In Memoriam: Katherine Pavelka Luke (1974-2009)
Katherine Pavelka Luke died suddenly of cancer on Saturday September 12, 2009. Katherine was a recent graduate of the Joint Doctoral Program in Social Work and Sociology, receiving her degree on August 18, 2009. Her current appointment was as a Post-doctoral fellow at the Addiction Research Center, Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan. Katherine was born October 31, 1974 in Lincoln Nebraska and grew up in the Midwest. She moved to Ann Arbor in 2003 in order to attend the University of Michigan.
Education
Katherine entered the Joint Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program in Social Work and Sociology with a BA in Women and Gender Studies and Psychology and a minor in sociology from Macalester College, and an MSW and MA in Public Affairs from the University of Minnesota. While at the University of Michigan she earned a Graduate Certificate in Women's Studies and the PhD. The title of her dissertation in Social Work and Sociology was Race, Gender and Heterosexuality in Campus Party Culture: The Reproduction and Transformation of Social Identities, Social Inequalities, and Sexual Violence. Her dissertation focused on studying the "social and discursive practices of race, gender and heterosexuality within campus party cultures." It illuminates complex interactions among contexts for partying, emphasizing binge drinkers, among those in the period of emerging adulthood, and how users conceptualize their alcohol and other drug use, relationships and sexuality, and safety. She also explored how gender, ethnicity, race, and sexuality interact within complex performance sites to create opportunities for potentially positive relationships and identity exploration as well as risks for sexual exploitation and substance abuse. Within this, she identified implications for promotion of positive relationships and behaviors, and prevention of interpersonal violence, and the interface of these with partying and drinking patterns.
Professional Accomplishments
Katherine's work in the PhD program grew from her academic and professional commitments. Prior to entering the PhD program she worked in the fields of women's health, family violence, and mental health as a research analyst and direct service worker. She continued her connection to the world of practice while in school, working on a number of community and agency based projects, including an interpersonal violence prevention project and one designed to reduce risky alcohol use. Her work contributed to their development but emphasizing assessment of their implementation and effectiveness. She was licensed as a Macro Social Worker by the State of Michigan in 2006.
Katherine was an active and productive scholar during her time in the PhD program, crossing the boundaries between social work, sociology, social policy and women's studies. She published five articles in refereed journals, including one before entering the PhD program. These articles were published in some of the most highly respected journals in the field, including Social Service Review and Child and Youth Services Review. She was also very active in presenting papers at research conferences, such the Society for Social work and Research Annual Conference, the Council on Social Work Education Annual Program meeting and the National Women's Policy Research conference. These presentations and publications, on such topics as multicultural education in social work, gender and sexuality, policy implementation, and interpersonal violence represented different research methods and approaches and made significant contributions to these fields of study. She had a number of publications in progress at the time of her death.
Katherine's accomplishments were recognized by multiple awards and fellowships. She received a National Merit Scholarship as an undergraduate and an internship grant from the Hubert Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs when she was a master's student at the University of Minnesota. Katherine was awarded a Regents Fellowship upon admission to the PhD program at the University of Michigan and received the highly competitive Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship while writing her dissertation. During her time in the PhD program she also was a recipient of the Institute for Research and Gender Community of Scholars Fellowship and an NIMH Predoctoral Fellowship in Interdisciplinary Research Training in Violence and Mental Health across the Lifespan.
Katherine received two awards that were based on the quality of her scholarship: the Network Biennial Margaret J. Barr Student Research Award, for a paper that focused on the implications of alcohol and other drug use for interpersonal violence on college campuses, and the Henry Meyer Award. The paper recognized by the Henry Meyer Award, Toward empowering sexual violence prevention strategies: Interrogating the technologies of gender deployed by and between binge-drinking college women, was selected based on the contributions it made to the integration of social work and social science.
Katherine was active as a leader within the graduate student community. She was a co-founder and member of the Gender and Sexuality study group in the Department of Sociology. She was very active in the Doctoral Student Organization (DSO) of the Joint Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program in Social Work and Sociology serving one term each as Treasurer and Secretary of the DSO 2003-2005 and as one of the DSO representatives on the Supervisory Committee of the Joint Doctoral Program (2007-2009). Katherine was one of the founding members of the Rackham Interdisciplinary Workshop on Qualitative Research Methods (2006-2009) and a member of the Addiction and Gender Program at IRWG (2007-2009). She was an active member of the Graduate Employees Organization and taught in both the School of Social Work and the Department of Sociology.
Katherine survivors include her husband, Michael Pryplesh, children Nicky (4 1/2) and Ali (1), her mother Ginger Luke and stepfather Don Cherry, grandmother, Phyllis Pavelka, and a brother Richard Luke, as well as many loving friends and relatives.
Katherine inspired many with her dedication and values. She approached her work with passion and integrity. In her admissions essay for the PhD program, Katherine identified three professional goals. In her words "I have a clear understanding of my professional goals. They are to promote social and economic justice by doing community-based and theory-building research, widely disseminating research findings, and training future social workers..." She recognized the role that social work education and research could play in creating positive social change. In her short time with us she met and accomplished these goals in significant ways. Her ideas, passions, and commitments have made a difference in our world.