Professor of Sociology
Dunavant University Professor
Department of Sociology
University of Memphis
Clement Hall, Room 303
Memphis TN 38152

Phone: (901) 678-3349
Fax: (901) 678-2525
wrushing@memphis.edu

Wanda Rushing is Professor of Sociology and Dunavant University Professor. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee in 1998. Her primary research interests include the political economy of development, racial and social inequality, education and economic development in the U.S. South, and urban change.

Dr. Rushing is the author of Memphis and the Paradox of Place:  Globalization in the American South, published by the University of North Carolina Press, 2009.  She is editor of Urbanization, volume 15 of The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, published by the University of North Carolina Press, 2010. She has published articles on the Cold War and racial politics, empowerment zones and enterprise communities, gender and education, social capital, and educational reform.

In 2010, she was honored with the College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Research Award for her work in the Social Sciences.  She was a nominee and finalist for the University of Memphis Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Award in 2005 and 2008.   

Dr. Rushing was elected to serve a three year term on the Executive Committee of the Southern Sociological Society, 2010-2012.

Dr. Rushing teaches courses on Urban Sociology, Racial Inequality, Women in the South, Globalization and Social Change, and Sociological Theory. She was Associate Editor of The Journal of Oromo Studies, an African Studies Journal, 1996-2000, and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Poverty.

Website:  http://wandarushing.com