Crystal Peoples

Dr. Crystal Peoples is a sociology professor at Randolph College who joined the faculty in Fall 2025. She teaches interactive courses including Race and Racism in the United States, Science, Technology, and Society, and Introduction to Sociology, with a teaching philosophy emphasizing student-centered learning and flexible syllabi.

Her educational background includes:

• Mathematics undergraduate degree from Longwood University
• MS in Sociology from Iowa State University
• MA and PhD in Sociology from Duke University

Dr. Peoples specializes in mathematical sociology, applying formal mathematical logics like graph theory and advanced statistics to model societal inequalities. Her research explores how racial groups are socially constructed, the impacts of racialization, and the reciprocal relationships between society and technological development. This interest originated when she discovered the outdated U.S. poverty calculation formula as a mathematics student, leading her to recognize the complex interplay between mathematical precision and social structures.

As an educator, she creates classroom environments where students actively shape discussion content and pace, believing everyone has valuable knowledge to contribute. She incorporates creative assignments allowing students to demonstrate learning through individualized projects. Dr. Peoples particularly values Randolph College's emphasis on faculty-student interactions, inspired by her own transformative undergraduate advising experience.

Outside academia, she enjoys board games (attending conventions annually), sports (regularly attending student-athlete events), crocheting, cross-stitching movie/TV scenes, and films like Alien (1979) and reality television such as Big Brother.