The 2019 Society for Women in Sociology (SWS) Distinguished Feminist Lecturer Award Winner is Angela J. Hattery. Thank you to the SWS Distinguished Feminist Lecturer Subcommittee: Laura Logan (Chair), Kimberly Kelly, and Jamie O’Quinn. The SWS Distinguished Lectureship was founded in 1985 as a way of recognizing members whose scholarship employs a feminist perspective, and to make this feminist scholar available to campuses that are isolated, rural, located away from major metropolitan areas, bereft of the resources needed to invite guest speakers, and/or characterized by hostility to feminist scholarship. A key goal of the program is to provide a feminist voice on campuses where such a perspective is unusual and/or unwelcome. Please note that the Lectureship originally carried the name of Cheryl Allyn Miller, but now there is a separate Cheryl Allyn Miller Award.
Angela J. Hattery is a professor and director of the Women and Gender Studies Program at George Mason University. She earned her BA in sociology and anthropology from Carleton College and her MS and PhD in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her teaching and research focus on all forms of inequality including racism, classism, and sexism. She is the author of 11 books, including her most recent book, Gender, Power and Violence: Responding to Intimate Partner Violence in Society Today (2019) which followed on the heels of Policing Black Bodies: How Black Lives are Surveilled and How to Work for Change (2018) as well as dozens of book chapters and peer reviewed articles. She has written several books on the impact of social inequality on Black families and she has been researching and teaching about violence against women for more than 20 years. She has produced numerous articles on sexual abuse and domestic violence, as well as three books on these topics, including: The Social Dynamics of Family Violence, which was published in a second edition in 2016 and Intimate Partner Violence, which was published in 2008. On a regular basis, she is asked to comment on stories about violence against women for the Washington Post, USA Today, New York Times, and other outlets. She serves as a consultant to agencies that seek to combat violence against women and she regularly appears as an expert on these issues with major US TV and radio news media. From 2014-2019 she served on SWS Council of SWS, first as Secretary and then as Treasurer. She teaches classes on feminist research methods, social stratification, African American families, and family violence.
Heather Laube, Krista Brumley, and Shannon Davis worked on a nomination letter for Hattery. They highlight that Hattery’s scholarship is feminist and intersectional, and focuses on identifying, analyzing, and then changing the ways that structural inequalities impact individuals in their daily lives and society as a whole. They focus on how Hattery approaches all of her work with a feminist lens and how she employs a critical feminist perspective, which leads her to ask particular kinds of questions, provide revealing analyses, and offer practical suggestions for social change. Others who contributed to Hattery’s nomination include: Adia Harvey Wingfield, Deborah J. Cohan, and Emily W. Kane.
SWS Past President Adia Harvey Wingfield acknowledges Hattery’s capability of presenting important ideas and the sociological insights behind them to lay audiences in clear and jargon-free language. Wingfield also notes that Hattery is an effective public speaker and has that rare skill of holding the audience’s attention while keeping them engaged and focused.
Deborah J. Cohan shares how she remains in awe of all that Hattery balances with such grace and dignity; “She is a superior and articulate communicator: interesting, tactful, facilitative, and creative. Conversations with her are always insightful, evocative, funny, and lively, and I know I am not alone in coming away from my time with her more energized and interested in unpacking and exploring in greater depth whatever we were discussing---a research idea, a teaching strategy, a political or social issue, a personal dilemma, etc.”
Emily W. Kane attests that since Hattery’s earliest days as a graduate student in sociology, she has been deeply committed to feminist scholarship and action that have public impact, to feminist teaching that nurtures and mentors students from all backgrounds and experiences, and to program development that supports social change within the academy and far beyond.
As part of the recognition, Hattery will develop a lecture that she will deliver in two venues: 1) at the 2021 Winter Meeting in Jacksonville, Florida and 2) on one selected college or university during the 2020-2021 academic year. Her lecture or a paper based on it will be published in Gender & Society.
We hope you will join us in congratulating Angela J. Hattery and that you will make plans to join us for the 2019 SWS Awards Reception to be held on Sunday, August 11, 2019 starting at 6:30 pm at the Hilton Midtown, New York, NY. More details will come soon regarding Summer 2019 Meeting Registration.
May 20, 2019
