Ryan LeCount
Dr. Ryan Jerome LeCount is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Sociology at Hamline University. Ryan's research and teaching cover broad areas of the discipline including race, politics, religion, masculinity, sociological theory, social movements and social stratification. His primary area of focus is located at the intersection of race and politics in the United States- with a particular interest in how White racial attitudes structure contemporary US politics and policy. Ryan has taught a large variety of courses from the Hamline First Year Seminar to the Sociology Capstone Course- including study away courses in Hawai'i and Argentina. In both his research and teaching, Professor LeCount is a passionate advocate for the sociological perspective and the value of understanding the complex and often-hidden forces that shape human behavior. Ryan is also an active researcher who is always looking for undergraduate collaborators. A Blues musician and a former minor-league football player, Ryan is very happy to be in the Twin Cities with all that the metropolitan area has to offer. He is an animal lover who lives with his partner and son, a house full of animals, and a more than a few instruments in the north metro.
Students in Professor LeCount’s classroom experience a passionate, energetic, and interactive learning experience. His is not a classroom in which students are passive vessels, but active collaborators in their own learning. Through the use of interactive technologies like “clickers” and the use of diverse readings and multimedia texts, students are exposed to the latest Sociological research in a variety of modes. Ryan’s classrooms are discussion-oriented and designed to apply the often-abstract ideas of the discipline to the everyday experiences of diverse students.
“I am literally living my life’s dream. The great privilege of spending time thinking, learning and teaching about important ideas and issues is never lost on me. I am constantly reminded what a tiny number of people who have ever lived have had this opportunity- and of the responsibility that such an opportunity engenders.
One hopes, of course, in every class to be training future Sociologists. In this, the definition is not limited to those whose career is formally linked to the discipline. Rather, the hope is that all students will forever carry with them the intellectual and empathic tools that the discipline teaches. We are most successful when every student we see brings the wisdom of the discipline to every part of her life- whatever the career or life trajectory”
-Ryan Jerome LeCount
Selected Publications:
(With RC Morris) LeCount, Ryan Jerome. 2020. "The Value of Social Control: Racial Resentment, Punitiveness, and White Support for Spending on Law Enforcement." Sociological Perspectives, 0731121419899387.
LeCount, Ryan Jerome. 2018. “Visualizing the Increasing Effect of Racial Resentment on Political Ideology Among Whites 1986-2016” Socius 4 (1): 1-2
LeCount, Ryan Jerome. 2017. "More Black Than Blue? Comparing the Racial Attitudes of Police to Citizens." Sociological Forum 32 (S1): 1051–1072
