Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Buttoned Up
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S): Casanova, Erynn
BIRTHDATE: 1977
WEBSITE:
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://www.artsci.uc.edu/faculty-staff/listing/by_dept/sociology.html?eid=casanoen * http://www.artsci.uc.edu/content/dam/artsci/departments/sociology/Docs/FacultyCV/CasanovaCVFeb2016.pdf * http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?GCOI=80140100091120&fa=author&person_id=5224
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 2011004769
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n2011004769
HEADING: Casanova, Erynn Masi de, 1977-
000 00690cz a2200205n 450
001 8534244
005 20150318073944.0
008 110124n| azannaabn |a aaa
010 __ |a n 2011004769
035 __ |a (OCoLC)oca08748069
040 __ |a DLC |b eng |e rda |c DLC |d NIC
046 __ |f 19771024
100 1_ |a Casanova, Erynn Masi de, |d 1977-
374 __ |a Ethnologists |2 lcsh
375 __ |a female
377 __ |a eng
400 1_ |a De Casanova, Erynn Masi, |d 1977-
670 __ |a Making up the difference, c2011: |b ECIP t.p. (Erynn Masi de Casanova) data view (b. Oct. 24, 1977)
670 __ |a Buttoned up, 2015: |b ECIP data view (born Oct. 24, 1977) ECIP post-chapter (female; trained as ethnographer)
953 __ |a xj07
PERSONAL
Born October 24, 1977.
EDUCATION:University of Rhode Island, B.A., 1998; University of California, San Diego, M.A., 2001; City University of New York, Ph.D., 2009.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, ethnographer, and educator. University of Arizona, Tucson, graduate research assistant, 1999-2000; Committee for Hispanic Children and Families, New York, NY, development associate, 2002-04; Latin American Integration Center, Queens, NY, director of development, 2006-07; University of Cincinnati, OH, assistant professor, beginning 2009, associate professor, interim director of Kunz Center for Social Research. Member of editorial boards for publications, including Gender & Society and Géneros.
MEMBER:American Sociological Association, Eastern Sociological Society, Latin American Studies Association, National Women’s Studies Association, Work and Family Researchers Network.
AWARDS:Sara A. Whaley Book Prize, National Women’s Studies Association, 2010, for Making Up the Difference; Taft Research Center fellowship, University of Cincinnati, 2013-14. Grants from organizations, including the University of Cincinnati and Ford Foundation.
WRITINGS
Contributor of articles to publications, including Ethnography, Gender & Society, Journal of World-Systems Research, Sociological Forum, Feminist Economics, Women’s Studies Quarterly, Latino Studies, American Journal of Sociology, and Latino(a) Research Review. Contributor of chapters to books.
SIDELIGHTS
Erynn Masi de Casanova is a writer, ethnographer, and educator. In an article that appeared on the Kent State University Web site, she explained: “As an ethnographer, I translate the social reality of the research participants for my audience.” De Casanova is an associate professor at the University of Cincinnati. She has also served as the interim director at the school’s Kunz Center for Social Research. Prior to joining the University of Cincinnati, de Casanova worked as a graduate research assistant at the University of Arizona and worked in development at the Committee for Hispanic Children and Families and at the Latin American Integration Center, both of which are located in greater New York City. She has written chapters of books, as well as articles that have appeared in scholarly journals, including Ethnography, Gender & Society, Journal of World-Systems Research, Sociological Forum, Feminist Economics, Women’s Studies Quarterly, Latino Studies, American Journal of Sociology, and Latino(a) Research Review.
Making Up the Difference
De Casanova’s first book is Making Up the Difference: Women, Beauty, and Direct Selling in Ecuador. The volume won the 2010 Sara A. Whaley Book Prize from the National Women’s Studies Association.
In Making Up the Difference, de Casanova explains that economic changes in Ecuador and other Latin American countries have forced women to supplement their households’ income by taking on jobs in the informal economy. The jobs include selling personal care items, including perfume and cosmetics, direct to consumers. She notes that Ecuadorian women have been participating in these types of direct sales jobs in increasing numbers. The organizations that hire them highlight opportunities to earn prizes, such as trips and cars. However, few women are actually able to obtain them. De Casanova examines how Ecuadorian women balance their household duties with their work. She also analyzes how these women view beauty and how men participate, both directly and indirectly, in direct selling.
Buttoned Up
In 2015, de Casanova released Buttoned Up: Clothing, Conformity, and White-Collar Masculinity. In an article on the Page 99 Test Web site, de Casanova stated: “In my research for the book, I interviewed a diverse group of white-collar men in three U.S. cities to find out how they decided what to wear to work each day. How did they feel about office dress codes? How did they adapt their dress to different situations and positions in the workplace hierarchy? … These questions are important because they expose the cultures and working conditions within business organizations.” The three cities from which she gathered her seventy-one interviewees were San Francisco, Cincinnati, and New York. She asked the men to maintain a log of their clothing choices for a week. Fifteen of them presented diaries about their style of dress. De Casanova also analyzed the accessories the men chose. The results of her research led her to come to the conclusion that historic ideas about men’s style continue to hold much sway with white-collar workers. She suggests that these white-collar men chose traditional clothing items and accessories in an effort to appear privileged and to earn respect. Though there are many more clothing and fit options for men in current times, white-collar men still choose to conform to classic ideas about style rather than explore more contemporary trends. De Casanova comments on the implications of these men’s clothing choices in terms of the broader concepts of sexuality and gender. Buttoned Up includes photographs and excerpts from the interviews de Casanova conducted with her subjects.
