Jenifer L. Bratter (Ph.D. 2001, University of Texas at Austin) is the Department Chair and a Full Professor of Sociology at Rice University, and the inaugural director of BRIDGE (Building Research on Inequality and Diversity to Grow Equity). Her research explores the implications of race and racial mixing (i.e., interracial families, multiracial identity) in the areas of family, identity, and social inequality. Current projects focus on indicators of social well-being, such as poverty, residential segregation, health, and new ways in which race is linked to these phenomena. She is a 2009 Career Enhancement fellow through the (formerly named) Woodrow Wilson National Foundation. Dr. Bratter has published over 20 peer-reviewed articles with recent projects continuing to explore the many manifestations of living race as a complex experience. This includes research that examines multiracial organizations and their articulation of race, dynamics of racial data collection, and the ways legacies of slavery shape the spatial pattern of mixed-race families. She has also co-edited a volume on race and ethnicity for an undergraduate audience titled Unmaking Race (Oxford University Press, 2017), and co-edited a special issue of American Behavioral Scientist on the "dimensions" of race captured in survey data.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS:
Bratter, Jenifer, Mary Campbell, and Jarron M. Saint Onge. Forthcoming in Ethnicity and Health. “Living Race Together: The Role of Partner's Race in Racial/Ethnic Differences in Smoking”.
Bratter, Jenifer and Heather O’Connell. 2017. “Multiracial Identities, Single Race History: Contemporary Consequences of Historical Race and Marriage Laws for Racial Classification.” Social Science Research 68: 102-116.
Bancroft, Amanda, Jenifer Bratter, and Kristie Rowley. 2017. “Affirmation Effects on Math Scores: The Importance of High School Track.” Social Science Research 64:319-333.
Damaske, Sarah, Jenifer Bratter, and Adrianne Frech. 2017. “Single mother families and employment, race, and poverty in changing economic times” Social Science Research 62:120-133.
Hughes, Cayce C., Kristen Schilt, Bridget Gorman, Jenifer Bratter. 2017. “Framing the Faculty Gender Gap: A View from STEM Doctoral Students.” Gender, Work, and Organization 24:398-416.
Bratter, Jenifer, Kristie Rowley and Irina Chukhray. 2016. “Does a Self-Affirmation Intervention Reduce Stereotype Threat in Black and Hispanic High Schools?” Race and Social Problems 8:340-356.
O’Connell, Heather A., Lester King, and Jenifer L. Bratter. 2016. “Community Resources in a Diverse City: Supermarket Location and Emerging Racial Hierarchies.” Race and Social Problems 8:281-295.