Nicole Wolensky Civettini

I am originally from Stevens Point, Wisconsin and completed my undergraduate degrees in sociology and psychology at Marquette University (Milwaukee, WI) in 2001 and my M.A. in sociology here at Iowa in 2003. My areas of interest are sociology of the family, social psychology, gender, and sociology of sport. My M.A. thesis was on structural balance and group performance, and no appears in the September 2007 issue of Social Psychology Quarterly. I completed comprehensive exams in social psychology and sociology of the family in 2004 and 2005, respectively. My dissertation, under the advisorship of Professor Jennifer Glass, is on the applicability of theories of marriage to same-sex married and partnered couples. I have a forthcoming piece (with Prof. Glass) on the effects of religious conservatism on men's work and family contributions, which is slated to appear in the February 2008 issue of Gender and Society. Works in progress include an experiment on variations in self-verification vs. self-enhancement by status, a meta-analysis on the effects of divorce, and a mixed-method study on the creation, maintenance, and loss of the "elite gymnast" identity. I am a retired gymnast, after 24 years as a participant and (concurrently) 12 years as a coach, and a former Marquette University springboard diver. 

I now enjoy spectator sports (the spectating, not the sporting), taking my daughter to the park, reading Each Peach, Pear, Plum over and over (and over) again, playing strategy board games with my husband, reading novels by Andrew Greeley (the greatest, albeit perhaps the only, sociologist/Catholic priest/novelist/Irish-American), and world travel.