I discovered sociology when I was an undergraduate at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College.  My favorite book as an undergraduate was Max Weber’s Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (much to the dismay of students in my classical social theory classes).  I was intrigued with the idea that religious beliefs could be linked to economic behavior, so intrigued that I integrated the book into papers for other courses. 

 My interest in the workings of culture was developed further in graduate school.  I began my graduate career in France where I studied the Sociology of Art.  Learning the discipline in another country taught me that we Americans do not “know it all,” nor do we write all the important books in our field.  I conducted two research projects while in France – the first was a project on how women artists manage their reputations as artists; the second was a study of how new art galleries work to create reputations in a competitive art market.  When I came back to the United States, I continued my interest in art by studying a new field in sociology called the Sociology of Culture.  I also studied the related fields, Sociology of Knowledge, and Sociology of Science.  My dissertation explored how marginalized cultural products (things like quilts, African masks, and blown glass) have come to be treated as fine Art during the twentieth century.  I am currently writing articles based on my dissertation research, including an article on the patchwork quilt as fine art, and the Studio Glass movement.  New research will explore how people use artistic sensibilities in their everyday lives, and in the next few years I will begin studying museum gift shops and how they affect people’s experience of visiting museums.  I am also conducting research in the teaching of sociology.

 My background in the Sociology of Culture has led me in a number of directions, and some of those are represented in courses I teach in culture, gender studies, and in social theory.  These courses include Gender and Culture, the Individual in Society, Sociology of Art, the Sociology of the Family, and Technology and Social Change.