Expertise

Gender and Sexuality, Sociology of the Body, Medical Sociology

Biography

From the development of height and weight tables that established the notion of ideal body weight to the role of plus-size models in challenging thin privilege, my research interests connect studies of gender and sexuality, sociology of the body, medical sociology, and sociologies of work and the professions. My work has been profiled in dozens of national and international publications, including New York Magazine, The Globe and Mail (Canada), Paula Magazine (Chile), Exame (Brazil), Cosmopolitan(Philippines), and Business Insider, and I have been a frequent guest for shows on PBS, NPR, and Channel News Asia.

Website

Selected Publications

  • Czerniawski, Amanda M. 2023. Sexy, Docile Bodies: The Objectification and Paternalistic Management of Plus-Size Models in The Contemporary Reader in Gender and Fat Studies, edited by Amy Farrell, Routledge: 229-240.
  • Czerniawski, Amanda M. 2022. “Real” Bodies in Plus-Size Fashion. Fat Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight and Society 11 (3): 231-243.
  • Czerniawski, Amanda M. 2021. Size Matters (in Modeling) in The Routledge Companion to Beauty Politics, edited by Maxine Leeds Craig, Routledge: 297-305.
  • Czerniawski, Amanda M. 2017. The 200-Year Weight Debate. Contexts 16 (3):68-69.
  • Czerniawski, Amanda M. 2016. Beauty Beyond a Size 16. Contexts 15 (2): 70-73.
  • Czerniawski, Amanda M. 2015. Fashioning Fat: Inside Plus-Size Modeling. New York: New York University Press.
  • Czerniawski, Amanda M. 2015. Modeling agencies want to represent women of all sizes. But the fashion industry won’t let them. The Washington Post. February 9, 2015.
  • Czerniawski, Amanda M. 2012. Disciplining Corpulence: The Case of Plus-Size Fashion Models. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 41(2): 3-29.
  • Czerniawski, Amanda M. 2010. Commentary: Symonds’ Curious Fat Fact. International Journal of Epidemiology 39: 957-959.
  • Czerniawski, Amanda M. 2007. From Average to Ideal: The Evolution of the Height and Weight Table in the United States, 1836-1943. Social Science History 31(2): 273-296.

Courses Taught

  • Health and Reproduction
  • Sociology of the Body
  • Sex & Society
  • Gender in America
  • Human Sexuality
  • Politics of Identity
  • Internship in Sociology