Book by professor Kolb wins top award

A recently published book by Furman University sociology professor Kenneth H. Kolb has received a major award from the American Sociological Association.

Dr. Ken Kolb

Moral Wages: The Emotional Dilemmas of Victim Advocacy and Counseling has been honored with the organization’s 2015 Outstanding Recent Contribution in Social Psychology Award.  The book was published by the University of California Press in the fall of 2014.

In Moral Wages, Kolb describes what it’s like to work inside an agency that assists victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. Based on more than a year of fieldwork, the book focuses not on the victims or perpetrators of abuse but on the service providers in the middle.

Kolb writes that while victim advocates and counselors don’t ordinarily enjoy extrinsic benefits like pay, power and prestige, they earn a special type of emotional reward reserved for those who help others in need: moral wages. But it is also clear that their jobs often put them in impossible situations and provide few tools to combat a persistent social problem.

Dr. Kolb joined the Furman faculty in 2008. His current research project addresses how residents of “food desert” communities in Southernside and West Greenville obtain fresh fruits and vegetables. He is a graduate of Bates College, and holds master’s and doctorate degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The American Sociological Association (ASA) is a non-profit membership association dedicated to advancing sociology as a scientific discipline and profession serving the public good.

For more information, visit the University of California Press website or contact Furman’s News and Media Relations office at 864-294-3107.