Proposal of Leave Activities: 2004-2005
 

I have a few broad projects in mind for my Sabbatical Leave. A priority is to develop my research on professional Black women. There are many themes developed in Too Much To Ask: Black Women in the Era of Integration (UNC Press, 2001) that I want to explore with in depth study of Black women attorneys at mid-career. Black women attorneys who entered the field in the late 1970 and early 1980s, when discrimination was illegal but still very common, found employment where they could, mostly in public sector arenas. I want to explore their career strategies since many faced blocked mobility. How did they negotiate discrimination, family and professional commitments? In what ways are their lives similar and different to women professionals in the days of Jim Crow? What social class resources did they bring to these tasks? I plan on several interviews for this project to investigation their work histories, perceptions, negotiations, and attitudes towards work and their workplaces. In addition to the conducting interviews, I'll do some historical work, as well as reading on the sociology of the professions and new race, class, and gender scholarship. During this coming year, I will develop the Robin M. Williams Jr. lecturer for the Eastern Sociological Society meeting in 2004 that looks at a few women and their experiences working in the public sector. I'll work on other papers, but plan a book manuscript.
 

Since coming to the University of Delaware I've moved into some new teaching areas, both because of the resources at the university and the unique student population. On my leave I'd like to expand my knowledge of comparative race relations and film studies. I visited England in 2000, to explore study aboard opportunities and then in 2001 and 2003 with students for study aboard programs. In that time, I've expanded my knowledge of race relations beyond the U.S. and want to do more study to both improve study abroad excursions and globalize the teaching on race on the campus.
 

I've developed a course on social inequality and film as a way of bringing the outside world into the classroom and teaching students how to critically view films. I'm on the edge of this field, but many scholars are turning attention to how racism and other attitudes persist in our country because of visual representations. I want to do more reading and talking with film scholars. And finally I want to get back to writing about teaching issues, particularly multiculturalism, study abroad, and using films in the classroom. This summer I gave one talk about the ASA about sociology and study abroad and I plan to do writing for Teaching Sociology and other venues.