Amy Binder, Associate Professor
Ph.D. Northwestern, 1998

Areas of Specialization: Culture, Social Movements, Education, Organizations

Email Address:   abinder@ucsd.edu
Phone number:    858-534-0483
Office location:  495 Social Science Building
                          
Office Hours

Curriculum Vitae

Classes to be taught in 2007/2008:

Fall 2007
SOCG 216: Graduate seminar in Cultural Sociology
SOCC 126: Social Organization of Education

Winter 2008
SOCA 110: Qualitative Research in Educational Settings

Amy Binder received her B.A in Anthropology from Stanford University and her Ph.D. from Northwestern University. Her principal research interests are in the areas of education, social movements, and cultural sociology. Her book Contentious Curricula: Afrocentrism and Creationism in American Public Schools (Princeton University Press 2002) explores two marginal challenge efforts to shape curriculum in public school systems, and received the 2003 Best Book Prize of the Culture Section of the American Sociological Association, the 2003 Distinguished Scholarship Prize of the Pacific Sociological Association, and the 2004 Outstanding Book Award from the American Educational Research Association (AERA). She has several projects underway, including studies on intelligent design in schools, conservative students in higher education, transitional housing, urban redevelopment, and the globalization of rap music.

Although seemingly disparate in focus, my work consistently centers on the meaning-making processes enacted in my research settings. Whether it is in studying media practices involved in framing popular culture (American Sociological Review 1993), employers' expectations of their young workers' academic skill levels (Sociology of Education 1997), Afrocentrists' identity construction vis à vis multiculturalists (chapter in Russell Sage Foundation/University of Chicago Press edited volume 1999), public schools' responses to Afrocentric and creationist challenges in the 1980s and 1990s (Princeton University Press 2002, and a forthcoming article in the American Journal of Education), or organizations' mediation between the welfare state and individual poor people's lives (my current project on transitional housing), my work concentrates on the effects that cultural beliefs have on human action, and how these beliefs contribute to the stratification of society.

Future Projects
“Change from the 53rd Floor: On the Nature of Elite Challenges, Social Movements and the Unappreciated Power of Social Movement Theory” (with John Skrentny)

“For Love and Money: Organizations’ Local and Creative Responses to Environmental Pressures in the Age of Nonprofit Federalism”

“Importing School Across Societal Domains: Frames, Hybrids and Institutional Effects” (with Scott Davies).

“Creating a Space for Hip Hop: The Interaction of Cultural Globalizaton and Elite Valorization of Rap Music” (with Andrew Cheyne)

Selected Publications:
* Binder, Amy. forthcoming. "Gathering Intelligence on Intelligent Design: Where Did It Come From, Where Is It Going, and How Do (and Should) Progressive Coalitions Manage It?" American Journal of Education (Expected publication date: August 2007).

* Binder, Amy. forthcoming. "Evolution Triumphant: Review of the Charles Darwin exhibit at the Museum of Natural History." Contexts Expected publication date: Spring 2007.

*Binder, Amy. 2002. Contentious Curricula: Afrocentrism and Creationism in American Public Schools, Princeton University Press.

Winner of the 2004 Outstanding Book Award prize of the American Educational Research Association.

Winner of the 2003 Best Book Prize of the Culture Section of the American Sociological Association.

Winner of the 2003 Distinguished Scholarship Prize of the Pacific Sociological Association.

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