Joya Misra

Joya Misra, Professor of Sociology & Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is also the current Vice-President of the American Sociological Association, and a recent Samuel F. Conti Faculty Fellowship Award winner.

Dr. Misra is is deeply committed to a publicly engaged social science, with the aim of leveraging knowledge to foster more equitable societies. Her research and teaching primarily focus on social inequality, including inequalities by gender and gender identity, race, ethnicity, sexuality, nationality, citizenship, parenthood status, and educational level. Her work explores the role that policies play in both mediating and entrenching inequality, and primarily falls into the subfields of race/gender/class, political sociology, work & labor, family, and welfare states.

Five major grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) since 2006 have helped to support Misra’s research, which in 2009 garnered her and Michelle Budig the inaugural World Bank/Luxembourg Income Study Gender Research Award. She is currently PI on the 5-year, $3 million NSF Advance Institutional Transformation grant, sustaining ISSR's leadership role in this important vehicle for advancing equity at the intersections of race and gender in science careers at UMass. Other accolades include the SBS Outstanding Teaching Award (2004-05), UMass Sociology Mentoring Award (2009-10, 2014-15) and Sociologists for Women in Society Mentoring Award (2010). She served as Editor of Gender & Society, one of the most important journals in the fields of Sociology and Gender Studies.

Misra brings a wealth of experience in creating and leading interdisciplinary research teams, a core strategic direction for her tenure as ISSR director. She has been an avid supporter and active beneficiary of ISSR's methodology, grants development and administration and social science networking and collaboration services, and views her tenure as Director as an opportunity to continue the development of an institution that has already amply demonstrated its value to the university community.

She succeeded Laurel Smith-Doerr, ISSR's inaugural Director and fellow co-PI on the ADVANCE grant.

Selected Publications (former or current students noted by asterisk)

Books

• Joya Misra and Kyla Walters*. 2022. Walking Mannequins: How Race and Gender Inequalities Shape Retail Clothing Work.  Berkeley, CA:University of California Press. 
• Thomas Janoski, Cedric de Leon, Joya Misra, and Isaac Martin. 2020. The New Handbook of Political Sociology. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. 
• Joya Misra, Mahala Dyer Stewart*, Marni Alyson Brown. 2017. Gendered Lives, Sexual Beings. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
• Dan Clawson, Robert Zussman, Joya Misra, Naomi Gerstel, Randall Stokes, and Doug Anderton (Eds.). 2007. Public Sociology: Fifteen Eminent Sociologists Debate Politics and the Profession in the 21st Century. Berkely, CA: University of California Press. 

