Home > About > Faculty Profiles > Pietro A. Sasso, Ph.D.

Pietro A. Sasso, Ph.D.

Dr. Pietro Sasso

Associate Professor, Department of Education
Email: psasso [at] desu.edu
Website: www.drsasso.com

Education

  • Ph.D., Higher Education, Old Dominion University
  • M.S., Higher Education & Counseling, University of Rochester
  • B.A., Psychology Christopher Newport University

Research Interests

Dr. Pietro A. Sasso has over twenty years of administrative and teaching experience in post secondary education. Dr. Sasso uses his positionality to engage in humanistic research and teaching to help center the voices of college students for the next generation of reflective and critical higher education professionals to further disrupt systems of oppression, power, and privilege that perpetuate educational inequity and racial injustice. His research amplifies the voices of college students through interrogating the themes of the college experience, student success, and educational equity in co-curricular spaces. He has over 100 scholarly publications including over 90 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, as well as 12 co-edited books supported by over 130 conference presentations. He has been recognized for his research with awards from the American College Personnel Association (ACPA), Association of Fraternity/Sorority Advisors (AFA), Texas Association of College and University Student Personnel Administrators (TACUSPA), and Faculty Excellence Award in Research (Delaware State University). He is currently a faculty research fellow with the Penn State University Timothy J. Piazza Center for Fraternity & Sorority Research.

Research Expertise

  • Higher Education
  • Student Involvement
  • Race & Gender
  • College Student Development
  • Co-Curricular Spaces

Consultation Expertise

Dr. Pietro Sasso has over twenty years of professional and research experience in higher education including program review, evaluation, and research collaboration totaling over $1.7 million in grants. He most recently has engaged in collaboration with research centers at Penn State University and the University of Tennessee and other consultations with Northern Arizona University and Shepard University. Through collaborating with some of the foremost and emerging scholars in higher education and across other disciplines, Dr. Sasso has a continuous research agenda that addresses: (1) the college experience; (2) student success; and (3) educational equity across co-curricular spaces. Critical frameworks, qualitative research, and quantitative methods are utilized to interrogate these research themes. He has made numerous public discourse contributions within the media including the Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, the Washington Post, and Diverse: Issues in Higher Education.

Selected Publications

  • Sasso, P. A., Shelton, L. J., & Brazleton, B. (2024). No new friends: The desolate realm of higher education/student affairs pre-tenure faculty. Journal of Higher Education Politics & Economics, 10(1), 11-34.
  • Sasso, P. A. & Alstadt, A. A., & Bullington, K. (2023). The academic oratory tax paid undergraduates as persons who stutter. Review of Higher Education, 47(3), 347-372.
  • Grace, M., Sasso. P. A., & Bullington, K., Stedman, K. Xinyue Liu, X., & Wiese, D., Graziani, A. (2024). Educating future leaders in fraternities: Outcomes from participation in an emerging leaders program. Journal of Campus Activities Practice and Scholarship, 6(1), 39-56
  • Zoromski, K. &, Sasso. P. A. (2024). Transactional and stopgap relationships between community college department chairs and their adjuncts. Community College Review, 52(2), 210-230.
  • Sasso, P. A., Bullington, K., & Manning-Ouellette, A., & Price-Williams, S. (2024). White girl wasted: Unapologetic sorority sexuality & alcohol Use. Georgia Journal of College Student Affairs, 40(1), 32-61.
  • Sasso, P. A. & Bullington, K. (2023). “Either or, not as a whole:” Challenges of multiracial student placemaking and belonging in sorority and fraternity chapters. Journal of Sorority and Fraternity Life Research and Practice, 18(2), Article 7
  • Sasso. P. A., Bullington, K., & Perry, L. (2023) Belonging, racializing, & place-making in student organizations for Multiracial college student leaders. Journal of Campus Activities Practice and Scholarship, 5(3),9-23.
  • Faure, T. &, Sasso, P. A. (2023) Collaborative challenges between educational accessibility coordinators and adjunct faculty in supporting autism spectrum students. New York Journal of Student Affairs, 23(1), Article 4.
  • Sasso, P. A., Rowan, S., & Ryan, C. K. (2023). Brunch so hard: Liquid bonding and unspoken rules of feminine hegemony through alcohol use in national panhellenic conference sorority women. Journal of Sorority and Fraternity Life Research and Practice, 18(1), Article 5.
  • Sasso, P. A. Jeffers, A., Altstadt, A. M., Bullington, L., & Enciso, M. (2023). Personal “Reservations:” Revealing the selective invisibility of multiracial Native American students. Journal of Student Affairs Research & Practice, 60(4), 433-446.

Grants

  • Co-Principal Investigator. (2023-2025). Antisemitism & Jewish Identity Grant. Funded for $220,000. Penn State Timothy J. Piazza Center for Fraternity & Sorority Research and from Zeta Beta Tau Foundation.
  • Co-Principal Investigator. (2021-2022). Hazing Monograph Project. Penn State Timothy J. Piazza Center for Fraternity & Sorority Research and Reform. Funded for $50,000 from North American Interfraternity Conference.