Samantha Jaroszewski, *19
A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and trained in the tradition of the sociology of religion, Sam is in the field conducting mixed methods research for her dissertation project. The dissertation focuses on communities, behaviors, and practices around the genre of games called Fantasy Sports. Using large-scale surveys, in-depth interviews, and ethnographic observations, she begins at the sociotechnical system of Fantasy Sports and examines the larger social, gendered, historical, and organizational stories that this case helps us understand. She is embedded in an organization as an Academic/Researcher, which facilitates her fieldwork access; most of her days are spent asking questions and taking notes in offices in Silicon Valley or Silicon Beach. Her areas of examination were Sociology of Religion, Technology and Society, and Urban Ethnography and she benefitted greatly from participation in the Religion and Public Life seminar.