Rate My Professor Vivyan Adair

Professor Vivyan Adair served as Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at Hamilton College from 1998 until her retirement. She earned her A.A. from North Seattle Community College and B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from the University of Washington. Before joining Hamilton, she was a postdoctoral instructor in English and lecturer in women’s studies at the University of Washington (1991-1998). At Hamilton, she advanced through the ranks to full professor and held several endowed positions: Elihu Root Peace Fund Chair (2004-2009), Elizabeth J. McCormack Endowed Chair (2009-2014), and Kirkland Endowment Fund Chair (2012-2016). Adair founded the ACCESS Project in 1999, directing it until 2009, to support disadvantaged parents in obtaining college degrees. She also contributed to national efforts as a member of the Welfare Reform Task Force of the National Rural Development Partnership (2001-2003) and the Truman Institute (2001-2003), and founded the Utica Service Learning Experience.

Adair’s scholarship centers on comparative feminist theories of race, class, sexuality, and gender, particularly representations of poor women, welfare policy impacts, and stigma. Her major publications include the book From Good Ma to Welfare Queen: A Genealogy of the Poor Woman in American Literature, Photography and Culture (Garland Publishing, 2000); co-editor of Reclaiming Class: Women, Poverty, and the Promise of Higher Education in America (Temple University Press, 2003); “Stigmata: A Memoir of Pain and Resistance” (Feminist Studies, 2019); “Branded with Infamy: Inscriptions of Class and Poverty in America” (Signs, 2002); “Class Absences: Cutting Class in Feminist Studies” (Feminist Studies, 2005); and “Poverty and the (Broken) Promise of Higher Education” (Harvard Educational Review, 2001). She received the John R. Hatch Excellence in Teaching Award (2000), CASE/Carnegie New York State Professor of the Year (2004), and American Association of Community Colleges Distinguished Alumni Award (2010). Adair held leadership roles such as chair of the Hamilton College Sexual Assault and Misconduct Committee (2011-2016), Title IX Policy Taskforce (2015), and Biased Racial Incident Team (2014-2016), enhancing campus equity initiatives.