Profile

Professor Harrison received her B.A. in Sociology from Youngstown State University in 2000 and her Ph.D. in Sociology from Ohio State University in 2009. Her research focuses on the local effects of globalization, deindustrialization and environmental change. Her book Buoyancy on the Bayou: Shrimpers Face the Rising Tide of Globalization (ILR Press 2012) examines Louisiana shrimp fishers’ responses to the collapse of their industry due to the recent flood of foreign, farm-raised shrimp into the US market. The book casts a bright light upon the cultural importance of the work that we do, revealing the heterogeneous survival mechanisms employed by people whose work-life and culture is under siege by environmental and economic change. She is currently working on a follow-up to her book that focuses on how Louisiana shrimp fishers have responded to the 2010 BP oil spill disaster. Additionally, within the broader frame of working class studies, she also studies the Rust Belt revival to further probe the connections between work, place, and identity. Professor Harrison's research has been published in American Sociological Review, Social Forces, and Social Currents.