Sociology Faculty Directory
Sharlene Hesse-Biber
Professor
Sharlene Hesse-Biber
Ph.D.
Contact
McGuinn Hall 419
Telephone: 617-552-4139
Email: sharlene.hesse-biber@bc.edu
Education
- Ph.D., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Courses
SOCY7710 - Social Inquiry Research Seminar
SOCY5510 - Mixed Methods Research
SOCY5558 - Qualitative Research
SOCY5509 - Feminist Research
SOCY1063 - Women and the Body
SOCY5505 - Beauty Fictions
SOCY5593 - Transnational Feminisms
Research Interests
Women and Health, Genetic Testing, Women and Men’s Health, Women and Body Image, Feminism and Methodology, Feminist Theory, Qualitative Methods, Mixed Methods and Emergent Methods, Micro-computing and Qualitative and Mixed Methods Data Analysis
Department
Biography
Sharlene Janice Nagy Hesse-Biber is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Women’s Studies & Gender Studies Program at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. She has published widely on the impact of sociocultural factors on women’s body image, including her book Am I Thin Enough Yet? The Cult of Thinness and the Commercialization of Identity (Oxford, 1996), which was selected as one of Choice magazine’s best academic books in 1996. She also published The Cult of Thinness (Oxford, 2007).
She has also written widely on methodological and methods issues, including the role of technology and emergent methods in social research. She is co-editor of Emergent Methods in Social Research (Sage, 2006). She is co-author of The Practice of Qualitative Research (Sage, 2006; second edition, 2010; third edition, 2014). She is editor of the Handbook of Feminist Research: Theory and Praxis (Sage, 2007; 2012), which was selected as one of the Critics’ Choice Award winners by the American Education Studies Association and was also chosen as one of Choice Magazine’s Outstanding Academic titles for 2007. She is co-editor of the Handbook of Emergent Methods (Guilford, 2008). She is a contributor to the Handbook of Grounded Theory (Sage, 2008) as well to the Handbook of Mixed Methods Research (Sage second edition, 2010). She is author of Mixed Methods Research: Merging Theory with Practice (Guilford, 2010). She edited the The Practice of Feminist Research (Sage, 2014).
This year she has co-edited The Oxford Handbook of Multi and Mixed Methods Research (Oxford, 2015) as well as released her monograph on women and genetic testing, Waiting for Cancer to Come: Genetic Testing and Women’s Medical Decision Making for Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer, (2014) with The University of Michigan Press.
Professor Hesse-Biber is also co-developer of the software program HyperRESEARCH, a computer-assisted program for analyzing qualitative data, and the new transcription tool HyperTRANSCRIBE. View a fully functional free demo of these programs. This website provides links to a free teaching edition for both programs.
Publications
Recently Published Books/Forthcoming Books
Author. The Practice of Qualitative Research: Engaging Students in the Research Process. 3rd Edition. Available in print: March, 2016. Sage.
Co-Editor. (2015). The Oxford Handbook of Multimethod and Mixed Methods Research. New York: Oxford University Press.
Author. (2014). Waiting for cancer to come: Genetic Testing and Women’s Medical Decision Making for Breast and Ovarian Cancer. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.
Editor. (2014). Feminist Research: A Primer. 2nd Edition. Sage Publications.
Co-Editor. (2013). Mixed Methods and Credibility of Evidence in Evaluation. New Directions for Evaluation, Number 138. New York: Wiley (co-edited with Donna Mertens).
Editor. (2012). Handbook of Feminist Research: Theory and Praxis. 2nd Edition. Sage Publications.
Editor. (2011). Handbook of Emergent Technologies in Social Research. Oxford University Press.
Author. (2010). Mixed Methods Research: Merging Theory with Practice. New York: Guilford Press.
Co-Editor. (2008). Handbook of Emergent Methods in Social Research. New York: Guilford Press.
