Professor Reggie Byron strives to challenge students to become critically engaged scholars who have an appreciation for quantitative and qualitative methods, sociological theory, and the sociological imagination.

He has also shared research experiences with a number of Southwestern students outside of the classroom, including, for example: Melissa Garcia (’12) and Griffin Ferry (’12) (see “Food for Thought” publication), William Molidor (’12) and Andrew Cantu (’13) (see “U.S. Newspapers’ Portrayals” publication), Bree Billingsley (’14) and Nathan Tuttle (’14) (see “Performativity Double Standards” publication), and Holly O’Hara (’17) and Dakota Cortez (’19) (see “Neutralized Hegemonic Banter” publication).

Byron is presently working with three current students and seven recent graduates on completing two grant funded summer research projects. The fruits of their labor have been well received at professional conferences and are at various stages of the peer-review process. These activities reflect his belief that teaching and learning are ongoing and should extend beyond the walls of the classroom.

Byron received his PhD in Sociology from the Ohio State University in 2009, his MA in Sociology from the Ohio State University 2005, his MA in Psychology from State University of New York at Buffalo in 2003, and his BA in Psychology from State University of New York at Geneseo in 2000.

He is a member of the American Sociological Association (ASA), Law and Society Association, and Southern Sociological Society. He also sits on the editorial board of Socius (2022-2025) and the Board of Directors of the Pease Park Conservancy. https://peasepark.org/board-staff Previously, he was part of the American Sociological Association’s Honors Program Advisory Panel (2014-2017), sat on the Editorial Boards for Work and Occupations (2015-2018), Social Currents (2015-2019), and Contexts (2017-2019), and served as a reviewer for the 2020 W. Richard Scott Award for Distinguished Scholarship and the 2021 Distinguished Career Award, of the Organizations, Occupations and Work section of the ASA.

Byron’s primary research centers on race and gender stratification. Specifically, he uses a mixed methods approach to explain the patterns and processes of contemporary discrimination. He is interested in how these processes manifest in occupational, educational, criminological, and public contexts.

Recent Peer Reviewed Publications (since 2013)

** denotes Southwestern undergraduate student co-author

Books

Byron, Reginald A. and Vincent J. Roscigno. Chains of Discrimination: Race, Gender and the Persistence of Employment Inequality (Under Contract with ASA Rose Series; Russell Sage)

Peer-Reviewed Publications

2021  Lowe, Maria R., Reginald A. Byron, Holly O’Hara**, Dakota Cortez**. “Neutralized Hegemonic Banter: The Persistence of Sexist and Racist Joking Among Undergraduate Students.” Sociological Inquiry 91(1): 181-206. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/soin.12362

2020  Byron, Reginald A. “Neighborhood Context, Racial/Economic Privilege, and Prominent U.S. Newspaper Coverage of Home Invasion Crime.” Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture Volume 20(1): 6-27. https://jcjpc.org/volume-20-issue-1-2020

*YouTube Video:International Criminology Conference

2020  Byron, Reginald A. “Teaching Criminology During a Pandemic.” TRAILS: Teaching Resources and Innovations Library for Sociology. Washington DC: American Sociological Association. https://trails.asanet.org/article/view/teaching-criminology-during-a-pandemic

*Featured: ASA Member News and Notes (December 2020)

2019  Byron, Reginald A. and Vincent Roscigno. “Bureaucracy, Discrimination, and the Racialized Character of Organizational Life.” Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 60: 151-169. https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/S0733-558X20190000060009

2018  Byron, Reginald A., William Molidor**, and Andrew Cantu**. “U.S. Newspapers’ Portrayals of Home Invasion Crime.” The Howard Journal of Crime and Justice 57 (1): 250-277. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/hojo.12257

2017 Byron, Reginald A. “Teaching About Police Violence with Open Source Police Shootings Data and Census Data” TRAILS: Teaching Resources and Innovations Library for Sociology. Washington DC: American Sociological Association. https://trails.asanet.org/article/view/teaching-about-police-violence-with-open-source

*Featured: ASA Resources on Race, Police Violence, and Justice 

2017 Byron, Reginald A., Maria R. Lowe, Brianna Billingsley**, and Nathan Tuttle**. “Performativity Double Standards and the Sexual Orientation Climate at a Southern Liberal Arts University.” Journal of Homosexuality 64(5): 671-696. www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00918369.2016.1196994

2015 Krivo, Lauren J., Reginald A. Byron, Catherine A. Calder, Ruth D. Peterson, Christopher R. Browning, Mei-Po Kwan, and Jae Yong Lee. “Patterns of Local Segregation: Do They Matter for Crime?” Social Science Research 54: 303-318. www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0049089X1500157X

2015 Byron, Reginald A. “Teaching the Sociological Imagination with SAT Data.” TRAILS: Teaching Resources and Innovations Library for Sociology. Washington, DC: American Sociological Association. https://trails.asanet.org/article/view/teaching-the-sociological-imagination-with-sat-data

2014 Lowe, Maria R., Reginald A. Byron, and Susan Mennicke. “The Racialized Impact of Study Abroad on Students Subsequent Interracial Interaction.” Education Research International www.hindawi.com/journals/edri/2014/232687/

2014 Byron, Reginald A. and Vincent J. Roscigno. “Relational Power, Legitimation and Pregnancy Discrimination.” Gender & Society 28(3): 435-462. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0891243214523123
*Featured: Gender & Society Blog, Mother Jones

2013 Byron, Reginald A. “Teaching Tokenism with Occupational Sex Segregation Data.” TRAILS: Teaching Resources and Innovations Library for Sociology. Washington DC: American Sociological Association. https://trails.asanet.org/article/view/teaching-tokenism-with-occupational-sex-segregation

2013 Lowe, Maria R., Reginald A. Byron, Griffin Ferry**, and Melissa Garcia** “Food for Thought: Frequent Interracial Dining as a Predictor of Students’ Racial Climate Perceptions.” The Journal of Higher Education 84(4): 559-600. (Lowe and Byron are co-lead authors) http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_higher_education/summary/v084/84.4.lowe.html
*Featured: Inside Higher Ed

Manuscripts Under Review

Byron, Reginald A. ”Organizational Directives and the Persistence of Racial Discrimination in Public Accommodations in the Contemporary U.S.”

