Dr. Jessica Marie Shotwell

Bio

I am a Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow in the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies and the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Originally from Memphis, I received my Ph.D. and M.A. in Sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park and B.S. in Sociology from Middle Tennessee State University. My areas of expertise are race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, political sociology, sociology of education, and medical sociology. I am a sociologist of race, gender, education, and health whose mixed-methods research examines Black social movements and how institutions shape Black women and girls' experiences of social mobility, stress, coping, and well-being across the life course.  

Using qualitative and quantitative methods, my research encompasses three interconnected areas: (1) Black feminist theory and intersectionality; (2) the sociology of education and social mobility; and (3) health inequities, stress, and the life course. Across these lines of research, my record includes publications in Women, Gender, and Families of Color, Annals of Global Health, and Contexts. My research and training have been supported by the National Science Foundation, the UCLA Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, and, most recently, a UCLA Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research (RCMAR) Center for Health Innovation and Maximizing Eldercare (CHIME)/Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) Pilot Project Award.