Comprehensive Exam on Race and Ethnicity:
Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Affecting People of Color
Day 2 Specialized Examination
Spring 2011
Please answer two (2) of the following four questions.
1) Sociologists who have theorized on and/or conducted empirical research with
African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinas and Latinos have made
groundbreaking contributions toward a critical understanding of the complex ways
many forms of inequality and privilege are articulated. These intellectual
examinations have discussed critical issues on racial, ethnic and cultural diversity,
socioeconomic forces and class, gender relations, sexuality, and within and beyond
migration, citizenship, and nation-state contexts. In your answer, (a) Identify and
discuss the sociological contributions of these scholars as they have explained
inequality and privilege with regard to gender and sexuality; and, (b) explain how
these contributions have expanded our sociological understanding of “sexual
violence” and “gender violence.”
In your essay, (1) you have the option to focus on 2 of the 3 groups (i.e., African
Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinas and Latinos) to articulate an answer, and
(2) you are expected to offer sociologically informed definitions of both, “sexual
violence” and “gender violence.”
2) Sociological theorizing and research examining the life experiences of selfidentified lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals have helped us
understand the ways in which sexuality is at the core of complex forms of social and
political organization of privilege and discrimination. Based on theorizing and
empirical research, (a) offer a critical overview of the arguments (and provide
examples) to examine why and how people of color who embrace these
marginalized experiences of sexuality are exposed to unique forms of inequality and
marginality; and, (b) review the sociologically informed arguments that can help us
become social critics of gender and sexuality studies based on the life experiences of
these populations within families and communities of color.
3) Choose three theorists/ authors to discuss how racial and sexual formations are deeply
embedded in nation-building projects.
4) Choose four feminist/ queer theorists and discuss their critique of sociology. How might their
contributions compel the field to alter its epistemological practices?