Austin Lee

Austin Lee is a postdoctoral scholar at the Boston University Society of Fellows, specializing in the study of extended kin networks, communal mothering practices, Black families, sexuality, and gender. She earned her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Pennsylvania. Her research has received support from various organizations, including the National Science Foundation and the University of Pennsylvania Center for the Study of Ethnicity, Race, and Immigration. Her overarching research agenda utilizes comparative qualitative research methods to highlight the interdependent relationship between antiblackness and norms related to sexuality and gender, such as the essentiality of the nuclear family structure, gender conformity, and compulsory heterosexuality. Her working book manuscript, "Feeling Communal Motherhood: Black Women's Navigations of Class, Gender, and Parental Status," employs affect theory and Black feminist theory to investigate how social class and parental status shape women's experiences with communal mothering. Drawing on interviews with 80 class-diverse women, she probes how gender norms permeate within Black kin networks. She underscores the benefits of communal care practices while also acknowledging their potential to perpetuate inequality.