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As critical sociologists who are passionate about social justice, we have dedicated our lives to understanding some of the most complex and tragic forms of social inequality. We have interviewed hundreds of people whose experiences are both common and uncommon in their tragedy so that we give voice to their struggles and inspire others to care. The social problems we interrogate are often invisible…the violence that women are subjected to in their homes or at the hands of the men who they work with side by side….the plight of citizens re-entering the free world with a felony, who seek a second chance only to find every opportunity for housing and employment blocked, the men who have spent decades rotting away in prison cells for crimes they didn’t commit, and the most invislble of all…those men and women living for days, weeks, and even decades in solitary confinement, their primary “crime” is suffering from mental illness as a result of the traumas they experienced as children.
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Race and the Criminal Justice System
Way Down in the Hole: Race, Intimacy and the Reproduction of Racial Ideologies in Solitary Confinement
Way Down in the Hole: Race, Intimacy and the Reproduction of Racial Ideologies in Solitary Confinementtells the story of solitary confinement through the experiences of people who live and work there. Unique access to the invisible of the invisible, we conducted ethnographic research, including more than 50 interviews with inmates, staff and officers. Way Down in the Hole reveals the deep racial antagonisms that shape not only the attitudes but also the behavior of people who live and work “way down in the hole.” Book Reviews ★
Policing the Black Body: How Black Lives are Surveilled and How to Work for Change
"Policing Black Bodies: How Black Lives are Surveilled and How to Work for Change" was selected by the Sociology Department at Furman as the Sociology 101 Common Read for 2020-2021
Policing Black Bodies goes beyond chronicling isolated incidents of injustice to look at the broader systems of inequality in our society—how they’re structured, how they harm Black people, and how we can work for positive change. The book discusses the school-to-prison pipeline, mass incarceration and the prison boom, the unique ways Black women and trans people are treated, wrongful convictions and the challenges of exoneration, and more. Book Reviews ★
Prisoner Reentry and Social Capital: The long journey to reintegration
Prisoner Re-entry and Social Capital takes as its starting point interviews with twenty-five men and women during the summer of 2008 about their experiences with re-entering the “free world” after a period of incarceration. By analyzing the experiences of these men and women, Smith and Hattery look in depth at the factors that inhibit successful re-entry and illustrate some successes and failures. Uniquely, Smith and Hattery focus on the role that social capital plays as one of the most important factors that shapes the re-entry experience.
African American Families
Interracial Relationships in the 21st Century
Interracial Relationships in the 21st Century is an edited book that features chapters by leading scholars who study race, ethnicity, sexuality, and relationships that explore such topics as the relationship between religious beliefs and interracial marriage, interracial relationships among same-sex couples, the experiences of multi-racial children, intimate partner violence and interracial relationships, racial identity, and the marriage climate.
African American Families
African American Families provides a systematic sociological study of contemporary life for families of African descent living in the United States. Analyzing both quantitative and qualitative data, authors Angela J. Hattery and Earl Smith identify the structural barriers that African Americans face in their attempts to raise their children and create loving, healthy, and raise the children of the next generation.
African American Families Today: Myths and Realities
African American Families Today examines the wellbeing of African American families around topics including marriage, health, education, incarceration, wealth, and more. Authors Angela J. Hattery and Earl Smith show that even though the election of the first African American president, Barack Obama, has been symbolically important for African Americans, his presidency has not had a measurable impact on the daily lives of African American families. As the book shows, racial inequality persists—we’re clearly not in a “postracial” society.
Interracial Intimacies: An Examination of Powerful Men and Their Relationships Across the Color Line
Unique among books on interracial relationships, this book examines the lives of high profile men who have produced public discourses on race and interracial relationships and who themselves, often contradictory to their rhetoric, were or continue to be involved in love relationships across the color line. We explore the lives of men about whom their interracial relationships are relatively well known, including Thomas Jefferson, Strom Thurmond, Clarence Thomas, Frederick Douglass, and William Cohen.
Gender Based Violence
Gender, Power and Violence: Responding to Sexual and Intimate Partner Violence in Society Today
Gender, Power, and Violence looks at the problem of sexual and intimate partner violence through cases, observing the role that institutions play in facilitating and perpetuating gender based violence, and provides a more complex understanding about the ways in which institutional structures create an environment that facilitates and perpetuates gender based violence.
