Educational Programming · Virginia State University

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As Sociology Program Coordinator at VSU, Fraser teaches students to read the city and to do research that holds up — from the first methods course to the senior capstone, run like a working think tank.

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Today's schedule

The VSU Sociology core Fraser coordinates, plus the courses he leads. Required courses must be completed before the senior capstone.
VSU SOCIOLOGY·COURSE GUIDE
Dept. of Sociology & Criminal Justice
419Methods
Applied Research Methods
Reading univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analysis through real student research — ending in a journal-style final paper.
Required
352Urban
Urban Issues
Cities, housing, and inequality, taught through a simulated think-tank that turns students into applied urban researchers.
Elective
317Methods
Research Methods
Research design, measurement, and the craft of asking answerable questions about the social world.
Syllabus (PDF)
Required
318Theory
Sociological Theory
The classical and contemporary traditions students use to make sense of structure, power, and place.
Syllabus (PDF)
Required
420Capstone
Senior Capstone
The culminating research project — original work, start to finish, in the student's chosen area of specialization.
Required
101Core
Introduction to Sociology
The sociological imagination — the entry point into the major.
Syllabus (PDF)
Core
208Core
The African-American Experience
Race, history, and social structure in the American context.
Required
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Studio production: The Azurest Institute

A pedagogical frame for SOCI 352 — named for the architect Amaza Lee Meredith.
A simulated think tank

Students don't study urban policy. They produce it.

In Urban Issues, the classroom becomes a working research center. Students take on the roles of applied urban researchers — framing problems, gathering evidence, and writing the kind of briefs, white papers, and policy memos that real cities commission.

The conceit gives undergraduates something a lecture can't: the experience of being trusted with a real question, and the discipline of answering it for an audience that isn't their professor.

The Azurest Institute is a conceptual teaching frame and programmatic idea — not an operating unit.

What students leave with

  • The ability to read and interpret real data — not just describe it
  • Experience writing for clients: policy briefs, white papers, research reports
  • A specialization built in collaboration with their advisor
  • A portfolio piece that looks like professional work, because it is
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Areas of instruction

Three decades of courses across urban studies, environment, inequality, and methods — at VSU, Vanderbilt, UNC, Minnesota, and Fisk.

Urban Studies

Urban Geography & PlanningCritical Geographical ThoughtGentrification & UrbanizationSocial Justice & the CityUrban SociologyThe American City

Environmental Studies

Urbanization & the EnvironmentSustainability, Justice & the CityHuman Dimensions of Environmental ChangeDimensions of Flooding

Social Inequality

Social InequalityTheories of InequalitySocial StratificationSocial ProblemsCommunity DevelopmentCriminology

Research Methods

Critical Methods & EpistemologyAdvanced Research MethodsResearch DesignQualitative MethodsStatisticsSenior Seminar / Capstone
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Mentorship & the toolkit

Advising at every level, and a continuing investment in how teaching gets done.

Graduate advising

Chaired or served on 20+ doctoral and master's committees at Vanderbilt, Duke, UNC Chapel Hill, and Fisk.

  • Dissertation chair to Joshua Bazuin, Emily Thaden, and Jennifer Mokos (Vanderbilt)
  • Dissertation co-chair to Emily Lample (Vanderbilt) and Ashley Brown-Burns (Duke)
  • Master's chair to students at Vanderbilt and UNC
  • Committee service across a further dozen graduate students

Teaching development

Keeping the craft current — including the move into AI-aware pedagogy.

  • AI Lightning Talks Series Certificate, VSU Academy of Faculty Enrichment (2026)
  • Quality Matters Pathways certifications for online teaching (2024)
  • The Cumberland Project, Center for Teaching, Vanderbilt (2012–2013)
  • Member, VSU University AI Task Force (2025–present)