do a better job of offering belonging to students.
33 Simple Strategies: A Week-by-Week Resource for Teaching First-Year and First-Generation Students. 2018. Rutgers University Press.
College Belonging: How First-Year and First-Generation Students Navigate Campus Life. 2021. Rutgers University Press.
My scholarship also includes:
Books
- Education and Society. Textbook for undergraduate Sociology of Education Courses. (co-edited with Thurston Domina, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Andrew Penner, University of California, Irvine; and Benjamin Gibbs, Brigham Young University). Developed in collaboration with the Sociology of Education Association.
- Defining Student Success: The Role of School and Culture. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Articles and Book Chapters (You can download these from my website.)
- “First-Generation College Students” chapter in Education and Society, T. Domina, A. Penner, B. Gibbs and L. Nunn, eds. University of California Press.
- “Implementing Innovative Pedagogy and a Rainbow Curriculum to Expand Learning on Diversity” (co-authored with Steven Sumner, lead author, Sandra Sgoutas-Emch, and Evelyn Kirkley). Insight: A Journal of Scholarly Teaching 12(1) 94-119.
- “Girls Get Free Drinks: Undergraduates’ Misunderstandings of Heterosexual Privilege” (lead author with Sandra Sgoutas-Emch, Steven Sumner, and Evelyn Kirkley, co-authors). Journal of Homosexuality 64(12) 1684-1699.
- “Immersive Practices: Dilemmas of Power and Privilege in Community Engagement with Students in a Rural South African Village” (co-authored with J. Michael Williams, lead author). Engaging Pedagogies in Catholic Higher Education 2(1) Article 5.
- “Wearing a Rainbow Bumper Sticker: Experiential Learning on Homophobia, Heteronormativity and Heterosexual Privilege” (lead author with Sophia C. Bolt, undergraduate co-author). Journal of LGBT Youth 12(3) 276-301.
- “Classrooms as Racialized Spaces: Dynamics of Collaboration, Tension, and Student Attitudes in Urban and Suburban High Schools.” Urban Education 46(6) 1226-1255.
Areas of Interest
I teach courses in our department’s Social Justice Concentration, in the Honors program, and in the Changemaking minor.