PhD 2014, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Critical race and racism, racial perception, mixed-race identity, research methods, pedagogy, intersectionality

Jennifer Patrice Sims is a sociologist whose research examines racial construction, perception, and identity, and interrogates how knowledge about race and racism is produced and disseminated. She is a mixed-methodologist who uses both qualitative interviewees as well as experiments and biometric data collection in her individual and cross-disciplinary collaborative research. She is the author of four books and over a dozen journal articles/book chapters.

Sims is the 2020 recipient of the Mid-South Sociological Association’s Stanford M. Lyman Distinguished Book Award and the 2021 recipient of the Southern Sociological Society’s Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Award. She previously taught at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls and the University of Alabama in Huntsville before joining UTK in 2026.

Books

• Sims, Jennifer Patrice. Forthcoming in 2027. The Inequality of Racial Perception (Oxford)
• Sims, Jennifer Patrice. 2024. The Fallacies of Racism (2024, Polity)
• Sims, Jennifer Patrice and Chinelo L. Njaka. 2020. Mixed-Race in the US & UK (Emerald)
• Sims, Jenn (Editor). 2012. The Sociology of Harry Potter (Zossima)

Journal Articles

• Sims, Jennifer Patrice, Melinda Lanius, Ryan Conners, and Candice Lanius. 2026. “The Physiology of Sociology: Students’ Biometric Response to Lessons on Race and Racism.” Teaching Sociology, 54(1), 46-61; https://doi.org/10.1177/0092055X251380849
• Sims, Jennifer Patrice, Alex Haynes, and Candice Lanius. 2024 “Exploring the utility of eye tracking for sociological research on race.” British Journal of Sociology, 75 (1): 65-72; http://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.13054
• Gaither, Sarah E. and Jennifer Patrice Sims. 2022. “How cross-discipline understanding and communication can improve research on Multiracial populations.” Social Sciences, 11(3): 90; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci11030090.
• Sims, Jennifer Patrice. 2021. “Lights, Camera, Observe: Using Harry Potter film clips to teach ethnographic research skills.” Sociological Imagination, 57 (1): 22-32.
• Sims, Jennifer Patrice and Cassandra Nolen. 2021. “‘I wouldn’t trust the parents to ‘do no harm’ to a queer kid:’ Rethinking parental permission requirements for youth participation in social science research.” Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics, 16 (1-2): 35-45.
• Sims, Jennifer Patrice, Whitney Laster Pirtle, and Iris Johnson-Arnold. 2020. “Doing Hair, Doing Race: The influence of hairstyle on racial perception across the US.” Ethnic & Racial Studies 43 (12): 2099-2119.
• Buggs, Shantel Gabrieal, Jennifer Patrice Sims, and Rory Kramer. 2020. “Rejecting White Distraction: A Critique of the White Logic and White Methods in Academic Publishing.” Ethnic & Racial Studies 43 (8): 1384-1392.
• Sims, Jennifer Patrice and Remi Joseph-Salisbury. 2019. “‘We were all just the black kids:’ Black mixed-race men and the importance of adolescent peer groups for identity development.” Social Currents 6 (1): 51-66.
• Sims, Jennifer Patrice. 2018. “‘It represents me:’ Tattooing mixed-race identity.” Sociological Spectrum 38 (4): 243-255.
• Sims, Jennifer Patrice. 2016. “Reevaluation of the influence of appearance and reflected appraisals for mixed-race identity: The role of consistent inconsistent racial perception.” Sociology of Race & Ethnicity 2 (4): 569-583.
• Sims, Jennifer Patrice. 2012. “Beautiful Stereotypes: The Relationship between Physical Attractiveness and Mixed Race Identity.” Identities 19 (1): 61-80.

Selected Book Chapters

• Buggs, Shantel Gabrieal and Jennifer Patrice Sims. 2024. “Strategizing Fit and Legibility for Qualitative Research.” Ch 40 in Doing Good Qualitative Work, edited by J. Cry and S. Goodman. Oxford University Press.
• Sims, Jennifer Patrice. 2022. “When the Subaltern Speak Parseltongue: Orientalism, racial re-presentation, and Claudia Kim as Nagini.” Pp 105-118 in Harry Potter and the Other: Race, Justice, and Difference in the Wizarding World, edited by S. Park and E. Thomas. University of Mississippi Press.
• Sims, Jennifer Patrice. 2017. “An open letter to the black woman in the front row.” Pp. 49-51 in Stories from the Front of the Room: How Higher Education Faculty of Color Overcome Challenges and Thrive in the Academy, edited by M. Harris et al., Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.