Sociology Sources at Boston College

office of public affairs

Charles Derber
Professor, Sociology Department
College of Arts & Sciences
B.A. Yale University
M.A. and Ph.D. University of Chicago

Socioeconomic issues in America; American economic and political policy; global economy; Word Trade Organization; labor issues; social justice; corporate downsizing; corporate social responsibility; contemporary cultural issues; class division; inequality in American society; American capitalism; effect of greed on American society; rising violence in America; impact of corporate greed on mass poverty; creating a balance between individualism and a civil society; the prospects for a shift toward a communitarian society; communitarianism; progressive politics; post-Communism governments; the sociology of militarism and social change. Author or co-author of a number of books, Pursuit of Attention: Power and Ego in Everyday Life;Corporation Nation: How Corporations Are Taking Over Our Lives and What We Can Do About It; The Wilding Of America: Greed, Violence, and the New American Dream; The Nuclear Seduction: Why the Arms Race Doesn't Matter and What Does; Power in the Highest Degree: Professionals and the Rise of a New Mandarin Order; What's Left?: Radical Politics in the Post-Communist Era. Leader of the Global Justice Project, a coalition of faculty, students, civic organizations and public interest groups in the Boston area which seeks to promote dialogue and action for social justice in the global economy. Courses include: "Peace or War?"; "Introduction to Social and Political Economy"; "Economic Crisis and Social Change."

617.552.4048
derber@bc.edu
http://www2.bc.edu/~derber/Homepage(Frames).htm

Paul S. Gray
Associate Professor, Sociology Department
College of Arts & Sciences
B.A. Princeton University
M.A. Stanford University
Ph.D. Yale University

Business and society; corporate social responsibility and corporate community relations; Contemporary Africa (formerly lived and worked in West Africa). In recent years, he has conducted two studies on the impact of higher education on the economy of Massachusetts. Serves as faculty chair of "Leadership for Change," an executive training program offered in conjunction with the Carroll School of Management and as a senior consultant to the Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College. Co-author of a study of family dynamics and the college choice-making process. Courses include: "Comparative Social Change"; "Sociology of the Third World."

617.552.4140
paul.gray.1@bc.edu
http://www2.bc.edu/~gray/

Jeanne Guillemin
Professor, Sociology Department
College of Arts & Sciences
B.A. Harvard University
Ph.D. Brandeis University

Biological warfare, including anthrax research; prevention in health care; inequalities in health care; epidemics; medical technology; newborn health care. Author of the books Biological Weapons: From the Invention of State-Sponsored Programs to Contemporary Bioterrorism and Anthrax: The Investigation of a Deadly Outbreak, a study of the 1979 Sverdlovsk chemical disaster. Also has written "Soldiers Rights and Medical Risks: The Protest Against Universal Anthrax Vaccinations," and made numerous presentations on the subjects of bioterrorism and other weapons of mass destruction. Also an expert on health care and the new information technologies, she has co-authored "Linking Health Education and Health Care Service Information via the WWW: The HealthAware Project." Courses include: "Danger and Risk: The Politics of Bodily Harm."

617.552.4133
jeanne.guillemin.1@bc.edu
http://www2.bc.edu/%7Eguilleje/No_Frames/Homepage.html

John Havens
Associate Director, Center on Wealth and Philanthropy
B.A. Yale University
M.A. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Economic analysis and economic impact analysis–e.g., impact of private colleges and universities on the state of Massachusetts. The sociology of religion and other aspects of the cultural and spiritual dimensions of everyday life. Philanthropy, including patterns of giving as determined by income and wealth and the factors that induce charitable giving. Has contributed to a number of major studies conducted by BC's Center on Wealth and Philanthropy, a multidisciplinary center specializing in research on the social and political implications of economic relations.

617.552.4070
john.havens.1@bc.edu
http://www.bc.edu/research/cwp/about/staff/havens.html

Sharlene Hesse-Biber
Professor, Sociology Department
College of Arts & Sciences
B.A. University of Michigan
M.A. University of Michigan
Ph.D. University of Michigan

