Michael Farrell to Head UB Sociology Department

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Michael P. Farrell, Ph.D., of Rochester, professor of sociology at UB, has been named chair of the Department of Sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences.

He succeeds Mark Gottdiener, who is taking a year-long sabbatical.

Farrell, a member of the department faculty since 1984, has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in family and life, the sociology of diversity and the sociology of groups. He holds a doctorate from Yale University and his research interests include social psychology, adolescence and the sociology of the family, small groups and friendship groups.

Among his books are "Collaborative Circles and Creative Work: The Dynamics of Friendship Groups Among Artists, Writers and Intellectuals" (Sage Publications) and, with Stanley D. Rosenberg, the noted study "Men at Midlife" (1981, Auburn House Press).

In addition, Farrell has published a number of articles in refereed journals on the subjects of artists' circles and the development of artists, and parental support and control as predictors of adolescent drinking, delinquency and related problem behaviors.

In 1998, he co-authored the influential "Sport and Teen Pregnancy," a report of the Women's Sports Foundation that opened the door for understanding the then largely unexamined connections between athletic participation, sexual behavior and teen pregnancy.