Wanda Rushing is Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of Women's Studies.  She received her Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee in 1998. Her primary research interests include the political economy of development, racial and ethnic inequality, education and economic development in the U.S. South, and urban change.  She is a research affiliate with the Hooks Institute for Social Change, and the Center for Research on Women.  Dr. Rushing was selected as a faculty fellow in the 2004-2005 Technology Fellowship Program sponsored by the Advanced Learning Center at the University of Memphis. In 2006, she received the Alma Bucovaz Award for urban service and research.

She has published articles on the Cold War and racial politics, empowerment zones and enterprise communities, gender and education, leisure and social capital, and a macro-historical theoretical perspective of educational reform. Her current research includes a project on teaching, learning and information technology as well as a book-in-progress about globalization and the paradoxes of place in Memphis.

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

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