Sabrina Strings, assistant professor of sociology, is the recipient of the American Sociological Association’s 2017 Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Article Award. Given by the Section on Race, Gender and Class, the honor recognizes her study, “Obese Black Women as ‘Social Dead Weight’: Reinventing the ‘Diseased Black Woman,” published in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. Earlier this year, Strings also received a 2017-18 Hellman Fellowship to complete her book, Thin, White & Saved: Fat Stigma and the Fear of the Big Black Body, a historiography of fat-phobia in the West.
“My research examines the historical development of fat stigma in the United States and its potential contribution to racial/ethnic and gender disparities in health outcomes,” she said. Under contract with NYU Press, Strings’ book is expected to be released in the summer or fall of 2018.

Strings joined the UCI faculty in 2015 following completion of her Ph.D. in sociology at UC San Diego. She specializes in research on race, gender, embodiment, sociology of medicine, sociology of media.

She’s receiving the award at the American Sociological Association’s annual meeting in Montreal on Saturday, Aug 12.