Kristin Luker (Emeritus)

Luker

Before joining the Boalt faculty and the UC Berkeley Department of Sociology in 1986, Kristin Luker taught in the sociology department at UC San Diego (UCSD) for 11 years. In 1993-94, she visited at Princeton University as the Doris Stevens Professor of Women’s Studies and Professor of Sociology. Luker was apponted to the Elizabeth Josselyn Boalt Chair in 2006.

She has received several awards, including Ford and Guggenheim fellowships, a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship and the Outstanding Faculty Award from the Alumni Association of UCSD. In 1997 she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1993 she was chosen as one of three sociologists to meet with President Clinton to discuss “issues confronting the nation,” and in 1994 the White House solicited her testimony on teenage pregnancy.

Luker is the author of Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood (which received the Cooley Award and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize) and Taking Chances: Abortion and the Decision Not to Contracept. Her book, Dubious Conceptions, published in 1995, was selected as New York Times Notable Book of the Year. She has now recently published her fourth book, When Sex Goes to School: Warring Views on Sex — and Sex Education — Since the Sixties, which is about sex education controversies in the United States.

Selected Awards

1998 Open Society Institute Individual Project Fellowship
1997 Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
1997 National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship
1996 Dubious Conceptions selected as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year
1995 Elected to Sociological Research Association (membership limited to 150 active members.)
1994 Testimony solicited on teenage pregnancy, The White House
1993 Chosen as one of three sociologists to meet with President Clinton to discuss “issues confronting the nation.”
1992 Chosen to give the Katz-Newcombe lectures, University of Michigan.
1990 Commonwealth Fund, Grant
1988 Spencer Foundation, Grant
1987 Ford Foundation, Grant
1986 Invited to Center for Advanced Study for the Behavioral Sciences, Palo Alto
1985 John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship
1985 Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction. Charles Horton Cooley Award. (Awarded to Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood.)
1984 Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood nominated for Pulitzer Prize.
1984 Warren College, UCSD, Distinguished Teaching Award.
1979 American Sociological Association. Jessie Bernard Award, Honorable Mention. (Awarded to Taking Chances: Abortion and the Decision Not to Contracept.)

Professor Luker’s faculty profile, bio, and other information can be found here.