Choice critic, J.R. Mitrano, asserted: “This one is a particularly enjoyable read because of the author’s decision to illustrate her theoretical themes liberally.” Mitrano categorized the volume as “highly recommended.” Writing on the Pop Matters Web site, Megan Volpert commented: “The author has a fun, personable tone. She’s not heavy on numbers or footnotes or jargon. The language is not dry or overly academic.” Volpert concluded: “Maybe you’ve always made good clothing choices instinctively. This book will give you a clearer understanding of the rationales behind those choices, so you can do with satisfyingly knowledgeable intention what you previously accomplished by savvy instinct alone. For any regular person with a mild interest in how to decide what to wear, Buttoned Up is a perfect opportunity to level-up.” Trenton M. Haltom, contributor to the Research Gate Web site, suggested: “Buttoned Up evokes sociological thought through considerations of the embodiment of gender, social constructions of dress style, and differences across age, region, or workplace. The book reads like a well-rounded documentary on white-collar dress: delving into histories, uncovering biographies, exploring work-place habitats, pondering symbolic meanings, and comparing geographies. Sociological theorists including Simmel, Mills, and Bourdieu are brilliantly woven into the subject of men’s dress with their writings on fashion, white-collar workers, and habitus, respectively. Scholars can make use of this book in a myriad of interdisci-plinary courses on fashion and identity formation, the body, gender, and masculinities.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Choice, June, 2016, J.R. Mitrano, review of Buttoned Up: Clothing, Conformity, and White-Collar Masculinity, p. 1548.
ONLINE
Culture, Society, & Masculinities, http://www.mensstudies.info/ (May 23, 2017), Trenton M. Haltom, review of Buttoned Up.
Kent State University Web site, https://www.kent.edu/ (May 23, 2017), article by author.
Page 99 Test, http://page99test.blogspot.com/ (November 22, 2016), article by author.
PopMatters, http://www.popmatters.com/ (January 6, 2016), Megan Volpert, review of Buttoned Up.
Research Gate, https://www.researchgate.net/ (June 15, 2017), Trenton M. Haltom, review of Buttoned Up.
Sage Publishing, http://journals.sagepub.com/ (August 4, 2016), Alexandra Henley, review of Buttoned Up.
University of Cincinnati, College of Arts & Sciences Web site, http://www.artsci.uc.edu/ (May 23, 2017), author faculty profile and curriculum vitae.*
Erynn Masi de Casanova is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Cincinnati, where she is also affiliated with the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department and the Romance Languages and Literatures Department. She is the author of Making Up the Difference: Women, Beauty, and Direct Selling in Ecuador, winner of the National Women's Studies Association's Sara A. Whaley Book Prize. Erynn's research--conducted in the U.S. and in Ecuador--focuses on gender, the body, and work.
Erynn Casanova
Title: Interim Director of the Kunz Center for Social Research, Associate Professor (PhD, City University of New York)
Office: 1015 Crosley Tower
Tel: 513-556-4707
Email: erynn.casanova@uc.edu
Gender; Race/Ethnicity; Work; Family; the Body; Popular Culture; Globalization/Development; Latin American societies; U.S. Latinos/as; Ethnography and qualitative research methods.
Erynn Masi de Casanova CV
Research Information
Research Interests
Erynn Masi de Casanova received her Ph.D. in Sociology from The Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY), and also holds a M.A. in Latin American Studies from the University of California-San Diego and B.A. degrees in Spanish and English from the University of Rhode Island. Research interests include: Gender; Race/Ethnicity; Work; Family; the Body; Popular Culture; Globalization/Development; Latin American societies; U.S. Latinos/as; Ethnography and qualitative research methods.
Dr. Casanova is a faculty affiliate of the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department and the Romance Languages and Literatures Department.
ERYNN MASI de CASANOVA, Ph.D.
1649 Robinson Circle, Cincinnati, Ohio 45223 ~ (516) 643-6592
erynn.casanova@uc.edu
EDUCATION
2009 Ph.D. in Sociology
The Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY)
Dissertation Title: “Making Up the Difference: Ecuadorian Women
Engaged in Direct Selling” (Mitchell Duneier, Chair)
2001 M.A. in Latin American Studies
University of California, San Diego
1998 B.A. in English, B.A. in Spanish
University of Rhode Island
PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYMENT
2009-present University of Cincinnati
Assistant Professor, Sociology Department
*Affiliated Faculty, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department
*Affiliated Faculty, Romance Languages and Literatures Department
AREAS OF RESEARCH AND TEACHING
Gender; Race/Ethnicity; Gender and Work; Family; the Body; Popular Culture; Globalization;
Latin American Societies; U.S. Latinos/as; Ethnography; Qualitative Research Methods
PUBLICATIONS
Books
Casanova, E.M. Making Up the Difference: Women, Beauty, and Direct Selling in Ecuador.
Austin: University of Texas Press (June 2011).
Winner, National Women’s Studies Association Sara A. Whaley Book Prize, 2010.
Finalist, Max Weber Award of the American Sociological Association’s
Organizations, Occupations, and Work Section, 2012.
Reviewed in American Journal of Sociology; Contemporary Sociology; Journal of
Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology.
Erynn Masi de Casanova, Ph.D. 2
Casanova, E.M. and Afshan Jafar, eds. Bodies without Borders. Palgrave Macmillan
(December 2013).
Jafar, Afshan and Erynn Masi de Casanova, eds. Global Beauty, Local Bodies. Palgrave
Macmillan (December 2013).
Refereed Journal Articles
Mose Brown, T. and E.M. Casanova. Forthcoming (2014). “Representing the Language of the
‘Other’: African American Vernacular English in Ethnography.” Ethnography.
Casanova, E.M. 2013. “Embodied Inequality: The Experience of Domestic Work in Urban
Ecuador.” Gender & Society 27(4): 561-585.
Casanova, E.M. and Barbara Sutton. 2013. “Transnational Body Projects: Media
Representations of Cosmetic Surgery Tourism in the U.S. and Argentina.” Journal of
World-Systems Research 19(1): 57-81.
Casanova, E.M. 2012. “Organizing Identities: Immigrant New Yorkers Negotiating Latinidad.”
Sociological Forum 27(2): 419-440.
Casanova, E.M. 2011. “Multiplying Themselves: Women Cosmetics Sellers in Ecuador.”
