Social Science Department Faculty

(603) 535-2507

About Professor Heiner 

Robert Heiner received his B.A. in Sociology at the University of Virginia, his M.S. in Criminology at Florida State University, and his Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Virginia, where he studied under the renowned criminologist Gresham Sykes. After receiving his doctorate, he taught for three years for the University of Maryland on U.S. military bases overseas in South Korea, Japan and Germany. His interests include deviance, crime, social problems, and corporate influence in governmental affairs. In addition to several articles, he has published three books. A second edition of his last book, Social Problems: An Introduction to Critical Contructionism, is due to be published this summer by Oxford University Press. Included in his teaching philosophy is the hope that "Our students here at PSU (and everywhere) will learn about the plight of those less fortunate than themselves and will want to make the world a better place."

"It's amazing how much social change has been brought about in the world over the last half a century by college students," he says.