Susan J. Ferguson

Teaching Spring 2023 only.

Susan Ferguson is Professor of Sociology at Grinnell College, where she has taught for 25 years. Ferguson regularly teaches Introduction to Sociology, and her critically acclaimed anthology, Mapping the Social Landscape: Readings in Sociology (Sage, 2018) is used in introductory classes around the country. Ferguson also teaches courses on the family, medical sociology, and a seminar on social inequality and identity. Ferguson has published in all of these areas, including the research collection, Breast Cancer: Society Shapes an Epidemic (with co-editor Anne Kasper, Palgrave, 2000), Shifting the Center: Understanding Contemporary Families (McGraw-Hill, 2011), and most recently, Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Social Class: Dimensions of Inequality & Identity (Sage, 2016). In addition, Ferguson is the General Editor for Contemporary Family Perspectives, which is a series of research monographs and short texts on the family (Sage Publications). 

In 2005, Ferguson trained to become a department consultant and member of the Department Resources Group (DRG) for the American Sociological Association. ASA DRG consultants are hired to review departments, help with assessment, mentor sociology colleagues, or address particular concerns with curriculum or departmental structure. Ferguson also is active in the ASA Section on Teaching and Learning, and she regularly offers teaching workshops at regional and national meetings.  She recently co-authored the Measuring College Learning White Paper in Sociology (Jossey-Bass, 2016), and she was co-chair of the ASA Task Force on Liberal Learning and the Sociology Major, which published The Sociology Major in the Changing Landscape of Higher Education: Curriculum, Careers, and Online Learning.

Publications: 

• Editor. Eighth Edition. Mapping the Social Landscape: Readings in Sociology. Los Angeles: Sage Publishing Company. 2018. 
• "Measuring College Learning in Sociology."  Improving Quality in Higher Education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 2016. Co-author is William Carbonaro.
• Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Social Class Dimensions of Inequality & Identity. Los Angeles: Sage Publications. 2016.
• Editor. Contemporary Family Perspectives Series. Los Angeles: Sage Publications. 2011-2016. 
• Editor. Fourth Edition. Shifting the Center: Understanding Contemporary Families. New York: McGraw Hill Publishing Company. 2011. 
• Editor. Breast Cancer: Society Shapes an Epidemic. New York: Palgrave. Co-editor is Anne S. Kasper. December 2000.