University of Pittsburgh

Faculty & Staff

People

Kathleen M. Blee

PhD, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1982

Title: Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research

Campus Address: 2417 Wesley W. Posvar Hall

Telephone: (412) 648-7580

Email: kblee@pitt.edu

Fields of Interest

  • Gender
  • Race and Racism
  • Social Movements
  • Sociology of Space and Place

Biography

Affiliated appointments in History, Psychology, and Women’s Studies. Also associated with Cultural Studies and the Center for Race and Social Problems. My areas of interest are social movements, including racist/anti-Semitic, and right-wing movements, racial violence, and microsociology. I currently have two research projects: a study of unreported racial hate crimes and an ethnography of urban bus riding. I teach graduate courses and seminars in research methods, global feminism, qualitative methods, racialization and racial social movements, and writing for publication.

Current Research

The microsociology of urban bus riding
Unreported racial hate crimes

Recent Publications

2012 Democracy in the Making: How Activist Groups Form. Oxford University Press.   2012 Women of the Right: International and Transnational Perspectives, co-edited with Sandra D. Deutsch. Penn State University Press.   
2002 Inside Organized Racism: Women and Men in the Hate Movement. University of California Press.   2001 Feminism and Anti-Racism: Transnational Struggles for Justice. Edited with France Winddance Twine. New York University Press.
2000 The Road to Poverty: The Making of Wealth and Hardship in Appalachia. (with Dwight Billings). Cambridge University Press. 1998 No Middle Ground: Women & Radical Protest. Editor. New York University Press.
1991 Women of The Klan: Racism and Gender in the 1920s. University of California Press.

Teaching

Feminist Theory Space and Power
Research Methods Social Movements
Family Graduate Writing for Publication

Honors and Awards

Named to Distinguished Professor rank, University of Pittsburgh, 2007
University of Pittsburgh Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award (university-wide), 2007
University of Pittsburgh Provost’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring (university-wide), 2007
American Association of University Women Senior Scholar Commendation of Honor, 2007
Award for Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship, Pennsylvania Sociological Society, 2006
University of Pittsburgh Chancellor’s Distinguished Research Award, Senior Scholar (university-wide career research award), 2004
Elected to Governing Council, American Sociological Association, 2004-07
YWCA-Pittsburgh Racial Justice Award, 2004  
Selected as University of Kentucky Research Professor (university-wide career research award),      1994-1995
Elected to Sociological Research Association (honorary for outstanding research and scholarship), 1999

University Affiliations

Center on Race and Social Problems Department of Psychology
Cultural Studies Program Women's Studies Program
Department of History