My research focuses on culture, gender, and inequality. I am interested in how the transition to a post-industrial economy has been marked by greater individualism and the diffusion of institutions in which people construct their own identities. I have studied how engagement with cultural practices such as sports, recreation, media, entertainment, and consumer culture shapes understandings of self identity.
My dissertation, entitled “Fighting for Recognition: Identity and the Performance of Violence,” is an ethnographic study of independent professional wrestling. Even though professional wrestling is one of the most popular “sporting events” in the United States, people are seldom aware of the constellation of independent promotions that operate beyond the purview of the highly profitable televised productions. Based on participant observation and interviews of wrestling participants within these independents—where most wrestlers receive little-to-no pay—my dissertation examines how working-class men enhance, transform, and/or create identities from this performative experience.
Publications
“Passion Work: The Joint Production of Emotional Labor in Professional Wrestling.” Social Psychology Quarterly. June 2008. .pdf
Winner of the American Sociological Association’s Sociology of Emotions Section Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Award.
“Pain in the Act: The Meanings of Pain among Professional Wrestlers.” Qualitative Sociology. Vol. 31 (2). 2008. .pdf
“Wrestling with Kayfabe.” Contexts. Spring. 5 (2). 2006.
“The Hidden Discourse of Masculinity in Gender Discrimination Law.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. Spring. 30 (3):1827-1849. 2005.
“Pumping Irony: The Construction of Masculinity in a Post-feminist Advertising Campaign.” Advertising and Society Review. 6 (3). 2005.
“The ‘Reasonable Woman’ and Unreasonable Men: Gendered Discourses in Sexual Harassment Litigation.” In James Gruber and Phoebe Morgan (eds.) In the Company of Men: Male Dominance and Sexual Harassment. Boston: Northeastern University Press. pp.143-166. 2004. (With Michael Kimmel)
Honors and Awards
Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Award.
American Sociological Association’s Sociology of Emotions Section. 2008. $400
The Mildred and Herbert Weisinger Dissertation Fellowship.
Awarded to one graduate student for dissertation that bears high scholarly promise.
SUNY Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY. 2008. $10,000
Judith Tanur Dissertation Fellowship
Department of Sociology, SUNY Stony Brook. 2008. $2,000
David Street Award for Best Research Paper in Theory
“Pain in the Act: The Meaning of Pain among Professional Wrestlers." Department of Sociology, SUNY Stony Brook. 2007. $100
President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching by a Graduate Student
SUNY Stony Brook. 2006. $500
Rose Laub Coser Award for Best Research Paper in Gender
“Pumping Irony: The Construction of Masculinity in a Post-feminist Advertising Campaign.” Department of Sociology, SUNY Stony Brook. 2005. $100
Rose Series in Sociology Fellowship
American Sociological Association’s Rose Series in Sociology Fellowship. 2005.