Virginia Riel

Bio

I feel fortunate to work with undergraduate students. I enjoy teaching courses in sociology and advising students with majors in sociology or criminology. Happily, I also serve as coordinator of our departmental honors programs and work with students on research projects.

My primary areas of teaching and research are social stratification, family, and education. I teach a variety of courses, including Theories of Social Structure, Sociology of Family, Principles of Sociology, Sociology of Education, and Social Class. As an advisor, I help students to set goals for academic progress and make academic decisions, but I also encourage them to use the time and resources at NC State to discover new opportunities for personal growth and community involvement.

If you want to learn more, feel free to email me, and we will set up a meeting!

Publications

Riel, Virginia. 2022. “Building Expectations and Keeping Customers Happy: How Personnel Recruit and Retain Families in Three Charter Schools.” The Sociological Quarterly 3(2):296-315.

Barnes, Carolyn, and Virginia Riel. 2022. “‘I Don’t Know Nothing About That:’ How Learning Costs Undermine COVID-related Efforts to Make SNAP and WIC More Accessible.” Administration & Society 54(10):1902-1930.

Riel, Virginia, Roslyn Arlin Mickelson and Stephen Samuel Smith. 2022. “Who Favors Magnets and Who Favors Charters? Political Ideology, Social Purpose Politics, and School Choice in the Upper South.” American Behavioral Scientist 6(6):717-743.

Parcel, Toby L., Shawn Bauldry, Roslyn Arlin Mickelson, Stephen Samuel Smith, Virginia Riel, and Madison Boden. 2022. “Using Opinion Polling Data to Replicate Non-Experimental Quantitative Results Across Time and Space: An Exploration of Attitudes Surrounding Desegregation and Resegregation Policies.” American Behavioral Scientist 66(6):691-716.

Riel, Virginia. 2021. “Siting Schools, Choosing Students? Protecting White Habitus Through Charter School Recruitment.” Sociological Forum 36(4):1028-1048.

Riel, Virginia. 2021. “‘We’ve Been Thinking You Were Stupid All This Time:’ Racial Microinsults and Microinvalidations in a Rural Southern High School.” Race Ethnicity and Education 24(2):262-281.

Riel, Virginia. 2020. “‘They Just Hang Out with Their Own:’ Organized Racial Inequality in a Rural Southern High School.” The Journal of Negro Education 89(2):169-180.

Robertson, Will, and Virginia Riel. 2019. “Right to be Educated or Right to Choose? School Choice and its Impact on Education in North Carolina.” Virginia Law Review 105(5):1079-1114.

Riel, Virginia, Toby L. Parcel, Roslyn Arlin Mickelson, and Stephen Samuel Smith. 2018. “Do Magnet and Charter Schools Exacerbate or Ameliorate Inequality?” Sociology Compass 12(9):1-15.