Defective Bodies: The Social Construction of Health Disparities-A Qualitative Medical Sociology Reader

Topic areas and tools include:

• Critical examination of the food industry
• The epidemic of dieting
• Depression among African American women
• Postpartum Depression among Mexican American women
• Qualitative Studies of the illness experience among diverse racial/ethnic groups

Erma Lawson earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing from Howard University; Washington, D.C. Clinical positions she has held include Assistant Director of Nursing at Kentucky State Hospital, Charge Nurse of the OB Unit at Grady hospital; Atlanta, Georgia. She has worked in various nursing settings including emergency room, ICU, and home health care. Combining her medical knowledge, she earned a Medical Sociology doctoral degree from the University of Kentucky, Lexington. Dr. Lawson has been writing about health disparities since 1990, and has presented scholarly papers in Argentina New Zealand, Germany, Cuba and has spent two years in Zimbabwe, Africa.

She has an extensive publication record which focuses on the health of under-served populations. She is the first author of Black Men and Divorce (Sage Publications). In 2001, she received a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Harvard University, School of Public Health. In 2005, she received the prestigious American Sociology Congressional Award. She wrote health policies for Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (30th district Dallas Texas). Dr. Lawson has also written a resolution to honor the First African American Nurse. The resolution was debated in the House of Representatives and passed to the Senate. Currently, she is an Associate Professor at the University of North Texas. She teaches courses on the Sociology of Health and Illness and Qualitative Research. Her research interests include heart disease among women of color and the health consequence of divorce among the clergy."