Jennifer L. Pierce

she/her/hers

pierc012@umn.edu

612-624-0852

American Studies

204 Scott Hall

72 Pleasant St SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Curriculum Vitae

Collegiate Affiliation

American Studies

Sociology

Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies

I am a sociologist and core member of the faculty in the Department of American Studies. My research follows two related trajectories: one in the area of racial and gender inequality in American workplaces and several collaborative projects developing different aspects of my methodological expertise—personal narrative analysis and ethnography. My current project, based on oral histories and archival research, focuses on how clerical workers deploy social justice unionism to challenge racism and sexism at a large public university in "the long seventies."

Educational Background & Specialties

Open Close

Educational Background

PhD: Sociology, University of California, 1991
MA: Sociology, University of California, 1984
BA: Sociology, University of California, 1980

Specialties

Feminist theory
Gender
Affirmative action
Ethnography
Workplace and labor studies
Race
Social theory
Sociology of emotions
Research using personal narratives

Publications

Open Close

Publications

Narrative Sociology. Nashville, Vanderbilt University Press, 2019. Co-edited with Leslie Irvine and Robert Zussman.
Racing for Innocence: Whiteness, Gender, and the Backlash Against Affirmative Action, Stanford University Press, 2012.
Queer Twin Cities. University of Minnesota Press, 2010. The Twin Cities GLBT Oral History Project is a collective including myself, Michael Franklin, Larry Knopp, Kevin Murphy, Ryan Murphy, Jason Ruiz, and Alex Urquhart.
Telling Stories: The Use of Personal Narratives in the Social Sciences and in History, Cornell University Press, 2008. Coauthored with M.J. Maynes and Barbara Laslett (third author).
Feminist Waves, Feminist Generations: Life Stories from the Academy. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007. Co-edited with Hokulani Aikau and Karla Erickson
Is Academic Feminism Dead? Theory in Practice. New York: New York University Press, 2000. Co-edited by the Social Justice Group at the Center for Advanced Feminist Studies including Rose Brewer, Mary Lou Fellows, Shirley Garner, Amy Kaminsky, and Naomi Schemen.
Gender Trials: Emotional Lives in Contemporary Law Firms, University of California Press, 1995 (second printing 1998).

Activities

Open Close

Activities

Professional

Chair, Program Committee, American Studies Association 2014 - 2015
Member, American Sociological Association Distinguished Book Award Committee 2011 - 2014
Editorial Board Member, Contemporary Sociology, American Sociological Association 2009 - 2012
Chair, Sex and Gender Section: American Sociological Association. 2006 - 2007
Chair, Lora Romero Book Award Committee, American Studies Association 2005 - 2006
Chair, Max Weber Distinguished Book Award Committee: American Sociological Association, Organizations, Occupations, and Work Section. 2004
Faculty Chair, Committee on the Press for the University of Minnesota Press 2003 - 2006
Director, Center for Advanced Feminist Studies, University of Minnesota 2002 - 2004
Member, Distinguished Lectureship Selection Committee, Sociologists for Women in Society 2002 - 2004
Member, Distinguished Book Award Selection Committee, American Sociological Association, Sex and Gender Section 2002
Chair, Distinguished Article Award Selection Committee, American Sociological Association, Sex and Gender Section 2001

Outreach

Member, CLA Minnesota Prison Education Program Curriculum Committee, 2021 - present

Research

Clerical Workers, Social Justice Unionism, and Public Research Universities

Awards

Open Close

Awards

Frenzel Chair, College of Liberal Arts, University of Minnesota, 2014 - 2018
Sabbatical Supplement, College of LIberal Arts, "Working in the Ivory Basement: Clerical Workers, the Women's Movement, and the New Economy, 2012 - 2013
Distinguished Teaching Award for Graduate, Professional and Post-Baccalaureate Education, 2012
Rockefeller Bellagio Center Residential Fellowship, Bellagio, Italy, April 2006 - May 2006
Humanities Institute Faculty Fellowship, University of Minnesota. “Feminist Generations,“ January 2004 - May 2004
Law School Admissions Council Grant, “Racial Climates in Law Schools“ with Wendy Leo Moore, May 2003 - June 2004
Visiting Scholar, Department of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley, 1998 - 1999

Courses

Open Close

Courses

AMST 1915 In Pursuit of Equality: Racial and Gender Justice in American Workplaces
AMST 2031 Chasing the American Dream
AMST 4301 Workers and Consumers in the Digital Age
AMST 4101 Gender, Sexuality, and Politics in America
AMST 8202 Theoretical Foundations in American Studies
AMST 8401 Practicum in American Studies
AMST 8920 Personal Narratives in Interdisciplinary Research