Nancy Riley

Professor of Sociology

On leave of absence for the spring semester of the 2012-13 academic year.

Fall 2012

  • Advanced Independent Study and Honors in Africana Studies (AFRS 401)
  • Gender and Family in East Asia (ASIAN 264)
  • Introduction to Sociology (SOC 101A)
Phone 725-3636
Title Professor
Department Sociology And Anthropology
Work Location 211 Adams Hall
E-Mail nriley@bowdoin.edu

Education

B.A (University of Pennsylvania), M.A. (University of Hawai`i), M.P.H. (University of Hawai`i), PhD (Johns Hopkins University)

Nancy Riley is a sociologist whose research focuses on family, gender and population and China. She is currently working on a monograph (working title: Laboring in Paradise: Gender, Work, and Family in a Chinese Economic Zone) based on her research in Dalian on the family lives of women factory workers.

Courses taught include Sociology of Gender, Sociological Perspectives on China, Contemporary Chinese Societies, Families, and Introduction to Human Population. Through a grant from the Freeman Foundation, she was able to offer an unusual set of courses (AS 261/2) in which she spent 5-6 weeks in Asia with a group of students as part of their regular Bowdoin coursework. In spring 2001, the group went to China and Vietnam for 5 weeks; in spring 2002, another group traveled to Japan and China.

Asian Studies 262 class in Tiananmen Square, 2002

Asian Studies 262 class in Tiananmen Square, 2002.


Recent publications include:

Demography in the Age of the Postmodern. (with James McCarthy); Cambridge University Press, (August, 2003.

Demography in the Age of the Postmodern.

"Planning an Indian modernity: The gendered politics of fertility control." (with Nilanjana Chatterjee) Signs 2001.

"Challenging Demography: Contributions from Feminist Theory." Sociological Forum 1999.