Dr. Emily B. Campbell

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Emily Campbell
Department, Office, or School
Department of Sociology
  • Associate Professor

Emily B. Campbell, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Sociology at Rhode Island College and Faculty Fellow at the Center for Cultural Sociology at Yale University. Professor Campbell holds a B.A. in Sociology with departmental honors from Indiana University, Bloomington, a Ph.D. in Sociology from the CUNY Graduate Center, and served as postdoctoral fellow to the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University.

Professor Campbell’s research has been published in the American Journal of Cultural Sociology, Contexts, Critical Research on Religion, Philosophy and Society, and Teachers College Record, among others. She has written on the overdose crisis for nearly a decade in journalistic venues including in The Conversation and is current Art Director of Contexts, the flagship public-facing magazine of the American Sociological Association. Her book project, Grieving Overdose, theorizes grief as a productive force drawing on multi-year ethnographic research in New England. A second line of research examines efforts to revitalize American democracy–advancing discussions on trust, civility, and social solidarity.

In the classroom, Professor Campbell encourages her students to take intellectual risks through a mix of research, oral presentation, debate, and artistic expression. She is committed to transformative pedagogy and during the 2025-2026 academic year served as a Civic Engagement and Voting Rights Teacher Scholar at Clemson University. In the Department of Sociology, Professor Campbell leads the Honors Committee, which supports year-long undergraduate research experiences through the completion of an honors thesis. Professor Campbell previously taught at College of the Holy Cross, Lehman College, CUNY and, prior to doctoral study, in public bilingual education in Spain.

Education

  • Postdoctoral Fellow, Johns Hopkins University, SNF Agora Institute
  • Ph.D., City University of New York Graduate Center
  • M.A., M.Phil, City University of New York Graduate Center
  • B.A., Indiana University, Bloomington

Selected Publications

  • Campbell, E.B. (2025). An expanded vital center? Alaskan rank choice voting and the throes of frontlash/ backlash. American Journal of Cultural Sociology. 
  • Campbell, E.B. (2025). Rehearsing Civility: Bridgebuilding in Polarized America. Philosophy and Society 36(1): 119-138.
  • Campbell, E.B. (2024). Cultivating Trust in the Face of Crisis: Science as Moderator in Collaborative Forest Management. Società Mutamento Politica: Rivista Italiana di Sociologia. 15(30): 119-128.
  • Campbell, E.B. (2024). Grieving Overdose. Contexts. Spring 24(2): 36-43.
  • Campbell, E.B. (2022). The Drug War Turns 50. Contexts. Summer 22(3): 46-48.  
  • Campbell, E.B. (2022). Contesting Deaths’ Despair: Local Public Religion, Radial Welcome and Community Health in the Overdose Crisis, Massachusetts, USA. Open Theology 8(1): 248-260.
  • Campbell, E.B. and E.W. Gordon. (2017). The Role of Family and Home in Children’s Intellectual Development. Strengthening Families, Communities and Schools to Support Children’s Development. Routledge. [Book chapter]
  • Campbell, E.B., Torpey, J., Turner, B. (2015). Religion and the Occupy Wall Street movement. Critical Research on Religion 3(2): 127-147.
  • Gordon, E.W. and E.B. Campbell. (2014). Context and Perspective: Implications for Assessment in Education. Teachers College Record 116: 1-18.

Selected Public Writing

  • Campbell, E. B. (2021). OxyContin created the opioid crisis, but stigma and prohibition have fueled it. The Conversation. September 16. Republished in 36 online and print venues.
  • Campbell, E. B. (2018). As the opioid epidemic continues, the holidays bring need to support those in grief. The Conversation. December 20. Republished in 7 online and print venues.

Courses

  • JSTD 350 Topics in Justice Studies
  • JSTD 554 Topics in Social Problems
  • SOC 200 Introduction to Sociology
  • SOC 302 Social Research Methods
  • SOC 317 Politics and Society
  • SOC 327 Drugs and Society
  • SOC 400 Contemporary Sociological Theories
  • SOC 532 Advanced Qualitative Methods