Dr. Nancy S. Berns

Associate Professor of Sociology

 

Office: 105D Howard Hall

Phone: Office: 271-2157

E-Mail: nancy.berns@drake.edu

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Nancy Berns is an associate professor of sociology in the Department for the Study of Culture and society. She received her B.A. in Sociology from Doane College in Crete, Nebrska, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has been a Fulbright Scholar to Hamburg University in Germany. Her teaching and research interests are in the areas of crime and violence, social justice, media and popular culture, social constructionism, and domestic violence. She recently published the book, Framing the Victim: Domestic Violence, Media and Social Problems, which is about how media and cultural portrayals of domestic violence shape individual understanding and social policy in a way that holds victime responsible for solving the problem and ignores the abusers and the root causes of violence. She is currently analyzing legal and cultural texts on the death penalty. At Drake she teaches courses on gendered violence, social problems, media constructions, criminology, restorative justice, and youth and crime.

Classes taught by Dr. Berns

70. Psyche, Self and Society

80.Social Problems

140.Youth and Crime

151. Criminology Course Description

150. Violence, Gender, and Family