Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper examines how gender, caste, class, ethnicity, and kinship operate and function inside the world of carpet factories in Nepal. The paper is based on the research "Women in Factory-based and Home-based Carpet Production in Nepal: Beyond the Formal and Informal Economy.” The paper looks at the ways gender, caste, class, ethnicity, and kinship networks influence the factory work culture, labor recruitment practices, and interpersonal relations among the workers. This paper illustrates how weavers' visual appearances, their engagement in certain practices, and their carrying of certain symbols reflect their demographic and cultural backgrounds.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This research is part of a case study of women and men’s work arrangements in Komsomolsk, a Central Ukrainian town. Data – collected through qualitative and survey research – examine the history and reorganization of garment work, and the gender and class effects within this process. In contrast to the experience of the predominately male workforce at the local mining enterprise, women workers in the local garment industry have confronted a dramatic reorganization of work; from a large factory offering hourly wages with benefits to micro-enterprises offering piece rates with no benefits. Although some women have prospered during this shift as small business entrepreneurs, the majority of women workers have experienced a decline in wages and job security. Observations of work reorganization in Komsomolsk’s garment industry suggest that the wage gap between women’s and men’s work is widening and that the condition of scarce opportunities are creating exploitive class relations between entrepreneurs and their employees within the garment industry.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Using snowballing/convenience sample, ten members of a chapter of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty were interviewed. Although the members speak about gender equality, participation observation suggests that the chapter maintains a gender division of labor within the organization. The majority of the membership define themselves as white, middle-class, and highly educated. When asked directly about racial issues and the death penalty, most members spoke instead about class and religious beliefs. Few members acknowledged racism, instead stating that injustices lied with the number of poor people placed on death row. Finally, members possessed an intricate religious analysis to oppose the death penalty. I argue that these members not only avoid speaking about race relations, but instead replace these discussions with class and religious beliefs.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In educational literature considerable attention is given to diversity issues in teaching. In September faculty are often facing a class that looks like the United Nations in some universities. In other cases, where the student body is predominantly white, the challenge is to prepare students to embrace the world both domestically and globally that increasingly does not look like them. This raises several questions: Are the textbooks addressing issues of concern to these students whether they themselves are considered “diverse” or not? Is the curriculum changing to accommodate the history and contributions of those who are not of European descent? What paradigm should we be using?

Institutions of higher education are coming to terms with how to teach a diverse student body and what to teach. The question of what should be taught often hinges on the availability of instructional materials. Publishers are now racing to put out the appropriate texts that are inclusive. We examine the problems of writing and teaching about and at the intersection of racial, ethnic, sexual, and national origin diversity along with the administrative perspective of a changing curriculum and student body.

Supporting Publications:
Supporting Document

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: How do social movement groups impact one another's capacity to advance social change? Why do groups that seem to share similar kinds of marginalization sometimes undermine one another's struggles? Cross cutting issues that target multiple marginalized identities generate dilemmas for social movement organizations that are in relatively privileged positions on the basis of some identities while sharing marginalization with other groups along other identities-such as race. We argue that groups that are relatively privileged in this way may attempt to symbolically distance themselves from their more marginalized allies for fear of further exclusion by dominant society. We explore this dilemma through a comparative analysis of social movement groups in the U.S. and Turkey In both cases, we select groups that organize primarily along one axis of marginalization - gender (the ‘mainstream’ women’s movement in the US and the liberal feminist movement in Turkey) as well as groups that organize around multiple marginalized identities such as ethnicity, race, gender, and class (the Welfare Rights Movement and Kurdish women's movement). We explore whether strategic dilemmas impacted the alliances between these groups when confronted with contemporary cross-cutting issues in the U.S. and Turkey.