The Social Dynamics of Family Violence
The Social Dynamics of Family Violenceexplores family violence throughout the life course, from child abuse and neglect to intimate partner violence and elder abuse. Paying special attention to the social character and institutional causes of family violence, Hattery and Smith ask students to consider how social inequality, especially gender inequality, contributes to tensions and explosive tendencies in family settings. Students learn about individual preventative measures.
Intimate Partner Violence
Until recently, domestic violence, as it has been referred to, was a problem to be dealt with inside the family. In this ground-breaking work, Hattery’s unique approach provides a detailed theoretical discussion of race, class, and gender-effects on intimate partner violence and a thoughtful discussion of the interactions of these factors.
Race, Sport and the American Dream
Race, Sport and the American Dream reports the main findings of a long term research project investigating the scope and consequences of the deepening relationship between African American males and the institution of sport. While there is some scholarly literature on the topic, author Earl Smith tries to understand through this project how sport has changed the nature of African American Civil Society and has come to be a major influence on economic opportunities, schooling and the shaping of African American family life.
Women, Work and Family: Balancing and Weaving
This study of 30 mothers looks at the varying ways women balance work and family life. It is carried out through intensive interviews and the data is examined from several theoretical standpoints, including structural theory, motherhood theory, and feminist theory. The overall finding is that there is no “right” way to solve the work-family dilemma. Rather, women who were able to balance and weave according to their preferences were far more satisfied than those who were not able to achieve their preferred balance.
Race, Human Rights and Inequalities
As globalization expands, more than goods and information are traded between the countries of the world. Hattery, Embrick, and Smith present a collection of essays that explore the ways in which issues of human rights and social inequality are shared globally. The editors focus on the United States’ role in contributing to human rights violations both inside and outside its borders. Essays on contemporary issues such as immigration, colonialism, and reparations are used to illustrate how the U.S. and the rest of the world are inextricably linked in their relationships to human rights violations and social inequality.
Race and the Criminal Justice System
Way Down in the Hole: Race, Intimacy and the Reproduction of Racial Ideologies in Solitary Confinement
Way Down in the Hole: Race, Intimacy and the Reproduction of Racial Ideologies in Solitary Confinementtells the story of solitary confinement through the experiences of people who live and work there. Unique access to the invisible of the invisible, we conducted ethnographic research, including more than 50 interviews with inmates, staff and officers. Way Down in the Hole reveals the deep racial antagonisms that shape not only the attitudes but also the behavior of people who live and work “way down in the hole.” Book Reviews ★
Policing the Black Body: How Black Lives are Surveilled and How to Work for Change
Policing Black Bodies goes beyond chronicling isolated incidents of injustice to look at the broader systems of inequality in our society—how they’re structured, how they harm Black people, and how we can work for positive change. The book discusses the school-to-prison pipeline, mass incarceration and the prison boom, the unique ways Black women and trans people are treated, wrongful convictions and the challenges of exoneration, and more. Book Reviews ★
Prisoner Reentry and Social Capital: The long journey to reintegration
Prisoner Re-entry and Social Capital takes as its starting point interviews with twenty-five men and women during the summer of 2008 about their experiences with re-entering the “free world” after a period of incarceration. By analyzing the experiences of these men and women, Smith and Hattery look in depth at the factors that inhibit successful re-entry and illustrate some successes and failures. Uniquely, Smith and Hattery focus on the role that social capital plays as one of the most important factors that shapes the re-entry experience.
African American Families
Interracial Relationships in the 21st Century
Interracial Relationships in the 21st Century is an edited book that features chapters by leading scholars who study race, ethnicity, sexuality, and relationships that explore such topics as the relationship between religious beliefs and interracial marriage, interracial relationships among same-sex couples, the experiences of multi-racial children, intimate partner violence and interracial relationships, racial identity, and the marriage climate.
African American Families
African American Families provides a systematic sociological study of contemporary life for families of African descent living in the United States. Analyzing both quantitative and qualitative data, authors Angela J. Hattery and Earl Smith identify the structural barriers that African Americans face in their attempts to raise their children and create loving, healthy, and raise the children of the next generation.