Feminist Economics 17(2): 1-29.
Mose Brown, T. and E.M. Casanova. 2009. “Mothers in the Field: How Motherhood Shapes
Fieldwork and Researcher-Subject Relations.” Women’s Studies Quarterly 37(7/8): 42-57.
Casanova, E.M. 2007. “Spanish Language and Latino Ethnicity in Children’s Television
Programs.” Latino Studies 5(4): 455-477.
Casanova, E.M. 2004. “No Ugly Women: Concepts of Race and Beauty among Adolescent
Women in Ecuador.” Gender & Society 18(3): 287-308.
Refereed Book Chapters
Casanova, E.M. 2013. “Sociological Pregnancy: On Gestating Research, Writing, and
Offspring.” In Family and Work in Everyday Ethnography, Tamara Mose Brown and Joanna
Dreby, Eds. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Erynn Masi de Casanova, Ph.D. 3
Casanova, E.M. and T. Mose Brown. 2013. “Making it Work: Success Strategies for
Graduate Student Mothers.” In Mothers’ Lives in Academia, Mari Castañeda and Kirsten
Isgro, Eds. New York: Columbia University Press.
Casanova, E.M. 2008. “No Hay Mujer Fea: Conceptos de la Belleza entre las Adolescentes
Guayaquileñas.” In Estudios sobre Sexualidades en América Latina, Kathya Araujo and
Mercedes Prieto, eds. Quito, Ecuador: FLACSO.
Invited Publications
Casanova, E.M. 2013. “Representing Latinidad in Children’s Television: What are the
Kids Watching?” In Latinos and American Popular Culture, ed. Patricia Montilla. Praeger.
Casanova, E.M. 2010. “New Allies for Immigration Reform: A Cincinnati Story.” Latino
Studies 8(1): 121-125.
Casanova, E.M. 2009. “The Invisible Other: The Prospects for Building a Black Social
Movement in Ecuador.” Latino(a) Research Review 7(1-2), 2008-2009: 7-29.
Casanova, E.M. 2008. “Spanish Language and Latino Ethnicity in Children’s Television
Programs.” In Biculturalism, Self Identity, and Societal Transformation, Rutledge M. Dennis,
ed. London: Emerald Group Publishing.
Additional Publications/Book Reviews/Encyclopedia Entries
Casanova, E.M. 2013. “Becoming the Help: How Do Bodies Matter in Domestic Work?”
Gender & Society Blog: http://gendersociety.wordpress.com. September 5, 2013.
Casanova, E.M. 2013. “Is the Metrosexual Extinct? Preliminary Notes on a Study in Progress.”
Sex and Gender News (Official Newsletter of the ASA Sex and Gender Section), Summer
Edition.
Casanova, E.M. 2012. “Sex Cells: The Medical Market for Eggs and Sperm by Rene
Almeling” [Book Review]. American Journal of Sociology 118(1): 247-249.
Casanova, E.M. 2011. “Divided by Borders: Mexican Migrants and their Children by Joanna
Dreby” [Book Review]. Latino Studies 9(4): 502-504.
Casanova, E.M. 2008. “Style and Status: Selling Beauty to African American Women, 1920-
1975 by Susannah Walker” [Book Review]. Gender & Society 22(1): 138-140.
Erynn Masi de Casanova, Ph.D. 4
Two entries in Encyclopedia of Social Problems, ed. V.N. Parrillo, Sage Publications, 2008.
Five entries in The Cultural Encyclopedia of the Body, ed. V. Pitts-Taylor, Greenwood Press,
2008.
Casanova, E.M. 2003. “Women’s Magazines in Ecuador: Re-Reading ‘la Chica Cosmo.’”
Studies in Latin American Popular Culture 22: 89-102.
CURRENT PROJECTS
“Gendering Olympians: Media Guide Profiles of Men and Women Athletes.” (Conditionally
accepted; with J.A. Carter and David Maume)
“Ethnography as Translation, Translation in Ethnography: Representing Latin American
Studies in English” (paper under review; with Tamara Mose Brown)
“Gender, Body, and Medicine in the Middle of the World: Ethnographic Explorations of
Women’s Embodiment in Urban Ecuador” (paper under review)
“Como Cualquier Otro Trabajo: Organizing Ecuadorian Domestic Workers” (paper being
prepared for submission)
Book Manuscript on Men and Dress in Corporate America (under review)
SELECTED HONORS and AWARDS
2013-14 Selected as a Taft Research Center Fellow, University of Cincinnati
(one-year release to work on second book project)
2011-12 Selected for the Early Career Work-Family Scholars Program of the Work and
Family Researchers Network (formerly the Sloan Work-Family Network)
2011 “Multiplying Themselves” named Recommended Reading by the editors of
Feminist Economics (one of 14 articles “selected as illustrative of the journal’s
transformative scholarship”)
2011 Making Up the Difference chosen for “Author-Meets-Critics” session at
National Women’s Studies Association’s annual conference (one of 4 books
described as “important contributions to the field of women’s studies”)
Erynn Masi de Casanova, Ph.D. 5
2010 National Women’s Studies Association Sara A. Whaley Book Prize for Making Up
the Difference (awarded annually to the best book on women and labor)
2004-09 Chancellor’s Fellow, CUNY Graduate Center
2004-05 “No Ugly Women” named the #2 most downloaded article in Gender Studies by
Sage Publications.
GRANTS
2011 Summer Faculty Research Grant ($8,750)
Taft Research Center, University of Cincinnati
2007 Ford Foundation Research Grant
CUNY Graduate Center, for dissertation fieldwork in Ecuador
2001-02 Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship
Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies, UC- San Diego
2001 Tinker Grant
Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies, UC- San Diego
INVITED PRESENTATIONS
2014 “The Maid’s Uniform: Domestic Work and Embodied Inequality in Urban Ecuador”
University of South Florida
2013 “Gender, Body, Work: Exploring Workers’ Embodiment in North and South America”
McGill University
2013 “Selling Beauty: Race, Class, and Gender in Ecuadorian Direct Sales Catalogs”
Alpha Kappa Delta (Sociology Honor Society) Invited Speaker
California State University-Northridge
2013 “Race, Class, and Gender in Ecuadorian Direct Sales Catalogs”
University of Kentucky
2013 “Picturing Race, Class, and Gender: Direct Sales Catalogs in Ecuador.”
