The following profile was originally published in the Fall 2023 issue of Footnotes.
Introducing Joya Misra, 2024 ASA President
Joya Misra, Provost Professor and Roy J. Zuckerberg Endowed Leadership Chair of Sociology and Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, is a brilliant, fierce, caring, and feminist sociologist who is steadfast in her commitment to making the American Sociological Association a welcoming place for all. Misra’s pathbreaking corpus of sociological work spans subfields of race/gender/class, political sociology, welfare states, family, work and labor, and centers on the mechanisms that produce, exacerbate, and retrench intersectional inequalities in society. What’s more, Misra builds on this research to be a staunch advocate of engaged sociology, to inform social policy, and intervene in political struggles. Mentoring is Misra’s highest calling, and she has created communities of support for feminist scholars both within and outside of sociology. These commitments to the field and its people have not gone unnoticed. Misra is the recipient of numerous awards for her scholarship, public sociology, and mentorship, and is now the 2023-2024 President of the American Sociological Association.
Sociological Beginnings
After living in Kentucky and Ohio, Misra moved to the city of Shreveport, Louisiana, at 9, where her family was one of very few immigrant families. Her father, a medical school professor, came from a poor family in India and was, at the age of 16, serendipitously sponsored by a stranger to pursue his post-secondary education in Kolkata, India. Her mother, an immigrant from Switzerland, excelled at math and sciences, but had very limited educational opportunities as a woman, and worked as a laboratory technician. Misra was inspired by her parents’ passion for research and commitment to supporting better outcomes for children. Misra attended Rhodes College in Memphis for a year after which she moved to Centenary College of Louisiana, where she earned her B.A. majoring in religion. She attended graduate school in sociology at Emory University. There, she would go on to produce brilliant, groundbreaking feminist research on comparative political economies.
An Intellectual Tour de Force
Make no mistake, Misra is an intellectual giant. Her impressive list of publications includes four books, and more than one hundred articles, book chapters, reviews, and reports; she has also brought more than six million dollars of external funding to University of Massachusetts-Amherst (UMass-Amherst) with her collaborators.
Misra’s critical contribution to the canon of sociology began with her groundbreaking dissertation research examining the role of women’s movements, labor movements, and social Catholic movements in comparative welfare state’s provisioning for families. In the largely cismale-dominated fields of political and economic sociology, Misra unapologetically pursued feminist research on caring labor as productive, though devalued, labor, well before these issues became prominent areas of sociological inquiry.
While her early mainstream political economy work with her advisor, Alexander Hicks, appeared in the American Sociological Review (ASR) and American Journal of Sociology (AJS), she soon learned that she had to seek different venues for her feminist political economy research. (Read the ASR paper here and the AJS paper here.) One early paper in the esteemed journal Gender & Society, “Mothers or Workers?: The Value of Women’s Labor: Women and the Emergence of Family Allowance Policy,” uncovered how women-friendly state policies require an active women’s movement that promotes ideologies valuing women’s paid and unpaid labor. Her work has since expanded to advance the study of intersectional inequalities of race, ethnicity, class, gender, and citizenship in the areas of work and labor, family, migration, and comparative welfare states, publishing empirical, theoretical, and methodological articles on these topics.
Misra was among the first in the academy to integrate critical race feminist theorization within normatively white and masculine subfields of sociology, such as political and economic sociology. This began early in her career as an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Georgia (UGA), when Misra examined policy efforts to ameliorate labor market segregation and wage inequalities impacting Black women and Latinas. Her groundbreaking 2003 article published in the Annual Review of Sociology with Irene Browne, “The Intersection of Gender and Race in the Labor Market,” built on the brilliant work of Deborah Karyn King, while also paving the way for an explosion of intersectional sociological labor scholarship for decades to come.