Other Recent Publications

2021 Byron, Reginald A. Review of Should Schools be Colorblind? by Laurie Cooper Stoll. Social Forces 99(3): e1. https://academic.oup.com/sf/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/sf/soaa095/5939973?redirectedFrom=fulltext

2018 Byron, Reginald A. Review of Hard Work is Not Enough: Gender and Racial Inequality in an Urban Workspace by Katrinell M. Davis. American Journal of Sociology 123 (5): 1500-1501. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/695651

2015 Byron, Reginald A. Review of The Color Bind: Talking (and Not Talking) about Race at Work by Erica Gabrielle Foldy and Tamara R. Buckley. Work and Occupations 42(3): 381-383. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0730888415570574

Recent General Media Interviews and Consulting

2021 Can anti-bias trainings make workplaces more fair and bridge the pay gay? Acorns/CNBC Grow

Projects Underway with Current and Former Students

Byron, Reginald A., Camryn Clegg**, Natalie Owen**, and Kamrin Taylor** “The Neighborhood Context of Race Based Public Accommodations Discrimination.”

Byron, Reginald A., Bethany Lewis**, Madeline Carrola**, Deidra McCall**, Brielle Read**, Veronica Ciotti**, Molly McConnell**, and Zac White**. “Employment Discrimination and Mental Health Outcomes.” 

Recent Papers/Presentations (since 2016)
** denotes Southwestern undergraduate student co-author

2021 Byron, Reginald A. “Get Rid of That Ghetto Element”: Race, Gender, Work Sector and Employers’ Ideal Worker Pursuits”. Paper presented at the Annual Meetings of the American Sociological Association. Virtual presentation due to the Covid-19 pandemic

2020 Byron, Reginald A. “Legal Exceptions to Civil Rights Protection and the Persistence of Workplace Discrimination”. Paper presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Law and Society Association cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic

2019 Byron, Reginald A. “Neighborhood Context, Race, and U.S. Newspaper Coverage of Home Invasion Crime.” Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the International Criminology Conference of the Policy Studies Organization, Washington, DC (October).

2019 Byron, Reginald A. and Vincent J. Roscigno. “The Uneven Effects of Legal Representation on Employment Discrimination Charge Outcomes.” Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Law and Society Association. Washington, DC (May).

2018 Byron, Reginald A. “Race and Public Accommodations Discrimination in an Era of Colorblindness.” Paper presented at the Annual Meetings of the American Sociological Association, Philadelphia, PA (August).

2018 Byron, Reginald A. and Vincent Roscigno. “Bureaucratic Legitimation, Discrimination, and the Racialized Character of Organizational Life.” Paper presented at the Southern Sociological Society Meetings, New Orleans, LA (April).

2017 Lowe, Maria R., Reginald A. Byron, Holly O’Hara**, and Dakota Cortez**. “Neutralizing the Harm of Sexist and Racist Jokes Among Undergraduate Students.” Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Montreal, Canada (August).

2017 Byron, Reginald A. “Employment Discrimination Activism and Intergenerational Change.” Paper presented at the Centre for Education for Racial Equality in Scotland (CERES) International Conference, Edinburgh, Scotland (June).

2017 Roscigno, Vincent J. and Reginald A. Byron. “Bureaucratic Neutrality, Employment and Race, Sex, and Age Discrimination.” Paper presented at the International Meeting on Law and Society, Mexico City, Mexico (June).

2017 Byron, Reginald A., Maria R. Lowe, Dakota Cortez**, and Holly O’Hara**. “Sexual Assault, Zero Tolerance Policies, and the Gender Climate at a Liberal Arts University”. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Southern Sociological Society, Greenville, SC (April).

2016 Byron, Reginald A., Maria R. Lowe, Nathan Tuttle**, and Brianna Billingsley**. “The Paradox of Colorblindness: Undergraduate Students’ Selective Perceptions about Race and Racial Diversity.” Paper presented at the Annual Meetings of the American Sociological Association, Seattle, WA (August). 

Recent Invited Presentations

2021 Byron, Reginald A. “The Challenges and Possibilities of Diversifying the Finance Industry.” ALM First Financial Advisors, Dallas, Texas (August).

2020 Byron, Reginald A. “Race, Gender, and the Experience of Employment Discrimination” Bennington College, Bennington, VT (April). Canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic

2018 Byron, Reginald A. Guest Lecturer for Educational Research & Design, University of Texas-Austin, College of Education (October).

2017 Byron, Reginald A. “Implicit Bias, Microaggressions, and the March Toward More Inclusive Pedagogies” SUNY Geneseo, Geneseo, NY (April).

2016 Byron, Reginald A. “Quantitative and Qualitative Analyses of Employment Discrimination Charge Data” Equal Employment Opportunity Commission DataNet Conference, Washington, D.C. (June).