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Nicki Lisa Cole, Ph.D. is a sociologist with expertise in consumer culture and global supply chains. Her past research focused on the ethics of sourcing and consuming coffee, and her current research examines the brand power, consumer culture, and supply chain of Apple, Inc. A public sociologist, Nicki believes that the results and recommendations of sociological research should be easily accessible to the general public, not cloistered within the ivory tower. She is the founder and head writer of 21st Century Nomad, a digital magazine that features sociological content for a general reading audience. Learn more about her approach to public sociology at www.nickilisacole.com.
With this site Nicki invites you to get to know the field of sociology, and the work that sociologists do to identify and address the problems that plague society today.
Experience
Nicki has worked as a researcher and educator at the college level for a decade. Currently she is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies on Science, Technology and Society in Graz, Austria. Nicki previously taught sociology at Pomona College from 2012 to 2014, and before that, at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her training and work experience in sociology span a range of subjects, including culture, race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, globalization, political-economy, consumer culture, and social theory. She has taught general courses like Introduction to Sociology, Qualitative Research Methods, and Contemporary Social Theory, and specialized courses, like Sociology of Consumption, and Sociology of Globalization. Nicki is an active member of the American Sociological Association, a professional society of sociologists, and is the Editor-in-Chief of Consumed, the newsletter of the ASA Section on Consumers and Consumption.
In 2011 she completed a six-year research project on the sourcing, marketing, and consumption of ethical coffee (fair trade, organic, sustainable, etc.). The results of this research have been published in the academic journal Race, Gender & Class, in the public sociology magazine Contexts, and in the edited volume Consumer Culture, Modernity and Identity. Nicki spoke about this work on The Morning Mix with Project Censored on KPFA radio, and was quoted by Scott Sherman in an article about fair trade coffee published in The Nation.
Currently, Nicki is in the midst of a major study of the brand power, consumer culture, and supply chain of Apple, Inc. This multifaceted research project includes historical research about the company, an analysis of Apple's branding and ad campaigns since its launch in 1976, research in Apple Stores and with Apple consumers, and a wide-reaching investigation into the company's global supply chain. Nicki is writing a book based on this research, and to date has written about it for CounterPunch, Sociological Images, in the edited volume Censored 2014: Fearless Speech in Fateful Times, and on her blog, 21st Century Nomad. She also spoke about Apple's troubled supply chain on The Morning Mix with Project Censored in August, 2013.
Education
Nicki received a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2011, where she previously completed a M.A. in the field. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Pomona College in 2002.
Nicki Lisa Cole
Sociology is not simply a field of study; it is a way of seeing the world.
References:
- Despite Claims of Progress, Labor and Environmental Violations Continue to Plague Apple
- Apple Exposed: The Untold Story of Globalization
- Apple's Top Crimes of 2013
- The Problem With Fair Trade Coffee
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