Enid Lynette Logan
Assistant Professor
Ph.D. 2005 University of Michigan
Room 956 Social Sciences
612-624-3598
elogan@umn.edu
Interest Areas
U.S., Latin American, and Caribbean Race Relations; Intersectionality (Race, Class & Gender), Family, Marriage & Gender; Multicultural Feminism; Historical Sociology; Sociology of Law; Cultural Sociology; and Sociology of the Media.
Current Research
(Book Manuscript in Progress) “Rooted in the Black Community but Not Limited To It, Barack Obama’s Presidential Candidacy and the Transformation of Racial Politics in the Post Civil-Rights U.S." The key issue addressed in this book is how Obama’s presidential candidacy highlights and transforms the politics of race in the contemporary U.S. Themes to be explored include Obama’s challenge to hegemonic constructs of American national identity, his expansion of the concept of “blackness,” his rhetoric of personal responsibility and the exacerbation of class divisions within the black community, “post-racial” identities versus identity politics, debates about the relative primacy of gender and race, defining “good” black politicians (Obama) and “bad” ones (Jackson, Sharpton), and how to play the new politics of race in the “post-post” civil rights U.S.—to win. The primary data for the study consists of editorials, articles, blogs, cable tv, news radio, and other forms of public speech.
“Youth Speak! Perspectives on Race and Gender in the 2008 Presidential Election”. This study is based upon over 100 in-depth face to face interviews, conducted during the general election, with university students ages 18-29. Students discuss the roles of race and gender in the presidential election, focusing on the candidacy of Senator Obama. Among the questions we ask are—Which would be more historical, significant, or important for the country, the selection of our first black president, or our first female president, and why? Do you think that race was more of a hindrance or a help for Senator Obama? How do you think that gender or sexism shaped the candidacies of Clinton and Palin? What have you learned about this country, other people, or even yourself, through the process of watching this election?
"On Dreams Deferred and American Dreams--Black Perspectives on Immigration and the Future of Race in America." The central questions animating this study are, how do native blacks feel about the new Americans--both those who are categorized as "black," and those labeled as Latino, Asian, or "other?" How do African-Americans believe that the increasing presence of immigrants will change the racial landscape of the U.S. in the 21st century?
"To Join Together the Children of God”: Apprehending Cuba’s Post-Colonial Racial Hierarchy through an Analysis of Catholic Marital Records. On the basis of quantitative analyses of 14,500 martial registries from three historic parishes in the city of Havana, I examine the practice of marriage during Cuba's first constitutional era. The primary aim of this study is to use marriage as a lens through which to elucidate the structure and dynamics of the social construct of race.
Recent Publications
"The 1899 Cuban Marriage Law Controversy: Church, State and Empire in the Crucible of Nation.” Journal of Social History, Vol 42. no 2: 469-494.
"The Crack Baby Panic,” in Deviance: The Interactionist Perspective, 9th ed., 2005, E. Rubington and M. Weinberg, eds. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
"Conspirators, Pawns, Patriots and Brothers: Race and Politics in Western Cuba, 1906-1909.” 2000. Political Power and Social Theory, 14: 3-51.
"El apóstol y el comandante en jefe: Racial Discourses and Practices in Cuba 1890- 1999.” 1999. Pp. 195-213 in The Global Color Line: Racial and Ethnic Inequality and Struggle from a Global Perspective, J. Feagin and P. John Batur-VanderLippe, eds. Stamford, CT: JAI Press.