African American Families Today: Myths and Realities
African American Families Today examines the wellbeing of African American families around topics including marriage, health, education, incarceration, wealth, and more. Authors Angela J. Hattery and Earl Smith show that even though the election of the first African American president, Barack Obama, has been symbolically important for African Americans, his presidency has not had a measurable impact on the daily lives of African American families. As the book shows, racial inequality persists—we’re clearly not in a “postracial” society.
Interracial Intimacies: An Examination of Powerful Men and Their Relationships Across the Color Line
Unique among books on interracial relationships, this book examines the lives of high profile men who have produced public discourses on race and interracial relationships and who themselves, often contradictory to their rhetoric, were or continue to be involved in love relationships across the color line. We explore the lives of men about whom their interracial relationships are relatively well known, including Thomas Jefferson, Strom Thurmond, Clarence Thomas, Frederick Douglass, and William Cohen.
Gender Based Violence
Gender, Power and Violence: Responding to Sexual and Intimate Partner Violence in Society Today
Gender, Power, and Violence looks at the problem of sexual and intimate partner violence through cases, observing the role that institutions play in facilitating and perpetuating gender based violence, and provides a more complex understanding about the ways in which institutional structures create an environment that facilitates and perpetuates gender based violence.
The Social Dynamics of Family Violence
The Social Dynamics of Family Violenceexplores family violence throughout the life course, from child abuse and neglect to intimate partner violence and elder abuse. Paying special attention to the social character and institutional causes of family violence, Hattery and Smith ask students to consider how social inequality, especially gender inequality, contributes to tensions and explosive tendencies in family settings. Students learn about individual preventative measures.
Intimate Partner Violence
Until recently, domestic violence, as it has been referred to, was a problem to be dealt with inside the family. In this ground-breaking work, Hattery’s unique approach provides a detailed theoretical discussion of race, class, and gender-effects on intimate partner violence and a thoughtful discussion of the interactions of these factors.
Race, Sport and the American Dream
Race, Sport and the American Dream reports the main findings of a long term research project investigating the scope and consequences of the deepening relationship between African American males and the institution of sport. While there is some scholarly literature on the topic, author Earl Smith tries to understand through this project how sport has changed the nature of African American Civil Society and has come to be a major influence on economic opportunities, schooling and the shaping of African American family life.
Women, Work and Family: Balancing and Weaving
This study of 30 mothers looks at the varying ways women balance work and family life. It is carried out through intensive interviews and the data is examined from several theoretical standpoints, including structural theory, motherhood theory, and feminist theory. The overall finding is that there is no “right” way to solve the work-family dilemma. Rather, women who were able to balance and weave according to their preferences were far more satisfied than those who were not able to achieve their preferred balance.
Race, Human Rights and Inequalities
As globalization expands, more than goods and information are traded between the countries of the world. Hattery, Embrick, and Smith present a collection of essays that explore the ways in which issues of human rights and social inequality are shared globally. The editors focus on the United States’ role in contributing to human rights violations both inside and outside its borders. Essays on contemporary issues such as immigration, colonialism, and reparations are used to illustrate how the U.S. and the rest of the world are inextricably linked in their relationships to human rights violations and social inequality.
Race and the Criminal Justice System
Way Down in the Hole: Race, Intimacy and the Reproduction of Racial Ideologies in Solitary Confinement
Way Down in the Hole: Race, Intimacy and the Reproduction of Racial Ideologies in Solitary Confinementtells the story of solitary confinement through the experiences of people who live and work there. Unique access to the invisible of the invisible, we conducted ethnographic research, including more than 50 interviews with inmates, staff and officers. Way Down in the Hole reveals the deep racial antagonisms that shape not only the attitudes but also the behavior of people who live and work “way down in the hole.” Book Reviews ★
Policing the Black Body: How Black Lives are Surveilled and How to Work for Change
Policing Black Bodies goes beyond chronicling isolated incidents of injustice to look at the broader systems of inequality in our society—how they’re structured, how they harm Black people, and how we can work for positive change. The book discusses the school-to-prison pipeline, mass incarceration and the prison boom, the unique ways Black women and trans people are treated, wrongful convictions and the challenges of exoneration, and more. Book Reviews ★
Prisoner Reentry and Social Capital: The long journey to reintegration
Prisoner Re-entry and Social Capital takes as its starting point interviews with twenty-five men and women during the summer of 2008 about their experiences with re-entering the “free world” after a period of incarceration. By analyzing the experiences of these men and women, Smith and Hattery look in depth at the factors that inhibit successful re-entry and illustrate some successes and failures. Uniquely, Smith and Hattery focus on the role that social capital plays as one of the most important factors that shapes the re-entry experience.
