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Helene Lawson,
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Dr. Helene Lawson decided to come to Pitt-Bradford because she appreciated
the "rural beauty-there are no hills and few trees in Chicago." She
also liked the fact that the college is affiliated with the larger University
of Pittsburgh, which gives her and her students access to the University's many
resources. She has been at Pitt-Bradford since 1991. Dr. Lawson is a big fan
of science fiction, horror films and BBC programming. She collects old Warren
horror comics. She enjoys keeping in touch with her students after they've graduated.
She also has ongoing relationships with her own mentors.
Dr. Lawson teaches Intro to Sociology; Gender, Race, & Ethnicity; Images of Men and Women in Media; Sociology of Work and Society; Global Society; and Inequality.
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"Lawson's Ladies on the Lot is an example of the finest work being done in qualitative social science today. Her interviews and fieldwork succeed in making these women come alive as they tell us their stories and draw us into their lives of struggles and dreams. This is a wonderful book to teach with, for it shows us how culture, class, and gender are played out in the lives of ordinary people and what it costs women to pursue their dreams of making it in America today. This study is a rare and insightful look at many of the changes that came upon American women and men in the decade 1988 to 1999!" E. Doyle McCarthy, Fordham University |
"Contributing to the growing literature on how women cross the gender divide and struggle for survival in traditional male trades, this occupational study offers insights into the ordeals women sales agents encounter on the automobile lots across America. Lawson's typologies are rich and descriptive, probing many different facets of women's car sales careers, including navigating the selling floor, relating with colleagues and customers, and negotiating contracts. Anyone who has ever experienced the onerous task of purchasing a car will be enlightened by this behind-the-scenes account of the process. Students of gender and work and occupations will find it a delightful read." Patricia A. Adler, University of Colorado |
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"The Cultural Study of Work brings together twenty-three articles that describe the world of work seen close up, by social scientists who took the time and trouble to observe it close up and over long periods of time. The book provides the empirical basis for understanding work as a social phenomenon and so fills a important gap. The material comes from a great variety of sources and would be hard to get your hands on any other way." Howard S. Becker |
"A stimulating, thoughtful, and well-considered collection of great
value to undergraduate and post-graduate students and lecturers working
in sociology, socio-cultural anthropology, and cultural studies fields." Roger Brown, Staffordshire University
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"This is the essential book for readers who want to know what the major trends in work scholarship have been, for those in need of a text for introductory and even graduate classes, or for those who simply want to savor the watershed moments in scholarship that highlights both ethnographic and theoretical treatments." Tom Fricke, University of Michigan
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This anthology brings more than fifty years of scholarship of the culture and sociology of work into a vivid introductory and analytical textbook. Sociologists have long sought to understand the universal activity of work from the point of view of the worker. This book shows how common sociological themes such as socialization, social interaction, the social construction of time, and deviance are experienced in work settings as diverse as the factory, the night club, the restaurant, and to offices of high tech professionals.
Featuring vivid ethnography, the book is organized around the concept of culture: the recognition that people doing things together organize social life in common and identifiable ways. As such, the book is a poignant core textbook or a perfect supplement to standard texts in the sociology of work that approach work from demographic, structural, or macro perspectives.
Annual Penn-York Undergraduate Research Conference
This annual conference will be held at Canisius College in November.