Laura Jennings
Assistant Professor of Sociology
Media 304
(864) 503-5667
E-mail: ljennings@uscupstate.edu
Degrees
Ph.D. Sociology, University of Illinois, 2008
B.S. Business Administration, Indiana University, 1982
Areas of Specialty: Teaching
Social statistics
Race and ethnicity
Fat studies
Gender and Society
Social stratification
Intersectional inequality
Areas of Specialty: Research
Intersectional social inequality
Medical sociology
Public policy
Publications and Works in Progress
Jennings, Laura. 2009. “Public Fat: Canadian provincial governments and fat on the web.” Fat Studies Reader. Eds. Esther Rothblum & Sondra Solovay. New York University Press (pp. 88-96).
Jennings, Laura. 2009. “Prejudice.” The Concise Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology edited by G. Ritzer and J. Michael Ryan. Blackwell Publishing.
Jennings, Laura. 2006. “Prejudice.” The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology edited by G. Ritzer. Blackwell Publishing (pp. 3613-3616).
Jennings, Laura. 2010. “Size Prejudice and Group Position: (Re) constructing prejudice through interaction.” (undergoing revision for peer-reviewed journal)
Jennings, Laura. 2010. “Where the [Fat Women’s] Bodies Are Buried: A symbolic interactionist look at the experience of shopping while fat.” Book chapter under review for Fat Studies anthology The Unbearable Fatness of Being, edited by Lesleigh Owen and Julia McCrossin.
Jennings, Laura. “Race, gender and socialization among southern public university students.” Working title; currently preparing IRB proposal to allow use of data gathered from students over the past several semesters in journal article.
Presentations
Health at Every Size and the Body Image / Eating Relationship: Policy Implications. To be presented at the Popular Culture / ACA Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas, April 2011.
Where the [Fat Women’s] Bodies Are Buried: a sociological look at women’s clothing departments. Presented at the Popular Culture Association / ACA Annual Meeting in St. Louis, Missouri, March 30-April 4, 2010.
Hook, Line and Sinker: Using Crash and Sicko to Teach Introductory Sociology. Presented at the Southern Sociological Society Annual Meeting in Atlanta, GA, April 2010.
Place Settings: Social Aspects of the Body Image / Eating Relationship, poster presentation at the Carolina Women’s Health Research Forum, Columbia, SC, October 30, 2009.
Extending Blumer: Size Prejudice as a Sense of Group Position, presented at the Midwest Sociological Society Annual Meeting, Chicago IL, April 5, 2007.
Social Aspects of the Body Image / Eating Relationship, presented as part of the Feminist Scholarship Series, University of Illinois, November 29, 2006.
Race, Class, Gender, and Situational Effects on the Body Image / Food Choice Relationship, presented at the American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Montreal CA, August 14, 2006.
Race, Age, Gender and Magazine Messages About Food and Body, presented at the Midwest Sociological Society Annual Meeting, Minneapolis MN, April 1, 2005.
Service Activities
Chair, USC Upstate Committee for Faculty Excellence, 2010-2011.
Secretary/Chair-elect, USC Upstate Committee for Faculty Excellence, 2009-2010.
Faculty Advisor, USC Upstate Social Science Club, fall 2009 - present.
Member, Competency Assessment Team for Quantitative Reasoning general education evaluation, USC Upstate, fall 2009 – present.
Honors and Certifications
Favorite Faculty Member: Selected by USC Upstate student athletes Sharniece Wadelington and Cherale Powell (Basketball, Spring 2009), E. Morgan Thomas (Volleyball, Fall 2009), Patrick Posey (Basketball, Spring 2010), and Sharniece Wadelington (Basketball, Spring 2011),.
UIUC “Incomplete List” of teachers rated as excellent by their students, for three separate courses between 2004 and 2007: Intro to Social Statistics, Race & Ethnicity; Gender in Transnational Perspective.
Graduate Teaching Certificate, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2004.
Beta Gamma Sigma and Alpha Chi honor societies.