Relationship between body image and self-esteem; eating disorders; eating disorders among college students; anorexia nervosa; bulimia; weight obsession; social, political and economic forces that affect women's weight obsession; cult-like obsession with body image; body image obsessions among adolescents and preteens; fashion's impact on physical and emotional health of women; correlation between fashion trends and the levels of excessive dieting and exercise among women; clothing size as a psychological stumbling block; mini-skirts and bikinis' impact on the growth of eating disorders and liposuction; technological gender gap; computer anxiety among female students; women's studies; feminism in the classroom; women and work; dual-career families; gender earnings gap; integrating work and family; issues facing women faculty and administrators in Catholic higher education; relationship between feminism and Catholic higher education; aging issues; issues facing the "twentysomething" and "thirtysomething" generations; young adults living at home with their parents. Founder and national director of the National Association of Women in Catholic Higher Education. Former director of Women's Studies at Boston College. Author of the book Am I Thin Enough Yet? The Cult of Thinness and the Commercialization of Identity. Co-author of the books Aging in Society; Politics of Aging; and Women at Work; and the articles "Closing the Technological Gender Gap: Feminist Pedagogy in the Computer-Assisted Classroom" and "Women, Thinness and Eating Disorders: A Sociocultural Problem." Courses include: "Feminist Approaches to Theory and Methodology"; "Women and Work."

617.552.4139
sharlene.hesse-biber.1@bc.edu
http://www2.bc.edu/~hesse/

David Karp
Professor, Sociology Department
College of Arts & Sciences
B.A. Harvard College
Ph.D. New York University

Clinical depression; sociological/cultural aspects of depression; effects of diagnosis of depression; perspectives of people suffering from depression; effects of depression on work, family and care-givers; the experiences of family care-giver to the mentally ill; physical and behavioral changes people experience in their 50s–which he labels "the most frightening decade"; transition from high school senior to college freshman; student's expectations of college life; family dynamics during child's senior year in high school; college application process; parents' perspective on sending a child off to college; urban life; social psychology. Author or co-author of the books The Burden of Sympathy: How Families Cope with Mental Illness; Speaking of Sadness: Depression, Disconnection, and the Meanings of Illness; Sociology in Everyday Life; Experiencing the Life Cycle: A Social Psychology of Aging; Being Urban: A Sociology of City Life; and the articles "Following an Illness Career"; "Speaking of Sadness: Depression, Disconnection and the Meanings of Illness; "The 50s: A Turning Point in Aging"; "A Decade of Reminders: Changing Consciousness Between 50 and 60 Years Old"; "Leaving Home for College: Expectations for Selective Reconstruction of Self." Courses focus on sociology of mental health, sociology of emotions, life cycle studies, urban sociology.

617.552.4137
david.karp.1@bc.edu

http://www2.bc.edu/%7Ekarp/Homepage(Frames).htm

Ritchie Lowry
Professor, Sociology Department
College of Arts & Sciences
B.A., M.A., Ph.D, University of California at Berkeley

Profitable socially and environmentally responsible investing and consuming; economic activity with ethical, moral and human dimensions; corporate social responsibility and performance; executive compensation: executive pay as a moral and social issue with economic implications; shareholder resolution movement; social problems and public policy; power in contemporary society; war and the military; the changing nature of warfare; intelligence and spying. Author of several books, including GOOD MONEY: A Guide to Profitable Social Investing in the '90s (including a paperback and a Japanese-language edition); author of numerous other publications. Founder and President of Good Money, Inc., which maintains web pages (and has published newsletters, reports, guides and other materials, and provides portfolio "social screens") for socially and environmentally concerned investors, consumers and businesses. Established a Good Money Industrial Average–dubbed "the Good Dow"–after analyzing the Dow Jones Industrial Average and identifying socially responsible alternative companies, which has outperformed the Dow. Courses include: "Power in Contemporary Society"; "Corporate Social Responsibility."

617.552.3346
ritchie.lowry.1@bc.edu
GOODMONEY1@AOL.COM
http://www2.bc.edu/~lowry (personal web page)
http://www.goodmoney.com (Good Money web page)

Michael Malec
Associate Professor, Sociology Department
College of Arts & Sciences
B.S. Loyola University, Chicago, M.S., Ph.D. Purdue University

The sociology of sports; connections between sports, politics and ideology; the effects of sports on children; sports and social issues; sports and the Internet; sociological aspects of sports in the Caribbean; Caribbean cultures. Editor of and contributor to the book The Social Roles of Sport in Caribbean Societies. Author or co-author of the publications including: "Baseball, Cricket, and Social Change"; "Robinson and Worrell: Athletes as Agents of Social Change"; "Gender Equity in Athletics"; "The Wonderful 'World Wide Web' of Sports: An Internet Resource"; "Gender (In)equity in the NCAA News?" and "Patriotic Symbols in Intercollegiate Sports During the Gulf War." Former editor of the Journal of Sport and Social Issues. Served as president of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport. Courses include: "Sports in American Society"; "Caribbean Cultures."

