Laurie Essig (Ph.D. Columbia University)
Professor Essig is interested in the relationship between power and pleasure. She teaches courses in the sociology of freakishness, the sociology of heterosexuality, the sociology of pleasure, and theory (sociological, gender, and sexuality). .
She is the author of Queer in Russia: A Story of Sex, Self, and the Other (Duke University Press, 1999), "The Mermaid and the Heterosexual Imagination," in Chrys Ingraham, ed. Thinking Straight, and a variety of personal essays in places as varied as Salon, NPR's "All Things Considered," and Legal Affairs. Her current work, tentatively titled Plastic: A Theory of the Material World, is on the intersection of plastic surgery with a plastic (credit) driven economy.
She taught at the University of Vermont, Yale, and Columbia before coming to Middlebury.
Education:
Ph.D. Columbia University, New York, New York. Department of Sociology. Awarded with Distinction, 1996.
M.A. Columbia University, New York, New York. Department of Sociology. Awarded 1993.
M.I.A. Columbia University, New York, New York. School of International and Public Affairs. Awarded 1990.
B.A. Franklin and Marshall College. Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Awarded 1987.
Academic Positions:
Assistant Professor of Sociology,Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont. Fall 2006-unknown. Undergraduate courses that I will teach include: “Social Psychology,” “Sociology of Gender,” “Sociology of Freakishness,” “Sociology of Heterosexuality.”
Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont. Fall 2005-Present.. Undergraduate courses taught: “Foundations of Sociological Theory,” “Social Problems,” “Sociology of Heterosexuality,” “Sociology of Freakishness.” Organized seminar by internationally renowned performance artist Janice Perry for students on “Performing Gender and Identity.” Organized talks by Jennifer Miller, founder of Circus Amok, and performance theorist Jennifer Arave.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont. Fall 2003-Spring 2005. Undergraduate courses taught: “Social Problems,” “Sociology of Heterosexuality,” “Sociology of Pleasure,” “Sociology of Freakishness,” Introduction to LGBTQ Studies,” “Introduction to Sociology,” and an independent study on the “Sociology of Sport.”
Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology and Lesbian and Gay Studies, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. Fall 2000-Spring 2001. Undergraduate courses taught: “A Sociology of Pleasure,” “Introduction to Lesbian and Gay Studies,” “A Sociology of Heterosexuality.” Organized a lecture series on “The Power of Pleasure.”
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Sociology, Barnard College, New York, New York. Spring 2000. Undergraduate courses taught: “Gender and Deviance,” “Gender, Class, and Race.”
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Sociology, Columbia University, New York, New York. Fall 1996-1997. Undergraduate courses taught: “Gender and Deviance,” “The Sociological Imagination.” Graduate seminar taught: “Sociology of Gender.”
Instructor of Sociology, Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut. Spring 1995. Undergraduate courses taught: “Sexuality and Gender.”
Teaching Assistant, Columbia University, New York, New York. Fall 1991-Fall 1993. Courses assisted: “Sociology of Gender,” “Sociology of Culture.”
Honors and Awards:
Nominated for a Kroepsch-Maurice Award for excellence in teaching, Spring 2006.
Harriman Institute for Post-Soviet Postdoctoral Fellowship, Columbia University, New York, New York, 1997.
Social Science Research Council Dissertation Writing Grant, 1995.
International Research and Exchange (IREX) board (supported by the National
Endowment for Humanities) Dissertation Research Grant, 1994.
Lazarsfeld Fellowship, Columbia University, New York, New York., 1991-1993.
Dean’s Fellowship, Columbia University, New York, New York, 1988-1990.
Phi Beta Kappa, 1987.
Books:
Queer in Russia: A Story of Sex, Self, and the Other (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999). Queer in Russia was the first book-length academic study of sexual otherness in Russia. I used extensive field research (e.g. interviews, surveys, participant observation) and cultural analysis (e.g. of theater, music, graffiti) to examine how Russian queers imagine themselves and how they are imagined in Russian culture at large.
Plasticity: A Theory of the Material World. My current research is on the intersection of plastic identities with a plastic (credit-based) economy and the plastic surgery industry. I am looking at plastic gender (transgendered persons); plastic class (plastic surgery makeover shows that reshape the working class body into a privileged one); plastic race (plastic surgeries that “correct” the stigmata of racial otherness); plastic species (persons who attempt to become animals); broken plastic (persons who cut off pieces of their bodies- known as “amputee wannabes”); and conclude with “the future’s in plastics” (how new technologies allow us to reshape the human body before it is even born).
Academic Publications:
“My Detachable Phallus,” Journal of Lesbian Studies, forthcoming.
“The Pleasure of Freaks,” Proteus, Fall 2005.
“The Mermaid and the Heterosexual Imagination,” Thinking Straight: The Power, Promise, and Paradox of Heterosexuality, Chrys Ingraham, ed. (New York, Routledge, 2004).
“Queer Subjects and Subjecitivites” in Consuming Russia: Popular Culture, Sex, and Society Since Gorbachev. Adele Barker, ed. (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1998).
“Perestroika for Women?” in Perestroika from Below, Judith Seditis and James Butterfield, eds. (Boulder: Westview Press, 1993).
Book Reviews of:
Eros and Pornography in Russian Culture by M. Levitt and A Torporkov, eds. In Slavic Review, 2002.
Transmen and FTMs by Jason Cromwell in American Journal of Sociology, 2001.
Cracks in the Iron Closet by David Tuller in Journal of Homosexuality, 1998.
Additional Publications:
Essays published in:
Jennifer Foote Sweeney, Life as We Know It, (New York: Washington Square Press, 2003).
William E. Rivers, ed. The Carolina Reader: A Collection of Exemplary Essays 2003-04 and 2004-05 (Columbia, SC: The University of South Carolina Press).
Regular contributor to Salon magazine, 1998-2002.
Contributing Editor to 7 Days Vermont, 2001-2002.
Contributor to Legal Affairs, 2003-2004.
Contributor to NPR’s “All Things Considered,” 2003-2004.
Community Service:
Commissioner, President’s Commission on LGBT Issues, University of Vermont, Fall 2005-present.
Member faculty committee for Sexuality and Gender Identity Studies , University of Vermont, Fall 2004-present.