Mary Osirim, a professor of sociology at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, and Melanie Heath, an associate professor of social sciences at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, has been named co-president of Sociologists for Women in Society. Founded in 1971, the organization is a nonprofit professional feminist group dedicated to:
- Encouraging the development of sociological feminist theory and scholarship
- Transforming the academy through feminist leadership, career development, and institutional diversity
- Promoting social justice through local, national, and international activism
- Supporting the publication and dissemination of cutting edge feminist social science
Dr. Osirim served as Bryn Mawr’s acting provost from 2013-2015 and provost from 2015-2020. She has also served as the college’s dean of graduate studies, chaired the sociology department, served as a co-director of the college’s Center for International Studies and its Center for Ethnicities, Communities, and Social Policy (now the Center for Social Sciences), and as director of its Africana Studies program. Currently, her research is focused on transnationalism and community development among African immigrants in the northeastern United States. Dr. Osirim holds a bachelor’s degree and a Ph.D. from Harvard University. She earned a master’s degree at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Dr. Heath’s research at McMaster focuses on gender, sexuality, family, and politics. She is the author of One Marriage Under God: The Campaign to Promote Marriage in America (New York University Press, 2012). Her most recent work based on government regulation of polygamy in France, Canada, the United States, and the Island of Mayotte is set to be published by Stanford University Press in 2022. Dr. Heath has been on the faculty at McMaster University since 2008. She is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, where she majored in philosophy. Dr. Heath holds a master’s degree in sociology from Sacramento State University in California and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Southern California.