Connecticut College
Erynn Masi de Casanova, Ph.D. 6
2012 “Venta Directa como Empleo Alternativo: Perspectiva Femenina [Direct Selling
as Employment Alternative: Women’s Perspective]
Universidad Católica- Guayaquil, Ecuador /FLACSO Ecuador
2011 “The Making of Making Up the Difference”
Sociology Department Colloquium Series, University of Cincinnati
2010 “Urban Geography and Informal Employment in another ‘City of Neighborhoods’:
Guayaquil, Ecuador”
Urban Humanities Lecture Series, Taft Research Center, University of Cincinnati
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS and PANELS ORGANIZED
2013 Session Organizer: “Globalizing Embodiment: Body Politics in Transnational
Perspective”
Presentation Title: “Transnational Body Projects: Comparing Media Representations of
Cosmetic Surgery Tourism in Argentina and the United States” (with B. Sutton)
National Women’s Studies Association Annual Conference- Cincinnati, OH
2013 “Looking at the Label: White-Collar Men and the Meanings of ‘Metrosexual’”
American Sociological Association Annual Meeting- New York, NY
2013 “Como Cualquier Otro Trabajo: Organizing Domestic Workers in Urban Ecuador.”
Congress of Latin American Association of Studies of Work (ALAST)-São Paulo, Brazil
2013 “The Embodied Experience of Domestic Work in Urban Ecuador”
Latin American Studies Association Congress- Washington, DC
2013 “Cruzando Fronteras con la Etnografía: Traduciendo Vidas Latinoamericanas”
33rd Cincinnati Conference on Romance Languages and Literatures-Cincinnati, OH
2013 “Domestic Workers and Occupational Habitus in Urban Ecuador”
Eastern Sociological Society Annual Meeting- Boston, MA
2012 “Is the Metrosexual Extinct? Men, Dress, and Looking Good in Corporate America”
American Anthropological Association Meeting- San Francisco, CA
2012 Roundtable Organizer: “Work-Family Issues in Developing Countries”
Work-Family Researchers Network Inaugural Conference- New York, NY
Erynn Masi de Casanova, Ph.D. 7
2012 Session Organizer: “Men Matter: Gender Relations and Women’s Empowerment”
Presentation Title: Making Money and/or Making Nice: Men’s Influence on Women’s
Direct Selling Work in Ecuador
Latin American Studies Association Congress- San Francisco, CA
2012 “Stories from the Second (or Third) Shift: Work-Family Conflicts Among Ecuadorian
Women in Informal Employment”
Eastern Sociological Society Annual Meeting- New York, NY
2012 “Men Make a Difference: Gender Relations Among Direct Sellers in Ecuador”
Ohio Latin Americanists Conference- Bowling Green State University, OH
2011 “Analyzing the Avon Lady: Direct Sellers’ Work Decisions in Urban Ecuador”
American Sociological Association Annual Meeting- Las Vegas, NV
2011 “Not Just ‘Watching Soaps’: Ecuadorian Direct Sellers Redefining Motherhood”
Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement Conference-Lisbon
2010 “Men, Makeup, and Money: Gender Relations among Direct Sellers in Ecuador”
American Sociological Association Annual Meeting- Atlanta, GA
2010 Session Co-Organizer: “Representing the Language of the Other: Translation in
Ethnography”
Presentation Title: “Ethnographic Border Crossings: Translating Latin American Lives”
Eastern Sociological Society Annual Meeting- Boston, MA
2009 “Buying Beauty in Ecuador: Direct Sales, Flexible Payment, and Expanding
Consumption”
American Sociological Association Annual Meeting- San Francisco, CA
2009 Session Organizer, “Gendered Jobs”
Presentation Title: “Multiplying Themselves: Women Direct Sellers Managing
Productive and Reproductive Work”
Latin American Studies Association Annual Congress- Rio de Janeiro
2008 “Unity and Difference: Immigrant New Yorkers Negotiating Latinidad”
“Nuestra América in the U.S.” Latino/a Studies Conference- University of Kansas
Erynn Masi de Casanova, Ph.D. 8
2007 “No Hay Mujer Fea: Conceptos de Belleza entre las Adolescentes Guayaquileñas [No
Ugly Women: Concepts of Beauty among Guayaquilean Adolescents]”
Congreso 50 Años-FLACSO- Quito, Ecuador
2007 “The Whole Package: Exploring Cosmetic Surgery Tourism”
American Sociological Association Annual Meeting- New York, NY
2007 “Deconstructing Dora: Spanish Language and Latino Ethnicity in Children’s Television
Programs”
Eastern Sociological Society Annual Meeting- Philadelphia, PA
2006 “Selling Ecuador: Representations of Race in the Discourse of Tourism”
Latin American Studies Association Annual Congress- San Juan, PR
2002 “Re-Reading “the Cosmo Girl”: Globalization and Women’s Magazines in Ecuador”
American Sociological Association Annual Meeting- Chicago, IL
2002 “No Ugly Women: Performing Beauty in Urban Ecuador”
“Thinking Gender” Conference, Center for the Study of Women- UCLA
OTHER TEACHING POSITIONS
2005-06 Graduate Teaching Fellow/Adjunct Lecturer, Department of Sociology
Queens College (CUNY)
Courses Taught: Introduction to Sociology, Sociological Research
Methods, Sociology of the Family, Sociology of Sex and Gender, Racial
and Ethnic Relations
2002 Teaching Assistant, Department of Sociology, UC San Diego
2000 Instructor of Spanish, Linguistics Department, UC San Diego
OTHER EMPLOYMENT
2006-07 Director of Development, Latin American Integration Center (Queens, NY)
Duties: Grantwriting, Grant Reporting, Fundraising, Strategic Planning
2002-04 Development Associate, Committee for Hispanic Children and Families
(New York, NY)
Duties: Grantwriting, Grant Reporting, Fundraising Events
Erynn Masi de Casanova, Ph.D. 9
1999-2000 Graduate Research Assistant
Mexican American Studies and Research Center-University of Arizona
Duties: Research (English/Spanish); Literature reviews; Research/editing for:
Mexican Americans and Health, by Adela de la Torre and Antonio Estrada (Univ.
of Arizona Press 2001); and Moving from the Margins: a Chicana Voice on
Public Policy, by Adela de la Torre (Univ. of Arizona Press 2001).
