University of Pittsburgh

Faculty & Staff

People

Lisa D Brush

PhD, University of Wisconsin, 1993

Title: Associate Professor

Campus Address: 2425 Wesley W. Posvar Hall

Telephone: (412) 648-7595

Email: lbrush@pitt.edu

Fields of Interest

  • Sex & Gender
  • Political Sociology
  • Violence Against Women
  • Social Policy
  • Feminist Theories
  • Class Analysis
  • Cultural Studies
  • Social Aspects of Sexuality

Biography

I am interested in structures of inequality and struggles for social justice in complex societies. My training is in a tradition of Marxist class analysis, and I have an abiding interest in issues of race and racism. However, my particular intellectual commitments and research approach are feminist. One of my primary areas of research is gender, government, and social policy. The other is violence against women. To bring them together in a single research program, I have founded the Family Violence & Self-Sufficiency Project, which currently produces policy-oriented research on battering, work, and welfare. My research has been funded by the National Institute of Justice.

Undergraduate courses taught: Introduction to Sociology; Sociology of Gender; Classical Sociological Theory; Working Women.

Graduate courses taught: Classical Sociological Theory; Post-Classical Sociological Theory; Research Design; Gender, Race, Class; Women in Society (Gender and Sexuality; Violence against Women); Gender and Social Policy in Cross-National Perspective. I have also taught the Common Seminar for the graduate program in Cultural Studies.

Current Research

A project exploring gender perspectives on discussions of “human security” and “human rights.”
Expanding collaboration with Dr. Hughes in analyzing longitudinal administrative data on welfare, earnings, and protective order filings.

Recent Publications

Poverty, Battered Women, Work, and U.S. Public Policy. Oxford University Press, 2011.   (with Melanie M. Hughes) “Work, Welfare, and Protection Orders: Modeling Changing Earnings in the Context of Group Differences and Institutional Shifts.” Special Issue on Methodological Advances in Analytic Techniques for Longitudinal Designs and Evaluations of Community Interventions. Violence Against Women. Vol. 17, No. 3 (March 2011): 322-339.   “Guest Editor’s Introduction.” Violence Against Women. Vol. 16, no. 12 (December 2009): 1423-1431. This essay was nominated for Sage’s VAW annual Best Article award by the journal’s editorial board.   Review essay on In an Abusive State: How Neoliberalism Appropriated the Feminist Movement against Sexual Violence, by Kristin Bumiller; A Typology of Domestic Violence: Intimate Terrorism, Violent Resistance, and Situational Couple Violence, by Michael P. Johnson; Violent Partners: A Breakthrough Plan for Ending the Cycle of Abuse, by Linda G. Mills; and Coercive Control: How Men Entrap Women in Personal Life, by Evan Stark. Gender & Society 23 (April 2009): 273-281.

Teaching

2102 Classical Social Theory 1448 Working Women
0150 Social Theory 0436 Social Aspects of Sexuality
0446 Sociology of Gender 2031 Race, Class, and Gender: Classics and Controversies in Class Analysis

Honors and Awards

2010 Annual Award from Sage Publications for Best Article published in Violence Against Women.  Awarded to entire special issue (published 2009) guest-edited by Lisa D. Brush.

University Affiliations

Woman's Studies Women's Studies
University Center for Social and Urban Research Cultural Studies