Contact Information
Biography Information
REUBEN A. BUFORD MAY is Professor of Sociology at Texas A&M University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1996. His recent publications include two books, Talking at Trena’s: Everyday Conversation at an African American Tavern (New York University Press, 2001) and the Co-winner of 2008, Association for Humanist Sociology, Book of the Year Award, Living Through the Hoop: High School Basketball, Race, and the American Dream (New York University Press, 2008). His work has also appeared in scholarly journals such as Qualitative Sociology, Qualitative Inquiry, Studies in Symbolic Interaction, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Journal of Ethnic and Racial Studies, and Journal of Sport and Social Issues.
In addition to outstanding research May is the winner of numerous University undergraduate teaching awards and served on the American Sociological Association Contributions to Teaching Excellence Selection Committee (2003-2006). He also served as associate editor for Symbolic Interaction, the official journal for the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction (2003-2007) and was guest editor for a Special Issue on Race and Symbolic Interaction, entitled “Era(c)ing and (Re)constructing Race and the Racialized Self.” May’s interests include Race and Culture, Sociology of Sport, Urban Ethnography, and Sociology of the Everyday.
Project Description
The intersection of race, culture, and class for African Americans in the context of interaction in urban public space is the subject of the book manuscript that I will prepare during the fall of 2009. The book will move beyond the simplistic view of "black space" and "white space" to understand the nuanced behaviors of individuals sharing those spaces. It will reveal the taken-for-granted behaviors that help to support or dismantle the ways in which African Americans and whites think about and respond to issues of race in the public realm. I examine the nature of these interactions within the context of urban nightlife in downtown Athens, Georgia. Athens, Georgia, is an excellent site for the study of interactions between African Americans and whites given its history of racial segregation and contemporary racial hostilities over the use of the highly desirable entertainment district. For instance, one issue that highlights the racial and class tensions within the context of nightlife is the use of dress codes by white nightclub owners. Key observations from the current study about the racial tension surrounding these dress codes and the interpretation of these dress codes by African Americans is captured in my recent article (with Sean Chaplin) entitled, “Cracking the Code: Race, Class, and Access to Nightclubs in Urban America,” (Qualitative Sociology, 31:57-72). This is just one example of the ways that race, culture, and class in contemporary America play out in the everyday interaction between African Americans and whites. I will flesh out arguments and observations like this in the book manuscript.