Overview
Professor Denise Woodall began teaching at University of North Georgia in 2013. She currently holds the position of Lecturer. She earned a Master of Arts degree from the University of Miami, with substantive areas in Criminology and Race and Ethnic Relations. Professor Woodall is a member of the American Society of Criminology and the Georgia Sociological Association.
Professor Woodall has assisted in research on a number of National Institute on Heath grants exploring the lives of older drug users, methamphetamine users in the suburbs, and the unique needs of women meth users. She has headed her own research projects studying color-blind racism in media messaging, policing protests, and constructions of criminal identities. Her most recent research focuses on how formerly incarcerated mothers experience reductions in shame through child reunification processes.
Denise volunteers with Mothers Making a Change, a publicly funded residential treatment program for women drug users seeking recovery and custody of their children. She also sits on the Board of Directors for Freedom Club Inc., a recovery clubhouse for young people.
Professor Woodall has a long history of activism including co-founding Healthcare-Now Georgia, She was a media studies major at Kennesaw State University and has nearly 10 years of experience in media including newsroom work at Cable News Network (CNN) and she served as news director for WCHK AM1290 in Canton Georgia.
Prof Woodall’s goals in teaching are to facilitate the development of students’ sociological imagination and encourage application of their new social analytic skills in their careers and communities.
Courses Taught
Introduction to Sociology (SOCI 1101)
Introduction to Social Problems (SOCI 1160)
Constructions of Difference (SOCI 2100)
Education
- M.A., Sociology, University of Miami
- B.A., Communication, Kennesaw State University
Research/Special Interests
Crime and deviance, drug use and policy, gender, race and ethnic relations, sociology of education social change and alternative economies, critical constructionism, contemporary social theory, qualitative methods and ethnography.
Publications
Woodall, Denise and Miriam Boeri 2014. “When You Got Friends in Low Places, You Stay Low: Social Networks and Access to Needed Resources for Female Methamphetamine Users in Low Income Suburban Communities.” Journal of Drug Issues 44(3):321-339.
Woodall, Denise 2013. "Challenging Whiteness in Higher Education Classrooms: Context, Content, and Classroom Dynamics," The Journal of Public and Professional Sociology 5:2 Article 8.
Boeri, Miriam, Ben Tyndall, Denise Woodall. 2011. “Suburban Poverty: Barriers to Services and Injury Prevention among Marginalized Women who Use Methamphetamine.” Western Journal of Emergency Medicine 7(3):284-292.