Jennifer Bickham Mendez

Background

Jennifer Bickham Mendez is Professor and Chair of Sociology at William & Mary where she has conducted research and taught courses for close to 25 years. Her most recent work investigates the struggles of marginalized groups in Williamsburg, Virginia—including immigrant mothers from Latin America, English learner high schoolers, and a community organization dedicated to racial justice—as they contend with global and local forces of exclusion and seek belonging, justice and inclusion. Her areas of specialization include Latino/a (im)migration, gender and globalization, citizenship, border studies, labor, and social movements.

Professor Bickham Mendez' published work has appeared in a variety of academic journals, including Social Problems, Gender and Society, Mobilization, and Ethnic and Racial Studies as well as in numerous edited volumes. She is the author of From the Revolution to the Maquiladoras: Gender, Labor and Globalization in Nicaragua (2005 Duke University Press) and the co-editor of two anthologies: Border Politics: Social Movements, Collective Identity, and Globalization (with Nancy Naples, 2015, NYU Press) and Latinx Belonging: Community-Building and Resilience in the United States (with Natalia Deeb-Sossa, 2022, University of Arizona Press). 

Education

Ph.D., University of California, Davis 
M.A., University of California, Davis                                                                                                                                                   B.A., Oberlin College

Honors and Awards

Inaugural Award for Excellence in Teaching, Political Economy of the World System Section, American Sociological Association, 2018                                                                                                                                                                               Diversity Recognition Award. Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity, William & Mary, 2013                                                   Outstanding Article Award. Sex and Gender Section of the American Sociological Association. “Enforcing Borders in the Nuevo South: Gender and Migration in Williamsburg, Virginia and the Research Triangle, North Carolina (co-authored with Natalia Deeb-Sossa), 2010                                                                                                                                                         Plumeri Award for Faculty Excellence, William & Mary, 2010                                                                                                         Annual Book Award. The Political Economy of the World System Section of the American Sociological Association. From the Revolution to the Maquiladoras: Gender, Labor and Globalization in Nicaragua, 2008                                                  President’s Award for Service to the Community, William & Mary, 2004