Sociology Faculty Directory

C. Shawn McGuffey, Ph.D., is Professor of Sociology and past Director of African & African Diaspora Studies at Boston College.  A native of Lexington, Kentucky, Dr. McGuffey’s professional work primarily highlights how race, gender, sexuality and social class both constrain and create the choices survivors pursue in the aftermath of trauma in the U.S. and throughout the African Diaspora.  Two of his current projects focus on sexual trauma. One examines how gender, sexuality, and race shape parental responses to child sexual abuse; and the other investigates the social psychology of sexual assault survivors in the U.S., Ghana, South Africa, and Rwanda. His most recent project examines Black and feminist geographies. He has also served on the Harassment Committee of the American Sociological Association and the Eastern Sociological Society’s Code of Conduct Committee – both charged with developing policies around various forms of harassment.

Dr. McGuffey’s scholarship has been recognized by multiple academic associations. He is the recipient of four awards from three different sections of the American Sociological Association. The Society for the Study of Social Problems honored him with the Kimberlé Crenshaw Award in 2016 and in 2022 with the Arlene Kaplan Daniels Award for the best article on women and social justice. In 2022 he also received the Distinguished Publication Award from the Association for Women in Psychology. In 2023 he received the Best Article Award from the Southeastern Division of the American Association of Geographers. The Ford Foundation, Black Rape Survivors Project, a Research Incentive Grant, and the Institute for Liberal Arts have supported his research. He has given invited lectures at the Center for Children and Childhood Studies at Rutgers University, Harvard University, MIT, and the University of the Western Cape in South Africa.

In Boston he has led and served on the boards of multiple non-profits that address issues of racial justice and LGBT rights, domestic violence, and youth empowerment; and has been a contributor to Basic Black on WGBH public television. Dr. McGuffey has also written op-ed and guest blog essays on Confederate monuments and White Supremacy, Hope and Gratitude in Midst of Cancer, Hate Crimes and the Orlando Massacre, the George Zimmerman verdict, and Bashir and the International Criminal Court. 

Dr. McGuffey enjoys practicing the art of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and competitive eating competitions. Pies and cupcakes remain his gastronomic specialties.  Since the viral pandemic, he cultivates joy by making time for daily meditation, search and rescue training with one of his rescue dogs (trailing/tracking/air scenting), discovering the talents of his second rescue dog, and baking pies while listening to old school hip hop and R & B.