Recently Published Articles (2015 and Forthcoming)
Hesse-Biber, S. (2015). Navigating a turbulent research landscape: working the boundaries, tensions, diversity, and contradictions of multimethod and mixed methods inquiry. In: Sharlene Hesse-Biber & R. Burke Johnson (eds.) The Oxford handbook of multimethod and mixed methods research inquiry. New York: Oxford University Press.
Hesse-Biber, S., Rodriguez, D., & Frost, N. (2015). Qualitatively-driven approaches to mixed methods research. In: Sharlene Hesse-Biber & R. Burke Johnson (eds.) The Oxford handbook of multimethod and mixed methods research inquiry. New York: Oxford University Press.
Hesse-Biber, S. & Griffin, A. (2015). Feminist approaches to multimethod and mixed methods research: Theory and praxis. In: Sharlene Hesse-Biber & R. Burke Johnson (eds.) The Oxford handbook of multimethod and mixed methods research inquiry. New York: Oxford University Press.
Hesse-Biber, S. (2015). Qualitative or mixed methods research inquiry approaches: some loose guidelines for publishing in sex roles. Sex Roles, 1-4.
Hesse-Biber, S. (2015). Mixed methods research: The “thing-ness” problem. Qualitative Health Research.
Hesse-Biber, S. (2015). The problems and prospects in the teaching of mixed methods research. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 18(5), 463-477.
Hesse-Biber, S. & An, C. (2015). Within-gender differences in medical decision making among male carriers of the BRCA genetic mutation for hereditary breast cancer. American Journal of Men's Health.
Bamberger, M., Tarsilla, M. & Hesse-Biber, S. (Forthcoming, 2016). Why so many "rigorous" evaluations fail to identify unintended consequences of development programs and what mixed-methods can contribute. Evaluation and Program Planning.
Hesse-Biber, S. (Accepted and forthcoming, 2016). Gender differences in psychosocial and medical outcomes stemming from testing positive for the BRCA1/2 mutation for breast cancer: An explanatory sequential mixed methods study. Journal of Mixed Methods Research.
Hesse-Biber, S. & An, C. (Forthcoming, 2016). Genetic testing and post-testing decision making among BRCA-positive mutation women: A psycho-social approach. Journal of Genetic Counseling, January 13 online ahead of print.
Hesse-Biber, S. (Forthcoming, 2016). Doing interdisciplinary mixed methods health care research: Working the boundaries, tensions and synergistic potential of team-based research. Qualitative Health Research.
Professional Honors, Awards, and Titles
Alpha Sigma Nu Book Award (2015). Waiting for Cancer to Come: Genetic Testing and Women’s Medical Decision Making for Breast and Ovarian Cancer (University of Michigan Press, 2014).
Waiting for Cancer to Come: Genetic Testing and Women’s Medical Decision Making for Breast and Ovarian Cancer. Nominee by International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry for 2014 Best Qualitative Research Book.
Am I Thin Enough Yet? The Cult of Thinness and the Commercialization of Identity. Selected by Choice magazine as one of the Outstanding Academic Books in 1996.
The Handbook of Feminist Research. A Choice magazine 2008 Outstanding Academic Title.
The Handbook of Feminist Research. Selected in 2007 as one of the Critics’ Choice Award Winners by the American Educational Studies Association.
Associate Editor, Journal of Mixed Methods Research.
Editorial Board, Sociological Methodology. (2013-2015)
Editorial Board, Qualitative Health Research.
Founding Board Member, Mixed Methods International Research Association (MMIRA).
Board Member: Graduate Consortium in Women’s Studies (MIT and Harvard University).
Consulting Editor, Sex Roles.
Expert contributor, Documentary Pink & Blue: the Colors of Hereditary Cancer.
Ignite Grant (for 2015-16 academic year). Genetic Testing and Post-Testing Decision Making Among BRCA-Positive Mutation Women: A Psycho-Social Standpoint Mixed Methods Approach.