My research interests are race, gender, and class; work and family; health and wellness; and intersectionality. I am a multi-method qualitative researcher. The qualitative approaches I often use in my research are archival research methods, interviews, and participant observation. My current research project focuses on heterosexual Black middle-class couples with children. I examine their time use related to work, family, and personal wellbeing. Other research projects I am involved with focuses on Black middle-class women's incorporation of place-making as a form of self-care.
LaToya Council
Assistant Professor
610.758.3787
ldc221@lehigh.edu
0031 - Williams Hall Room 285
Education:
PhD, University of Southern California, 2022
MA, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, 2014
BA, Spelman College, 2012
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Research Areas
Additional Interests
- Race, gender, class
- Work and family
- Health and wellness
- Intersectionality
- Qualitative methods
Research Statement
Biography
I am an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies. My research interests are race, gender, and class; work and family; health and wellness; and intersectionality. I am a multi-method qualitative researcher. The qualitative approaches I often use in my research are archival research methods, interviews, and participant observation. My current research project focuses on heterosexual Black middle-class couples with children. I examine their time use related to work, family, and personal wellbeing. Other research projects I am involved with focuses on Black middle-class women's incorporation of place-making as a form of self-care.
In terms of teaching, I identify as a teacher-scholar-activist, which means my research, teaching, and service are interconnected and focused on helping individuals and giving back to the communities who gave so much of their time to me. Much of my public-facing scholarship has been produced through children's media, as a children's book writer. I authored the first children's book about intersectionality, IntersectionAllies: We Make Room for All published by Dottir Press.
When I'm not researching and teaching, you'll find me at a cool coffee-shop learning about coffee, baking something sweet, diving into a good book, or hanging with my cat Mimi.
JOURNAL ARTICLES (*Denotes Equal Co-authorship)
Council, LaToya D and Kris Marsh. (2023). “The Love Jones Cohort: Single and Living Alone (SALA) by Choice, Circumstance, or Both? Is Marriage the Option.” Journal of Black Sexuality and Relationships.
Council, LaToya D. (2021). “Marriage Matters for Black Middle-Class Women. A Review of Black American Marriages, Work, and Family Life.” Sociology Compass.
Cooky, Cheryl, LaToya D. Council, Ashley Meats, and Michael Messner. (2021). “One and Done: The Long Eclipse of Women’s Televised Sports, 1989-2019.” Communication & Sport.
*Council, LaToya D., Chelsea Johnson, Karina Santellano, and Hajar Yazdiha. (2020). “Linking Context, Intersectionality, and Generations: Toward a Multidimensional Theory of Millennials and Social Change.” Sociological Perspectives. Vol 63 (3): 486-495.
BOOK CHAPTERS
Council, LaToya D. (2021) “Finding My Voice, Encouraging Myself, and Calling Out Gendered Racism: A Black Feminist Graduate Student’s Note on How to Thrive Within the Academy “in Elevating Marginalized Voices in Academe: Lessons for a New Generation of Scholars, edited by Emerald Templeton, Bridget Love, and Onda Johnson. New York, NY: Routledge Press.
WORKING PAPERS
The Black Middle-Class Family Man: Constructing Tolerant Egalitarianism and Patriarchal Masculinities to Understand Co-Providership and Family Life (working paper).
POPULAR PRESS PUBLICATIONS
Council, LaToya, Kris Marsh, and Cassandra Chaney. (2020). “Jada, Megan, and Black Women’s Need to Fix Sh*t: Four Scholars Break Down What Went Wrong and What is Still Right.” Medium 20 July.
Council, LaToya. (2020). “Managing My Blackness, But at What Cost?” Medium 9 June.
Johnson, Chelsea, LaToya Council, and Carolyn Choi. (2020). “Eco-Feminism is Intersectional Feminism.” Ms. Magazine 22 April.
Council, LaToya D. (2019). “You Rise a review of Jacqueline Woodson’s Red at the Bone.” Women Review of Books 36(6): 14-15.
Johnson, Chelsea, LaToya D. Council, and Carolyn Choi. (2019). IntersectionAllies: We Make Room for All. New York, NY: Dottir Press [children’s book].
Johnson, Chelsea, Carolyn Choi, and LaToya Council. (2018). “It Takes a Village: Celebrating Collective Mothering.” Ms. Magazine 11 May.
Teaching
Courses
SOC-090-011 FY Seminar: Social Justice and the Sociology of Emotions
SOC 112 Development of Social Theory
SOC/AAS 197 Sociology of Black Families