faculty

Meredith Whitnah, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Sociology and the Chair of the Sociology Department
(805) 565-6163

Office Location

Deane Hall 210

Office Available

Please email for an appointment. 

Specialization(s)

Teaching Interests: Sociology of Gender; Sociology of Race & Ethnicity; Sociology of Religion; Social Theory.

Research Interests

Research Interests: Religion in Global Perspective; Intersectionality; Gender and Gender-Based Violence; Cultural Sociology.

Biography/Details

Dr. Whitnah graduated from Gordon College with a major in gender studies through the Kenneth L Pike Honors Program. She earned a master’s degree and a doctorate in sociology at the University of Notre Dame, specializing in gender, religion, culture and social theory. She studies the role of religion in both perpetuating and mitigating different forms of social inequality, and is particularly interested in how organizations form responses to social issues. Her current book project, under contract with Rutgers University Press, is tentatively titled titled “Faith and the Fragility of Justice: Religious Responses to Gender-Based Violence in South Africa.”  This historical study investigates how faith-based NGOs in South Africa that had resisted apartheid have addressed gender-based violence.