Dr. Angie Kennedy joins MSU Sociology

January 5, 2026

MSU Sociology welcomes Dr. Angie Kennedy as our newest tenure faculty member.

Dr. Kennedy is a Professor of Sociology and is also a Faculty Fellow with the Center for Gender in Global Context. She earned her BA in psychology from Grinnell College, and her PhD in social work from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her research and scholarship are grounded in an intersectional feminist approach and focus on interpersonal violence. She is especially interested in partner violence, cumulative victimization (i.e., experiences with multiple kinds of violence over time), and the ways that social and economic forces shape victimization and related outcomes, such as mental health, stigma, educational attainment, and economic well-being; she has expertise in examining victimization among adolescents and young adults, particularly among those who are poor or otherwise marginalized. Dr. Kennedy draws on sociological theoretical foundations, including stress process models, stress proliferation, and cumulative disadvantage; stigma theory; and life course theory.

Additionally, she frequently uses the life history calendar (LHC) in her work, a data collection approach developed by sociologists seeking to capture events, transitions, and trajectories across the life course. The LHC yields both qualitative and quantitative data, which Dr. Kennedy analyzes using grounded theory and multilevel modeling, respectively. Beyond  this mixed methods research, she enjoys advancing the study of interpersonal violence via innovative conceptual, theoretical, and methodological contributions.

Most recently, she was a Professor and Assistant Director of Research at MSU School of Social Work.