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
Journal Editorial Board Memberships
Gender & Society (3-year term beginning January 2014)
GÉNEROS: Revista Multidisciplinar de Estudios de Género (GENDERS: Multidisciplinary
Journal of Gender Studies)
Journal Reviews
Contexts (Member of the Student Advisory Board and Peer Reviewer, 2006-2007);
Development and Change; Feminist Media Studies, Feminist Theory; Gender & Society;
Journal of Family Issues; Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies;
Women’s Studies International Forum
Grant Reviews
Economic and Social Research Council, UK
Book Reviews for Academic Presses
Cornell University Press, University Press of Colorado
National-Level Committees
ASA 2014: Invited organizer of two Regular Sessions (on Sociology of the Body)
ASA 2014: Nominations Committee, Section on Body and Embodiment
ASA 2013: Roundtable Organizing Committee, Section on Body and Embodiment
NWSA 2012: Sara A. Whaley Book Award Committee
ASA 2012: Book Award Committee, Section on Body and Embodiment
ASA 2012: Roundtable Organizing Committee, Section on Body and Embodiment
ASA 2011: Annual Meeting Program Committee, Section on Body and Embodiment
ASA 2011: Invited organizer of two Regular Sessions (on Immigrant Families and
Communities)
Erynn Masi de Casanova, Ph.D. 10
University-Level Service
Member, Institutional Review Board (IRB): 2011-present
Member, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Graduate Program Committee:
2010-2013
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL MEDIA COVERAGE OF RESEARCH (details available upon request)
Guaraguao: Revista de Cultura Latinoamericana [print interview], December 2012
Cosmopolitan Magazine (Blog), November 2012
PsychCentral.com, November 2012
AOL/Huffington Post, August 2011
El Universo [Ecuador], August 2011
La Hora [Ecuador], August 2011
LatinAmericaCurrentEvents.com [audio interview], August 2011
“The Page 99 Test” [book review website], June 2011
The New York Times, August 2010
Associated Press [distributed worldwide], May 2010
WLWT-5 TV News [local NBC affiliate: broadcast and website], May 2010
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
American Sociological Association
Sections: Sex & Gender; Body & Embodiment; Race, Gender & Class; Labor & Labor
Movements; Organizations, Occupations & Work; Global & Transnational Sociology
Eastern Sociological Society
Latin American Studies Association
National Women’s Studies Association
Work and Family Researchers Network
QUOTED: "As an ethnographer, I translate the social reality of the research participants for my audience."
ERYNN MASI DE CASANOVA
You are here
HOMEERYNN MASI DE CASANOVA
Ethnography as Translation, Translation in Ethnography
Erynn Masi de Casanova, University of Cincinnati
Ethnography, a term used to refer to both the use of in-depth participant observation in research and the written report that results, is often described metaphorically as “cultural translation.” As an ethnographer, I translate the social reality of the research participants for my audience. In my interdisciplinary field of Latin American Studies, many ethnographers conduct research in a language other than English yet write up their results in English, so the process of research and writing always involves linguistic translation. The privileging of academic Standard English in ethnographic texts published in the U.S. and elsewhere creates dilemmas for ethnographers whose subjects speak “foreign” languages. I plan to bring my new knowledge of translation studies to bear on the content analysis of book-length ethnographies on Latin Americans published in English. Along with Tamara R. Mose, I investigate how ethnographers typically deal with language difference in their texts. We draw attention to the scarcity of discussions of translation in these border-crossing ethnographies. We argue that ethnographers should address translation—both cultural and linguistic—in their writing. Language is intimately connected to power dynamics in the field, and ethnographers’ decisions about how to represent language can indicate rigor and thoughtfulness about their position vis-à-vis participants.
QUOTED: "This one is a particularly enjoyable read because of the author's decision to
illustrate her theoretical themes liberally."
"highly recommended."
Casanova, Erynn Masi de. Buttoned up: clothing,
conformity, and white-collar masculinity
J.R. Mitrano
CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries.
53.10 (June 2016): p1548.
COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association CHOICE
http://www.ala.org/acrl/choice/about
Full Text:
Casanova, Erynn Masi de. Buttoned up: clothing, conformity, and white-collar masculinity. ILR Press, 2016. 253p bibl index afp ISBN
9780801454189 cloth, $79.95; ISBN 9781501700491 pbk, $26.95; ISBN 9781498735247 ebook, $19.95
53-4603
GT615
2015-10594 CIP
In this rather novel book, Casanova (Univ. of Cincinnati) examines white-collar male workers' socially constructed identities via an examination
of their choice of clothing, accessories, and presentation and discussion of their bodies in the corporate workplace setting. Through 71 semistructured,
in-depth interviews with male white-collar employees in New York, Cincinnati, and San Francisco, as well ethnographic field notes
while interviewing in these settings and week-long "clothing logs"/ dress diaries provided by 15 of the men, the author finds that men engage in a
strategic embrace of conformity and constraint--in essence, a calculated choice to conform to historic trends of style in an effort to maintain
privilege. Despite seemingly more choice in men's fashion than ever before, white-collar men eschew risk due to larger social forces of economic
uncertainty. Casanova also explores how men engage in gender and sexuality "performance" through fashion while in these white-collar settings.
