The Newcomb Institute has been a contributing force to the work both at Tulane and nationally around researching, preventing, and organizing around sexual assault on campus and gender-based violence
Lisa Wade is a Visiting Scholar at Tulane University, officially joining the faculty in 2021 as an Associate Professor with appointments in Sociology, the Gender and Sexuality Studies Program, and the Newcomb Institute. Her research agenda has involved four main areas: U.S. discourse about female genital cutting in Africa, the relationship between biology and society, hookup culture on college campuses, and feminist theories of sexuality. Before receiving her M.S. and Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Lisa earned an interdisciplinary M.A. in Human Sexuality from NYU and a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of California in Santa Barbara. From 2006 to 2019, she was a professor of sociology at Occidental College.
Lisa is the author of over two dozen research papers, book chapters, and educational essays. She has also published four book-length projects. American Hookup: The New Culture of Sex on Campus is the definitive account of collegiate hookup culture. Terrible Magnificent Sociology is a solo-authored introduction to sociology forthcoming in 2021. Gender: Ideas, Interactions, Institutions, co-authored with Myra Marx Ferree, leads the market for sociology of gender courses and is now in its second edition. And Assigned: Life with Gender is a co-edited anthology, with Chris Uggen and Douglas Hartmann.
As a public-facing scholar, Lisa also works to make her and others’ scholarship engaging to a public audience. She specializes, in other words, in being as comfortable “in the weeds” as she is “in the clouds.” In 2007, she founded Sociological Images, a website for which she earned several awards, including the Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Award from the American Sociological Association. Today, she regularly informs journalism and writes for the general public, occasionally appearing on television and radio. You can find Lisa online at lisa-wade.com and on Twitter @lisawade.
Selected Writings:
- Terrible Magnificent Sociology, forthcoming from W.W. Norton & Co.
- “Doing Casual Sex: A Sexual Fields Approach to the Emotional Force of Hookup Culture,” forthcoming in Social Problems. Forthcoming.
- “Confronting Manhood after Trump” (2019), in Antidemocracy in America: Truth, Power, and the Republic at Risk, edited by Eric Klinenberg, Caitlin Zaloom, and Sharon Marcos for Columbia University Press.
- Gender: Ideas, Interactions, Institutions (2nd ed., 2018), with Myra Marx Ferree. W.W. Norton & Co.
- American Hookup: The New Culture of Sex on Campus (2017), from W.W. Norton & Co.
- “What’s So Cultural about Hookup Culture?” (2017), in Contexts 16 (1): 66-68.
- Assigned: Life with Gender (2016), with Doug Hartmann and Christopher Uggen (eds). W.W. Norton & Co.
- “Are Women Bad at Orgasms? Understanding the Gender Gap” (2015), in Gender, Sex, and Politics: In the Streets and Between the Sheets in the 21st Century, edited by Shira Tarrant for Routledge.
- “Feminist Images of Public Intellectualism: An Interview with Lisa Wade” (2014), in Feminist Teacher 23 (2): 158-162.
- “The New Science of Sex Difference” (2013), in Sociology Compass 7 (4): 278-293.
- “Learning from ‘Female Genital Mutilation’: Lessons from 30 Years of Academic Discourse,” (2012) in Ethnicities 12 (1): 26-49.
- “The Function of Balance in U.S. News Coverage of Uncontested Issues: The Case of Female Genital Cutting,” (2012) in Journalism: Theory, Practice & Criticism 13 (7): 867-883.
- “Hooking Up and Opting Out: What Students Learn about Sex in their First Year of College” (2012), with Caroline Heldman in Sex for Life: From Virginity to Viagra, How Sexuality Changes Throughout our Lives, edited by John DeLamater and Laura Carpenter for New York University Press.
- “Sociological Images: Blogging as Public Sociology” (2012), with Gwen Sharp in Social Science Computer Review 31 (2): 221-228.
- “The Politics of Acculturation: Female Genital Cutting and the Challenge of Building Multicultural Democracies” (2011), in Social Problems 58 (4): 518-537.
- “The Emancipatory Promise of the Habitus: Lindy Hop, the Body, and Social Change” (2011), in Ethnography 12 (2): 224-246.
- “Journalism, Advocacy, and the Social Construction of Consensus” (2011), in Media, Culture & Society 38 (8): 1166-1184.
