Publications | sociologist

Publications- Peer-Reviewed Articles

2015

“Negotiating ‘The Welfare Queen’ and ‘The Strong Black Woman’: African American Middle-Class Mothers’ Work and Family Perspectives.” Sociological Perspectives. 58: 36-55. Published online: November 2014. http://spx.sagepub.com/content/58/1/36.abstract

2016

“Caring for them Like Family: Examining How Structure and Culture Simultaneously Influence Kin and Community Childcare Choices of Contemporary African American Middle- and Upper-Middle-Class Mothers.” Sociology of Race and Ethnicity. 2: 72-86. Published online: August 2015. http://sre.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/08/10/2332649215598785.abstract

“Integrated Motherhood: Beyond Traditional Ideologies of Motherhood.” Journal of Marriage and Family. 78:1 180-196. Published online: October 2015. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jomf.12264/abstract

“The Deadly Challenges of Raising African American Boys: Navigating the Controlling Image of the ‘Thug.’” Gender & Society. 30:161-18. Published online before print February 2016. doi:10.1177/0891243216629928. http://gas.sagepub.com/content/30/2/16

2017

with Dana R. Fisher and Rashawn Ray. “Intersectionality Takes it to the Streets: Mobilizing Across Diverse Interests for the Women’s March.” Science Advances.3:9 http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/9/eaao1390

2018

with Dana R. Fisher and Lorien Jasny. “Why Are We Here?: Patterns of Intersection Motivations Across the Resistance.” Mobilizations.

2020

with Daniel Laurison and Carolyn Chernoff. “Class Mobility and Reproduction for Black and White Adults in the United States: A Visualization.” Socius.

ONGOING RESEARCH

Mothering While Black: Boundaries and Burdens of Middle-Class Parenthood (Book Manuscript)

My book manuscript in progress examines how the interplay of racial identity, class, and gender shapes the cultural expectations, beliefs, and decisions of African American middle-class mothers regarding work, family, and parenting. Using data from in-depth interviews with African American middle-class mothers, I demonstrates how race, class, and gender complicate the parenting concerns and strategies; the kinds of identities African American middle and upper-middle-class mother work to foster in their children; and existing frameworks for understanding the cultural pushes and pulls that influence mothers’ work and family decision-making. This research challenges the conflict paradigm that dominates scholarship on work and family, a paradigm that asserts that working outside of the home conflicts with being a mother.

I expand on, and revise, sociological theories of how African American middle-class mothers approach parenting while managing distinct raced and gendered challenges located within the broader society.

DIVERSITY IN THE WORKPLACE

This research incorporates scholarship from the fields of the sociology of emotions, critical race theory and the sociology of law to examine workplace diversity, cross racial employee interactions, and the subtle and hidden rules of advancement that define social interractions in the workplace, and their effects on career development and advancement.

MILLENIAL MEN OF COLOR

This research examines the experiences of millennial men of color, specifically African American and Latino men, as they navigate predominately white college and university campuses.

African American boys and men encounter discrimination and detrimental stereotyping in school settings from other students, faculty and administrators. These subtle and explicit forms of discrimination affect their sense of belonging during college, their emotional and mental health, and their academic trajectory. With several notable exceptions (S. R. Harper, 2013; Jackson, 2012), there has been very little focus on how African American college men navigate predominately white educational settings, the challenges they confront and the strategies they use to overcome those challenges. Using in-depth interviews my Millenial Men of Color project seeks to understand and draw lessons from these mens' experiences.