Unlike many other books in the area of work and occupations, this one is a particularly enjoyable read because of the author's decision to
illustrate her theoretical themes liberally with numerous excerpts from interviews, descriptive vignettes, and in situ photographs. Summing Up:
*** Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.--J. R. Mitrano, Central Connecticut State University
5/14/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1494784745450 2/2
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Mitrano, J.R. "Casanova, Erynn Masi de. Buttoned up: clothing, conformity, and white-collar masculinity." CHOICE: Current Reviews for
Academic Libraries, June 2016, p. 1548. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA454943014&it=r&asid=a22d5aaa0eff93000444fd085868b38b. Accessed 14 May
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A454943014
QUOTED: "The author has a fun, personable tone. She’s not heavy on numbers or footnotes or jargon. The language is not dry or overly academic."
"Maybe you’ve always made good clothing choices instinctively. This book will give you a clearer understanding of the rationales behind those choices, so you can do with satisfyingly knowledgeable intention what you previously accomplished by savvy instinct alone. For any regular person with a mild interest in how to decide what to wear, Buttoned Up is a perfect opportunity to level-up."
Buttoned Up
Clothing, Conformity, and White-Collar Masculinity by Erynn Masi de Casanova
BY MEGAN VOLPERT
6 January 2016
OFFICE CULTURE IS FULL OF PASSIVE AGGRESSIONS AND RADICAL UNCERTAINTIES. BUTTONED UP IS A DELIGHTFULLY FIRM HOOK ON WHICH TO HANG YOUR HAT, IF HATS ARE YOUR THING.
Understand what you wear to work
cover art
BUTTONED UP: CLOTHING, CONFORMITY, AND WHITE-COLLAR MASCULINITY
ERYNN MASI DE CASANOVA
(CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS)
US: NOV 2015
AMAZON
Erynn Masi de Casanova’s Buttoned Up is a thoroughly excellent study that will inevitably not get an audience of readers as large and diverse as it deserves. Yes, it is marketed as “social science”, and yes, it has that lengthy subtitle, “Clothing, Conformity, and White-Collar Masculinity”. Don’t you remember how much you adored that one sociology class you took in undergrad? What a very good surprise it was to find the artfulness sparkling everywhere in your effort to scientifically interpret the meaning of group behaviors? Buttoned Up captures that energy in the best possible way.
Increasingly, men in American culture have been given social permission to admit that they care about what their clothing choices say about their character. Men’s fashion magazines were once viewed as a shallow-minded guilty pleasure, but they are more than ever a handbook for what you can wear to the office. Few people have a closet full of uniforms, so every morning involves making decisions about how to present yourself at work. What will this bold yellow stripe say about my level of seriousness in that afternoon meeting? Will anybody notice my funky socks in the break room? Should I leave the tie at home on Fridays?
GQ Magazine can tell you what is trendy right now. It can answer a few of your fraught questions about cufflinks and shoes. Every month when I read this magazine, I am left with two feelings: most people pay more attention to what’s hot right now than I do, and there are a lot of looks that I don’t feel I can pull off. Readers of men’s fashion magazines of course try to imagine themselves wearing what is recommended in those pages, and often feel that their own closet falls short of the mark.
Reading Buttoned Up, I felt much better about my wardrobe and the choices I’ve made. The book addresses clothing choices from the top of your head to the tip of your toes. It does not suggest what you should do; it only describes with perfect attention to detail what other men are doing. Masi de Casanova exhaustively interviewed real, average corporate workers in San Francisco, Cincinnati and New York. She compiles the results in a way that is both thorough and warm, and ultimately in a way that should prove timeless.
I saw myself in many of the anecdotes and quotations. Despite the basic facts that I am not a man and I do not work for a corporation, I still found so much of the treatment of clothing to be about me. Every reader will make connections to differing aspects of the author’s analysis. That is the true power and beauty of approaching men’s workwear from a sociological perspective. The study is statistical and meticulous, but moreover, displays an ample sense of humor and a genuinely respectful curiosity about the thousand tiny variations of white-collar clothing. All these nuances are carefully imbued with social meaning, transformed into a series of obvious but strong conclusions that will put readers as ease when confronting the guesswork about their own wardrobes.
It’s hard to say that I “learned” something from this book. It’s even difficult to quantify in what ways this book will alter my daily decisions about what to wear to work. Many of Masi de Casanova’s findings are things most people intuit, but there’s something lovely about the way she lays it all out on the table. There’s ample proof in Buttoned Up that you do indeed know what people will make of your understated wristwatch or your three piece suit—it’s just so completely excellent to have it confirmed, in print, by a scientist.
Office culture is full of passive aggressions and radical uncertainties. Buttoned Up is a delightfully firm hook on which to hang your hat, if hats are your thing. The author has a fun, personable tone. She’s not heavy on numbers or footnotes or jargon. The language is not dry or overly academic, though academics are the obvious target audience. I hope Buttoned Up is read by a lot of regular people, because it’s about regular people and more regular people could use some reassurance that they’ve been reading their work situations correctly.
Many of the book’s conclusions are ambivalent: the suit is or isn’t a uniform, uniforms are or aren’t soul-crushing, conformity is or isn’t strategic. Read though the richly detailed stories and scenarios, find the ones that best fit your own life, and then run with that. Masi de Casanova gives us a lot more room to move in than GQ Magazine, and there’s no reason why readers of men’s fashion magazines cannot pick up a copy of Buttoned Up.
Maybe you’ve always made good clothing choices instinctively. This book will give you a clearer understanding of the rationales behind those choices, so you can do with satisfyingly knowledgeable intention what you previously accomplished by savvy instinct alone. For any regular person with a mild interest in how to decide what to wear, Buttoned Up is a perfect opportunity to level-up.
BUTTONED UP: CLOTHING, CONFORMITY, AND WHITE-COLLAR MASCULINITY
Rating:
Please use link to access PDF. (writer's note - PAYWALL!!)