- “Sexualizing Sarah Palin: The Social and Political Contexts of the Sexual Objectification of Female Candidates” (2011), with Caroline Heldman in Sex Roles 65 (3-4): 156-164.
- “Selling Sex” (2011), with Gwen Sharp in Images that Injure: Pictorial Stereotypes in the Media, edited by Lester Paul and Susan Ross for Praeger.
- “Hook Up Culture: Setting a New Research Agenda” (2010), with Caroline Heldman in Sexuality Research and Social Policy 7 (4): 323.
- “Defining Gendered Oppression in U.S. Newspapers: The Strategic Value of ‘Female Genital Mutilation’” (2009) in Gender & Society 23 (3): 293-314.
- “The Incidental Orgasm: The Presence of Clitoral Knowledge and the Absence of Orgasm for Women” (2005), with Emily Kremer and Jessica Brown in Women & Health 42 (1): 117-138.
- “The Potential Relevances of Biology to Social Inquiry” (2003), with Jeremy Freese and Allen Li in Annual Review of Sociology 29: 233-256.
- “Relationship Dissolution as a Life Stage Transition: Effects on Sexual Attitudes and Behaviors” (2002), with John D. DeLamater in Journal of Marriage and Family, 64 (4): 898-915.
Tulane University regularly offers courses on sexual violence taught by Newcomb Institute staff. Students are also now able to complete an undergraduate certificate in gender-based violence.
Newcomb Pre-College Summer Session offers courses for high school students on rape culture and feminist advocacy.
Spring 2016:
Newcomb Institute supports the first Louisiana Sexual Assault Student Activist Conference (planned by students Tara Wilson, Hannah Novak, and Nina Baumgartner). Laura Dunn from SurvJustice was the keynote speaker.
Fall 2017:
Newcomb Institute supported the second Louisiana Sexual Assault Student Activist Conference (planned by students Hannah Novak and Helen Robins). Wagatwe Wanjuki was the keynote speaker.
Spring 2019:
Newcomb Institute joins with the Louisiana Foundation Against Sexual Assault to support the third Louisiana Sexual Assault Student Activist Conference (held at Xavier University). Dalton Tiegs and Rebecca Merton are keynote speakers.
Newcomb Institute has brought national leaders, new documentaries, and cutting-edge researchers to campus each year to spark conversation and increase our knowledge about campus sexual assault.
Spring 2012:
- Lynn Rosenthal, first-ever White House Advisor on Violence Against Women, for a talk on domestic violence
Spring 2013:
- David Lisak, clinical psychologist who has devoted his professional life to studying the causes and consequences of interpersonal violence
- Jennifer Baumgartner and her film It Was Rape.
Fall 2013:
- Newcomb Institute screened The Invisible War with the filmmaker Amy Ziering.
- Organized meeting for Professor Marcus Kondkar (Loyola University) and Dr. Scott Tims (Tulane University) to share available data on Tulane students
Fall 2014:
- Newcomb Institute hosted Catherine Lhamon (then Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights for Department of Education) and Anurima Bhargava (then at the Department of Justice) for a listening session
Fall 2015:
- Newcomb Institute and Tulane University Campus Programming (TUCP) brought Mac McClelland to campus
- Kevin Swartout, Associate Professor of Psychology at Georgia State University and a leading researcher on campus sexual assault perpetrator and survey design
- Screened The Hunting Ground and India’s Daughter
Spring 2016:
- Libby Sharrow, Assistant Professor of History and Political Science at UMass Amherst for a talk on Title IX and sports policy history
- Brittney Cooper, Associate Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies and Africana Studies at Rutgers for a talk on Black Lives Matter
- Newcomb Institute hosted lunch for Tulane faculty to learn more about their roles as mandatory reporters under Title IX
Fall 2016:
- Newcomb Institute hosted a Fridays at Newcomb with panel of faculty who teach and/or research on Gender-Based Violence.
Spring 2017:
- Laura Gray-Rosendale, Professor of English at Northern Arizona University and author of College Girl: A Memoir.
- Screened film Audrie and Daisy
Fall 2017:
- Ray Douglas, Professor of History at Colgate and author of On Being Raped. Professor Douglas gave two talks: one about male rape and one about rape during wartime.
