Melissa Latimer
is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Adjunct Professor of Women's Studies at West Virginia University.
She received an M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Kentucky. Dr. Latimer's research and
publications have focused on the major ways in which gender, race, and class inequality are constructed
and reconstructed through labor market processes and welfare policies. Much of her published work involves
understanding individual experiences with social insurance and social assistance programs and how these
experiences vary by gender, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, age, and place. More recently, her
research has concentrated on welfare reform's short-term and long-term effects on individuals in economically
disadvantaged areas. She has been a member of the Interdisciplinary Research Task Force on Welfare Reform at West
Virginia University since 1998. This research group has conducted to date four representative surveys of West
Virginia welfare recipients. The research reports can be found on-line at the Institute for Public
Affairs website http:www.polsci.wvu.edu/ipa. Another outcome of this research is the 2004 book Welfare
Reform in West Virginia. The book was selected as one of the top twelve finalists for the Book of the
Year Award in Political Science in ForeWord Magazine.
Contact Information
email: melissa.latimer@mail.wvu.edu
telephone: (304) 293-5801
office location: 315 Knapp Hall
Courses Taught
SocA 235 Race Relations
SocA 360 Women & Men in Society
SocA 389 Writing in SocA
SocA 405 Introduction to Social Inequality
SocA 488 Capstone Experience
SocA 494 Adv. Sociological Methods
SocA 510 Princ. of Research Design
Vita (pdf)
