Elizabeth Cole

Associate Professor Women's Studies and Psychology Ph.D. Psychology (Personality), University of Michigan

Contact Information:
2136 Lane Hall
204 S. State St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1290
734.615.6606
Email: ecole@umich.edu

Website:
http://www.sitemaker.umich.edu/cole.qsort/home

Scholarly Interests: Intersectionality; class, race and gender as social identities; qualitative methods; relationship between political attitudes and behaviors, particularly among African Americans and all women.

Biography: My scholarship examines the social construction of categories such as gender, race, and social class through a combination of theoretical and empirical work employing both qualitative and quantitative methods. My theoretical papers use feminist and critical race theory to consider how Psychology’s methods have at times obscured understanding of these social categories by treating them as categorical variables rather than as contested social constructions reflecting relations of inequality and social stigma. In my empirical work, I aim to develop historically specific and culturally grounded conceptualizations of race and gender to understand group differences and similarities, with special attention to the ways these social categories depend on one another for meaning and are jointly associated with outcomes. Although my research is rooted theoretically in Women’s Studies and methodologically in Psychology, I often incorporate perspectives from Sociology, Political Science and History. Please visit my website for descriptions of my current projects: http://sitemaker.umich.edu/cole.qsort/home


Publications:

Cole, E.R. (2009).  Intersectionality and research psychology.  American Psychologist, 64, 170-180.

Cole, E. R. (2008). Coalitions as a model for intersectionality: From practice to theory. Sex Roles, 59, 443-453.

Cole, E. R. & Yip, T. Y. (2008). Using outgroup comfort to predict Black students’ experiences in the first years of college. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 14, 57-66. 

Cole, E. R. & Arriola, K. R. J. (2007). Black students on White campuses: Toward a two-dimensional model of Black acculturation. Journal of Black Psychology, 33, 379-403. 

Cole, E. R. & Zucker, A. N. (2007). Black and white women’s perspectives on femininity. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 13, 1-9.

Press, A. L. & Cole, E. R. (1999) Speaking of abortion: Television and authority in the lives of women. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.