- Les Innocents film screening
- Catharine MacKinnon, Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law at the University of Michigan School of Law, for a lecture at the Tulane law school (sponsored by Newcomb and the School of Law)
Spring 2018:
- Rebecca Solnit, 2018 Zale-Kimmerling writer-in-residence. In addition to giving a public lecture, she also met with students participating in Tulane Project IX class
- Sarah DeGue, Behavioral Scientist, Division of Violence Prevention at the CDC, for a talk on sexual violence from a public health perspective.
Fall 2018:
- Newcomb Institute co-sponsors English Department talk by Greta LaFleur, Associate Professor of American Studies at Yale, entitled “Ugly Histories: What Literary Study Can Teach Us About the History of Sexual Violence in America”
- Newcomb Institute took a group of students to the New Orleans Film Festival to see the documentary, Roll Red Roll.
Spring 2019:
- Caroline Heldman, Associate Professor of Politics at Occidental College, to campus as the 2019 Salzer lecturer, for a talk centered on her book, The New Campus Anti-Rape Movement: Internet Activism and Social Justice.
Fall 2019:
- Mary Koss, Regents’ Professor in the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health at the University of Arizona, for a class visit and a public talk entitled “Safer Bars: Help is on the House”
- David Karp, Professor and Director of the Center for Restorative Justice, University of San Diego, for a class visit and a public talk entitled “A Restorative Justice Approach to Campus Sexual Harm”
Spring 2020:
Spring 2021:
- Alyssa Lederer and Katherine Johnson, Custard Lecture: "Can a curricular intervention reduce sexual violence among college?"
Spring 2022:
- Symposium on Rape Survivor Narratives
- Amy Brittain, "Lessons learned from the making of Canary"
- Lisa Wade, Salzer Lecture, "Tulane student experience and hookup culture during the pandemic"
Newcomb Institute hosts a reading group for students, staff, and faculty to continue our education about sexual assault.
Summer 2015:
- Denial (Ecco, 2010), Jessica Stern
- Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town (Doubleday, 2015), Jon Krakauer
- The Violence of Care: Rape Victims, Forensic Nurses, and Sexual Assault Intervention (NYU Press, 2014), Sameena Mulla
- Framing the Rape Victim: Gender and Agency Reconsidered (Rutgers University Press, 2014), Carine Mardorossian
Fall 2015:
- Irritable Hearts: A PTSD Love Story (Flatiron, 2015), Mac McClelland
- Lisa Wade manuscript in progress for what would become American Hookup: The New Culture of Sex on Campus (Norton, 2017)
- Asking for It: The Alarming Rise of Rape Culture – and What We Can Do About It (Da Capo, 2015), Kate Harding
Spring 2016:
- Southern Horrors: Women and the Politics of Rape and Lynching (Harvard University Press, 2009), Crystal Feimster
- The Beginning and End of Rape: Confronting Sexual Violence in Native America (U of MN Press, 2015), Sarah Deer
- The Crisis of Campus Sexual Violence: Critical Perspectives on Prevention and Response (Routledge, 2015), edited by Sara Carrigan Wooten and Roland W. Mitchell
Summer 2016:
- Girls and Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape (Harper Collins, 2016), Peggy Orenstein
- Sex Object: A Memoir (Harper Collins, 2016) Jessica Valenti
Fall 2016:
- Asking for It by Kate Harding is selected at Tulane’s first-year reading project book
- “Complicated Process,” Nancy Gertner, Yale Law Journal, 2016
- “For the Title IX Civil Rights Movement: Congratulations and Cautions,” Nancy Chi Cantalupo, Yale Law Journal, 2016
- This American Life podcast: Anatomy of Doubt. February 2016 (59 minutes)
- Dear Sugar podcast: Can a Sexual Assault Survivor Love a Rapist? July 2016 (30 minutes)
- On Being Raped (Beacon Press, 2016), Ray Douglas
Fall 2018:
- Bear Town (Washington Square Press, 2018), Fredrik Backman, is selected as the first year reading project book; several NCI staff members lead discussions
Fall 2019:
- Rape and Sexual Power in Early America (University of North Carolina Press, 2012), Sharon Block
- Intimate Partner Violence in New Orleans: Gender, Race, and Reform, 1840-1900 (University Press of Mississippi, 2017), Ashley Baggett
Spring 2020:
- Three Women (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster, 2019), Lisa Taddeo
- The Injustices of Rape: How Activists Responded to Rape, 1950-1980 (University of North Carolina Press, 2019), Catherine O. Jacquet
