Bette J. Dickerson is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the American University. She completed her BA in Sociology (emphasis on Social Work) at Morehead State University, MEd in Special Education from the University of Louisville, and a PhD in Sociology from Washington State University. Her past employment includes special education teacher for the Louisville and the Jefferson County Boards of Education, Program Director for the National Urban League, Program Assistant for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and founding Director of the Delta Research and Education Foundation. In 1990, she joined AU faculty and her service record includes the Faculty Senate, Department of Sociology Chair, Director of the Women’s and Gender Studies program, Chair of the University Diversity Committee, and Co-Principal Investigator of the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program.

Dr. Dickerson is a past President of the Association of Black Sociologists and is a member of its History and Archives committee. She served on the American Sociological Association’s Task Force on “Statement on ‘Race’”, the Jesse Bernard Award committee, and the Committee on Professional Ethics. She is a member of the Sociologists for Women in Society’s Awards Committee and the Sister-to-Sister Task Force. Her awards include George Edmund Haynes Fellow of the National Urban League, Chesapeake Regional Scholar in African American Studies of the University of Virginia’s Carter G. Woodson Institute, and the A. Wade Smith Award for Teaching, Mentoring and Service from the Association of Black Sociologists. Her American University division awards include Professor of the Year from the Student Confederation, Special Recognition Faculty Award from the Multicultural Affairs & the International Student Services units of the Office of Student Services, and the Alice Paul Award from the Women’s Initiative & Women and Politics Institute.

Dr. Dickerson’s publications include Color, Class, and Country: Experiences of Gender (co-edited with Gay Young), African American Single Mothers: Understanding Their Lives and Families, and a number of book chapters. Her research interests include cultural trauma and collective memory, the socio-historical construction of race/gender identities in the African Diaspora, sexuality and senior Black women, Black feminist theoretical perspectives and research methods, public sociology for social justice.