Deborah Wilson Lowry
Sociology Graduate Student

Deborah was born in Johannesburg, South
Africa and moved to Michigan with her family at age three. Having Irish citizenship from her father, she grew up with a strong interest in different cultures and societies. Deborah received an undergraduate degree in East Asian studies and sociology at Grand Valley State University and went on to earn a Master’s degree in sociology at Western Michigan University. Currently, she is in her fourth year in the Department of Sociology doctoral program at Michigan State University. Deborah chose MSU because of the many international and interdisciplinary programs established in the University. In addition, many of her family members have also attended MSU.

Deborah specializes in the sociology of aging and the life course, social demography, and rural development and social change. She also has interests in environmental sociology and global citizenship.

Deborah has worked as a teaching assistant for both the Department of Sociology and Integrated Social Sciences.  Most recently, she has received support through the Center for Advanced Study of International Development (CASID) and the Women & International Development Program (WID) in the form of FLAS (Foreign Language and Area Studies) fellowships to study Mandarin Chinese.  She has also received FLAS funding to study language in Beijing and Shanghai, China.

In 2004, with sociology professor Nan E. Johnson as her advisor, Deborah was awarded the Rita S. Gallin Best Graduate Student Paper Award for a piece on mortality in Muslim countries.  Recently, she successfully passed her comprehensive exams and defended her dissertation research proposal. Deborah has received funding for her dissertation via a FLAS (Foreign Language Area Studies) Fellowship from the Asian Studies Center at MSU.

One interesting fact about Deborah is that she is a 13th generation descendent of Justin Smith Morrill, who was responsible for the Morrill Land-Grant College Act of 1862.