Profile
Rachel Sherman is the Michael E. Gellert Professor of听. She is broadly interested in听how and why unequal social relations are reproduced, legitimated, and contested, and in how these processes are embedded in cultural vocabularies of identity, interaction, and moral worth.听Empirically, she uses ethnography and in-depth interviewing听to investigate service work, entitlement and lifestyle, and redistributive movements in the contemporary U.S.听Her teaching includes courses on qualitative methods, class, work and labor, social movements, culture, and consumption.
Her first book,听听(University of California Press, 2007), draws primarily on participant observation research to analyze how workers, guests, and managers in these hotels make sense of and negotiate the class inequalities that mark their relationships.
Her second book,听听(Princeton University Press, 2017), uses in-depth interviews to explore the lived experience of privilege among wealthy and affluent New York parents.听The book has been covered or reviewed by the听,听迟丑别听, the听,听, the听,听,听听Books in Brief, and the听. An adapted excerpt appeared at听.听Sherman's essay for the听New York Times听Sunday听Review, published in conjunction with the book,听.
As a 2018-2020 Andrew Carnegie Fellow, she conducted research for her current book project, titled听Class Traitors. Here she explores the world of听wealthy progressives who are challenging the unequal social systems that have enabled their wealth--analogous to, and often overlapping with, white antiracists striving to dismantle systems of white supremacy. Class traitors work against accumulation and toward redistribution through social justice philanthropy and investing, partnering with grassroots social movements, and pushing policy alternatives such as higher taxes on the rich, as well as organizing other wealthy people. An early essay from that work is .听
She has also conducted research on the contemporary U.S. labor movement; on expert service work, especially the "lifestyle management"听industry; the interactive artwork of Tino Sehgal; and food services in the airline industry.
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Degrees Held
AB 1991, Brown University
PhD 2003, University of California, Berkeley
Recent Publications
Books
2017听 听. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
2007听 听. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Selected Articles
2021 鈥.鈥 Sociologica 15(2): 117-142.
2020 鈥.鈥 Recherches anthropologiques et sociologiques 1: 61-86.
2020 With Jussara Raxlen. 鈥淟abor, Lifestyle, and the 鈥楲adies Who Lunch鈥: Work and Worth Among Elite Stay at Home Mothers.鈥 Research in the Sociology of Work 34: 195-220.
2018听 听 "'." Socio-Economic Review 16(2): 411-433.听 听 听
2017 听 听鈥.鈥 听American Journal of Cultural Sociology听听5(1-2): 1-33/
2015 听 鈥淐aring or Catering? Emotions, Autonomy and Subordination in Lifestyle Work.鈥 In听, edited by Mignon Duffy, Amy Armenia, and Clare Stacey, Rutgers University Press.
2014听听 鈥.鈥澨Public Culture听26(3): 393-418.
2011听听听."听Qualitative Sociology听34(1): 201-219.
2011听听 鈥.鈥澨Work, Employment and Society听25(1): 19-33.
2010听听 鈥.鈥澨Work & Occupations听37(1): 81-114.
2005 听 鈥.鈥 Ethnography 6(2): 131-158.
2000听听 鈥,鈥 with Kim Voss. American Journal of Sociology 106(2): 303-349, September/October. (Reprinted in Amy Wharton, ed., The Sociology of Organizations: An Anthology of Contemporary Theory and Research, Roxbury, 2007.)
-听Winner of the Distinguished Article Award, Society for the Study of Social Problems, Labor Studies Division, 2001.
1999听听听鈥.鈥 Theory and Society 28 (6): 835-878.
Addditional Publications
2017 听 "."听Items: Insights from the Social Sciences (SSRC),听April 17, 2017.
Media
2020听 听Quoted in "," The New Republic, July 20, 2020.
2020听听听Quoted in "," The Atlantic, March 2, 2020.
2019听 听"," The New York Times, April 27, 2019.
2019听 听"," Christian Science Monitor, April 11, 2019.
2017听 听"," The New York Times, September 8, 2017.
Research Interests
Social class, culture, service work, social movements,听qualitative methods
Awards And Honors
Carnegie Fellowship, 2018-2020
Portfolio