Dr. Karen D. O'Neil

Associate Professor and Chair of Sociology

Early aspirations of professional baseball or haute couture changed when Dr. Karen O'Neil discovered the really big money was in sociology. Education: University of Liverpool (England), Kingston Polytechnic (England), and Kent State. Current research interests: technology and work, workplace resistance, effects of globalization on family, community, and neighbourhood. Karen teaches courses on stratification, work, family violence, social service agencies and advocacy, family and community, education, visual sociology, qualitative research methods, and issues in social justice. Several of these courses have Community Based Learning components (http://www.stlawu.edu/cbl/). Karen is a keen gardener during the 3-week North Country growing season, a watercolourist, a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT), certified yoga therapist, and a reiki practitioner. She plays viola in the St. Lawrence University, Clarkson University, Northern Lights, and Trillium orchestras and pit orchestras. She knows almost all the viola jokes. Both her children attended St. Lawrence University. Her son is a luthier specializing in mandolins and archtop guitars. Her daughter is a massage therapist. Both are accomplished musicians.