Associate Professor and Women’s & Gender Studies Program Coordinator Melinda Mills’ book has been named to Choice Magazine’s list of Outstanding Academic Titles.
“The Borders of Race: Patrolling “Multiracial” Identities,” examines who is multiracial and who decides that. Building on the work of author and professor Heather Dalmage, the book explores the phenomenon and consequences of racial border patrolling.
Mills teaches classes in Sociology, Women's and Gender Studies, and Anthropology.
Choice Magazine’s review states, “Mills undertakes a comprehensive study of 60 multiracial individuals to learn ‘how they make sense of and situate themselves across ... color lines’ and navigate interactions with strangers, families, and friends, including the commonly asked, arguably insensitive question, ‘What are you?’ or its seemingly less-intrusive twin, ‘Where are you from?’ According to the U.S. Census, the fastest-growing racial classification is ‘multiracial,’ yet remarkably few scholarly works exist examining the complex issues of self-identity biracial and multiracial people face…. Mills' work is indispensable for institutions with sociology, social work, or anthropology programs.”
The Outstanding Academic Titles list recognizes publications that were reviewed during the previous calendar year and reflects the best in scholarly titles, recognizing outstanding works for their excellence in presentation and scholarship, the significance to their contribution to the field, their originality, and value to undergraduate students.