Melinda J. Milligan, PhD

Office

About

Dr. Milligan specializes in the social psychology and sociology of the built environment. Her research interests include place attachment, nostalgia, organizational change and death, the architectural design process, classroom space, and historic preservation.

During her time at SSU, she has served as Chair of the Department of Sociology, Chair of the Department of Psychology, Chair of the Educational Policies Committee, Chair of the Structure & Functions Subcommittee, and Vice Chair of the Faculty, among other governance roles. 

In July 2026, Dr. Milligan was appointed Faculty Associate Dean of the College of Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Arts. 

Education

Ph.D., Sociology, University of California, Davis
MA, Sociology, University of California, Davis
BA,  Political Science, University of California, Davis

Academic Interests

Sociology of the Built Environment, Historic Preservation, Community and Urban Sociology, Emotions, Organizations, Symbolic Interaction, Social Psychology, Qualitative Research Methods

Selected Publications & Presentations

Milligan, Melinda J. and Debora A. Paterniti. 2021. “What Do Professors Want?: Classroom Design Preferences of University Instructors.” Environmental Design Research Association 52.

Jolly, Michelle, Margaret Purser, Melinda J. Milligan, and Laura Alice Watt. 2019. “‘But Where Are the People?’ Grappling with Teaching New Approaches to Our Relationship with Place and the Past.” Human-Centered Built Environment Heritage Preservation. Jeremy C. Wells and Barry L. Stiefel (eds.). New York: Routledge. 

Milligan, Melinda J. 2007. “Buildings as History: The Place of Collective Memory in the Study of Historic Preservation.” Symbolic Interaction 30(1): 105-123.

Elliott, James R., Kevin Fox Gotham, and Melinda J. Milligan. 2004. “Framing the Urban: Struggles over HOPE VI and New Urbanism in a Historic City.” City & Community 3(4): 373-394.

Milligan, Melinda J. and April Brayfield. 2004. “Museums and Childhood: Negotiating Cultural Lessons.” Childhood: A Global Journal of Child Research 11(3): 275-301.

Milligan, Melinda J. 2003. “Displacement and Identity Discontinuity: The Role of Nostalgia in Establishing New Identity Categories.” Symbolic Interaction 26(3): 381-403. 

Milligan, Melinda J. 2003. “Loss of Site: Organizational Moves as Organizational Deaths.” International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 23(6/7): 115-152. 

Milligan, Melinda J. 1998. “Interactional Past and Potential: The Social Construction of Place Attachment.” Symbolic Interaction 21(1):1-33.