QUOTED: "Buttoned Up evokes sociological thought through considerations of the embodiment of gender, social constructions of dress style, and differences acrossage, region, or workplace. The book reads like a well-rounded documentary on white-collar dress: delving into histories, uncovering biographies, exploring work-place habitats, pondering symbolic meanings, and comparing geographies. Sociological theorists including Simmel, Mills, and Bourdieu are brilliantly woven intothe subject of men’s dress with their writings on fashion, white-collar workers, and habitus, respectively. Scholars can make use of this book in a myriad of interdisci-plinary courses on fashion and identity formation, the body, gender, and masculinities."
Book Review: Buttoned Up: Clothing Conformity, and White-Collar Masculinity, by Erynn Masi De Casanova. Culture, Society, & Masculinities 8(1): 91-92.
Article (PDF Available) · January 2016 with 24 Reads
1st Trenton M. Haltom
3.04 · University of Nebraska at Lincoln
Discover the world's research
12+ million members
100+ million publications
700k+ research projects
Join for free
Advertisement
Full-text (PDF)
Available from: Trenton M. Haltom, Aug 12, 2016
Download full-text PDF
Buttoned Up: Clothing, Conformity, and White-Collar Masculinity, by ErynnMasi de Casanova. Ithaca: ILR/Cornell University Press, 2015. 275 pp. ISBN 978-0-8014-5418-9 (hb) 978-1-5017-0049-1 (pb)Erynn Masi de Casanova’s Buttoned Up: Clothing, Conformity, and White-Collar Mas-culinity (2015) draws on white-collar men’s discussion of their fashion choices toshed light on how masculinity, work-type, class, race, and geographic region shapetheir styles ofdress. Each chapter highlights a piece of what goes on in men’s headsas they dressfor work: workplace dress codes (both official and unofficial), familyinspiration, for whom they dress, and the pitfalls of being too fashionable or nottrendy enough. In addition to what to wear, Casanova also explores what not towear in a white-collar professional work setting. The current dearth of research onthe topic of men’s bodies and fashion leads to a dialogue that is both insightful andthought provoking. Readers will enjoy not only well-done sociological research,but also moments of nostalgia for the fashions of our fathers, grandfathers, broth-ers, and uncles.Casanova’s work is based on interviews with 71 white-collar men in Cincinnati,San Francisco, and New York City, paying special attention to ethnicity and agevariation within the sample along with different white-collar occupational types.She elaborates on certain themes with mini-ethnographic descriptions in short, top-ical inserts provided after each chapter. In one of these vignettes, the author takesher husband to a tailor to be measured and fitted for a custom suit. In this scene,Casanova describes not only the process of picking on-trend yet classic fabrics, butalso how her spouse became increasingly uncomfortable being measured by an-other male as women entered the shop. Complimented by Casanova’s conversa-tional writing style, pieces like this effectively personalize the book.One thread running throughout Buttoned Up is that of attention: men’s battle be-tween receiving wanted and unwanted attention from others for the ways they aredressed. To avoid standing out, some men prefer wearing suites because doing solimits options and makes fashion choices easier. Others express themselves throughcufflinks or fun socks for flashes of personality in an otherwise drab office fashionenvironment. Meanwhile, in their talk about fashion as the new “f-word” (Chap-ter 6), Casanova’s white-collar workers are hesitant to say they pay too much at-tention to fashion, preferring instead to safely label themselves as “trendy” ratherthan “fashionable”. Indeed, for many of these men, fashion becomes a trigger wordindicating that being too fashionable may lead to being labeled “metrosexual,” aterm and embodiment of style still receiving criticism today. Moreover, being tooon-trend may also pique curiosities as to an individual’s sexual orientation which,in the heteronormative office world, is still a taboo subject. In sum, Casanova paintsa picture of the precarious nature (Vandello et al., 2008) of the embodiment of mas-culinity through men’s office attire.Boundaries were also a common theme throughout Buttoned Up: walking themany lines between too formal and too casual, too fashionable or too outdated, toofat or too thin. Falling on one side of the line or the other could result in workplacereprimands in the forms of formal and informal sanctions from coworkers orbosses. The way the boss dresses often inspires the wardrobe climate of a work-place (Chapter 7). To Casanova, this topic brought about the question: For whomdo white-collar men dress? The short answer is: for other men. In the corporateworld where women, particularly female bosses, are few and far between, mendress to impress their male coworkers and peers.CULTURE, SOCIETY & MASCULINITIES 8(1) ■91
But there is more. The way a businessman dresses for a potential client couldmake or break a deal, reveal power dynamics in meetings, or simply reveal a cer-tain level of commitment to the job. Furthermore, white-collar men must strike abalance between the uptight professional and relatable business peer. Casanova’swhite-collar men can be seen to illustrate the general observation that men policeeach other through accountability, thus entrenching a hierarchical order of mas-culinities (Connell & Messerschmidt, 2005; Kimmel, 2011). Discussions of the necktie as a symbol of manhood and the business world highlight the fragility of mas-culinity, however. The ability to tie a tie either leaves men feeling accomplished ortheir inability leaves them feeling vulnerable and not having learned an essentialmanly skill.Pointing to the social construction of men’s dress styles, Casanova emphasizesthe regional differences in the way white-collar men dress for work. ComparingSan Francisco, Cincinnati, and New York, Casanova illuminates how fashion dic-tates vary from city to city. From the author’s conversations with businessmen, welearn that white-collar dress styles in these cities are reflections of clientele, work-place policy, boss’s preferences, and city vibes. All in all, these characteristics makeup how men construct attitudes towards workplace attire. In particular, those menwho wore uniforms either as private schoolboys or military servicemen speak to theclone-like aspects of the requirement. Yet, as the author points out, though a style-guide has not been published for white-collar work attire, this does not mean thereis not uniformity in style in this environment. In Chapter 3 the question is explic-itly posed: Do white-collar workers have a uniform? Despite ambiguity in the an-swers of participants and varying by region, Casanova inserts that white-collarworkers do in fact have a uniform.While discussions on how men wear professional attire make up much of thebook, readers