J. Satya Lendrum, Assistant Professor of Sociology, joined the Aquinas faculty in
the fall of 2019. She earned a doctoral degree from Wayne State University, Detroit,
MI. Her areas of specialization are gender, urban poverty, health and well-being,
gender-based violence and generational trauma.
Professor Lendrum has an active research agenda. She is currently a part of an interdisciplinary
study exploring the role of regular meditative/contemplative practices in the classroom
and how these practices contribute to empathy, community, and spirituality. She also
conducts research with students including a 2022 Summer Scholars Program ethnographic study which examines well-being in the city of Grand Rapids and, in particular, how religion,
community, and public spaces shape a sense of belonging and connectedness. And, finally,
she continues to explore the hustle economy in Grand Rapids.
Her dissertation, "Nobody Works! Everybody Hustles: Reconceptualizing Getting By", examines contemporary poverty and what it means to survive in urban America. Her
research draws from extensive ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2014-2017;
she has presented this research at national and international conferences. This research
has received media attention at the local (Michigan Radio; Detroit News) and national (Bloomberg Businessweek; National Public Radio) level.
Her previous research explores gendered and racialized motivations and limitations
to participating in sport, specifically distance running. This research also examines
women's experiences and bodies in sport. Part of this study was published in the Journal of Sporting Cultures and Identities and, as a reprint, in Critical Perspectives on Gender and Sport.
She was previously an Editorial Assistant for Critical Sociology (2013-2015) and Managing Editor for Gender & Society (2015-2019).
When she is not teaching or conducting research, she can be found zipping through
the city on bicycle.
