France Winddance Twine facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
France Winddance Twine
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France Winddance Twine in 2022
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| Born | 1960 (age 64–65) |
| Nationality | Muscogee Nation, American |
| Alma mater | St. Thomas Aquinas Dominican H.S. Northwestern University University of California Berkeley |
| Occupation | Sociologist, filmmaker |
| Known for | Racial literacy, geek capital, photo elicitation interviews visual sociology; critical race theory; whiteness studies; racial, gender and class inequalities; interracial families |
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| Institutions | Duke University Stanford University University of California, Berkeley University of Washington University of California, Santa Barbara London School of Economics |
France Winddance Twine (born 1960) is a talented Black and Native American sociologist. A sociologist studies how people live together in groups and how societies work. She is also an ethnographer, which means she studies cultures by living among the people she wants to understand. She is also a visual artist and a documentary filmmaker.
Professor Twine has traveled to places like Brazil, the UK, and the United States to research important topics. She studies things like race, racism, and how people fight against racism. She has written 11 books and over 100 articles about her findings.
In 2020, she received a special award called the Distinguished Career Award. This award was given by the Race, Class, and Gender section of the American Sociological Association. It recognized her important work in sociology. She was also the first sociologist to write a detailed study about everyday racism in rural Brazil. This was after Brazil became a democracy again.
Early life
France Winddance Twine grew up in Chicago, Illinois. Her grandfather, Paul Twine, Sr., was a very important person in the Civil Rights Movement. He helped start the Catholic Interracial Council of Chicago. This group brought together people from different backgrounds, like Irish, Italian, German, Polish, and Black Catholics, to work for fairness and equality for everyone.
Education and Career
France Winddance Twine went to Northwestern University. She then earned her master's degree and Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley. She has been a research fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. In 2007, she was a special visiting professor at the London School of Economics.
She has taught at many famous universities, including Duke University and the University of Washington in Seattle. Professor Twine is also an enrolled member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma.
Professor Twine has held important roles in the world of sociology. She was a deputy editor for the American Sociological Review. This is a very important journal for sociologists. She also helps guide other journals, like Sociology (the journal of the British Sociological Association) and Social Problems.
Her research looks at how different parts of our lives, like race, gender, and social class, connect and create inequalities. She has written books about many topics, including:
- Outsourcing the Womb: Race, Class and Gestational Surrogacy in a Global Market (2015)
- Geographies of Privilege (2013)
- Girls With Guns: Firearms, Feminism and Militarism (2012)
- A White Side of Black Britain: Interracial Intimacy and Racial Literacy (2010)
- Racism in a Racial Democracy: the maintenance of white supremacy in Brazil (1997)
One of her most important ideas is called racial literacy. This idea helps people understand how race works in society and how to talk about racism. She first wrote about this idea in a journal article in 2004 and then in her book A White Side of Black Britain.
Her current research explores inequality in Silicon Valley. She also studies how gestational surrogacy works across different countries.
Academic positions and honors
Professor Twine has received many awards and held important positions throughout her career:
- 2020: She received the Distinguished Career Award from the American Sociological Association.
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Twine receiving an honorary degree alongside Oprah Winfrey in 2019 - 2019: She was given an honorary degree (Doctorate in Humane Letters honoris causa) from Colorado College. This is a special degree given to honor someone's achievements.
- 2014-2015: She was a Scholar in Residence at the Beatrice Bain Research Group at the University of California, Berkeley.
- 2008-2009: She was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.
- 2007: She was a Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics.
- 2002–present: She has been a Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
- 2001: She received a fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center.
Film productions
- Just Black?: Multiracial Identity in the U.S., (1990): This documentary film explores what it means to have a mixed racial identity in the United States.
