Dr. Luken teaches courses in medical sociology, death and dying, aging and the life course, and housing and homeless, in addition to introductory sociology. He also teaches a graduate level course on institutional ethnography. After completing his doctoral studies in Sociology at The Ohio State University, he continued his studies as a postdoctoral fellow in "Mental Health and Aging" in the Department of Family and Community Medicine of the University of Missouri; and on two occasions he was selected by the Gerontological Society of America as a postdoctoral fellow in applied gerontology.
Dr. Luken's most recent publications have appeared in Sociological Inquiry, the Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, and Sociological Quarterly. Currently he is preparing a book entitled Taking Up Residence, an institutional ethnography study of changes in the social institution of housing in the US in the twentieth century. Aside from his membership in numerous professional organizations, he is particularly active in the Society for the Study of Social Problems and is a long-time member of the American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International.