Sociology

In her latest book, Tacit Racism, co-written with University of Pittsburgh Associate Professor Waverly Duck and published by the University of Chicago Press, Professor Anne Rawls explores how racism is coded into the everyday social expectations of Americans. Rawls and Duck and argue that these interactions can produce racial inequality, whether the people involved are aware of it or not, and that by overlooking tacit racism in favor of the fiction of a “color-blind” nation, we are harming not only our society’s most disadvantaged — but endangering society itself.

This summer, Professor Dan Everett will make a return visit to SciFoo, an informal annual conference held at Google’s California headquarters. Pioneered by O’Reilly Media, a leading publisher in the field of information technology, the invitation-only event is often hailed as an “unconference” because it has no predefined agenda; instead, attendees — comprising more than 200 leading scientists, technologists, writers and other thought-leaders — collaboratively create one during the first evening.

Through compelling ethnography, reveals the creative and ambitious methods that social service providers use to house their clients despite the conflictual conditions posed by the policies and institutions that govern the housing process. Combining in-depth interviews, extensive fieldwork and the author's own professional experience, this book considers the perspective of social service providers who work with the homeless and chronicles the steps they take to navigate the housing process. With assertive methods of worker-client advocacy at the center of its focus, the book beckons attention to the many variables that affect professional attempts to house homeless populations. It conveys the challenges that social service providers encounter while fitting their clients into the criteria for housing eligibility, the opposition they receive, and the innovative approaches they ultimately take to optimize housing placements for their clients who are, or were formerly, experiencing homelessness. Weaving as it does between issues of poverty, social inequality, and social policy, Homelessness and Housing Advocacy will appeal to courses in social work, sociology, and public policy and fill a void for early-career professionals in housing and community services. Published by Routledge.