Contact Information

Office: Science Hall 289B
Email:  dloconto@nmsu.edu

Curriculum Vitae  

Education

Ph.D. – Oklahoma State University, 1999
M.S. – Oklahoma State University, 1995
B.A. – Humboldt State University, 1993

Background

I have benefited from the opportunities to study a wide variety of social phenomena including work on people with disabilities; bereavement; race/ethnicity; as well as early American social thought. Currently I am focusing more of my time on collective identity, as well as morality in various popular culture texts. I approach social phenomena from a social psychological perspective, typically blending or ‘mashing-up’ various theories or theorists.

Teaching

Most of the courses I teach now fall into two broad categories: (1) popular culture; and (2) social theory. In the classroom I like to see students integrate and synthesize ideas and apply them to the real world. I provide information on how popular culture and activism work together to try to make the world a better place. It is relatively easy to connect social issues addressed in popular culture to what is occurring both locally and globally.

Research

I published a book, Social Movements and the Collective Identity of the Star Trek Fandom: Boldly Going Where No Fans Have Gone Before, through Lexington Books. This was published in 2020 (paperback was released in 2022). Currently, I am continuing this research addressing authenticity and nostalgia as it applies to the Star Trek fandom. I have a manuscript being reviewed with McFarland & Company Publishing, Authenticity and Nostalgia: Gatekeeping and the Star Trek Fandom. The expectation is this manuscript is expected to be released either in late 2026 or 2027.

I completed a popular culture textbook for Kendall-Hunt Publishing Company, titled Shaping Reality and Popular Culture. The release was August 2023. This addresses a variety of popular culture topics but specifically is a foundational and complementary piece that can assist in the college classroom, allowing for professors to then provide additional information. A second edition is in the works with the expectation of the Summer of 2026 release.

I also published a social theory textbook, The Story of Sociological Theory: Contextualizing Social Thinkers, for Cognella Publishing which was released in January of 2023. This text again is a foundational piece that addresses the history of social theory, highlighting some of the major themes since Sociology’s inception.

I have a manuscript for the Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, titled, “Metamodernism in Star Trek: Integrating Postmodernism and Realism with Technology.” This piece is advocating that Star Trek, instead of integrating a postmodern view of the future, bypassed postmodernity to provide a metamodernistic glimpse of the future specifically as it framed and frames impairment and disability. It’s expected publication is 2026.

Beginning in 2025, I began writing magazine articles on Star Trek. And currently I am working on the application of Star Trek to explain the Trump Administration and patrimonialism.