David Newman

Professor of Sociology

David Newman earned his bachelor’s degree 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 came to DePauw in the fall of 1989 and has been here ever since.

David teaches courses in Deviance, Mental Illness, Family, Social Psychology, and Research Methods. He has published numerous articles on teaching and has presented several research papers on the intersection of gender and power in intimate relationships. For the past decade or so most of his scholarly activity has been devoted to the writing and revising of several books. The first, Sociology: Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life (Sage), was first published in 1995. It has come out in eight subsequent editions, the latest in 2011. He has also edited an anthology of articles to accompany this book. A second book, Families: A Sociological Perspective, was published by McGraw-Hill in 2009. Finally, the second edition of Identities and Inequalities: Exploring the Intersections of Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality (McGraw-Hill) was published in the summer of 2011. In addition to these books, David is currently writing a monograph on the cultural ideology, institutional context, historical underpinnings, and personal experience of “second chances” in everyday life.

David's deep interest in Women's Studies has been scholarly, administrative, and pedagogical.   His early research explored the interaction between gender and power in long-term, intimate relationships.  From 1990 to 1994 he served on DePauw's Women's Studies Coordinating Committee.  All his courses include an examination of the concepts of sex and gender, both in terms of their social construction and their interplay with other forms of social stratification.  This interest is especially apparent in his course, Sociology of Family, which is offered every year and counts toward a major or minor in Women's Studies.