Faculty Profiles

September 30, 2010

Misra Named Editor of Gender and Society

Congratulations to Joya Misra (sociology and public policy), acting department chair, who has been selected as the next editor of Gender and Society, the premier journal in the sociology of gender. Her selection followed a highly competitive process, and her four-year term begins next summer. When the journal comes to campus, it will offer  research assistantships for graduate students and increase visibility of the department, which is already ranked 31st in the nation.

This tremendous honor recognizes Misra's significant scholarship and contributions to the field. Her research primarily focuses on gender inequality across welfare states, and the intersection of race, gender, and class in labor markets and social policy. Misra's work has appeared in the American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, Gender & Society, Social Problems, and numerous other professional journals and edited volumes.

The co-editor of two book series—the American Sociological Association's Rose Series in Sociology and Pine Forge's Sociology for a New Century Series, Misra has also served on the editorial boards of the American Sociological Review, Social Problems, Contemporary Sociology, Journal of Poverty, and Gender & Society, and as book review editor for the Journal of World-Systems Research. Currently, she is one of the 12 members of the governing Council of the American Sociological Association.

Currently Misra is engaged in several collaborative projects. With sociologist Stephanie Moller, associate professor and director of graduate studies in sociology at the University of North Carolina Charlotte, she is focused on the cross-national effects of work-family policies on poverty for women and, particularly, mothers, funded by the National Science Foundation (2010-11). A project with Michelle Budig (sociology) and Irene Boeckmann (sociology), also supported by NSF funding, analyzes the cross-national effects of work-family policies on employment, hours and wages for mothers compared to childless women. In collaboration with Jennifer Lundquist (sociology) and a number of graduate and undergraduate students, Misra assesses how gender and care giving responsibilities shape the experience of UMass faculty. For more information on these projects and more, click here.

Consistently ranked as a top journal in both Women's Studies and Sociology by the Thomson Scientific Journal Citation Reports®, Gender & Society focuses on the social and structural study of gender as a basic principle of the social order and as a primary social category. Emphasizing theory and research from micro- and macrostructure perspectives, Gender & Society features original research, reviews, international perspectives, and book reviews from diverse social science disciplines, including anthropology, economics, history, political science, sociology and social psychology. It is the official journal for the organization, Sociologists for Women in Society.

For a more personal profile of Misra, click here.