Misra’s scholarly impact is global. We see this in her work on the globalization of care work and reproductive labor migration; the cross-national variation in gendered employment, wages, and poverty, including the motherhood penalty; and the comparative gendered, classed, and racialized outcomes of the neoliberalization of welfare state policies. She has presented her research across the globe, and has been an active participant in the RC19 Poverty, Social Welfare and Social Policy Research Committee of the International Sociological Association for decades.
In 2022, Misra published Walking Mannequins: How Race and Gender Inequalities Shape Retail Clothing Work (University of California Press) with her collaborator Kyla Walters. This work offers unprecedented insights into the entrenchment of racial, sexual, classed, and gendered dynamics of service workplace inequality. Walking Mannequins also bears the mark of Misra’s intellectual project as it offers generative and practical solutions for real, positive change.
To wit, Misra has also produced immensely important research on inequalities in academia. Misra covers a diverse range of issues in this critical work, including representation and inclusion, workload disparities, neoliberal logics in faculty evaluations, and intersectional pandemic impacts on faculty. Laurel Westbrook, professor, Sociology Department, Grand Valley State University, reflects, “Sociology as a discipline is profoundly better because of the work Joya has done and continues to do.”
Leading Fiercely, with an Intersectional Ethic of Care
Do not let Misra’s kind, soft-spoken, and down-to-earth demeanor fool you. As a leader, Misra is a true force to be reckoned with. Unafraid to speak truth to power within the often-stodgy halls of the ivory tower, Misra is well-known for her generosity, allyship, and commitment to social justice. She “actively works to lift up voices not commonly centered in sociology,” says Westbrook. In a profession where a neoliberal culture of competition can easily thrive, Misra’s commitment to social justice is paired with an unwavering ethic of care. Veronica Montes, associate professor of sociology and co-director of Latin American, Iberian, and Latina/o Studies at Bryn Mawr College, remarks, “Joya combines intellectual rigor with respect, solidarity, patience, and care… Her generosity, collegiality, and respectful and attentive listening define Joya as an extraordinary colleague.” Poulami Roychowdhury, associate professor of international and public affairs at Brown University’s Watson Institute, reflects, “Joya embodies unflagging kindness and intellectual generosity.”
Misra’s leadership roles at UMass-Amherst are exhaustive and too many to detail in one short biography. At the university she has been vice president of the faculty union, directed the Institute for Social Science Research, as well as helped lead UMass ADVANCE, a program funded by the National Science Foundation, to advance women and faculty of color in science and engineering.
She has held several positions at ASA. Misra previously served as Vice President (2018-2021), served on Council (2010-2013), chaired the Sex & Gender (2021-2022) and Race, Gender & Class sections (2010-2011), and served on Section council for Political Sociology (2003-2006) and Political Economy of the World System (1998-2001). Outside ASA, she was also the editor of Gender & Society from 2011 to 2015.
Misra leads with intention in all her roles, a trait that has garnered admiration and trust by so many around her. Kimberly Kay Hoang, professor of sociology and director of Global Studies, University of Chicago, reflects, “Joya leads with a deep sense of purpose, community, and a commitment to projects of social justice much bigger than herself.” Of her tenure as editor of Gender & Society, Wendy Simonds, professor, Department of Sociology, Georgia State University, notes, “She has shaped feminist scholarship and scholars in profound ways.” Indeed, Joya’s work to increase Gender & Society’s publication of feminist scholarship advancing anti-racist, decolonial, queer, and transnational theorizing was and remains enormously transformative to the field.
An Engaged Public Intellectual
In a world where public sociology is increasingly needed, Misra stands as an exemplary model of how to do public scholarship and help transform the world into a more equitable one. But don’t just take our word for it. Simonds notes, “Everything Joya does is motivated by her commitment to social justice.” LaTonya Trotter, associate professor, Department of Bioethics and Humanities, UW Medicine, shares “When most people speak about being a ‘public scholar,’ they mean translating their work from the academy to the larger public. But Joya has put her scholarship to work in the public realm, through thinking about, for example, how what we know about gender and racial inequality in the workplace can be used to improve those workplaces.”