Articles

• Joya Misra, Ethel Mickey, Ember Kanelee*, Laurel Smith-Doerr. 2022 “Creating Inclusive Department Climates in STEM Fields” Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. Online First. 
•  Ethel Mickey, Joya Misra, and Dessie Clark. 2022. “The Persistence of Neoliberal Logics in Faculty Evaluations amidst Covid-19: Recalibrating Towards Equity.” Gender, Work, & Organizations. Online First. 
• Dessie Clark, Ethel Mickey, and Joya Misra. 2022.  “Growing the Roots of Equity: The TREE Model of Institutional Response to COVID-19” Journal of Diversity in Higher Education.  Online First. 
• Ember Skye Kanelee,* Joya Misra, and Ethel Mickey. Forthcoming, “Fostering Inclusion for Black Faculty.”  Understanding and Dismantling Privilege. 12(1): 54-63.              
• Joya Misra, KerryAnn O’Meara, Alexandra Kuvaeva, Dawn Kiyoe Culpepper, and Audrey Jaeger. 2021. “Gendered and Racialized Perceptions of Faculty Workload.” Gender & Society. 35(3): 358-394.
• Joya Misra, Celeste Vaughan Curington, *and Venus Mary Green.* 2021 “Methods of Intersectional Research.” Sociological Spectrum.  41(1)9-28.  
• Joya Misra, Ethel Mickey, and Dessie Clark. “Addressing and Documenting Pandemic Impacts.” ADVANCE Journal. 2(2). https://doi.org/10.5399/osu/ADVJRNL.2.2.1
• Joya Misra. 2020.  “Women, Politics, and Gender Inequality.” Western New England Law Review. 42(3):397-417.
• KerryAnn O’Meara , Elizabeth Beise , Dawn Culpepper , Joya Misra & Audrey Jaeger. 2020.“Faculty Work Activity Dashboards: A Strategy to Increase Transparency.” Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 52:(3)34-42.
• Joya Misra and Mary Bernstein. 2020. "Sexuality, Gender, and Social Policy. In Thomas Janoski, Cedric de Leon, Joya Misra, and Isaac Martin's The New Handbook of Political Sociology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Thomas Janoski, Cedric de Leon, Joya Misra, and Isaac Martin. 2020. “Introduction.” In Thomas Janoski, Cedric de Leon, Joya Misra, and Isaac Martin’s TThe New Handbook of Political Sociology.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  
• Dawn Culpepper, Sarah Kilmer, KerryAnn O’Meara, Joya Misra, and Audrey J. Jaeger. 2020. “Terrapin Time Initiative: A Workshop to Enhance Alignment between Faculty Work Priorities and Time Use.” Innovative Higher Education. 45: 165-79. 
• KerryAnn O'Meara. Courtney Lennarz, Alexandra Kuvaeva, Audrey Jaeger, and Joya Misra. 2019. "Department Conditions and Practices Associated with Faculty Workload Satisfaction and Perceptions of Equity." Journal of Higher Education. 90(5): 744-772. 
• Eunjung Jee*, Joya Misra, and Marta Murray-Close. 2019. "Motherhood Penalties in the U.S., 1986-2014." Journal of Marriage and Family. 81(2) 434-449. 
• Diego F. Leal,* Ragini Saira Malhotra*, and Joya Misra. 2019. "Visualizing Feminized International Migration Flows." Socius. 5:1-3. 
• KerryAnn O'Meara, Audrey Jaeger, Joya Misra, and Courtney Lennarz. 2018. "Undoing Disparities in Faculty Workloads: a Randomized Trial Experiment." PlosOne 13(12): e0207316. 
• Joya Misra. “Categories, Structures, and Intersectional Theory.” In James W. Messerschmidt, Patricia Yancey Martin, Michael A. Messner and Raewyn Connell’s (Eds.) Gender Reckonings: New Social Theory and Research. New York: NYU Press. 
• Joya Misra, Laurel Smith-Doerr, Nilanjana Dasgupta, Gabriela Weaver, and Jennifer Normanly. “Collaboration and Gender Equity among Academic Faculty.” Social Sciences. 6(1): 25, 1-22. 
• Stephanie Moller*, Joya Misra, Eiko Strader*, and Elizabeth Wemlinger. “Policy Interventions and Relative Household Income of Families with Children by Family Structure and Parental Education.” Socius. 2: 1-28.  
• Joya Misra and Kyla Walters*. 2016. “All Fun and Cool Clothes? Youth Workers’ Consumer Identity in Retail Clothing.” Work & Occupations. 44(3): 294-325.
• Ragini Saira Malhotra*, Joya Misra & Diego F. Leal*. 2016. “Gender and Reproductive Labor Migration in Asia, 1960–2000.”  International Journal of Sociology, 46(2): 114-140.
• Michelle Budig, Joya Misra, and Irene Boeckmann*. 2016. “Work-Family Policy Tradeoffs for Mothers? Unpacking Cross-National Variation in the Motherhood Earnings Penalty.” Work & Occupations.  43(2): 119-77. 

