Todd Platts: Through the lens of Sociology

Dr. Todd Platts nervously leaned into the back of his chair. He clasped his hands together and fiddled his fingers in thought. “I got in my mind, with a 1.72 GPA, that I wanted to be a professor,” he said. 

Platts graduated from the University of Missouri with a PhD in Sociology in 2013. He never thought he would become a professor. Infact, he did not know what he wanted to be.

 “I was a very bad student in college,” he said. “I almost failed out of college.” He struggled a lot and found himself blaming his professors. In the Fall of 2000, he realized he wanted to be a professor

“I thought being a college professor was easy. I was wrong, by the way,” he said. “The reason why I chose Sociology was because after my Fall semester, I needed to declare my major. So, I looked at which class I was the least behind in and my answer just so happened to be Sociology.” After graduating, he struggled with finding a job. He said he questioned if becoming a professor was the right choice. 

“It was difficult. I was down to my last three applications and unemployed,” he said as he tapped his fingers on his desk.  Before arriving to PVCC, he was a visiting assistant professor at the University of Southern Mississippi. Now, Platts is the associate professor of sociology and has been teaching at Piedmont since August 2015. He says that he feels like his experience as a student has really benefited him as a teacher and hopes that his students leave with the ability to question the world. 

Now, Platts focuses on horror studies. “It’s, ironically, a weird hobby of mine,” he said, “People assume the reason why you study something must because you love it, like, I live and die on zombies, but I’m actually not a big fan of zombie cinema,” he said as he sat forward. He further explained that he studied the topic of zombies through the lens of Sociology because of his research on post 9/11 zeitgeist. He discovered that the images of post 9/11 were similar to many zombie imagery circulating in media. 

One of his greatest achievements, Platts won a PVCC Faculty Excellence Award for his outstanding work and community effort; he also teaches at the Fluvanna Correctional Center For Women.

 “I want to try to be part of something that helps them reintegrate into society,” he said as he fixed his glasses in concern. He hopes that society keeps an open mind when working with the community. “There aren’t really a lot of opportunities,” he said, “and they’re so talented and able.” 

In his most recent works, Platts and his team, Mathmis, Clascan, and Mccollum, have been developing a book titled Blumhouse: The New House of Horror, which is one of the first in depth academic analysis of Blumhouse studios. Blumhouse studios is a famous cinematography studio that has worked on films such as IT and Get Out. His next book will be an assessment of early studio error with voodoo as the major plotline. The working title is Hollywood Voodoo. In the book, Platts will research the production, reception, and discourse of voodoo and the reflection of early cinema surrounding Haiti. 

Most of Platts’ work can be found on https://pvcc.academia.edu/ToddPlatts where anyone can view his articles. He said, “I’m glad I went through (what I did as a student) and now 20 years later. I remember the first question I got: ‘Is this your first time teaching?’”