Faculty Profile for Dr. Patti Giuffre

Biography Section

Biography and Education

I began teaching at Texas State University in 1998. I became the Assistant Dean of The Graduate College in 2021 after serving as the Director of Graduate Programs in the Sociology department for eight years. I advised graduate students in the MA in Sociology, MS in Applied Sociology, the interdisciplinary MA/MS in Sustainability Studies, and the MS in Dementia and Aging Studies. As Assistant Dean, my portfolio focuses on graduate student retention, particularly the professional development of graduate students. With support from Graduate College staff, I organize Shop Talks, Texas State 3MT®, the Graduate Student Research Conference, Academic Success for International Students events, and Graduate Student Appreciation Week, among other activities and events for our incredible graduate students at Texas State.

Teaching Interests

I teach courses on gender and qualitative methods at the undergraduate and graduate levels. My goal is to teach in a way that increases students' critical questions, inquisitiveness, thirst for knowledge, and excitement about sociology.

Research Interests

My research areas are work and occupations, gender, sexuality, and qualitative methods. I have conducted research on gender inequality at work, sexual harassment, sexual orientation discrimination, and experiences of LGBTQ workers in “gay-friendly” workplaces. In 2015, Dr. Deborah Harris and I published a book on gender inequality in the culinary industry: Taking the Heat: Women Chefs and Gender Inequality in the Professional Kitchen (with Rutgers University Press) and we have a new article published on #Metoo in the Restaurant Industry. Most recently, Dr. Gretchen Webber and I have published articles about women's work relationships with other women and on our new study about gendered messages and stereotypes in popular press books that offer advice to women about being successful at work (for example, Lean In, Nice Girls Still Don't Get the Corner Office, Own It, and How Women Rise).