Dorow, Sara
Associate Professor, Sociology
Director, Community Service-Learning Program
PhD (Sociology)
University of Minnesota
6-11 HM Tory Building
780-492-4301 phone
780-492-7196 fax
s.dorow@ualberta.ca
Research and Teaching Interests
My research and teaching are guided by interests in the political economy of im/migration, neoliberal globalization, practices and imaginaries of community, processes of racialization, and constructions of kinship, gender, and childhood.
Three (sometimes overlapping) areas of scholarship define my current work:
Globalization, Community, and Labour
I lead a major research project that uses global ethnography to study formations and limits of community within the broader political economy (especially labour migration) of the northern Alberta oilsands. The project is resulting in a book and in a special issue of CJS. Starting in 2012 a new project will look at labour mobility in Alberta. I also occasionally teach a globalization course.
Transnational Adoption
For more than a decade I have researched and published in the area of transnational adoption, with a focus on the adoption of Chinese children in North America. Intersections of race, culture, and kinship inform this work as well as my teaching of the sociology of family, and ethnic and minority relations.
Community Service-Learning
In 2003 I founded the Community Service-Learning (CSL) program (based in the Faculty of Arts), which I directed until 2012. CSL offers undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to do community-engaged projects as a regular part of course work. For more information, see www.csl.ualberta.ca. I also integrate CSL into some of my courses.
Courses Taught
Introduction to Sociology
Sociology of Family
Sociology of Globalizaton
Ethnic and Minority Relations
Qualitative Methods
Gender and Family
Recent Grants
“On the Move: Employment-Related Geographical Mobility in the Canadian Context” (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Partnership Grant, 2012-2018)
“Social Landscapes of Neoliberal Growth: The Case of Fort McMurray, Alberta” (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Standard Grant, 2008-2011; Killam Cornerstone Grant, 2008-2009)
“Chinese/Canadian Adoption: Immigrant Families, Cultural Integration, and Transnational Networks” (Prairie Centre for Excellence in Research on Immigration and Integration Grant, 2005-2006)
Recent Awards and Honours
Distinguished Academic Early Career Award. Confederation of Alberta Faculty Associations (2009)
Public Sociology Award. Sociology Department, University of Minnesota (2008)
Excellence in Teaching Award. University of Alberta Students’ Union (2003-2004)
Recent Publications (Selected)
Dorow, Sara and Goze Dogu. "The Spatial Distribution of Hope in and beyond Fort McMurray." In R. Shields, T. Davidson, and O. Park (eds.). Ecologies of Affect: Placing Nostalgia, Desire and Hope. Wilfrid Laurier University Press (2011)
Dorow, Sara and Amy Swiffen. "Blood and Desire: The Secret of Heteronormativity in Adoption Narratives of Culture." American Ethnologist 36(3) (2009)
Dorow, Sara. “Producing Kinship through the Marketplaces of Transnational Adoption.” In M. Goodwin (ed.) Baby Markets. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2008)
Dorow, Sara. Transnational Adoption: A Cultural Economy of Race, Gender, and Kinship. New York: New York University Press (2006)
Dorow, Sara. “Racialized Choices: Chinese Adoption and the ‘White Noise’ of Blackness.” In M.K. Jung, E. Bonilla-Silva, and J. Costa Vargas (special issue eds.) Critical Sociology (2006)
Dorow, Sara. “Transnational Adoption: An ‘Exceptional’ Form of Immigration?” With Terry Lepatsky. Canadian Issues/Themes Canadiens (Spring 2006)