Understanding Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality

Lynn Weber has been the Director of Women's Studies and a Professor of Sociology at the University of South Carolina since 1996. She went to South Carolina after serving two years as Distinguished Professor in Race, Class, and Gender at the University of Delaware and having spent the previous thirteen years directing the Center for Research on Women at the University of Memphis. Founded in 1982, by Weber and others, the Center for Research on Women was the first in the nation to focus on women of color and the intersections of race, class, and gender. Over the years, Weber and others provided pioneering scholarship on race, class, and gender and served as a leader in innovative teaching and curriculum changed focus on race, class, and gender. For the pioneering research of the center, Weber and other affiliates received the Jessie Bernard Award of the American Sociological Association in 1993, and for innovative pedagogical work, received the ASA's Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Award also in 1993--a dual honor never before or since bestowed. Heather Dillaway received her Masters degree in Sociology from University of Delaware in Summer 1997. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Michigan State University. She is currently working on a dissertation on women's experiences with menopause and how this reproductive experience is affected by women's social locations (race, class, gender, sexuality, family situation, etc.). Her major areas of interest include: race/class/gender/sexuality studies, sociology of the family (in particular, the sociology of motherhood/fatherhood), sociology of reproduction, and women's health.

CASE STUDY #1: "The Valenzuela Family," excerpt from Leo R. Chavez, 1992, Shadowed Lives: Undocumented Immigrants in American Society. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace College Publishers. CASE STUDY #2: "A Love Story" by Kathy Scully Davis, In Susan Wadia-Ells and Nancy Mairs (Eds.), 1995, The Adoption Reader: Birth Mothers, Adoptive Mothers, and Adoptive Daughters Tell Their Stories. Seattle, WA: Seal Press; Emeryville, CA: Publishers Group West. CASE STUDY #3: "Getting Off on Feminism" by Jason Schultz, In Rebecca Walker (Ed.), 1995, To Be Real: Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism. New York: Anchor Books. CASE STUDY #4: "The Tale of City Pride" by William Kowinski, 1993, Smithsonian24(7) Pp. 118(10). CASE STUDY #5: "Punishing Institutions: The Story of Catherine (Cedar Woman)," narrated by Luana Ross, In Susan Lobo and Steve Talbot (Eds.), 1998, Native American Voices: A Reader. New York: Longman. CASE STUDY #6: "The Girl Who Wouldn't Sing" by Kit Yuen Quan, In Gloria Anzaldua (Ed.), 1990, Making Face, Making Soul/Haciendo Caras: Creative and Critical Perspectives by Feminismts of Color. San Francisco, CA: Aunt Lute Foundation Books. CASE STUDY #7: "Man Child: A Black Lesbian Feminist's Response" Audre Lorde, 1979, Conditions 4:30-36. CASE STUDY #8: "White Trash and Female in A Southern Community," In James T. Sears, 1991, Growing up Gay in the South: Race, Gender, and Journeys of the Spirit. New York: Harrington Park Press. CASE STUDY REFERENCE LIST