March 01, 2007

Sociologist Karyn McKinney lectures

(St. Mary's City, MD) Feb. 28, 2007 - Sociologist Karyn McKinney will give a lecture titled "White Identity in the 21st Century: Privilege or Liability?" on March 7 at 4:45 p.m. The lecture will be held in the Auerbach Auditorium, on the SMCM campus, and is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Daniel Ingersoll at (240) 895-4406.

Professor of anthropology Daniel Ingersoll says, "McKinney has been a pioneer in the exploration of how young white Americans think about their racial identities. I invite you to hear her speak about the intriguing discoveries she has made concerning race, racism, and American society."

McKinney is the spring-semester guest of the Anthropology and Sociology Department for their Visiting Ethnographer program. All SOAN 101 classes (course title Culture and the Social Experience) are reading her book Being White: Stories of Race and Racism, a highly regarded text in race studies. McKinney will visit the classes and discuss the book, in addition to the evening's lecture.

Karyn McKinney holds a Ph.D. from the University of Florida's sociology department, where her dissertation was titled "Everyday Whiteness: Discourse, Story, and Identity." Her research centers on topics of race and ethnicity, gender and family, and social psychology. She has had twelve works published on the study of race from different perspectives, including economic, legal, and sociological. She is currently an associate professor of sociology at Pennsylvania State at Altoona.

St. Mary's College of Maryland is ranked one of the best liberal arts colleges in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, The Princeton Review and Kiplinger's. With roots going back to 1840, SMCM is the state's only public honors college, offering the academic excellence of a top private college with the openness and affordability of public education.