Jennifer Pierce

Associate Professor, American Studies
pierc012@umn.edu

Jennifer L. Pierce, a sociologist and core faculty member in American Studies, is affiliated with the Departments of Women's Studies, Sociology, and the Law School at the University of Minnesota. Her research focuses on how American workplaces structure gender and racial inequalities through seemingly benign and neutral practices and how, in turn, workers respond to such practices. Her current project examines how the backlash against affirmative action affects different groups of workers in a northern California corporation. She has also written essays about feminist theory and methods, particularly the use of fieldwork and personal narratives. In addition, she is working on two other collaborative projects: an anthology with Hokulani Aikau and Karla Erickson on feminist generations in the academy; and another on the uses of personal narratives in the social sciences with M.J. Maynes and Barbara Laslett.

Education:

Ph.D., Sociology, University of California Berkeley, 1991
M.A., Sociology, University of California, Berkeley
B.A., Sociology, University of California, Berkeley

Scholarly Works:

Gender Trials: Emotional Lives in Contemporary Law Firms, University of California Press, 1996.

Is Academic Feminism Dead? Theory in Practice, New York University Press, 2000. Co-editor

"The Significance of Race and Gender in School Success Among Latinas and Latinos in College." Gender & Society vol. 15, no. 6 (December 2001): 859-878. (Co-authored with Heidi Barajas)

"'Not Committed?' or 'Not Qualified?': A Raced and Gendered Organizational Logic in Contemporary Law Firms." In Reza Banakar and Max Travers, editors. An Introduction to Law and Social Theory. London: Hart Publishing, 2002.

"'Racing for Innocence': Whiteness, Corporate Culture and the Backlash Against Affirmative Action." Qualitative Sociology 26, 1 (Spring 2003).

"Traveling from Feminism to Mainstream Sociology and Back: One Woman’s Tale of Tenure and the Politics of Backlash." Qualitative Sociology 26, 3 (Fall 2003).

Additional Professional Activities:

Director, Center for Advanced Feminist Studies, 2002-2004
Faculty Chair, Editorial Board, University of Minnesota Press, 2003-present
Director of Graduate Studies, Department of American Studies, 1999-2002

Awards:

President’s Multicultural Research Award, University of Minnesota, “Racing for Innocence: Whiteness, American Culture, and the Backlash Against Affirmative Action”, summer 2004.

Grant-in-Aid for Research, Artistry and Scholarship, University of Minnesota, "Racing for Innocence: Whiteness, American Culture, and the Backlash Against Affirmative Action,” 2003-2004.

Humanities Institute Faculty Fellowship. University of Minnesota, spring 2003.

Graduate Research Partnership Program, University of Minnesota. “Popular Cultural Constructions of Race in Post-Civil Rights America,” applied with Wendy Leo Moore, summer 2003.

Graduate Research Partnership Program, University of Minnesota. "Engendering Service Work," applied with Karla Erickson, summer 2002.

Visiting Scholar, Department of Sociology, University of California at Berkeley, 1998-1999.

Recent Courses:

AMST 3114, America in International Perspective: Post-1965 Immigration
AMST 4301, Workers and Consumers in the Global Economy
AMST 8202, Theoretical Foundations and Practice in American Studies
AMST 8239, Gender, Race, and Class in the United States: Workers in the ‘New’ Global Economy
AMST 8240, Gender, Race, Class in the United States: Field Research Practicum
AMST 8401, Practicum: Teaching at the College Level

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