Social construction of race and ethnicity, globalization, research methods, applied sociology, visual sociology
Joan Ferrante is an educator, author, consultant, speaker, filmmaker and founder-director of The Mourning the Creation of Racial Categories (MCRC) Project. MCRC is a highly collaborative and interpretive project that uses dance, music, theater, poetry, and visualization to tell the human stories of separation, abandonment, and neglect behind the creation of racial categories in the U.S. One hallmark of the MCRC Project is that discussions of race are infused with art, which promotes engagement, not defensiveness.
While teaching courses about race, Ferrante observed her students wrestling with the weight of their racial classification. After teaching for over 30 years, she became convinced that academic concepts alone, however compelling, were not enough to engage students in deeply meaningful ways. She invited students and faculty to collaborate on a project that would engage audiences creatively and emotionally with race - and The MCRC Project was born. They will soon release their fifth film on race. For more on the films and other projects, go to:
Additionally, I am always doing research to update two textbooks, Sociology: A Global Perspective (9th edition) and Seeing Sociology (3rd edition). In Sociology: A Global Perspective I present globalization as an ever-accelerating force pulling people, groups, organization, communities and countries into a web of transnational relationships. Globalization is a social force that is experienced and launched locally. In the latest edition I emphasize key dynamics underlying globalization including industrial food, mass surveillance and a knowledge economy and the changing environment.
In Seeing Sociology: An Introduction the book capitalizes on the instructional value of photographs as tools for provoking thought and clarifying abstract concepts. Photographs, captions and text are seamlessly integrated and have equal significance in showcasing how sociologists observe, interpret and analyze the world around them. In connection to the third edition of this textbook, NKU photography major and sociology minor Rachel Ellison has been awarded an Undergraduate Research Council Award to travel to Washington, DC, the four poorest counties in Kentucky and the U.S. border with Mexico to take photographs for the textbook. We are fortune to have professor of visual arts, Barbara Houghton as consultant and mentor to Rachel.
