David M. Newman earned his B.A. from San Diego State University in 1981 and his graduate degrees from the University of Washington in Seattle (M.A. 1984, PhD 1988). After a year at the University of Connecticut, David went to DePauw University in 1989 and has been there ever since. David teaches courses in Contemporary Society, Deviance, Mental Illness, Family, Social Psychology, and Research Methods. He has published numerous articles on teaching and has presented research papers on the intersection of gender and power in intimate relationships. Recently most of his scholarly activity has been devoted to writing and revising several books, including Sociology: Exploring the Architecture of… Everyday Life (SAGE, 2014); Identities and Inequalities: Exploring the Intersections of Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality (McGraw-Hill, 2012); and Families: A Sociological Perspective (McGraw-Hill, 2009). He is currently working on a book-length manuscript that examines the cultural meaning, institutional importance, and social limitations of "second chance" narratives in everyday life.
<strong Jodi O'Brien</strong is Professor of Sociology and Women and Gender Studies at Seattle University. She is the editor of the <em Encyclopedia of Gender and Society</em and co-editor of the "Contemporary Sociological Perspectives" book series. Her books include <em The Production of Reality, Social Prisms, </em and <em Everyday Inequalities</em . Her courses and research focus on difference, power and discrimination, and religion and sexuality.