Persistence in academia

Kaiea Orr

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Kim Pernell, a faculty affiliate in the Human Dimensions of Organizations program and the Population Research Center, has been promoted to associate professor in the Department of Sociology at The University of Texas at Austin effective this coming Fall.

Dr. Pernell, a Houston native, described the milestone as especially meaningful. “It’s deeply fulfilling to me, not just to get tenure, but to get it at this institution,” she said, noting that her goal in graduate school was to build a career at UT Austin while remaining close to her family in Texas. She points to three conditions that made her work possible: time, funding, and a strong intellectual community. Together, these resources supported the development of a research agenda focused on how organizations operate and how their structures shape real-world consequences, particularly in domains where institutional decisions have broad social and economic effects.

Since joining the department in 2022, Dr. Pernell has continued to expand that agenda. In 2024, she published her first book, Visions of Financial Order: National Institutions and the Development of Banking Regulation. The book analyzes how national institutions shape regulatory systems and has received major recognition, including the 2025 Mary Douglas Best Book Award and the 2025 Viviana Zelizer Best Book Award. Drawing on comparative and organizational approaches, the project traces how different institutional arrangements produce variation in regulatory outcomes, including uneven protections, gaps in oversight, and recurring forms of organizational harm. Reflecting on her work, Dr. Pernell explained, “I want to see fewer organizations doing bad things, and I want to understand the social conditions that make these recur, ultimately so that we can do a better job of stopping that.” Her research centers on identifying the structural patterns that allow harmful practices to persist, rather than treating them as isolated failures.

When asked whether she anticipated reaching these milestones during graduate school, Dr. Pernell responded simply: “No.” She described the process as “throwing yourself at a brick wall repeatedly,” emphasizing the persistence required to continue working through repeated setbacks. Rather than framing success as linear, she points to the gradual development of research questions, the refinement of ideas over time, and the discipline required to carry projects through uncertainty, revision, and critique.

For graduate students, Dr. Pernell emphasizes the importance of focusing on the quality of one’s work rather than external markers of success. While networking and professionalization are often prioritized, she cautions against allowing them to displace the core task of producing rigorous and meaningful research. She also notes that academic careers require navigating uncertainty without clear guarantees, making self-direction and consistency essential. In practice, this means developing sustainable work habits, maintaining focus on long-term research questions, and learning how to revise and improve work across multiple iterations. For Dr. Pernell, sustaining a career in sociology depends on remaining committed to one’s interests while developing the ability to communicate beyond academic audiences.

Looking ahead, Dr. Pernell recognizes that her new role brings expanded responsibilities, particularly in mentorship and departmental service. She views these commitments as an extension of personal responsibility towards the same intellectual community that has supported her own development. This includes advising students at different stages of training, contributing to collaborative research environments, and helping shape the direction of the department’s academic programs. As she takes on these roles, she remains focused on balancing research, teaching, mentorship, and family life, while continuing to produce work that engages both scholarly and public conversations.

Kaiea Orr, from Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi, is a first-year Sociology Ph.D. student at The University of Texas at Austin. He earned his B.A. in Sociology with a minor in Japanese language at the University of Arizona, where he worked as both an undergraduate research assistant and a teaching assistant for Dr. Charles Gomez. Additionally, while at the University of Arizona, he was a recipient of the Roger Yoshino Undergraduate Award. His research interests focus on the Native Hawaiian diaspora and the ways marginalized groups navigate social worlds, particularly in urban settings at the intersection of global and local dynamics. Drawing on theories of globalization, migration patterns, and urban sociology, he intends to apply computational, statistical, and qualitative methods to investigate Native Hawaiian outmigration and the demographic and cultural shifts transforming Hawaiʻi. Beyond his academic pursuits, Kaiea’s roots run deep in his family orientation and culture.