Cara Bowman

Cara Bowman is a lecturer in the Department of Sociology and the Writing Program at Boston University’s College of Arts and Sciences. She earned her Ph.D. in Sociology from Boston University, where her dissertation, “Transferring Ambitions: Families Negotiating Opportunity Consumption,” examined interviews with 30 families in the greater Boston area regarding strategies to ensure children’s college attendance and economic success. She holds a B.A. in Sociology and Spanish from Trinity College (2005), graduating with honors, and received the Presidential Fellowship in Modern Languages for highest scholastic achievement and leadership, as well as the Sociology Prize for Outstanding Scholarship and Achievement.

Bowman’s research interests encompass family sociology, economic sociology, social class and mobility, race and ethnicity, cultural sociology, qualitative methods, writing and research, childhoods and youth. She co-authored the book Race and Immigration (Polity Press, 2014) with Nazli Kibria and Megan O’Leary. Her presentations include work at American Sociological Association annual meetings on family preparations for college, the cultural narrative of choice in middle-class families, and U.S. immigration politics, as well as Eastern Sociological Society meetings. At Boston University, she has taught as Senior Teaching Fellow and Lecturer courses including “American Families” (five semesters), “Sociology of Economic Life,” and “Sociology of Childhoods & Youth,” developing syllabi and leading discussions, lectures, and writing assignments. In the Writing Program, she served as Graduate Writing Fellow for five semesters, teaching “Consumer Society and the American Family: A Sociological Perspective.” Previously, she was Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology at Stonehill College (2022-2024) and adjunct lecturer there since 2016. She received the Morris Dissertation Writing Grant from BU Sociology (2015), served on the Student Editorial Board of Political Power and Social Theory, and assisted the Writing Program Curriculum Committee.

Professional Email: bowmanc@bu.edu