Selected Presentations

• “Intersections between Gender Regime, Social Policies, and Mother’s Employment” (with Chen-Shuo Hong). Research Committee 19, International Sociological Association. Vilnius, Lithuania & Online, 2022. 
• “Intersectional Experiences among STEM Faculty” (with Ember Skye Kanelee, Ethel L. Mickey, and Laurel Smith-Doerr). American Sociological Association, Los Angeles, 2022.
• “‘We Know There Are Problems, But…’: Navigating Resistance to Faculty Workload Reform” (with Dawn Kiyoe Culpepper, Kerryann O’Meara and Audrey Jaeger). Equity in STEM Community Convening, Washington DC, 2022.                
• “Racialized and Gendered Research Collaboration Experiences of STEM Faculty” (with Ethel Mickey, Ember Skye Kanelee, and Lauren Smith-Doerr). Equity in STEM Community Convening, Washington DC., 2022.
• “Growing Roots of Equity: The TREE Model of Faculty Evaluation in COVID-19” (with Dessie Clark and Ethel Mickey). Equity in STEM Community Convening, Washington DC, 2022. 
• “Intersectional Experiences of Inclusion among STEM Faculty of Color” (with Ember Skye Kanelee, Ethel L. Mickey, and Laurel Smith-Doerr). Eastern Sociological Society, 2022. 
•  “Cultural Attitudes, Social Policies and Mother’s Employment” (with Chen-Shuo Hong). Research Committee 19, International Sociological Association, Fribough, Swizerland & Online, 2021. 
• “Creating Inclusive Department Climates in STEM Fields” (with Ember Kanelee, Ethel Mickey, Laurel Smith-Doerr). American Sociological Association (Virtual), 2021.
• “Gender, Labor Migration, and Global Inequalities” (with Diego Leal and Ragini Malhotra). Thematic panel, Society for the Study of Social Problems (Virtual), 2021. 
• Methods of Intersectional Research (with Celeste Vaughan Curington and Venus Mary Green). American Sociological Association, New York, NY, 2019. 
• Thematic Session: Race, Gender, and Retail Occupations: Emotions and the Changing Workforce. Branding, Beauty, and the Changing Face of Retail Work (with Kyla Walters). American Sociological Association, Philadelphia, PA, 2018. 
• The Motherhood Wage Penalty over Time: Changing Returns to Education and Experience (with Eunjung Jee and Marta Murray-Close). Population Association of America, Denver, CO, 2018. 
• Gender Gap or Family Gap? The Contribution of Parenthood to the Gender Wage Gap in the U.S., 1990-2009 (with Marta Murray-Close). Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, Chicago, 2017. 
• Thematic Session: Theorizing Frameworks and Methodologies for the Study of Intersectionality.  Methods of Intersectionality. American Sociological Association, Montreal, Canada, 2017. 
• Mapping Feminized Migration Globally (with Ragini Sairi Malhotra and Diego Leal). American Sociological Association, Montreal, Canada, 2017. 
• Respect and Workers' Identities in Shaping Emotional Labor in Clothing Retail (with Kyla Walters). Eastern Sociological Society, Philadelphia, PA, 2017.
• Race, Gender, and Class Section Chair’s Session: How Changing the Conversation Changed Sociology: Intersectionality's Impact in the Discipline and Beyond. American Sociological Association, Seattle, WA, 2016. 
• Collaboration and Gender Equity among Academic Faculty (with  Laurel Smith-Doerr, Nilanjana Dasgupta, and Gabriela Weaver). American Sociological Association, Seattle, 2016.
• Frontline Retail Clothing Jobs: Low Wages, High Turnover, and Hours as Rewards (with Kyla Walters). Precarious Labor Conference, Seattle, 2016.
• Triangles or Quadrangles? Multi-level Management, Customers, and Workers in Retail Service Work (with Kyla Walters). Eastern Sociological Society, Boston, 2016

Funded Projects

• ARC Network: A STEM Equity Brain Trust. Gender, Race, Workload, and Leadership in STEM. (2020-2021)
• National Science Foundation. Collaboration and Equity: The Resources, Relationships, and Recognition (R3) Model for Advancing Women and Underrepresented Faculty in Science and Engineering. ADVANCE IT. Enobong Hannah Branch, PI (2018-2023)
• Washington Center for Equitable Growth. Parenthood and the Gender Wage Gap. (2016-2017)
• National Science Foundation. Faculty Workload and Rewards, ADVANCE Plan-IHE. KerryAnn O’Meara, PI. (2015-2020)
• National Science Foundation. Collaborative Research: Work-Family Policy and Poverty. (2010–2011)
• National Science Foundation. The Cross-National Effects of Work-Family Policies on the Wage Penalty for Motherhood Using Multi-level Models. (2009–2010)