African American Families
Interracial Relationships in the 21st Century
Interracial Relationships in the 21st Century is an edited book that features chapters by leading scholars who study race, ethnicity, sexuality, and relationships that explore such topics as the relationship between religious beliefs and interracial marriage, interracial relationships among same-sex couples, the experiences of multi-racial children, intimate partner violence and interracial relationships, racial identity, and the marriage climate.
African American Families
African American Families provides a systematic sociological study of contemporary life for families of African descent living in the United States. Analyzing both quantitative and qualitative data, authors Angela J. Hattery and Earl Smith identify the structural barriers that African Americans face in their attempts to raise their children and create loving, healthy, and raise the children of the next generation.
African American Families Today: Myths and Realities
African American Families Today examines the wellbeing of African American families around topics including marriage, health, education, incarceration, wealth, and more. Authors Angela J. Hattery and Earl Smith show that even though the election of the first African American president, Barack Obama, has been symbolically important for African Americans, his presidency has not had a measurable impact on the daily lives of African American families. As the book shows, racial inequality persists—we’re clearly not in a “postracial” society.
Interracial Intimacies: An Examination of Powerful Men and Their Relationships Across the Color Line
Unique among books on interracial relationships, this book examines the lives of high profile men who have produced public discourses on race and interracial relationships and who themselves, often contradictory to their rhetoric, were or continue to be involved in love relationships across the color line. We explore the lives of men about whom their interracial relationships are relatively well known, including Thomas Jefferson, Strom Thurmond, Clarence Thomas, Frederick Douglass, and William Cohen.
Gender Based Violence
Gender, Power and Violence: Responding to Sexual and Intimate Partner Violence in Society Today
Gender, Power, and Violence looks at the problem of sexual and intimate partner violence through cases, observing the role that institutions play in facilitating and perpetuating gender based violence, and provides a more complex understanding about the ways in which institutional structures create an environment that facilitates and perpetuates gender based violence.
The Social Dynamics of Family Violence
The Social Dynamics of Family Violenceexplores family violence throughout the life course, from child abuse and neglect to intimate partner violence and elder abuse. Paying special attention to the social character and institutional causes of family violence, Hattery and Smith ask students to consider how social inequality, especially gender inequality, contributes to tensions and explosive tendencies in family settings. Students learn about individual preventative measures.
Intimate Partner Violence
Until recently, domestic violence, as it has been referred to, was a problem to be dealt with inside the family. In this ground-breaking work, Hattery’s unique approach provides a detailed theoretical discussion of race, class, and gender-effects on intimate partner violence and a thoughtful discussion of the interactions of these factors.
Race, Sport and the American Dream
Race, Sport and the American Dream reports the main findings of a long term research project investigating the scope and consequences of the deepening relationship between African American males and the institution of sport. While there is some scholarly literature on the topic, author Earl Smith tries to understand through this project how sport has changed the nature of African American Civil Society and has come to be a major influence on economic opportunities, schooling and the shaping of African American family life.
Women, Work and Family: Balancing and Weaving
This study of 30 mothers looks at the varying ways women balance work and family life. It is carried out through intensive interviews and the data is examined from several theoretical standpoints, including structural theory, motherhood theory, and feminist theory. The overall finding is that there is no “right” way to solve the work-family dilemma. Rather, women who were able to balance and weave according to their preferences were far more satisfied than those who were not able to achieve their preferred balance.
Race, Human Rights and Inequalities
As globalization expands, more than goods and information are traded between the countries of the world. Hattery, Embrick, and Smith present a collection of essays that explore the ways in which issues of human rights and social inequality are shared globally. The editors focus on the United States’ role in contributing to human rights violations both inside and outside its borders. Essays on contemporary issues such as immigration, colonialism, and reparations are used to illustrate how the U.S. and the rest of the world are inextricably linked in their relationships to human rights violations and social inequality.
Social Inequalities