Claire Whitlinger
Associate Professor of Sociology; Program Founder, Intergroup Dialogue Program; Co-Director, Intergroup Dialogue Program
- Email: claire.whitlinger@furman.edu
- Phone: 864.294.3697
- Office: Johns Hall 106H
Claire Whitlinger’s teaching and research examine the intersection between race, memory, and movements. She is the author of Between Remembrance and Repair: Commemorating Racial Violence in Philadelphia, Mississippi (University of North Carolina Press, 2020), which examines fifty years of commemoration (and silence) in Philadelphia, Mississippi—the town notorious for the 1964 "Mississippi Burning" murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner.
Claire Whitlinger earned her B.A. degree in sociology from the George Washington University and her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in sociology from the University of Michigan. She teaches courses on collective memory, social movements, race and ethnicity, qualitative methods, and intergroup dialogue. She is the co-founder of Furman’s Dins Dialogue program and the 2019 recipient of Furman University’s Meritorious Diversity & Inclusion Award for faculty.
Honors
- Furman University’s Meritorious Diversity & Inclusion Award for faculty, 2019
Education
- Ph.D., University of Michigan
- M.A., University of Michigan
- B.A., George Washington University
Research
Claire Whitlinger’s teaching and research examine the intersection between race, memory, and movements. 
She is the author of Between Remembrance and Repair: Commemorating Racial Violence in Philadelphia, Mississippi (University of North Carolina Press, 2020), which examines fifty years of commemoration (and silence) in Philadelphia, Mississippi—the town notorious for the 1964 "Mississippi Burning" murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner. Inspired by what she learned in Mississippi, Dr. Whitlinger worked to bring intergroup dialogue to Furman. She is the creator and co-founder of Furman’s Intergroup Dialogue Program and the 2019 recipient of Furman University’s Meritorious Diversity & Inclusion Award for faculty. Her scholarship, which also includes work on memory movements and political assassinations, has appeared in a variety of scholarly journals including Sociological Forum, Sociological Perspectives, Mobilization, Race and Justice, and the Annual Review of Law and Social Science.
Publications
- Whitlinger, Claire. 2020. "Between Remembrance and Repair: Commemorating Racial Violence in Philadelphia, Mississippi." University of North Carolina Press.
- Whitlinger, Claire. 2015. "Commemoration to Conviction: Prosecuting Edgar Ray Killen for the 'Mississippi Burning' Murders," Race and Justice, 1-24.
- Whitlinger, Claire. "Countermemory to Collective Memory: Acknowledging the 'Mississippi Burning' Murders," Sociological Forum, 30(SI):648-670.
- Tsutsui, Kiyoteru, Claire Whitlinger, and Alwyn Lim. (2012) "International Human Rights Law and Social Movements States' Resistance and Civil Society's Insistence." Annual Review of Law and Social Sciences 8:367-96.
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