Irene BrowneProfessor

• PhD in Sociology, University of Arizona, 1991
• MA in Sociology, Queens College, City University of New York, 1987
• BA in Psychology, University of California at Santa Cruz, 1979

My areas of expertise include race and ethnic relations; race/class/gender intersectionality; public policy; and immigration.

I interrogate the relation between race, social class, and immigration in my recently published book, Precarious Privilege: Race and the Middle class Immigrant Experience (Russell Sage Foundation 2024). The book is based on interviews with middle class Mexican and Dominican immigrant parents in the Atlanta metro area. In addition, Prof. Beth Reingold and I are engaged in an NSF-sponsored major project on Black Elites and the Racial Politics of Immigration. Building on our 2018 Social Forces article, we examine how Black political elites have been responding to and engaging in immigration politics in the American states. We compare patterns of voting on immigration legislation among Black and White state legislators, and we analyze media coverage of immigration issues. I am also working with graduate student, Temi Alao, to look at Black elite stances towards immigration through a DuBoisian lens. Finally, I have a set of papers focusing on the question of whether and how restrictive immigration policies spill over to affect labor market outcomes among individuals who are not the explicit target of those policies – Latinx citizens and African Americans. 

My work has appeared in the American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Social Problems, Annual Review of Sociology, and other journals and edited volumes. I typically teach undergraduate and graduate courses in research methods and in gender. 

Research Topics: labor market inequality; intersections of race, gender and class; discrimination and Latino immigration in Georgia.

• SOC 190: Gender, Race, Inequality: Evidence?
• SOC 225: Sociology and Sex and Gender
• SOC 225-OLA: Sociology of Sex and Gender (Online Version)
• SOC 355W: Research Methods in Sociology
• SOC 501: Research Methods and Models: Design
• SOC 585: Sociology of Sex and Gender
• SOC 585: Sociological Approaches to Intersectionality