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Amy Blackstone

Professor and Chair of Sociology, University of Maine
Chapter Member: Maine SSN

About Amy

Blackstone’s expertise lies in the areas of families, gender in the workplace, activism and volunteering, and qualitative research methods. A primary focus of her work is the study of workplace harassment. She has served as a consultant on workplace sexual harassment cases, and her research on this topic has been cited in a variety of venues including Maine Public Radio, Marie Claire magazine, MSNBC, and Fox News. In her latest research, a study of voluntarily childless adults, she seeks to make sense of the experiences of families without children in relation to community wellbeing, workplace and gender equality, sustainability, and what it means to be “a family.” Blackstone’s service at the University of Maine includes helping to promote community-engaged teaching and scholarship, and working to build and sustain University-community relationships. Together with several collaborators, she has worked with the Orono Village Association in Orono, Maine to help implement a marketing action plan that aims to bring University affiliates and their guests to downtown.

Contributions

Fighting Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

In the News

Research discussed by Tom McCarthy, in "Joe Biden's Non-Apology to Anita Hill Casts Long Shadow over 2020 Run," The Guardian, April 27, 2019.
Opinion: "Much Work Remains to End Workplace Harassment," Amy Blackstone, Bangor Daily News, May 8, 2018.
Quoted by Alex Acquisto in "Group of Bangor Residents Demands City Cut Ties with Concert Promoter," Bangor Daily News, April 10, 2018.
Quoted by Jennifer Calfas in "Inside Sexual Harassment's Hidden Toll on Equal Pay," TIME, April 9, 2018.
Research discussed by "When You're a Teenage Worker and You're Sexually Harassed," Gant News, January 8, 2018.
Quoted by Nidhi Subbaraman in "39% of National Park Employees Say They've Faced Sexual Harassment or Discrimination," BuzzFeed News, October 15, 2017.
Quoted by Julia Carpenter in "Are Older Generations More Tolerant of Sexual Harassment?," CNN, October 12, 2017.
Quoted by Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux in "What Does a Typical Sexual Harasser Look Like? We Don’t Know.," FiveThirtyEight, October 11, 2017.
Opinion: "When Women Lead, Everyone Prospers," Amy Blackstone (with Allyson Eslin and Mary R. Cathcart), Bangor Daily News, August 1, 2017.
Quoted by A. Pawlowski in "'I Don't Think This is for Me': 7 Reasons Why People Choose to be Childfree," Today, August 24, 2016.
Quoted by Jessica Reynolds in "How Couples Can Start Their Own Christmas Tradition, No Kids Required," Chicago Tribune, December 1, 2014.
Opinion: "Women's 'Confidence Problem'? It's So Much More," Amy Blackstone, Bangor Daily News, June 10, 2014.
Opinion: "Cut Parents Some Slack, Already," Amy Blackstone, Bangor Daily News, May 13, 2014.
Opinion: "Do You Ignore or Disrespect Older Co-Workers?," Amy Blackstone, Bangor Daily News, January 22, 2013.
Opinion: "Childless and Loving It: Not Being a Parent Has Advantages for Families and Kids," Amy Blackstone, Bangor Daily News, July 10, 2012.
Interviewed in "Interview about social change and heroism in post-9/11 society," Unwinnable, July 13, 2011.
Guest on Maine Public Broadcasting Network, August 16, 2010.
Opinion: "Older Workers Face Different Type of Harassment," Amy Blackstone, Bangor Daily News, August 15, 2010.
Guest on Maine State Capitol News Service, August 6, 2010.
Research discussed by PhysOrg.com, June 1, 2010.
Interviewed in Interview about gender and altruism Christian Science Monitor, June 5, 2009.
Interviewed in "Interview about women’s sexual harassment of men," Marie Claire magazine, February 26, 2008.

Publications

"Harassment of Older Adults in the Workplace" in Employment and Older Adults: Ageism and Abuse in the Workplace, edited by Patricia Brownell and James Kelly (Springer-Verlag, forthcoming).
Analyzes workplace harassment experiences of adults aged 62 and up, finding that workplace isolation is one of the most common harassment experiences among older workers, that gender differences are less prominent than anticipated, and that many older workers remain silent about their harassment experiences.
"Principles of Sociological Inquiry: Qualitative and Quantitative Methods" (Flat World Knowledge, 2012).
Describes how research methodology is useful for students in the multiple roles they fill: (1) as consumers of popular and public information, (2) as citizens in a society where findings from social research shape laws, policies, and public life, and (3) as current and future employees.
"Legal Consciousness and Responses to Sexual Harassment" (with Christopher Uggen and Heather McLaughlin). Law & Society Review 43, no. 3 (2009): 631-668.
"Sexual Harassment as a Gendered Expression of Power" (with Christopher Uggen). American Sociological Review 69, no. 1 (2004): 64-92.
The above papers study the workplace sexual harassment experiences of adolescent and young adult women and men, finding that about one of every three women and one of every seven men reported that they were sexually harassed by their mid-twenties and that those who are most likely to be targeted for harassment are also those least likely to tell others about their experience.