Dr. Aaron Hoy, Director (On Sabbatical Spring 2025)

Aaron Hoy, Ph.D., is a research consultant, coach, and teacher; qualitative methodologist and storyteller; and Associate Professor and Director of the Center for Excellence in Scholarship and Research (CESR) at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Trained as a sociologist, he completed his doctorate at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University in 2018. Topically, his inter- and transdisciplinary research focuses on both the formation and dissolution of close relationships, including romantic relationships like marriage and intergenerational relationships like those between older adults and their adult children. Methodologically, Dr. Hoy’s research uses in-depth interviewing, autoethnography, and arts-based approaches. He is the editor or co-editor of multiple books (The Social Science of Same-Sex Marriage [2022, Routledge], and The Sociology of Families Reader with Emily M. Boyd [Cognella, 2024]), and he has authored or co-authored (often with MSU, Mankato students) numerous articles in journals such as Journal of Family Issues, Family Transitions, and Sociology Compass. Dr. Hoy currently serves as Editor at The Qualitative Report, the world’s oldest multidisciplinary journal focusing on qualitative methodologies, and in partnership with the Center for Workforce Professional Development, he facilitates the online certificate course, “Autoethnography: Narrating Self and Society.”