Headshot of Mignon Moore

Mignon R. Moore

Ann Whitney Olin Professor of Sociology

Department

Sociology

Office

332B Milbank Hall

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Mignon R. Moore is the Ann Whitney Olin Professor of Sociology. She has research and teaching interests in the sociology of family, qualitative methods, and the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and aging. Although her work spans various age cohorts, socioeconomic categories, social environments, and methodological frameworks, it is united in its purpose to challenge those assumptions and paradigms drawn from the experiences of dominant racial and socioeconomic groups that cannot explain processes and outcomes for people who occupy alternative structural positions in society. She analyses race, gender, class, and sexuality not just as identity statuses but as structural locations that influence individual life chances and the ways individuals experience their social worlds.

Professor Moore’s first book, Invisible Families: Gay Identities, Relationships and Motherhood among Black Women (University of California Press) examined the intersection of race with sexual orientation for family-building and lesbian identity among African-American women. Currently she is finishing a new book, tentatively titled In the Shadow of Sexuality: Social Histories and the Development of Community among Black Sexual Minority Women, 1950-1979 (California Press). This work builds on her prior training as a qualitative sociologist of racial and sexual minority populations while incorporating archival methods into her repertoire of research tools, to construct a sociocultural history of Black sexual minority women. She has published on such topics as LGBT-parent families, adolescent sexual debut and pregnancy, intersectionality, research methods on hard-to-reach populations, and processes of aging and health for racial and ethnic minority seniors. She is the 2022-2024 Vice President of the American Sociological Association. 

 

  • Ph.D. University of Chicago Department of Sociology (1998)
  • A.M. University of Chicago Department of Sociology (1994)
  • B.A. Columbia University Department of Sociology (1992)

  • Race
  • Family
  • LGBTQ Populations
  • Gender
  • Aging
  • Qualitative Research Methods

  • Sociology of African American Life
  • Advanced Topics in Race & Ethnicity
  • Sociology of Gender
  • Advanced Topics in Gender & Sexuality 
  • Gender and Inequality in Families
  • Race, Gender and Class

2022-2024 Vice President, American Sociological Association

2022-2024 Barnard College Presidential Research Award

2022-2023 Visiting Researcher, Russell Sage Foundation 

2021-2022 President, Sociologists for Women in Society

2020-2021 Deputy Editor, American Sociological Review

2019-2020 Deputy Editor, Gender & Society

2019-2022 Executive Council, Association of Black Sociologists

2018- Invited Member, Sociological Research Association

2014 Los Angeles Council LGBT Heritage Award

Columbia University LGBT Distinguished Alumni Award

Columbia College Black Alumni Council Heritage Award

Columbia College Women Alumna Achievement Award

American Sociological Association

Sociologists for Women in Society

Association of Black Sociologists

Council on Contemporary Families

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., Tau Omega Chapter

Moore, Mignon R. 2022. “When Revising a Text Can Transform Your Research.” Sociologica: International Journal for Sociological Debate 16, 1: 19-22.

Moore, Mignon R. 2019. “Marriage Equality and the African American Case: Intersections of Race and LGBT Sexuality.” Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 29, 2: 196-203.

Moore, Mignon R. 2017. “Women of Color in the Academy: Navigating Multiple Intersections and Multiple Hierarchies Social Problems 64, 2: 200-205

Moore, Mignon R. and Michael Stambolis-Ruhstorfer. 2013. “LGBT Sexuality and Families at the Start of the 21stCentury.” Annual Review of Sociology 39: 491-507.

Moore, Mignon R. 2010. “Articulating a Politics of (Multiple) Identities: Sexuality and Inclusion in Black Community Life.” DuBois Review: Social Science Research on Race 7, 2: 1-20.

Moore, Mignon R. 2008 “Gendered Power Relations among Women: A Study of Household Decision-Making in Lesbian Stepfamilies.” American Sociological Review, 73, 2: 335-356.

Smith, Sandra and Mignon R. Moore. 2001, “Intraracial Diversity and Relations among African Americans:  A Case Study of Feelings of Closeness among Black Students at a Predominantly White University.” American Journal of Sociology 106, 1: 1-39.

In The News

From tackling a research dilemma to envisioning her role as a campus leader, the sociologist is not afraid to explore a new angle. 

February 13, 2023

In celebration of 2022’s Women’s History Month (March), read about the work of 22 Barnard community members who champion feminist and gender issues.

March 7, 2022