Wilma A. Dunaway is Professor of Sociology

Sociology

Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...

 in the Government and International Affairs Program at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, popularly known as Virginia Tech , is a public land-grant university with the main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia with other research and educational centers throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States, and internationally.Founded in...

, Blacksburg, Virginia

Blacksburg, Virginia

Blacksburg is an incorporated town located in Montgomery County, Virginia, United States, with a population of 42,620 at the 2010 census. Blacksburg, Christiansburg, and Radford are the three principal jurisdictions of the Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford Metropolitan Statistical Area which...

.

Biography

She earned a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Tennessee

University of Tennessee

The University of Tennessee is a public land-grant university headquartered at Knoxville, Tennessee, United States...

 in 1994. She received a fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation to complete her ground-breaking dissertation about the integration of antebellum Appalachia

Appalachia

Appalachia is a term used to describe a cultural region in the eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York state to northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Canada to Cheaha Mountain in the U.S...

 into global capitalism, and her subsequent research since then have brought her attention as one of the most acclaimed contemporary scholars about this region of the United States.

Since 1996, Dunaway has published four revisionist monographs about pre-Civil War Appalachia, and that work has been recognized through two Weatherford Awards for the best book about Southern Appalachia, an honorary doctorate, and several other book and research awards. In addition, she has edited two books that offer revisions and extensions of world-systems analysis.

Dunaway’s research interests include international political economy

International political economy

International political economy , also known as global political economy, is an academic discipline within the social sciences that analyzes international relations in combination with political economy. As an interdisciplinary field it draws on many distinct academic schools, most notably ...

, world-systems analysis, racial and ethnic conflict, comparative slavery studies, Native American

Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

 studies, Appalachian Studies, radical feminist perspectives on women’s work, and qualitative research

Qualitative research

Qualitative research is a method of inquiry employed in many different academic disciplines, traditionally in the social sciences, but also in market research and further contexts. Qualitative researchers aim to gather an in-depth understanding of human behavior and the reasons that govern such...

methodologies.

Selected books

• Southern Laboring Women: Race, Class and Gender Conflict in Antebellum Appalachia. Cambridge University Press, forthcoming.

• Slavery in the American Mountain South. Cambridge University Press, 2003.

• The African-American Family in Slavery and Emancipation. Cambridge University Press, 2003.

• Crises and Resistance in the 21st Century World-System. Praeger Press, 2003.

• New Theoretical Directions for the 21st Century World-System. Praeger Press, 2003.

• The First American Frontier: Transition to Capitalism in Southern Appalachia, 1700-1860. University of North Carolina Press, 1996.