He joined the department in 2017. Professor Harkness earned a B.A. and M.A. in sociology from the University of Kansas, and a Ph.D. in sociology from Northwestern University. He teaches courses in sociology, law and society, and quantitative research methods that serve the sociology and justice studies programs. Before coming to RIC, he taught at Morningside and Grinnell Colleges. Professor Harkness also spent three years as a postdoctoral teaching fellow at Northwestern and Carnegie Mellon Universities in Doha, Qatar.