617.552.4131
michael.malec.1@bc.edu
http://www2.bc.edu/~malec/

Paul Schervish
Professor, Sociology Department
College of Arts & Sciences
Director, Center on Wealth and Philanthropy (CWP)
B.A. University of Detroit; M.A. Northwestern University; M.Div. Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley; Ph.D. University of Wisconsin

Wealth and philanthropy; the effect of earning or inheriting wealth on personal goals, decision-making and self concept; the "swift rich" (such as lottery winners or new film stars); general cultural issues; general sociological issues including altruism and spirituality in society. Director of BC's Center on Wealth and Philanthropy, a multidisciplinary center specializing in research on the social and political implications of economic relations. Schervish directed the Study on Wealth and Philanthropy, an examination of the strategies of living and giving among 130 millionaires, the Bankers Trust Private Banking Wealth with Responsibility Study/2000, a study of 109 individuals with net worth in excess of $5 million regarding their charitable giving and volunteering, attitudes about social issues, socially responsible investing, trust and estate planning, and the transfer of values to heirs. With Havens, he published the landmark report "Millionaires and the Millennium: New Estimates of the Forthcoming Wealth Transfer and the Prospects for a Golden Age of Philanthropy", which estimates the wealth transfer over the next half-century to be between $41 trillion and $136 trillion. He also directed a multi-year, interdisciplinary study of Christmas, which addressed the social, cultural, psychological, spiritual and material aspects of American Christmas and its emulation in other countries. Schervish has published in the areas of philanthropy, the sociology of money, the sociology of wealth, labor markets, unemployment, biographical narrative, and sociology of religion. He is editor of and contributor to the book Wealth in Western Thought: The Case for and Against Riches; principal editor of Care and Community in Modern Society and principal author of Taking Giving Seriously and Gospels of Wealth: How the Rich Portray their Lives. Schervish also serves regularly as a speaker and consultant on how to surface and analyze the moral biographies of wealth holders, on the motivations for charitable giving, on the demographic patterns of wealth and charitable giving, and on the spirituality of financial life. Courses cover general sociology, social theory, the sociology of the inner life.

617.552.4040
paul.schervish@bc.edu
http://www.bc.edu/research/cwp/about/staff/schervish.html

Juliet Schor
Professor, Sociology Department
College of Arts & Sciences
Ph.D., University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Professor Schor's current research areas are consumer society, trends in work and leisure, and the relationship between work and family. Schor is the author of a new book titled Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture. Her other books are: The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure; The Overspent American: Upscaling, Downshifting and the New Consumer; The Golden Age of Capitalism: Reinterpreting the Postwar Experience (co-edited with Stephen Marglin); Do Americans Shop Too Much?; The Consumer Society Reader (co-edited with Douglas Holt), and Sustainable Planet: Solutions for the 21st Century, (co-edited with Betsy Taylor). Schor teaches courses on consumer society, political economy, and gender. She was a 1995 Guggenheim Fellow for a project on consumer spending. She is also a founding member of the Center for a New American Dream, an organization devoted to making U.S. lifestyles more sustainable.

617-552-4056
juliet.schor@bc.edu
http://www2.bc.edu/~schorj/

Eve Spangler
Associate Professor, Sociology Department
College of Arts & Sciences
B.A. Brooklyn College; M.A. Yale University; Ph.D. University of Massachusetts/Amherst

Work and inequality; occupational health and safety, particularly for women workers. Occupational and environmental health hazards; policies in Eastern Europe and South Africa; sexual harassment as a work-life issue; work and inequality; women's stake in controlling their lives; the public's concern with environmental health. Courses include: "Social Theory" and "Inequality in America."

617.554.4146
eve.spangler@bc.edu
http://www2.bc.edu/~spangler/Homepage(Frames).html

John Williamson
Professor, Sociology Department
College of Arts & Sciences
B.S. Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Ph.D. Harvard University

Comparative social welfare policies, particularly those dealing with the elderly, including
income inequality, welfare state spending levels, physical quality of life, life expectancy, infant mortality, suicide rates, and homicide rates; the debate over generational equity and justice; US Social Security policy; privatization of Social Security; comparative social security systems; pension policies; old-age security policies in Third World nations; South American old-age security policies; social, economic, and political determinants of cross-national differences in life expectancy. Author, co-author or editor of books including The Generational Equity Debate; The Senior Rights Movement: Framing the Policy Debate in America; Age, Class, Politics, and the Welfare State; Growing Old: The Social Problems of Aging; Politics of Aging: Power and Policy; and Old-Age Security in Comparative Perspective. Author of numerous articles and book chapters, including "Should Women Support the Privatization of Social Security?" and "Undermining Social Security's Basic Objectives." Courses include: "Inequality in American Society"; "Aging and Society"; "Social Gerontology"; "Death and Dying."

617.552.8530
john.williamson@bc.edu
http://www2.bc.edu/~jbw/l