Professor Hill (PhD Kansas) teaches courses on the family, medical sociology, social inequality, and qualitative methods. Her interest in theories and the implications of social inequalities, especially those based on race, class, and gender, has been the overarching focus in her research. She has published research in the field of medical sociology that focuses on family caregiving, inequality in access to health care, and health care policies. Professor Hill has also published articles and books that examine how racial inequality affects various aspects of African American family life, and is writing a book that looks at families in global perspective. Her current research also includes a study that explores the impact of race on educational attainment. She is the author of Black Intimacies: A Gender Perspective on Families and Relationships (2005), African American Children: Socialization and Development in Families (1999) and Managing Sickle Cell Disease in Low-Income Families (1994). Areas: Medical Sociology, Social Inequalities, Family, and Qualitative Methods.
HOW ARE FAMILIES, AS KEY SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS, AND INDIVIDUAL FAMILY MEMBERS AFFECTED BY PERSISTENT AND GROWING PATTERNS OF SOCIAL INEQUALITY?
.........Families are key social institutions in reproducing, sustaining, and socializing humans for success in the social world; however, their ability to effectively perform these activities is largely shaped by their own internal structures of inequality and the inequalities they face in the broader society. In recent decades the growing demand for gender equality, the rise of the global economy, and the declining wage-earning abilities of men have undermined marriage, the stability of families and, in many cases, the welfare of children.
........Social class inequality has grown dramatically in the United States in the past few decades, sparking revolutionary families and in their ability to care for their members. My research focuses on how families are affected and cope with these inequalities. For example, as a medical sociologist, I am interested in how health policies affect poor families and their ability to manage the care of their chronically-ill members.
........I am also interested in how changes in families are affecting the educational attainment of children. In Black Intimacies I take a broader approach to studying African American families, looking at how they are shaped by the intersection of racial, class, and gender inequalities. I am especially interested in the implications of growing social class diversity among African Americans, but also the necessity of understanding how gender tensions, racial injustice, and poverty continue to adversely the quality of their family life. Indeed, these forces are restructuring families in all nations, and I am currently conducting research for a book that examines families in global perspective.
Professor Shirley A. Hill Curriculum Vitae (PDF)
Classes for Spring 2008
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Fraser Hall 1415 Jayhawk Blvd. Room 716 Lawrence, KS 66045-7556 Phone: (785) 864-4111 or (785) 864-9400 Fax: (785) 864-5280 socdept@ku.edu |
© 2002 The University of Kansas Department of Sociology. Photos © The University of Kansas Office of University Relations. This file was modified 05/19/08 11:37:44 AM |
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