Misra’s collaborative work on academic inequalities has appeared in more than thirty columns in Inside Higher Ed, providing clear approaches to how to make universities more inclusive and equitable, including those related to inequalities exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. With her then-UMass-Amherst collaborators Dessie Clark and Ethel Mickey, Misra developed the TREE model to help institutions support faculty, including women faculty and faculty of color, given the uneven impact of the pandemic on faculty.
Misra regularly contributes to outlets like The Conversation, is quoted in respected news sources such as the New York Times, and is interviewed by radio and television outlets. Her commitment to bringing sociological scholarship to the public also extended to her time as editor of Gender & Society, where she and her managing editors, including Mahala Dyer Stewart, initiated the Gender & Society blog. Stewart, assistant professor of sociology, Hamilton College, notes, “The blog was her vision for making the journal more widely accessible not only in the U.S., but in other parts of the world for those who may not have access to the journal.” These are just a few examples of Misra’s public engagement. In 2022, the Eastern Sociological Society awarded Misra its Public Sociology Award.
A Celebrated, Caring Mentor
Although we could speak to Misra’s mentoring from a personal basis and our own observations, we have heard time and time again from colleagues both inside and outside her institution about the depth of Misra’s mentoring. Enobong (Anna) Branch, senior vice president for equity, Rutgers University, noted that earlier in her career, Misra provided extensive and thoughtful mentoring, sharing that “…her availability and attention are unparalleled.”
Undoubtedly, Misra has been a consistent guide to early-career scholars, including her many students at UMass-Amherst and UGA. She has served on more than 50 doctoral committees, chaired another 19, and served on 55 masters/comprehensive exam committees, and chaired another 40. And of course, this doesn’t include her mentorship to faculty members across the university, and students and faculty in the larger world. Many were guided by Misra’s thoughtful hand, even while she had a substantial doctoral mentoring load at UMass-Amherst. For instance, Trotter shares, “Joya and I have never shared the same institution, but she has been one of the most phenomenal mentors to me, personally. Considering that she has mentored so many of her own PhD students speaks volumes to her commitment and generosity in mentoring early career scholars.”
Misra’s mentoring labor has created a feminist ripple effect, modeling feminist mentorship to early-career scholars who then use Misra’s advice to guide their own students. Certainly, we have followed this tradition—thinking about advising doctoral students, we sometimes hear in the back of our minds—what would Joya do? This is a loyal voice guiding us with the goal of care and holistic mentoring. Similarly, Nikki Khanna, professor of sociology, University of Vermont, reflects, “She modeled what it meant to be a good mentor, and I always think of her amazing example when I work with my own students.” Echoing this sentiment, Hoang wrote, “Joya is an incredible feminist mentor who has mentored so many people with respect to their scholarship and advancement in the profession. She is thoughtful, generous, and a model for so many of us.” It is no surprise, then, that Misra has been recognized for her mentorship, including the Feminist Mentoring Award given by Sociologists for Women in Society.
Importantly, Misra mentors with an ethic of care and a commitment to the whole person. “Joya is a holistic mentor,” reflects Sonny Nordmarken, assistant professor of sociology, Georgia State University. “She has always taken me, my work, and my well-being seriously. I hope I may act with such generosity myself, as a mentor.” Misra’s caring for her colleagues through her holistic mentorship is indeed a reflection of her feminist sociological praxis in action.
2024 Meeting Theme: Intersectional Solidarities: Building Communities of Hope, Justice, and Joy
All of these efforts remind us how Misra’s ethic of care extends beyond the academy. Truly, the ASA 2024 Annual Meeting theme titled “Intersectional Solidarities: Building Communities of Hope, Justice, and Joy” is an invitation for transformative change. With Misra’s leadership, we look at and beyond our discipline to strive for intersectional justice. Misra’s theme should inspire conversations of hope that cross disciplinary and institutional boundaries. It is a call to re-imagine a more caring, healing, and joyful future and present.
By Celeste Curington, Boston University and Cassaundra Rodriguez, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
