Hesse-Biber: Home

Sharlene Hesse-Biber is a Professor of Sociology at Boston College. She is also director and founder of the National Association for Women in Catholic Higher Education (NAWCHE).

Hesse-Biber’s most recent co-authored book, Working Women in America: Split Dreams ( Oxford University Press, 2005 ) explores the persistent issues women face in combining their work and family and provides strategies for companies and their employees in bridging the work-family divide. Her forthcoming book, The Cult of Thinness (Oxford, 2005) provides an in-depth look at American women’s obsession with their bodies and the societal forces that propel them to engage in widespread social, political and economic rituals to obtain a slender figure. Hesse-Biber is author of the award winning book: Am I Thin Enough Yet? ( Oxford, 1996). She looks at why American women are obsessed with thinness and what causes record numbers of young girls to suffer from eating disorders. She provides a new lens onto these issues with a powerful indictment against the social, political and economic pressures all women face in a weight-obsessed society.

Hesse-Biber’s work on body image and eating disorders has been cited by The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Christian Science Monitor as well as in a range of women’s magazines, such as Glamour, Shape and Cosmopolitan.

Curriculum Vitae
404 McGuinn Hall
140 Commonwealth Avenue
Chestnut Hill, MA.
02467-3807
Tel: (617) 552-4139
e-mail: hesse@bc.edu

Hesse-Biber has published widely in the field of research methodology.
She is coeditor of several new volumes, Approaches to Qualitative Research ( Oxford, 2004), Feminist Perspectives on Social Research ( Oxford, 2004), Feminist Approaches to Theory and Methodology (Oxford, 2004) and has just completed two co-authored publications, The Practice of Qualitative Research (Sage, 2005 ) and Emergent Methods in Social Research ( Sage, 2005). She and her colleagues at ResearchWare.com have developed a qualitative software program, HyperRESEARCH, as well as a new exciting transcribing tool, HyperTranscribe.

Hesse-Biber is a graduate of the University of Michigan (B.A., M.A., Ph.D.) in sociology. Her scholarly articles appear in journal such as Gender and Society, Women’s Studies International Forum, The Social Science Computer Review, Sex Roles, Qualitative Sociology. She was named Sociologist of the Year by the New England Sociological Association (2002).

Hesse-Biber has lectured throughout the United States and has given invited lectures in Sweden, Japan and China. Her research on eating disorders has gained National prominence in the media ( Boston Globe, Boston Herald Boston Magazine, and evem some international newspapers). Dr. Hesse-Biber has also appeared on several National Television Shows, including the CBS Sunday Morning News.

Recently, Dr. Hesse-Biber was appointed the new Director of Women’s Studies and will serve a three year term from 2006-2008.

Dr. Hesse-Biber was also re- appointed a member of the Newton Commission for Women by David B. Cohen, Mayor of the City of Newton.