Joined the faculty in 1998
Ph.D., Wisconsin at Madison
M.A., Minnesota
B.A., Oberlin
Current scholarly interests:
Gender relations
Families and social change
Social policy
Sexuality
Welfare state restructuring
Qualititative methodology
Previous teaching experience:
University of Wisconsin
Oberlin College
Previous research:
My research focuses on how U.S. welfare reform affects the social organization of sexuality as well as the social organization of paid and unpaid work. In particular I am interested in how men's and women's gendered interests and identities as fathers, mothers, and sexually active adults are at stake as the U.S. shifts the provision of social welfare from the state to families and employers.
To investigate these questions, I conducted ethnographic research in 1994-1996 on the process of establishing paternity and enforcing child support in several Wisconsin counties.
In 2003, I am beginning a follow-up study of how the 1996 federal welfare reform has shaped ideologies of gender, sexuality, and family life, in the context of a stalled economy and the increased bureaucratization of child support enforcement.
Courses Routinely Taught:
The Politics of Sex
Introduction to Sociology
Research Methods
Sociology of Sex and Gender
Sociology of Family
Social Policy
Recent Publications:
Under review "'Nice girls don't...': Unmarried motherhood and the welfare state after the sexual revolution." Submitted to Gender & Society; invited to revise and resubmit, November 2004.
Under review "On the Record: Conceptualizing case records as documents/artifacts/practices in fieldwork." Submitted to Journal of Contemporary Ethnography; invited to revise and resubmit, January 2005.
2002 "Ties That Bind: Child Support Enforcement and Welfare Reform in Wisconsin." In Work, Welfare, and Politics in the Wake of Reform, edited by Frances Fox Piven, Joan Acker, Margaret Hallock, and Sandra Morgen, University of Oregon Press.
2002 Ann Shola Orloff and Renee A. Monson, "Citizens, Workers, or Fathers? Men in the History of U.S. Social Policy," in Making Men Into Fathers: Men, Masculinities and the Social Politics of Fatherhood, edited by Barbara Hobson, Cambridge University Press.
1997 "State-ing Sex and Gender: Collecting Information from Mothers and Fathers in Paternity Cases." Gender & Society 11(3): 279-295.
1992 Sara McLanahan, Pat Brown, and Renee Monson. "Paternity Establishment in AFDC Cases: Three Wisconsin Counties." In Child Support Assurance: Design Issues, Expected Impacts, and Political Barriers as Seen from Wisconsin, edited by Irwin Garfinkel, Sara McLanahan, and Philip K. Robins. Washington, D.C.: Urban Institute Press.
Conference Papers
2003 "'Nice girls don't...': Unmarried Motherhood and the Welfare State After the Sexual Revolution." Presented at the Gender and Welfare States panel of the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Atlanta.
2002 "Sexually Transmitted Truths: Unmarried Mothers and Welfare Reform." Presented at the Society for the Study of Social Problems, Chicago.
2001 "Variation by Race in Unmarried Mothers' Interests in Child Support Enforcement: Evidence from Wisconsin." Presented at the Sixth Institute for Women's Policy Research Conference, Washington, D.C.
2000 "Ties That Bind: Child Support Enforcement and Welfare Reform in Wisconsin." Presented at the Work, Welfare, and Politics Conference, sponsored by the University of Oregon, Eugene.
1999 "Ties That Bind: Single Mothers' Autonomy, Gender Relations, and Welfare States." Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Sociological Society, Minneapolis, and the Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, Boston.
Invited Conference Presentations
2003 Panelist, "Welfare Reform: Engaged Social Action" panel, annual meeting of Sociologists for Women in Society, Atlanta.
2003 Participant, "Teaching Social Problems in Sociology of the Family courses" pedagogical roundtable, Society for the Study of Social Problems, Atlanta.
1999 Panelist, Section of Sociology of Sex and Gender, "Gender Scholarship and Public Policy-making," at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Chicago.
Professional Affiliations:
American Sociological Association
Sociologists for Women in Society
Council on Contemporary Families