Shirley A. Hill

Shirley A. Hill is professor of sociology at the University of Kansas and holds a courtesy appointment in the Department of Health Management and Policy. She teaches courses on families, medical sociology, social inequality, and qualitative methods. Examining the implications of social inequalities, especially those based on social class, gender, and race, has been the overarching focus of her research in these areas. She has served as president of Sociologists for Women in Society (2008–09).

Professor Hill has published research in medical sociology examining caregiving, gender and health care, access to health care, and health care policies in such journals as the Journal of Poverty, Gender & Society and the International Journal of Health Services. Her book, Managing Sickle Cell Disease in Low-Income Families (1994) also considers issues of inequality in health care. Professor Hill has also published articles and books that examine how racial inequality affects various aspects of African American family life. She is the author of Black Intimacies: A Gender Perspective on Families and Relationships (2005) and African American Children: Socialization and Development in Families (1999), and her work has appeared in the Journal of Black Studies, Sex Roles, Journal of Marriage and Family, and Journal of Comparative Family Studies, among other periodicals.