Kate McGonigal, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Sociology and Coordinator of the Life Stages and Transitions Certificate program
Kate McGonigal is an associate professor of sociology and has been with Fort Hays State University since the fall of 2004. She currently teaches Introduction to Sociology, Social Deviance, and Social Inequalities, and the core Women's Studies courses. Her degrees are from the University of Missouri-Columbia (Ph.D., 2004; M.A. 1998) and Drake University in Des Moines (B.A., 1992). Her areas of specialization are social deviance, women's studies and criminology. Kate's dissertation work with John F. Galliher was published in 2009 by Lexington Books, a division of Rowman and Littlefield, and is titled Mabel Agnes Elliott: Pioneering Feminist, Pacifist Sociologist. A related article was published in 2009 within The American Sociologist. Her thesis examined the patterns of legislative abolition of the Iowa death penalty and the effects of charismatic governmental leaders on the anti-death penalty movement, and was published as Chapter 9 in America Without the Death Penalty: States Leading the Way by Galliher et al. in 2002. Kate grew up out in the country just outside of Dexter, Missouri. She currently raises cutting and reined cow horse breed Quarter Horses in Trego County. Kate advocates saving a life by adopting shelter dogs, cats, and rescue organization horses. Cora, Sammy, and Ruth all think this is a really good idea, too.