Tanice Foltz

Tanice Foltz

Dr. Foltz is a Professor of Sociology and Director of Women’s and Gender Studies (WGS). She has won the IU Founder’s Day Teaching Award and several IU Trustees’ Teaching Awards and was awarded the Sylvia E. Bowman Award for Distinguished Teaching in 2013. In 2015 she won the Diversity Advocate Award, and in 2015 she earned the College of Arts and Science's Dean's Distinguished Service Award. In 2016, she was the recipient of IUN's Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs Distinguished Service Award for a career of service to IU Northwest. In 2017, Dr. Foltz was one of seven faculty from IU campuses around the state selected for their outstanding contributions to their universities and communities. At the Celebration of Outstanding Faculty in Bloomington, Dr. Foltz was honored with the W. George Pinnell Award for a career of distinguished service to IU Northwest.

Dr. Foltz has been with IUN since 1989, first as a part-timer, teaching Social Movements and Juvenile Delinquency, and she was hired in a tenure track position in 1990. She has taught Principles of Sociology, Deviant Behavior and Social Control, Women and Deviance, Women and Crime, Women and Religion, Introduction to Women’s Studies, Criminology, Juvenile Delinquency, Qualitative Research Methods, Research Methods in the Social Sciences,  Statistics I and II, and she has been the Sociology Internship Coordinator and supervisor of the Women’s and Gender Studies Practicum experience.

Dr. Foltz’s areas of specialization include research methods, gender issues, deviance, diversity, social psychology, religion, and victimization. She has conducted research and published about middle class prostitution, alternative healing, and marginalized religions such as Witchcraft, Goddess spirituality and paganism, and facilitated drumming circles as they are used to create community, healing, and spiritual connection. She is interested in conducting research on the effects of the DRUMBEAT™ program with students who have experienced trauma or abuse.

She co-conducted the IUN Student Victimization Survey with her collaborator, Monica Solinas-Saunders, and their student research team. They plan to publish the results and use the data to apply for a large grant to provide needed services at IU Northwest. As WGS Director, Tanice coordinates event programming for the Hass-Birky Women’s Center, contributes to Diversity programming, and organizes the annual Women’s and Gender Studies “Celebrating Our Students” research conference. In addition, every fall she coordinates the Clothesline Project where students are invited to make a t-shirt expressing themselves against violence. The resulting exhibit is part of a broader effort by WGS to raise awareness about violence and its prevention, and this project is the focus of Dr. Foltz's most recent research.