91ÁÔÆæ

Sociology Department

Headshot of Kjersten Bunker Whittington

Kjersten Bunker Whittington

Professor of Sociology
Chair

Email | 503-517-7628

Science and technology, gender, work and organizations, social networks.

BS 1999 North Carolina State University.
MA 2001, PhD 2007 Stanford University.
91ÁÔÆæ 2007–.

I am a sociologist whose research and teaching interests center on the topics of gender and work, scientific careers and science-based organizations, science policy (particularly with respect to women’s health research), networks and social structure, and the knowledge economy.  My ongoing research in these areas addresses gender disparities in research productivity – patenting and publishing - across academic and industrial sectors, gender and motherhood dynamics among science professionals, and gendered decision-making in venture capital contexts, among other topics. Another line of research focuses on formal organizations, regional dynamics, and the science economy. With collaborators, I am engaged in research that examines the influence of inter-organizational network structure on firm-level innovative output, and the determinants of successful regional clustering in the biotechnology industry. A third area of research focuses on science policy related to the use of sex and gender based measures in health-based research, and race and technology in the genomic age.

I teach courses in our department that focus on the science, technology and social difference, gender, work, and organizations, networks methodology and network theory, our introductory core, and sociological methodology and empirical approaches.

Curriculum Vitae

Publications

Papers in Progress

  • Meredith Riley and Kjersten Bunker Whittington. “Racial Frameworks in the Consumption of Genetic Ancestry Technologies.” (Research in progress, drafted)

  • Kjersten Bunker Whittington, Isabella Cingolini, Bamini Jayabalasingham, Molly King.  “Gender and co-authorship in global context: the network structure of men’s and women’s collaboration across disciplines and countries.” (Research and draft in progress)

  • Powell, Walter W. and Kjersten Bunker Whittington. “Catalysis and Transposition: The Relational Basis of Robust Regional Economies.” (Working paper in progress)

Book Reviews

  • Whittington, Kjersten Bunker. 2008. Review of Gender, Women, Gender and Technology, edited by Mary Frank Fox, Deborah Johnson and Sue Rosser (2006, University of Illinois Press), Review of Policy Research, 25(2), p189-191