Ithaca College

 Ithaca College’s Department of Sociology has been selected by the Eastern Sociological Society to host Naomi Gerstel, the 2009-2010 Distinguished Robin Williams Lecturer.  Stephen Sweet (Associate Professor of Sociology) will coordinate Dr. Gerstel’s visit to the Ithaca College Campus in Fall 2010.

 Naomi Gerstel is an award-winning and pioneering scholar and public sociologist whose research and writing have helped define the emerging subfields of work-family and the sociology of carework. Gerstel’s research and teaching focus on family, carework, job hours/schedules, gender, race, and family and work policy. The author or editor of four books, Gerstel most recently co-edited Public Sociology: Michael Burawoy and His Critics (University of California, 2007) and has published numerous articles in leading journals and monographs. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Sloan Foundation, among others. Her many awards include a Visiting Fellowship at the Russell Sage Foundation, the Rosabeth Moss Kanter International Award for Research Excellence in Families, the Samuel F. Conti Fellowship for Excellence in Research, and the Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Accomplishment in Research and Creative Activity at The University of Massachusetts at Amherst where she has been on the faculty since 1978. She is a member of the prestigious Sociological Research Association and has chaired the Family Section of the American Sociological Association and co-edited the ASA Rose Book Series and the Backstage Column for Contexts. Gerstel has also earned recognition as an outstanding teacher and mentor, having been awarded her university’s Distinguished Teacher Award in 2005. The title of her Williams Lecture is "Giving and Taking Care: Right or Privilege?”