Michele Berger is Associate Professor in the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies. She holds an adjunct appointment in the Department of City and Regional Planning.  She was awarded a Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies in 1995 and her PhD in Political Science from the University of Michigan in 1998.

Her books include Workable Sisterhood: The Political Journey of Stigmatized Women with HIV/AIDS (Princeton University Press, 2004) and the co-edited collections Gaining Access: A Practical and Theoretical Guide for Qualitative Researchers (Altamira Press, 2003) and The Intersectional Approach:  Transforming the Academy Through Race, Class and Gender (University of North Carolina Press, 2010). Workable Sisterhood won a ‘Best Book’ Award from the American Political Science Association and was nominated for a ‘Distinguished Book’ Award from the American Sociological Association.  In 2006, she received an American Association of University Women (AAUW) ‘American Fellow’ award for her new work on African American mother and daughter communication on health and sexuality.

Her latest book Transforming Scholarship: Why Women’s and Gender Studies Students Are Changing Themselves and the World (Routledge 2011) definitively answers the question, ‘What can you do with an interest in women’s and gender studies?’ The book argues that not only are women’s and gender studies graduates able to find fulfilling employment, they also comprise an emerging vanguard of knowledge producers in the U.S. and globally, and maintain a strong commitment to gender equality and social justice after graduation.

Dr. Berger and her collaborator Dr. Cheryl Radeloff surveyed over 900 women’s and gender studies graduates (1995-2010) from around the globe about their career paths. This is currently the largest global data set about contemporary women’s and gender studies graduates.

Her teaching and research interests include multiracial feminisms, qualitative methods and HIV/AIDS activism.

She served as Vice-President of the National Women’s Studies Association from 2010-2014.

Cost is fully refundable for any cancellation made three weeks prior to the event. Any cancellations made two weeks prior to the event are subject to a 50 percent cancellation fee. No cost is refunded if the cancellation is made the week of the event.