Jean Williams

Jean Williams

Professor

Fields

  • Social Welfare Policy
  • Poverty and Homelessness
  • The Politics of Gender and Sexuality
  • American Politics

Contact Information


About Jean Williams

Pronouns: She, Her, Hers

 

Education

Ph.D., The Johns Hopkins University (1998)

Research Interests

As a Political Science professor, I’ve researched homelessness policy for 20 years. I’ve published a book and numerous journal articles on a variety of issues central to understanding and resolving homelessness: policy responses such as Housing First, the politics and methodological problems impacting homeless enumerations, the relationships between homelessness and domestic violence, and social movement activism by the unhoused.

I also research and teach about the politics of gender, sexuality, and race. I’ve published a book (with Alesha Doan) on the politics of sex education policy, as well as numerous articles on gender and sexuality.

 

Classes

  • The Politics of Poverty
  • Social Movements and Political Protest
  • The Politics of Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality
  • California Politics
  • Critical Issues in American Politics
  • Introduction to Women's Studies
  • Feminist Theory

 

Publications 

Books

Jean Calterone Williams (2016). "A Roof Over My Head": Homeless Women and the Shelter Industry, second edition. Boulder: University Press of Colorado.

Alesha E. Doan and Jean Calterone Williams. (2008). The Politics of Virginity: Abstinence in Sex Education. NY: Praeger Publishers.

Jean Calterone Williams. (2003). "A Roof Over My Head": Homeless Women and the Shelter Industry. Boulder: University Press of Colorado. Nominee, The Michael Harrington Book Award. Nominee, The Leeds Prize.

Journal Articles

Jean Calterone Williams, Desiree Nunes, and Lauren Tankeh. (2022). “COVID-19 Racism and the Perpetual Foreigner Narrative: The Impacts on Asian American Students.” Race, Ethnicity, and Education, DOI: 10.1080/13613324.2022.2114511. 

Jasna Jovanovic and Jean Calterone Williams. (2018). "Gender, Sexual Agency, and Friends with Benefits Relationships." Sexuality & Culture, 22: 555-576. 

Jean Calterone Williams. (2017). "The Politics of Homelessness in the United States," Oxford Handbooks Online, Jan 2017, DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935307.013.153.

Jean Calterone Williams. (2016). "It's Always With You, That You're Different': Undocumented Students and Social Exclusion," Journal of Poverty, 20:2, 168-193. Published online December 7, 2015. DOI: 10.1080/10875549.2015.1094766.

Jean Calterone Williams and Jasna Jovanovic. (2015). "Third Wave Feminism and Emerging Adult Sexuality: Friends with Benefits Relationships," Sexuality and Culture, 19:157–171.

Jean Calterone Williams. (2011). "'Stand Up and Be Counted': The Politics of a Homeless Enumeration," Poverty & Public Policy, 3:3.

Jean Calterone Williams. (2011). “Battling a Sex-Saturated Society: The Abstinence Movement and the Politics of Sex Education.” Sexualities: Studies in Culture and Society, 14:4, 416-443.

Jean Calterone Williams. (2005). "The Politics of Homelessness: Shelter Now and Political Protest." Political Research Quarterly, 58:3, 497-509.

Jean Calterone Williams. (1998). "Domestic Violence and Poverty: The Narratives of Homeless Women." Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies, 19:2, 143-165. J

Jean Calterone Williams. (1996). "Geography of The Homeless Shelter: Staff Surveillance and Residents’ Resistance." Urban Anthropology, 25:1, 75-113.

Book Chapters

Jasna Jovanovic and Jean Calterone Williams (2023). “Sexuality in Modern Times: A Feminist and Queer Theory Perspective on Sex and Sexuality in Emerging Adulthood.” In Mahzad Hojjat and Anne Moyer, (Eds.), Modern Relationships: The Evolution of Romance, Friendship, and Family. Oxford University Press, forthcoming.  

Jean Calterone Williams. (2015). "'Stand Up and Be Counted': The Politics of a Homeless Enumeration." In Max J. Skidmore, (Ed.), Poverty in America: Urban and Rural Inequality and Deprivation in the 21st Century (pp. 136-165). Washington, D.C.: Westphalia Press.

Jean Calterone Williams. (2008). "Homeless Women: Domestic Violence and Housing Instability." In Robert Hartmann McNamara (Ed.), Homelessness in America (pp. 57-74). NY: Praeger Publishers.

Jean Calterone Williams and Alesha E. Doan. (2006). "Sex Education." In James Ciment (Ed.), Social Issues in America: An Encyclopedia of Controversies, History, and Debates. M.E. Sharpe.

Jean Calterone Williams. (2002). "Domestic Violence and Poverty: The Narratives of Homeless Women." In Susan H. Armitage with Patricia Hart and Karen Weathermon (Eds.), Women's Oral History: The Frontiers Reader. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

Reports

“Homeless Enumeration Report: San Luis Obispo County, California,” The Homeless Services Coordinating Council, 2009 (Contributor).

“Homeless Enumeration Report: San Luis Obispo County, California,” The Homeless Services Coordinating Council, 2006 (Contributor).

"Norplant: Coercive and Punitive Potential," ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, Washington, D.C., 1993 (Primary author).

"Use of Excessive Force, Racial Attitudes, and Culture of the Los Angeles Police Department: Report to the Independent Commission on the LAPD," ACLU of Southern California, 1991 (Contributor).

"Campus Ethnoviolence," ACLU of Southern California, 1990 (Contributor).

Selected Presentations

"Feminist Identity and Emerging Adults' Sexuality: Friends with Benefits Relationships," (coauthor Jasna Jovanovic), Society for Research on Adolescents, Poster Session. Baltimore, MD, 2016.

"The Politics of Homelessness in the United States: Treatment First v. Housing First," Western Political Science Association, accepted. San Diego, CA, 2016.

"Undocumented Students and Social Exclusion," Western Political Science Association, Seattle, WA, 2014.

"Gender Differences in Motivations for Engaging in Friends with Benefits Relationships among Emerging Adults" (coauthors Jasna Jovanovic and Olivia Giorgi), Society for Research on Adolescents, Poster Session. Austin, TX, 2014. 

"Adolescent Sexuality: Friends With Benefits" (coauthor Jasna Jovanovic), National Women's Studies Association, accepted. Cincinnati, OH, 2013.

"Collective Identity in the Immigrant Rights Movement," Western Political Science Association, Portland, OR, 2012.

"The Immigrant Rights Movement: A New Chicano Civil Rights Movement?" American Political Science Association, accepted. Seattle, WA, 2011.

"Battling a "Sex-Saturated Society": The Abstinence Movement," Western Political Science Association, San Francisco, CA, 2010.

“Do the Homeless Count? Politics and Policy in a Homeless Enumeration,” Western Political Science Association, Vancouver, B.C., Canada, 2009.

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