Sociologists Backstage

"Sociologists Backstage is a moving collection of interviews that reveal intellectual journeys taken by researchers. Their personal stories that will make you laugh, nod approvingly and feel the moments of triumph and challenges doing sociological research. A must read for graduate students and young scholars!"Mary Romero, Sociology, Arizona State University "An original and engaging collection of interviews with 17 remarkable sociologists about their paths into sociology and their experiences carrying out ethnographic research. By encouraging scholars to reflect on their aspirations and fears, their relations with subjects, and their hopes and regrets, Fenstermaker and Jones humanize the research process, capturing the excitement of discovery and moments of insight."Evelyn Nakano Glenn, Ethnic and Womens Studies, University of California, Berkeley "Sociologists Backstage provides a fascinating 'behind the scenes' look at sociologists and their researcha virtual extended confessional of how sociologists actually workthat is deeply edifying. Collectively, these well-written essays represent an important contribution to social science research."Elijah Anderson, Sociology, Yale University "Editors Fenstermaker and Jones...do a great service to the sociology graduate student community with this offering. Based on the premise that undergraduates are presented an unambiguous,sanitized perspective of sociology in the classroom, the book reveals messy, surprising, and intriguing aspects of qualitative field research....their personal familiarity with each scholar and his/her work deepens the dialogues significantly. This work, which has no published topical peers, is part of a sociological series for academic and general readers. It is highly recommended for graduate students and scholars of sociology, particularly those doing field research." E. S. Petersen, Kansas City Public Library, Recommended title, CHOICE "Sociologists Backstage is a moving collection of interviews that reveal intellectual journeys taken by researchers. Their personal stories that will make you laugh, nod approvingly and feel the moments of triumph and challenges doing sociological research. A must read for graduate students and young scholars!"Mary Romero, Sociology, Arizona State University "An original and engaging collection of interviews with 17 remarkable sociologists about their paths into sociology and their experiences carrying out ethnographic research. By encouraging scholars to reflect on their aspirations and fears, their relations with subjects, and their hopes and regrets, Fenstermaker and Jones humanize the research process, capturing the excitement of discovery and moments of insight."Evelyn Nakano Glenn, Ethnic and Womens Studies, University of California, Berkeley "Sociologists Backstage provides a fascinating 'behind the scenes' look at sociologists and their researcha virtual extended confessional of how sociologists actually workthat is deeply edifying. Collectively, these well-written essays represent an important contribution to social science research."Elijah Anderson, Sociology, Yale University

Sarah Fenstermaker is Professor of Sociology and an affiliate of Feminist Studies Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is the Director of UC Santa Barbara's Institute for Social Behavioral and Economic Research. She received her Ph.D. from Northwestern University. Her research on women and work, domestic labor, family violence, and the workings of gender, race, and class have resulted in a long list of publications. She is the author of The Gender Factory: The Apportionment of Work in American Households, an edited volume (with A. Goetting), Individual Voices, Collective Visions: Fifty Years of Women in Sociology, published by Temple University Press, and Doing Gender, Doing Difference: Inequality, Power, and Institutional Change (with C. West), published by Routledge. Sarah is presently co-PI (with J.Mohr and J. Castro) of a Ford Foundation funded project, "Individuals and Institutional Cultures: Faculty as Change Agents," a national survey of the professoriate, Nikki Jones is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She earned her Ph.D. in Sociology and Criminology from the University of Pennsylvania in 2004. Her areas of expertise include urban ethnography, urban sociology, race and ethnic relations and criminology and criminal justice, with a special emphasis on the intersection of race, gender, and justice. She is the author of Between Good and Ghetto: African American Girls and Inner-City Violence, which is published in the Rutgers University Press Series in Childhood Studies. She is also a William T. Grant Scholar (2007-2012).

Section 1: Urban Sociology in the Post-Civil Rights Era 1. Mary Pattillo 2. Scott Brooks 3. Alford Young 4. Mitchell Duneier Section 2: Global Ethnography and the Study of Transnational Labor Migrations 5. Milliann Kang 6. Hung Cam Thai 7. Nazli Kibria 8. Rhacael Parrenas Section 3: Studying Gender, Crime and Violence in the Era of Mass Incarceration 9. Meda Chesney-Lind 10. Victor Rios 11. Mercer Sullivan 12. Valerie Jenness Section 4: The Researcher As 13. Karyn Lacy 14. France Winddance Twine 15. Denise Segura 16. Christine Williams 17. Verta Taylor and Leila Rupp