Dale Wimberley
- Department of Sociology
225 Stanger Street
Blacksburg, VA 24061
Dale Wimberley is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology. His current primary areas of specialization are critical global political economy and social movements. In recent years most of his research has addressed the intersection of those two areas, as represented in qualitative and quantitative studies of the antisweatshop movement – addressing the student antisweatshop submovement, and examining the Central America peace movement’s major role in the birth of the US antisweatshop movement as a whole – appearing for example in Sociological Inquiry, Labor Studies Journal, and Societies Without Borders. His current research projects are quantitative studies of two kinds of movements: US student movements and local political movement organizations.
Dr. Wimberley also focuses on sociological practice, the practical application of sociology to problems in the off-campus world, specifically among groups of ordinary citizens rather than in powerful institutions. Along these lines, he is co-editing a book, Sociologists Making Change, in which more than a dozen sociologists tell how they have applied their sociological knowledge as participants in social justice causes. He himself has been directly engaged in the local community and beyond, in antiwar, labor rights, and political activism. He was long-time editor of a New River Free Press page on violent conflicts and human rights in Latin America, and he is a member of United Campus Workers of Virginia (CWA local 2265, AFL-CIO). He is currently chair of the Southern Sociological Society's Committee on Sociological Practice.
He currently teaches courses in research methods, social movements, and social inequality, at the undergraduate and graduate levels. He has led or co-led six study abroad programs in the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua, and has served as faculty advisor for several student social justice organizations at Virginia Tech. At the graduate level, he has chaired or co-chaired nearly 30 students’ successfully completed theses and dissertations, on topics of social movements, work, development, and economic, racial, gender, and health inequalities, in US contexts as well as in Latin American, Asian, and African countries.
Wimberley earned his doctoral degree in Sociology from The Ohio State University.