are left without an idea about how various body shapes navigateworkplace clothing styles. The authorfocuses on average bodied men and pays lit-tle attention to thin-framed or overweight men. Navigation of weight gain andslimmer, skinny fashion trends are talked about, but not necessarily how over-weight men, for instance, choose their work attire. It would be interesting to knowwhere bigger-bodied men shop, whether someone else shops for them, whetherthere are popular brands for overweight bodies, and whether men experienceshame related to their weight in the workplace. More attention should also be paidto racial differences in dress styles among racial minority white-collar workers astheir interpretations of dress and dress code may differ.That said, Buttoned Up evokes sociological thought through considerations of theembodiment of gender, social constructions of dress style, and differences acrossage, region, or workplace. The book reads like a well-rounded documentary onwhite-collar dress: delving into histories, uncovering biographies, exploring work-place habitats, pondering symbolic meanings, and comparing geographies. Socio-logical theorists including Simmel, Mills, and Bourdieu are brilliantly woven intothe subject of men’s dress with their writings on fashion, white-collar workers, andhabitus, respectively. Scholars can make use of this book in a myriad of interdisci-plinary courses on fashion and identity formation, the body, gender, and mas-culinities. TRENTON M. HALTOMUniversity of Nebraska-Lincolntmhaltom@huskers.unl.edu
Book Review: Buttoned Up: Clothing Conformity, and White-Collar Masculinity, by Erynn Masi De Casanova. Culture, Society, & Masculinities 8(1): 91-92. (PDF Download Available). Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305931670_Book_Review_Buttoned_Up_Clothing_Conformity_and_White-Collar_Masculinity_by_Erynn_Masi_De_Casanova_Culture_Society_Masculinities_81_91-92 [accessed May 14, 2017].
QUOTED: "In my research for the book, I interviewed a diverse group of white-collar men in three U.S. cities to find out how they decided what to wear to work each day. How did they feel about office dress codes? How did they adapt their dress to different situations and positions in the workplace hierarchy? ... These questions are important because they expose the cultures and working conditions within business organizations."
Erynn Masi de Casanova's "Buttoned Up"
Erynn Masi de Casanova is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Cincinnati. She is the author of the award-winning book Making Up the Difference: Women, Beauty, and Direct Selling in Ecuador (2011) and co-editor of Bodies without Borders and Global Beauty, Local Bodies (both 2013). With Afshan Jafar, she is co-editor of the series Palgrave Studies in Globalization and Embodiment.
Casanova applied the “Page 99 Test” to her latest book, Buttoned Up: Clothing, Conformity, and White-Collar Masculinity, and reported the following:
Positioned right after the photo insert of white-collar men dressed for work, Chapter 4 bears the title “The Metrosexual is Dead, Long Live the Metrosexual!” This is where you will find page 99 of Buttoned Up.
In my research for the book, I interviewed a diverse group of white-collar men in three U.S. cities to find out how they decided what to wear to work each day. How did they feel about office dress codes? How did they adapt their dress to different situations and positions in the workplace hierarchy? How did changes in the world of work—from increased precarity to Casual Friday—affect their self-presentation? These questions are important because they expose the cultures and working conditions within business organizations, allowing us to explore what it means to wear the white collar in the 2000s. Based on men’s vivid accounts, I show how they engage in a strategic embrace of conformity, following official and unofficial clothing rules in order to fit in and move up at work. In most company cultures, these rules discourage ostentation and experimentation, and men feel pressure to dress sedately and professionally (a loaded term, as my book shows) whether they work in a casual office or a suit-and-tie environment. Even men who may be interested in fashion and trends may make the strategic decision to conform while at the office. Conformity in dress is one manifestation of a larger regime of social conformity, which can have the concrete effects of squelching dissent and discouraging diversity.
The chapter in which we find page 99 considers a subset of 30 interviews, in which the word “metrosexual” came up. This word conjures images of youngish, urban men who spend time and money on looking good and dressing well. Men I interviewed offered both positive and negative views on the metrosexual stereotype. While a few embraced the label, more men saw “metrosexual” as an insult, a veiled way of calling a man gay. Despite the increasing acceptance of gay people in U.S. society, this link to sexual orientation is what made the metrosexual term an insult. Some interviewees claimed that the term was passé, and that it had lost its sting over time. This claim is the main point of page 99. One interviewee said: “It’s just a label for normal.” Another said:
“you can no longer look at someone, and because their belt matches their shoes, assume that that person is gay… People are realizing that it’s a socially acceptable—and it’s really an expected—thing to dress well.”
Another interviewee also reflected on metrosexuality and sexual orientation, saying that with the emergence of the term “metrosexual… a straight guy can be interested in what he wears more.” Drawing on these and other interviews, I argue:
While the term may still be stigmatizing, then, some of the practices it evokes are not stigmatized any more… the word loses its power because the things that metrosexuals supposedly do become seen as normal.
In many areas of contemporary life in the U.S., ideals of masculinity and socially acceptable performances of masculinity are shifting. Among the new values is the idea that real men can care about their appearance. Beauty, fashion, and grooming become things that (straight) men are allowed to engage with. In the rest of the chapter, though, I show that although the range of “normal” masculine practices is expanding, the normalization of metrosexuality does not lead to an embrace of femininity. The privilege that straight men experience vis-à-vis women and gay men remains unchanged. In corporate workplaces like those of my interviewees, these inequalities can have real consequences for women and gay men as marginalized workers: lower salaries, promotions denied, smaller networks. So we shouldn’t be too quick to celebrate the diffusion of metrosexual sensibilities and practices, which does little to disturb existing hierarchies and promote inclusion.
Learn more about Buttoned Up at the Cornell University Press website.
The Page 99 Test: Making Up the Difference.
--Marshal Zeringue